Last night’s episode of Arrow was one of the episodes yet of Season 3, and it brought back that sensational quality that the series had in its first two seasons, as characters admitted their flaws, secrets were finally revealed, and the birth of an iconic hero continued. In addition, fans got one amazing pay-off as Oliver Queen let another person in on his secret.
“Canaries” hit so many right notes, and after having re-watched the episode three times since last night, I can say that, other than two minor issues, this episode was one of the strongest episodes of the entire season.
Because there were so many positives, let’s get the negatives out of the way, and it has to do with Oliver’s scene with Laurel in the beginning. I totally understand and even respect Oliver’s frustration and hesitancy about Laurel’s choice of being a vigilante. He cares for her and doesn’t want to see her get hurt; in addition, there is the experience aspect of it, too, so I completely support that he is against it because it would be out of character if he didn’t. However I just couldn’t accept that he had to physically drag her away after she took down the bad guy that Roy and Oliver couldn’t catch. I’m not accusing the writers or Stephen Amell of overdoing the physical aspect of it all, but it did give me some awful vibes that I don’t want to get from comic book/superhero shows or any show for that matter. So hopefully that was the last time we see Oliver Queen pull something like that because let’s remind ourselves: violence doesn’t resolve anything.
Something that almost the whole fandom of this show has waited for is Thea learning Oliver’s secret that he is the Arrow and this episode marked that pay-off. The thing that made it so perfect was the strong performances of Amell and Holland, as well as some of the best dialogue on this show as Thea embraces her brother’s secret by thanking him for being Starling City’s guardian angel. It was one of those moments when you jumped out of your couch and cheered because it was that perfect. It would have been awful if they had gone the typical route and had Thea be been furious and play the “you have murdered people” card (even though they were criminals), creating some unnecessary drama.
Aside from Quentin Lance (although I think he might know, but is keeping it to himself), everyone now knows Oliver’s secret and that is a huge relief. Thea’s reaction to Malcolm in this episode after she realizes what he had done to her this whole time was also something that felt earned, and it reflected he strong character development that she has gone through since the first season. Even her conversations with Roy felt good and will continue to do that now that she knows everything. Isn’t it just great when you are honest with the people you love? I’m excited about the potential that these storylines have moving forward in the rest of the season.
DJ No-Personality, a.k.a. somehow a member of the League of Assassins, was finally taken care of, although in an unexpected way. I’m just going to pretend that Thea didn’t end up sleeping with him and just skip right to the point where she figures out that he wasn’t who he said he was. A fight took place before Malcolm and Roy showed up and tried to take him down before he took his own life, but the thing to take away from this is that Thea admitted her flaws. She thought she was stronger and accepted that she is still not where she wants to be at. We will touch on this at the end because it sets up next week’s episode.
The main arc of this episode was for Laurel’s continued development as Black Canary, as she had to face her worst fears, which manifested into her dead sister Sara/Canary as Count Vertigo drugged her twice in the episode; however, the first time was more brutal. Seeing Katie Cassidy display a Laurel that had to physically deal with her demons was heartbreaking and one of the actresses’ best episodes in the whole series. A moment that truly stood out in “Canaries” was the continued building in the new friendship between her and Felicity. It has been a while since I got so heavily filled with happiness with just seeing two characters hug each other.
Due to the circumstances and Laurel’s state of mind when Felicity was giving her the perfect pep talk, it was just great to see these two strong women hug each other. It has been commented on before that it has been somewhat silly that the women on this show don’t interact a lot with each other. Even the producers have acknowledged that it’s a problem, so to see these two get this close means a lot to this critic. Felicity also made Laurel realize that her main flaw is that she has to stop trying to be Sara and be herself, which is what will strengthen her in her path of becoming the Black Canary. We are not going to forget that final heartbreaking scene, when she finally told Quentin the truth about Sara, and as expected, it was extremely painful to see Daddy Lance having to go through that again.
The showdown between Laurel and Zytle, who she saw as both Sara and then her father screaming at her for not telling him the truth about Sara, was another strong moment, as she took control and beat him like nobody’s business. However, the best part of that was that Laurel was able to be there because Oliver had to accept that this is what Laurel has chosen for herself and the Green Arrow/Black Canary fan in me had a blast seeing those two characters side by side. Although Ollie is still probably not 100% (yet) with the idea of her being out there as Black Canary, this was progress, and hopefully, he will try to help her more in the future.
Speaking of acceptance, Oliver had a hard time with everyone in Team Arrow which was a scene that was needed more than anything. At some point in a hero’s journey, they become to close-minded, and whenever that hero has a team around themselves, you need those people to knock some sense into that person, which was the case here. Felicity made the excellent point that things can’t go back to what they used to be before he took off because this is no longer just his mission; it’s the team’s mission (side note: did anyone else love the fact that Felicity was all fangirling over Laurel kicking butt in the beginning of the episode?) Back to the main point, Oliver is going to have to accept that things are changed and will continue to change. As mentioned before, this episode just kept hitting all the right notes from start to finish.
“Canaries” ends with Thea and Oliver agreeing with Malcolm that if they are going to stand any chance against Ra’s al Ghul and the League, they both need to be physically and mentally ready, and the perfect formula for that is Oliver taking Thea to that hellish island he was stuck on for years, a great setup for what is to come in next week’s episode when an old friend returns. Overall, “Canaries” was an extremely strong episode with the show finally going back to that quality it had before the first half of this season, as several characters took enormous steps forward and the stories are now really starting to move at a better pace.
Arrow airs on Wednesday nights, 8/7c on The CW.
[Photo via The CW]
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