After 's first season, the producers were not satisfied with what they had accomplished. In their estimation, they had failed to sufficiently center all of the storylines around Oliver thus making it feel like, as they put it, Laurel and Thea were sometimes off in their own show. In season 2, they tried much harder to tie everything together, using the return of Sara to draw Laurel and her dad closer to Team Arrow and the introduction of Slade Wilson in the present to make the island flashbacks seem more relevant. They are now pulling the same tricks this season, using Sara's death to define every major character's story arc to this point and making the flashbacks seem more important because two of its main players (Maseo and his wife) eventually showed up in the present to save Oliver. The problem is that Arrow has a nasty habit of doing a half-assed job with character motivations, and they just generally double down on regrettable storylines, hoping they'll wear us down until we finally give into liking what they're doing.
Chief among those storylines right now is the fact that Laurel still has not told her dad about Sara's death. Vulture.com posted its first ever Arrow re-cap last week, and they've somewhat hilariously decided to try to shame this show into putting an end to this ridiculous storyline, posting the following counter at the bottom of every recap until Laurel does the right thing: "NUMBER OF EPISODES LAUREL HAS GONE WITHOUT TELLING HER DAD HIS OTHER DAUGHTER DIED." After "Midnight City," that episode counter is up to 10, but Arrow took it to a whole new level.
This is the type of thing that makes Arrow such a frustrating show to watch sometimes. You can never really escape from the storylines you don't like because they usually end up being too important to simply go away, a side effect of the producers' post-season 1 goal to better tie all of the show's storylines together. Heck, even Thea's stupid DJ boyfriend has now become an integral part of the season, revealed to actually be a spy for the League of Assassins. Thea's continued ignorance about her role in Sara's death (you know, the whole "killed her while brainwashed" thing) will clearly continue to be a big part of the season, and apparently so will Laurel's continued insistence that her dad not be told that Sara is dead. I hate to see it because I love Paul Blackthorne, but at this point I honestly wish they had just killed off Quentin Lance like they teased in the season 2 finale. He's had nothing to do this season other than be left totally in the dark about Sara, all because Arrow 's producers have a stated preference for family members to be constantly keeping secrets from each other each season. Granted, Quentin totally kept his secrets last season, not telling Laurel that her sister was alive, but Laurel not telling him that his other daughter is dead seems so, so much worse. And that was before Laurel started using Sara's voice to give him false hope.
NUMBER OF EPISODES LAUREL HAS GONE WITHOUT TELLING HER DAD HIS OTHER DAUGHTER DIED: 10
NUMBER OF EPISODES LAUREL HAS ACTUALLY USED SARA'S VOICE TO FOOL HER DAD: 1
Please stop this, Arrow. It is not at all helping your efforts to rehab this character.
"This unfortunate phenomenon describes supporting characters who begin their series as possible love interests and/or best friends, but are kept in the dark about important information for no good reason. These characters, as a result, end up making the hero's life more difficult, which attracts viewer disapproval-and sometimes even hate-instead of sympathy toward them [...]During the first season, the writers saddled Laurel with a love-triangle plot. During the second, they sidelined her with a weighty alcoholism arc. Now, during the third season, they're finally bringing her into Oliver-as-Arrow's world-but to most fans, it's too late for character rehab."
I get the sense that The Atlantic is fairly spot-on: At this point, the damage done to Laurel Lance as a character is so severe that many viewers will simply never be won back, especially since her ascent to Black Canary first meant the death of Sara (not all fans feel that way, of course, but a lot of them seem to). However, it really seems like the show is fully aware of how ridiculous it is for Laurel to parade around as Canary after just a couple of months of boxing lessons. In her first encounter with a bad guy in "Midnight City," she gets her ass handed to her, leading to a thorough talking to from Roy, who holds up the Canary mask and tells her that putting that thing on is no way to grieve. Even when bad guy Brick's big plan forced Roy and Diggle to accept Laurel's help she was again a total failure, causing one of three hostages to be fatally wounded and thrown out the back of a moving car. Laurel makes the argument that she needs to be out there as Canary because the bad guys still fear the costume and wig from when Sara wore it, thus hopefully keeping up appearances until Oliver returns. However, you'd guess word would spread pretty quickly that Canary was easily beatable now, and Laurel seems especially despondent after her failure meant someone's death.
Are you so opposed to the idea of Laurel Lance being Black Canary at this point that nothing will change your mind? Or are you kind of intrigued to see her start out as a pretty shitty Black Canary, someone who needs more training and has to learn the hard way that the real reason to follow in Sara's footsteps is not to honor her memory but instead to help the helpless (Yes, I totally stole that last line from Angel)? I am surprised to find that I am in the latter category, and seeing Laurel interact with Diggle, Roy, and Felicity has actually been kind of fun. Heck, before this episode Laurel had been around Diggle so infrequently that I was actually surprised when she explained how she thought he'd understand her need to be Black Canary what with having lost a sibling of his own. When did we ever see Laurel learn that about Diggle? The fact that I don't immediately know the answer to that question is precisely why it was long overdue for Laurel, Roy, Diggle, and Felicity to get some seems together without Oliver around.
As for her nascent romance with Ray, eh. Emily Bett Rickards has plenty of experience at this point with playing scenes where just when you think she might kiss the guy the scene cuts to something else. Ray is meant to be a better version of Oliver, repeatedly shown to be more emotionally available, pursuing Felicity instead of pushing her away, and he presents her with an opportunity to save him in a way she couldn't with Oliver. It all seems so smart on paper, but I've never been able to get past seeing Ray as more or less buying Felicity, stalking her, and coming off as hopelessly and dangerously naïve as opposed to endearingly naïve. This is again one of those storylines I simply can't get away from because it's too important to the overall season. Heck, they're talking about giving Ray his own spin-off show. Ugh.
Seeing Laurel take her lumps as Black Canary was surprisingly effective, and a Oliver-less Team Arrow is a fascinating one because it is helping force new character pairings, e.g., Laurel and Felicity actually had a heart-to-heart! Sure, Brick's big plan is fairly silly, e.g., why would he want to take over the poorest part of the city, but he remains a physically foreboding villain. The flashbacks may have been better served being held back for a showcase episode, but they weren't exactly terrible. What was terrible, however, was the fact that not only has Laurel not told Quentin about Sara yet she is now using Sara's voice to deceive him! Please, Arrow, stop with this storyline right now.
THE NOTES:2. As cute as the whole "They don't have keys" bit with the helicopter was, I kept thinking that Brick's men would have some sort of bazooka to shoot the chopper down, or that it would be so loud that there'd be no way for them to sneak in and save the hostages.
3. Brick is a classic action movie villain. Why? Because by all logic he should have shot the good guys multiple times now, but he keeps improbably missing.
4. Reason #10 Why Ray Should Fire Felicity - She interrupted your business meeting to request usage of your helicopter, offering no explanation for the why and how of it all.
5. Reason #1 Ray Won't Fire Felicity - Because he's just so in love. Plus, the whole "science, science, science, fix my Iron Man suit, science, science, science" thing, but mostly the love.
NEXT TIME
Tv.com - We all have things we harp on. Clearly, I simply can't stand what this episode did with Sara's voice. This reviewer, on the other hand, really, really, really hated Brick's "The Glades are mine!" threat and the rich white people totally going along with it: "Starling City's answer to Brick's threats basically amounts to it washing its hands of that part of itself. Ray threw money at the SCPD and wanted to call in the National Guard to deal with Brick's gang. The mayor decided to turn over the Glades to Brick, surrendering the lives of citizens (and voters!) to a crime boss. Thea compared what was about to happen to something from The Purge. Basically, these folks couldn't really give a damn about the folks who live there. The Glades' larger social and structural problems, which Sebastian Blood gestured toward last season even if Arrow never fully committed to exploring them, obviously haven't been addressed."
I'm done with my ramble. What about you?