‘Arrow’ Recap ‘Canary Cry’

After weeks of waiting, tonight we finally got to witness the aftermath of the death of Laurel Lance; which has left Team Arrow absolutely devastated. Tonight’s episode opened with six men carrying a casket, and placing it at the
site of a grave. The pastor makes an announcement, inviting Oliver Queen to say a few words. We then see that it is a flashback funeral, and that it is the funeral of Tommy Merlyn. Laurel volunteers to speak instead and talks about Tommy. She talks about her love for Tommy, and that Tommy’s death is too painful for Oliver. The camera pans and we see Oliver watching from the sidelines. Laurel says a few kind words about both Oliver and Tommy, and then Oliver walks away.

In the present day, Captain Lance walks through Team Arrow, all of whom are speechless. Lance steps into Laurel’s room and he almost immediately begins to cry. Paul Blackthrone didn’t even have to say a word in this scene. It was so amazing how much emotion he put into the role in that moment and how powerful that scene itself was. The doctor handed off the Black Canary costume to Oliver. Lance, at a complete loss for words, staggers out of the room.

Back at the Arrow Cave, we see Diggle finishing a phone call with Lyla. Diggle tells Oliver that he has placed his family under A.R.G.U.S. protection, not entirely sure what Andy is capable of. He starts blaming himself, and he
begins to get thoughts that if he had listened to Oliver instead of trusting his brother, Laurel would be alive now. Oliver tells him as someone who is an expert in the blame department, he shouldn’t blame himself. Laurel
would not want that.

They watch the news report of Laurel’s death, in which Alex (Oliver’s former campaign manager) announces in a press conference that ADA Laurel Lance has died and that her killer, Damien Darhk, is still at large after escaping from Iron Heights Prison. Diggle says he needs some air, and he leaves Oliver.

Meanwhile, in the streets an arms deal is going down in a parking lot. Suddenly, a woman dressed like the Black Canary uses her sonic vocalizer to emit the legendary Canary Cry. The dealers are stunned and knocked down, and then the Black Canary jumps off of the roof and steals their bag.

Back at the Arrow
Cave, Felicity, Thea, and Diggle
convene in response to Oliver’s call
for a meeting. He tells them that despite their mourning, Damien Darhk is still at
large, and they have to go after him. Captain Lance comes in with a newspaper that indicates the Black Canary was seen halting an arms deal last night. Felicity pulls up security footage, and it indeed is someone dressed as the Black Canary stopping an arms deal. Lance begins reaching for hope, desperate to believe that Laurel is not actually dead. He states that the report says the ‘canary cry’ was used at
the scene.

Oliver checks Laurel’s bag from the hospital and he realizes that the canary cry device is missing. Lance asks
them if there isn’t a chance that Laurel is back. Diggle states that Cisco made the sonic key to Laurel’s voice
so no one except her is supposed to be able to use it.

Oliver takes Lance to the morgue to clarify that Laurel is actually dead. Lance gets extremely upset, realizing that it wasn’t actually Laurel that was out the other night, and that she really has passed. After Lance leaves, Oliver thanks the doctor for her discretion through the entire ordeal. Oliver tells her that he knows that there were multiple people who saw him bring Laurel to the hospital, and that there was a Black Canary sighting last night. He tells her that Laurel’s sonic device is missing, and he asks her if she could help him locate anyone who could have taken the device. The doctor says that there’s a fairly regular patient who might be a good suspect, but she can’t tell him who it is due to doctor-patient confidentiality rules.

In another flashback scene, Oliver visits Laurel’s house after Tommy’s funeral. Oliver says he stayed up all night, trying to form words for a eulogy but didn’t deserve to say anything at the funeral because he feels as though he
failed Tommy. He says he came back to help people and make the city better and he failed to do so. Laurel tells him not to blame himself for Tommy’s death. As Oliver walks away, he says she would blame him too if she knew
the truth.

Alex and Thea go out on a date, and she thanks him for delivering the message to the media. She then asks him what made him decide to make the move to go into politics. Before Alex has a chance to answer, the woman dressed as the Black Canary comes in and using her sonic device to attack him. She
directs her accusations at Alex, accusing him of working for ‘them’. She pulls out a gun to shoot Alex, but Thea latches onto her and begins to fight her off. Thea unmasks the girl, and she appears to be not much younger than Thea herself. The woman knocks Thea off, and sprints away. Thea quickly calls Oliver, saying that the woman dressed as the Black Canary just attacked her and Alex.

Oliver intercepts the woman, and she repeatedly hits him with the sonic screams. She yells at him saying
that he ‘failed this city’ and he ‘left them there to die’ at Reddington. She then scales the fence, and runs off into the night.

Thea and Oliver return to the lair, confirming that the woman dressed as the Black Canary is, for sure, not Laurel
and that she has somehow altered the sonic vocalizer. Thea said the woman accused Alex of working for ‘them’ and Oliver remembers that Reddington was the place where H.I.V.E was holding Team Arrow hostage during the Christmas party. They were so distracted with ending Darhk, that they left the prisoners there and that Evelyn (name of ‘Black Canary’ which Felicity discovered in a facial recognition search) was not wrong about them failing the city; as the girl’s parents died that night.

Lance contacts Nyssa, who meets him at his house. Lance tells Nyssa that he has everything she needs for Laurel when she gets out of the Lazarus pit, believing that Nyssa will resurrect Laurel just like they did with Sara. Nyssa confesses that she destroyed the pit months prior, and she says that she is unable to help him. Lance, frustrated, says he will find another way to bring Laurel back.

Felicity stumbles upon Oliver at his abandoned campaign headquarters, to discuss how they are going to locate Evelyn. Oliver states he feels responsible for everything that has been going on of late. Felicity says
she wasn’t there with the team and begins blaming herself as well. Felicity receives a call from Thea who tells her that Lyla can’t get a hold of Diggle.

As Spartan, Diggle stops Ruve Adams’s limo by shooting the drivers and he orders her out of the limo. He tells her to stop playing with him, and that she knows exactly who he really is. He gets so angered by her smart-talk, that
he actually strikes her across the face. He gets ready to take out Ruve as a message to Darhk when Oliver arrives, knocking the gun out of his hands with an arrow. As Ruve runs off, Oliver tells Diggle he can’t attack the mayor of the city, no matter who she is. Diggle says that he has to find his brother and get him off the streets. Oliver tells him that Laurel would expect them to be better than this and that she especially would not want Diggle to go
around, blaming himself. Oliver tells Diggle to never forget who he really is and not to become ‘one of them’. For
Laurel.

Diggle and Oliver return to the Arrow cave to see Ruve Adams on T.V, saying that Black Canary attacked her chief of staff and then one of the ‘vigilantes’
attacked her car that night. She has ordered the DA to issue arrest warrants
for Team Arrow, starting with Black Canary.

Oliver then receives a call from Nyssa who meets with him and shares her concerns with him about Captain Lance. Nyssa then asks Oliver if he is alright and he is completely honest with her. He says it doesn’t seem right that everything Laurel stood for is now tainted. Oliver tracks Lance down at a former League of Assassins hideout, who is still trying to find someone who can help him bring Laurel back. Lance says Oliver doesn’t understand the pain Lance is in because he never lost a child. Oliver says he has lost a father, mother and he has lost Laurel. Oliver urges Lance that if there was any way to bring Laurel back, that he would, but there isn’t. She is really gone. Lance confesses that Laurel was his rock. She helped him through losing Sara, through his divorce, and through his alcoholism. Life without her, is impossible. He grasps Oliver for support, and he begins to sob. (I almost cried at this part, actually) 🙁

In another flashback sequence, Oliver visits Laurel and they look at old photos of Tommy. After sharing a few memories of Tommy, Laurel tells Oliver that they could still save the world together. They then kiss and Laurel
states that she is really excited about the future. Oliver remains silent.

After Felicity finally gets a facial recognition match on Evelyn, Oliver and his team head to city hall, where Ruve is hosting a gala event. Just before Oliver catches up to Evelyn, she manages to take out a couple of security
guards. Right before Evelyn is about to burst her way into the ballroom, Oliver stops her. He tells her that he understands her want for revenge, but she is going about it the wrong way. She ignores him, and bursts into the ballroom, holding Ruve at gunpoint. Oliver finally manages to talk her down using the real Black Canary as an inspiration, by making Evelyn think about what the Black Canary really stood for. The real Black Canary. Before Ruve has a chance to have her S.W.A.T officers arrest Oliver, he shoots an arrow in the skylight and disappears.

Thea tells Oliver that she is afraid that Evelyn has tainted the image of the Black Canary, but Oliver says that
he refuses to let that happen. Later, at the cemetery, Captain Lance and his ex-wife, Dinah Lance approach Laurel’s casket. Dinah is in denial about Laurel’s death, certain that she’s going to find her way back to them just
like Sara did. Lance apologizes to her, finally coming to terms with Laurel’s death. Oliver moves to the head of the casket and delivers Laurel’s eulogy:

“Laurel Lance became a lawyer to help people who may have appeared helpless. She wanted to give a voice to the silent. But just being a lawyer wasn’t enough. She wanted to do more for those people, and for this city. She
loved this city so much. By now, everyone knows that Laurel was killed in the Iron Heights prison riot, and while it’s true that she was an Assistant District Attorney, that’s not what she as doing there that night. Before she died, Laurel told me the truth. Laurel Lance was the Black Canary. For the past few days I have had to
sit and listen to people try and paint the Black Canary as a criminal. She was not a criminal. She was a hero. She was a hero in every way that a person can be. If Laurel were here I know that she would expect all of us to live up to the example that she set. She would want us to save our city,”

-Oliver Queen, Arrow ‘Canary Cry’

In the final flashback, Laurel finds a note in her apartment. It’s a letter from Oliver, along with the picture he had of her when he was on the island. He says he has to go away and not hold her back from helping the city. He says she has always been the best of him. He will return one day, but for now, he needs to leave.

In the concluding minutes, Oliver stands alone at Laurel’s grave. Barry arrives, and apologizes for missing Laurel’s funeral. Oliver tells Barry he’s going to kill Darhk. He touches Laurel’s headstone one last time and
briefly weeps. He moves away some of the flowers from the headstone and we see that beneath her name, it is inscribed “The Black Canary.”

Oliver returns to the limousine, where Felicity is waiting for him. Felicity tells Oliver that they have to do whatever it takes to kill Darhk. Oliver says he doesn’t know how. He says that he’s seen the magic before,
back on Lian Yu, and it’s more than just magic: it’s darkness. For years, he has struggled to fight the darkness. Felicity says she refuses to believe that Darhk is unstoppable, or Laurel will have died for nothing. Felicity says she refuses to let him believe that and that she fell in love with him because he has always found a way. She says he has to find a way for Laurel, for the city and for all of them.

 

A Few Thoughts

Wow. Talk about an overwhelming, powerful episode. Even though this had to have been one of the saddest episodes I have ever seen on television, I absolutely loved it. The acting throughout the entire episode was absolutely phenomenal; especially by Paul Blackthorne and Stephen Amell. It’s clear how fruitful the chemistry is
on the set of this show, and how much everyone loves each other.

I am so happy that Felicity is back with Team Arrow. I seriously think she is like my spirit animal or something.
Also, she is a light that Oliver and his team desperately need to help them through this crisis.

From this episode forward, I expect pure action as Team Arrow drives towards defeating the diabolical Damien Darhk.

Overall, PHENOMENAL episode! <3