Eulogy
Director: Laura Besley
Writers: Wendy Mericle & Beth Schwartz
Air Date: April 27, 2016
Remember how the showrunners promised that this season was going to be a lighter tone? I guess lighter for Arrow means the death of a character from the very first episode! We finally learned who was in the grave at the end of the first episode of the season: Laurel Lance! What is it with Canaries dying in Star City?! Joke aside, it was a very emotion heavy moment when Laurel told Oliver how she felt about him, and with the death of his best friend and former lover, we know he’s going to be tempted to go back to the dark side and kill Damien(but let’s be honest, he deserves it at this point.) So how will everything play out in the wake of Laurel’s death? Let's find out…
We open up with a funeral… in 2013… Yeah, it through me off… but then I see it was the funeral for Tommy Merlyn and Laurel gave the eulogy. She goes on about how important he was to everyone’s life, and that he will be missed… Almost as if it was meant to remind us that Laurel was important in the viewer’s life. Then we cut back to present day where Quentin isn’t taking it well… It’s even more emotional when he actually goes in and cries over her dead body as Oliver takes the Canary gear. Soon after, Oliver and Diggle are back in the HQ, and Diggle is beating himself up, blaming himself for her death. Oliver tries to comfort him stating that it's sad, but she wouldn’t want to see him like this. Meanwhile across town, someone uses a canary cry to steal from a weapons dealer… WHAT?!
Before you think that it’s Laurel back from the dead(as this show tends to do often with it’s more popular characters), Quentin desperately goes to the morgue with Oliver to confirm that it isn’t Laurel and sadly she’s still dead. As Quentin goes off to cry one out, the doctor tells Oliver that there’s a chick who shows up in the ER quite often and she might have stolen the sonic weapon… Which brings up the question: How can this girl have snuck out a sonic device that lights up? And how can it be used if it’s not Laurel? Soon after though this girl does show up and attacked Alex, Oliver's former political manager, claiming he works for “him.” Green Arrow soon intercepts this fake Canary and he and the team realize that it’s a young woman kept in the HIVE base outside of Star City that the team was kidnapped at during the midseason finale.
While I could go on about the search, the true meat of the episode is EXACTLY where it should be: On the characters reaction after the death of Laurel. They all suffer grief in their own way. Diggle is furious and goes off to try and get answers from the mayor, Felicity feels guilty that she wasn’t a part of the team to try and get her out, but the best reaction had to be Quentin. He was trying to find a way to resurrect her, just like Sara… until he finally breaks down with Oliver… it is one of the most emotional performances Paul Blackthorne has given since the show’s beginning, it brought me to tears. Props to him.
After Diggle’s attack on the Mayor, she has once again declared that Vigilantes are illegal, and the first one on the list to be arrested is the Black Canary. The team begins getting to work trying to find the girl, and soon realizes that she is actually going after Reva Dahrk. Oliver heads in and is able to talk her down, and while he is able to talk her down… Reva is still able to rally the city against the vigilantes, and Black Canary’s name is tarnished… ^%#! you, kid.
In the end, we get the funeral, but if that wasn’t emotional enough we get more emotion as we get a eulogy from Oliver… revealing that Laurel was the Black Canary to redeem her name… Oliver then swears to Barry, who gets there late, and Felicity that he will kill Dahrk for what he’s done… and not a moment too soon since next week the Genesis project is unleashed.
Bits and Pieces:
After the emotion destroying episode at the beginning of the month, we get a wonderful emotion filled episode dealing with the aftermath of Laurel’s death. While the character who steals Black Canary’s identity was flat, it was made up for with powerful performances from the main cast, especially from Paul Blackthorne. It might not be the most action-packed episode, but it certainly was another top episode for the season.
8.8/10
You could describe this episode as the cast fighting each other for who was more at fault for Laurel's death. "How can it be your fault, when it's my fault?" "No I am the most at fault!" What a bunch of honkeys!
ReplyDeleteFact is that in the end... It really is Diggle's fault cuz OF COURSE YOUR BROTHER IS STILL EVIL!
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