On Season 2 of the hit CW series Arrow, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) has rededicated himself to his mission of being more than just another vigilante, and is attempting to become a beacon of hope for the city’s most vulnerable, as The Arrow.  In Episode 17, "Birds of Prey," Helena Bertinelli, aka The Huntress (Jessica De Gouw), comes back to Starling City to take out her father (Jeffrey Nordling) once and for all, but when things don’t go according to plan, Laurel (Katie Cassidy) gets caught up in the middle of it and the Black Canary (Caity Lotz) will stop at nothing to save her sister.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, actress Caity Lotz talked about how “Birds of Prey” shakes up a lot of relationships and has a lot of really cool action, how much fun it was to do the fight scenes with The Huntress, that her Black Canary costume is difficult to move around in but looks cool, what Sara thinks of Helena, just how much longer Sara can keep her secret identity from Laurel, how much fun it would be to see Black Canary team up with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and The Huntress, whether Sara realizes the extent of Felicity’s crush on Oliver, and why she enjoys the Sara and Sin (Bex Taylor-Klaus) dynamic.  Check out our Caity Lotz Arrow Season 2 interview after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers

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Collider:  What can you say to tease the “Birds of Prey” episode and how the events in it will affect what’s coming next?

CAITY LOTZ:  This episode is a lot of fun because it shakes up a lot of relationships.  With The Huntress coming back into town, there are a bunch of new issues that have to be brought up.  There’s also a lot of really cool action.  It’s a great fighting episode.

Were there challenges specific to this particular episode, since there is so much that happens in it?

LOTZ:  I remember that it was freezing, which is a common occurring challenge, and we had to shoot a fight outside.  That was pretty rough.  It was cold.  But, this one was just a lot of fun.  There’s some girl fights happening, and that was fun. 

Black Canary is usually up against various bad guys, but with her taking on The Huntress, how is it to do fight scenes with another female?  Do you have to do anything different, or does it feel the same as any other fight scene?

LOTZ:  I think it’s pretty much the same.  It feels the same.  There’s no difference between fighting a guy or a girl.  It’s just more fun, maybe.

Do you get more and more comfortable with using the staff, or do you always have to be careful not to hurt yourself with it?

LOTZ:  You definitely can hurt yourself, but I’ve gotten better at it.  Every time we do a fight scene, I learn it, and then I learn a little bit more.  You just get used to holding it.  After awhile, it starts to feel more like it’s just an extension of your arm and you can just twist it around.  You have to know how to not hit yourself or other people, unless you want to.

Black Canary has quite the costume to fight in.  Is it easy to move and fight in that costume, or do you ever wish you could make some modifications to make it easier to get around in?

LOTZ:  You know, it is a little difficult to move around in.  I’m not going to lie.  It’s also difficult to sit around in.  When we’re shooting long days, there are some challenges that come with that costume.  But then, whenever I see it on screen, I’m like, “Oh, yeah, that looks really fucking cool!”  And then, you don’t mind dealing with a little bit of the discomfort. 

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What does Sara think of Helena, especially knowing that she’s Oliver’s ex-girlfriend?  Do you think that even if she weren’t the ex, she’d be pissed off that Laurel is in jeopardy because of her?

LOTZ:  Oh, yeah.  The whole ex thing doesn’t really bother her.  In the beginning, she underestimates The Huntress because she thinks it’s funny.  It’s like, “Oliver, you have a crazy ex-girlfriend?”  She’s not easily intimidated by other women, so she writes The Huntress off.  And then, once Laurel gets involved, that’s when it starts getting really serious for her.  That’s when she finds out that The Huntress is a more formidable foe than she was anticipating. 

What can we expect from Laurel’s interactions with Sara and Black Canary, in this episode?

LOTZ:  Laurel, at this point, has no idea [about Sara’s secret identity].  It’s not even something she’s suspicious of, where she would put two and two together.  If something is not even in your imagination, you’re just not going to go there.  But, they have some really cool interactions.  I think Laurel and her both are able to share information with each other that are things that they both need to hear.  Maybe under the guise of Canary, they can almost say more, or take each other more seriously or at least differently than if it was her sister.

Up until now, Laurel has been a bit distraction with some problems of her own, but with her sobering up, have you had discussions or do you wonder how long Sara can hide who she is from her own sister?

LOTZ:  Yeah, I think it’s a ticking time bomb.  It’s only a matter of time before I would imagine that she’ll know.  I don’t know if Sara will do something about it or not.  We’ll have to see. 

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There was the League of Assassins, and then there was the Suicide Squad, and now The Huntress is back.  Does it ever feel like Starling City is getting a bit crowded?

LOTZ:  I’m impressed with how many huge characters they can bring in.  You hear all the time, “Oh, this person is coming to play this, and we have this.”  I think it’s cool.  I love that there can be so many characters and so much going on because you’re constantly being fed new information with stories and you don’t ever really get tired of it.  But Starling City is definitely a popular place for heroes and villains, that’s for sure.  

Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim has said that it’s on the show’s bucket list to have The Huntress, Black Canary and Felicity team up and work together.  Is that something that you’d like to see, and what do you think that would look like?

LOTZ:  I think it would be fun.  Me and Emily [Bett Rickards] have such a good time shooting together.  That was the only episode I got to do with Jessica [De Gouw], but she’s awesome, too.  I think the three of us would be really funny and really bad-ass.  I hope they do something with the three.  That would be fun. 

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What does Sara think of Felicity?  Do you think she’s aware of the extent of her crush on Oliver?

LOTZ:  No, I don’t think so.  I think she really likes Felicity.  I don’t think Sara is aware of how big Felicity’s crush is, and I don’t think Felicity shows exactly what it is she wants from Oliver.  I don’t think it’s as clear as, “I like you.  Be my boyfriend.”  I think she really cares about him, but Felicity is mature and doesn’t just have a little girl crush.  It’s more complicated than that.  I don’t even know if Felicity would know for sure that that’s something that would be right for her or for him.  I think Sara really respects Felicity and likes her a lot.  She’s goofy and funny and quirky, but she sees that she’s a really smart girl.  She knows what she’s doing and she’s strong.            

The relationship between Sara and Sin (Bex Taylor-Klaus) is so much fun.  What have you enjoyed about playing with that dynamic, and will we get to see more of that? 

LOTZ:  It’s cool.  I’ve never actually felt like someone is my little sister, and I really feel like she’s my little sister.  So, all the scenes that we have together really have that dynamic.  It’s just in there.  And she really does care about Sin a lot.  You can tell that they both really need each other.  There’s some fun stuff coming up with them, and hopefully more.  It’s an interesting dynamic because they’re both almost like street kids.

Arrow airs on Wednesday nights on The CW.