Arrow season 3 episode 13 "Canaries" review

Singing like a Bird

Brick has fallen, the Arrow has risen again and Merlyn is on the straight and narrow...so we think. Last week's episode was full of character moments that could change the city of Starling for the better. Now with Oliver back on the team, it looks like the team has returned back to balance. But what if the team was already balanced? Besides that, this week marks the return of Werner Zytle, but you may call him Vertigo. Does he still wish the death of the Arrow? Does a Canary wear black leather? I mean Laurel, not the actual bird...yeah you get it. ENOUGH BABBLING! Lets start the review!

There are two character moments this week that threw me through both the pleased emotional loop, but the depressed one. Both were confessions. The first was the one I dreaded the moment Thea became more involved in the show. Oliver told Thea of his "extra curricular activities." The moment Oliver said he would show her "the basement," I was immediately calling Oliver an idiot. Flashbacks from last season appeared of Thea whining saying how she doesn't like being lied to. When Oliver revealed the truth...She understood why he was doing it and accepted?! This took me by surprise, mainly because of her past of being lied to and her reaction towards it. I ended up being pleased of how accepting she is; it shows how much Thea has grown as a character. The other confession however was more heartbreaking. After the battle with a Canary vertigo hallucination, Laurel tells her father the truth. He immediately guesses she is the Canary(which I find hilarious he is able to identify two of team arrow yet still can't identify the guy who was with BOTH of his daughters), but then when Laurel says the news she has is about Sara he immediately begins to break down. Quentin Lance has always been the strong type, I can't remember a time he has ever been seen vulnerable emotionally. We know he was an alcoholic before the show, but we never seen this version of our favorite SCPD captain.  Both of these confessions were awesome cutaways from the action, and its moments like this why I enjoy Arrow.


The storyline this week was to recapture Vertigo, who in my opinion was criminally underused this week, while Arrow tries to fit back into his machine, and Laurel faces her demons. As I mentioned above, Laurel faces a hallucination of her sister. Why? Well it is because she is afraid of letting her sister down, as well as tarnish the name of The Canary. This has been done before, but the dynamic becomes all the more interesting when she begins seeing Sara where there is no one, like a ghost. This was more than an hallucination, this was a ghost like Oliver saw in season 2's midseason finale. The ghost helped inspire Laurel, not to become the Sara canary, but the herself. Another interesting facet was Arrow trying to step back in. He thought the crusade would just stop because he "died." This is false. He has been put in a position where he no longer is actually in charge of team Arrow. Before his death, he would make the plans, order Diggle and Arsenal around, and go in arrows a-blazing. In this episode however, he finds Arsenal standing up to him, as well as Laurel. This is interesting because we have seen this building up of the other heroes' confidence during Bricks attack. It truly does show how much difference time away from your city can change people.

Final Verdict
This was an awesome episode post-brick both on the emotional level and the action level. We see these confessions and their reactions are so human the characters become more relatable. The action was quite good, especially between the battle between Canaries, showing both their techniques. It was nice to see character development from everyone, especially Roy standing up to Oliver, even if that will lead to an eventual split. Even though I believe Vertigo should have been used more, this episode was another great chapter in the city of Starling.

That was my review to this week's Arrow Episode!What did you think of the episode? What did you think of this review? Leave a comment, and I'll see you next time!