A Heartbreaking Farewell to a Beloved Character
Throughout this season of Arrow, fans have been speculating and guessing who would end up in the grave that was presented in the flash-forward at the beginning of the season. The show finally delivered its most emotionally charged episode of the entire series as we witness the death of one of the show’s most beloved characters.
Flashbacks and Character Development
The flashbacks in this episode, while providing some context, didn’t really add anything to the overall story. The B-plot with Diggle and Oliver having their disagreements about where Andy’s loyalty was is where parts of this episode really started to fall apart as it becomes a direct result of the death. The problem this show tends to have with character development for some of their characters is that sometimes they get easily erased and this is what happened here.
Laurel’s Struggle and the Black Canary
Laurel gets the offer by Mayor Adams to become the new district attorney, despite it coming from Darhk’s wife. The biggest theme of this issue, which was such a beautiful character struggle, was Laurel not wanting to give up being the Black Canary by taking the promotion. However, I don’t understand why Oliver would encourage one of his closest friends to take an offer that comes from the big bad’s wife, just because he felt that the city needed “a hero without a mask”. The moment she says “one last time” and picking up her mask, was the beginning of the heartbreak, but for many different reasons.
Action-Packed Showdown and the Black Canary’s Demise
A showdown takes place in Iron Heights as Team Arrow tries to stop Darhk from escaping and gaining his powers back. We get some really neat action scenes, especially from the female heroes, both in the Arrow Cave and in the prison. But sadly, as our big bad for the season has the biggest luck in the world, he regains his powers and decides to execute his promise to Quentin as he strikes the Black Canary with Oliver’s arrow. Before we go on to the final moments of the episode; it was incredibly disappointing that not only was Laurel the one to go, but she didn’t get a final heroic moment, a big moment as the Black Canary.
Laurel’s Final Moments and the Impact on the Show
Her final moment with the team where they are all shaken up was one of Katie Cassidy’s many amazing performances in the episode and more than just difficult to watch. The emotions and speech she gives to the fellow members how much it meant for her to be the Black Canary and a part of this family, reminds us what a tremendous actress Cassidy is. We get to her last moment with Oliver where the scene works, but also at the same time feels like a major disservice to this character.
Should the Black Canary Have Been Killed Off?
While the element of wanting to be shocking and impacting is the key to killing off television characters, there is a difference with killing off the Black Canary and anyone else on the show. It’s a fact that the character has been underutilized throughout the series’ run as Laurel has since the middle of Season 2 fought all sorts of demons, overcome several important struggles, like the death of loved ones and her alcoholism, as she became this iconic hero. But the problem is that, unlike the other characters on this show this season, Laurel was never given an opportunity to have a big storyline.
Three words can only sum up my thoughts on the killing of Laurel Lance/Black Canary. Heartbreaking, for Cassidy’s superb performance, tragic, because of how this all came to an end and finally, disappointing, as this is a character that didn’t deserve a fate like this.
The Black Canary was in many ways one of Arrow’s big hearts and seeing the show losing that character, makes the series lose a lot of its remaining magic. Despite the way the death was handled and was part of Laurel’s final moments, “Eleven-Fifty Nine” was an emotionally powerful episode that is sure leave a major effect on the rest of the series as Cassidy will be deeply missed on this show. While this is the end of the Earth-1 Laurel Lance…maybe the Earth-2 version on The Flash, may follow a similar path like the comic book version. Whatever happens, this beautiful and empowering hero, who was always trying to save the world, will be missed.
Arrow returns with all new episodes on Wednesday, April 27 with the 19th episode at 8/7c on The CW.
[Photos via The CW/Warner Bros. TV]
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