Everyone is in a little bit of a different place. Sara has a secret agenda that relates to the death of her sister on Arrow last year. Rip is a little lighter. He’s no longer as burdened by the death of his wife and son. Ray is really enjoying being a time cop. He’s the one who aspires the most to be a hero, and he really likes this new gig that they have. Jax has come into his own, as the engineer and chief mechanic of the Waverider. He’s carved out a place for himself on the team that’s separate and apart from his relationship with Stein. Stein has become the theoretician of the team. And Rory is basically just trying to white-knuckle his way through the whole experience. He cannot, for the life of himself, figure out what he’s doing, as a member of a superhero team.
...
One of the things we did last year was try to give every character on the Waverider a storyline, in every episode, and it made the episodes too dense. So, this year, we’re doing what we call a roving spotlight. It will be like, “This is the episode that focuses on Ray and Nate and Rory,” or “This is the episode that focuses on Sara and Amaya and Jax.” Everyone is still in the episode, but not everyone is getting a storyline.