The cat is out of the bag.
The season long mystery on ARROW was finally revealed tonight and the Black Canary pulled the short straw. I have to say that, while I was not surprised that it was Laurel in the grave, I am surprised about how it actually happened. Even though they had been hinting strongly at the fact that Laurel was being written out of the show – foreshadowing really isn’t one of this show’s strongest suits – now that it has happened, I find myself actually sad that she is gone.
Because, for all the damage they inflicted on the character in the past couple of years, they did an exceptional job at redeeming her in the past ten or so episodes. And while I had never been a Laurel fan, I found myself enjoying her a lot these past few weeks because they seemed to have finally found her place in the show. It’s just really sad that they did that when it was entirely too late. And how ironic was it that they made her resurrect her sister Sara, only to die half a season later.
Laurel came full circle. She was going to go back to her career in law, having just received a job offer from Darhk’s wife, after she won the mayoral election. As a District Attorney, she would be able to be the eyes and ears of the team inside the Darhk’s family lair. It was perfect. She was going to do something she liked and would still be able to help Team Arrow from time to time. Oliver was super supportive and that was what gave her the final push to accept the offer. She was just going to go on this one last mission and that was it. No more Black Canary.
Little did she know that she was walking into her death. Because Darhk started a riot in prison and things just went south really, really fast. To make matters worse, Andy fed them some intel and Dig was quick to trust him, even though Oliver doubted him and told him of his suspicions about his brother.
The thing is, it was Andy’s betrayal that got them all in this mess, so there is going to be plenty of guilt to go around for the team. Oliver, for letting her join the team in the first place; Dig, for obvious reasons; Felicity, for quitting the team and not being there to help them when they needed it; Thea for focusing on her feud with Malcolm instead of being focused on the mission at hand. It’s going to be a dark, dark path until the season finale and – if they have already revealed who died in episode 18, my guess is that whatever they have planned for the season finale is going to be a hell of a lot more shocking.
So back at Iron Heights, Darhk has everyone immobilized, Andy reveals himself as the filthy traitor he is and – well – things just aren’t going well at all. Andy gives him the missing piece of the idol that would restore his powers and then things really go awry. Because Darhk, just out of spite, shoves an arrow into Laurel’s stomach and flees the scene.
Oliver rushes her to the hospital and they do manage to get her into surgery. For a while there, they make us think that everything is going to be okay – the doctor even tells them Laurel is going to be fine. But when Oliver is finally alone with her and she starts telling him how happy she is that he has found Felicity and that he should fight to get her back; and then she says he would always be the love of her life, I knew this was goodbye.
And it hurt. It hurt a lot.
Because the cast brought their A game to this moment and they literally ripped my heart out of my chest and tap danced on top of it with their performance. Laurel is gone, poor Captain Lance will probably fall into a deep depression, the entire team will feel guilty, along with having to deal with their grief over losing Laurel and this show is about to get so much darker.
Watch ARROW, they said; this season will have a lighter tone to it, they said. Sigh.
ARROW returns with a new episode on April 27 on The CW.