Arrow Season 7: 10 Easter Eggs & References You Might Have Missed In 'Inmate 4587'

After a long hiatus, Arrow finally returned to The CW this week for its highly-anticipated seventh season. The premiere episode had no problem throwing us right back into the crime-ridden world of the Arrowverse, giving us all a long hard look at how Star City was coping in the absence of the Emerald Archer (well, the real one anyway). We also got the chance to catch up with Oliver Queen himself, who was nothing short of miserable behind bars as he served out his life sentence in the same prison as many of his former enemies.

With the perfect blend of grim and hopeful, the premiere certainly set the bar high for the rest of the season, and let's just hope that it can sustain that incredibly high standard throughout the next year. The show hasn't had the best track record of pleasing its core audience of comic book fans, but if it continues to be as strong as this, then there is definitely hope for it.

However, the level of good writing wasn't the only thing that pleased its audience about the premiere, as the episode was filled with a number of neat little Easter Eggs from the show's past, DC Comics, and pop-ulture itself.

Arrow's Season 7 premiere opened with an unknown assailant running through the woods. As the episode began, we were inside this individual's point-of-view as they brushed branches and trees out of their way. It was soon revealed that this was William who was sporting a green hoodie as he tried to escape from Ricardo Diaz.

This was clearly a nod to Arrow's pilot episode, which opened in the exact same manner, with Oliver (wearing his Arrow hood) sprinting through the woods on Lian Yu. You could take it further and suggest that it's also a nod to the Season 4 premiere, which recycled the woods sprint, only to reveal that Oliver was out for a pleasant morning jog and, much like his son in the Season 7 premiere, he was wearing a green hoodie.