After teasing us for months as to who was in the grave, we finally have our answer. Now yes, some news of this plot point had made its way online, but more or less I had remained spoiler free. That being said, I could still see this coming a mile off.
This week’s episode didn’t mess around with Andy’s duplicity at all, with John's brother confessing to him that Merlyn wanted him to work against Team Arrow. What follows was meant to be some edge of your seat drama as John and Oliver clash over whether or not Andy can be trusted (a sort of CW civil war if you will). Was Andy being truthful or playing a double bluff, his openness about his meeting with Merlyn masking the fact he was working for him and by extension, Damien Darhk? I gather I was meant to feel that way at least. I know it’s easy to say in hindsight, but I never once believed Andy was being honest and when he did turn on Team Arrow, I sort of shrugged it off instead of feeling the gut-punch the show runners probably wanted.
Now, the flashbacks and the modern story really connected this week, at least for me, as I finally realised the idol Baron Reiter sought on Lian Yu five years ago and the idol that gave Damien Darhk his powers, right up until Vixen smashed it, are one and the same. How did I miss that?! I’m usually a sucker for details but I honestly chalk it up to this show failing to do its job. I can’t have been the only one to have missed that. Merlyn and his ninjas, loyalists left over from the League of Assassins, thus negating the point of deposing him as Ra’s, came for the idol on behalf of Damian Darhk. Why he does this, when Darhk is in prison? There’s some mention about Merlyn thinking he’s on the winning side, making no effort to point out the fallacy in that logic. Darhk will only be a threat if he continues to receive help from outside prison, thus reducing Merlyn to an agent of Darhk’s will for nothing more than the flimsy promise that he and his daughter will be spared from “Genesis,” whatever that is!
With Ruvé Adams now the newly crowned mayor of Star City — seriously, how did they make Oliver’s breakup with Felicity the focus of the show and not this?! — and the District Attorney being promoted as her Deputy Mayor, Laurel is given the opportunity to become Star City’s new D.A. On one hand you had her father telling her to turn the position down, because as the D.A. she would have to give up being the Black Canary for good. On the other, you had Oliver telling her to take the position, even if it meant rubbing shoulders with people she knew to be corrupt, like Ruvé Adams, to make a real change to Star City in the light of day. Moved by his speech, Laurel seemed set on hanging up her black leather for good, with one last run on Iron Heights Prison, where Darhk has started a riot to mask him getting his hands on the idol, which needed deaths to empower him with his mystic… powers.
With a piece of the idol hidden, meaning it could never work for Darhk, Team Arrow thought they had the advantage, until Andy’s inevitable betrayal was revealed and he handed the missing piece over to Darhk. Using his mystic telekenesis, Darhk froze the team and made Laurel’s choice to remain a vigilante or become a public figure for law and order academic, by planting an arrow right between her ribs, a debt he owed Captain Lance for his betraying him.
Thanks to a timely rescue from Speedy, the rest of the Team avoids being turned into kebabs too, leaving Green Arrow to rush the Black Canary to the nearest emergency room. Doctors worked feverishly on her until she seemed to be making a recovery. And here’s where the episode took a nose dive. No mention of the implication of the Black Canary’s identity being revealed to the public, even when earlier in the episode, Darhk himself pointed out how easy it was deduce all the identities of Team Arrow once you had one piece of the puzzle, they are all friends in real life after all (and yes, Darhk finally knows who the Green Arrow is!) .
Instead we had the others leave the room so Laurel could confess to Oliver she has always loved him, keeping an old photo from “simpler times” as a memento. Remember when Laurel was meant to be the love of Oliver’s life in season one? Yeah, that photo. Her final words to Oliver were to encourage him to pursue his true love Felicity, except they aren’t her actual final words, just the last we heard. Laurel gave Oliver one last message before having some sort of seizure and dying. A legacy character bites the dust. Green Arrow’s WIFE (from the comics) died, ultimately so no one can stand in the way of Oliver and Felicity getting back together. In the past I had questioned the point of introducing the awesome character of The Canary in Sara, only to kill her off so Laurel could become the Black Canary. Of course Sara is alive once again as The White Canary whilst Black Canary has bought the farm. I feel really sorry for Captain Lance, “Oh the daughter you thought was dead is alive, now dead, now alive again, but now the other one's bit the dust. So sorry.” If I wasn’t so convinced this was a fake out and that Laurel will be back somehow, I’d be really miffed. The writers have already said we won’t be learning what Laurel’s final messages to Oliver was until season five, which means they probably haven’t made something up yet, much like they admitted not knowing who would be in the grave at this seasons start. But here we are.
Farewell Dinah Laurel Lance, you deserved so much better.
Written by Nick Whitney, ARROW Beat Writer -- Click here to read Nick's posts
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