By: Andrew Kreisberg & Wendy Mericle (story)
Spoilers ahead. From the moment it was announced a Canary would be appearing on the show, speculation ran rampant as to her identity. Quite a lot of people immediately insisted that it had to be Sarah, the younger Lance sister who ran away with Ollie, only to meet her watery death. I, always hoping that a story won’t be tempted to take such an obvious route, thought there was at least a possibility not-Canary would turn out to someone no one expected.
Once again, however, I find my hopes ruthlessly dashed. From the moment that Felicity and Ollie hypothesize that not-Canary has been following Dinah, not Ollie, all along, it pretty much clinches the Sarah theory. I’ll say this for Arrow, though: it doesn’t tend to dance around the obvious. Rather than spend an entire episode delaying the inevitable reveal, the show gets it all over with in the cold open, leaving us free to enjoy the fallout.
Obviously, the question of how Sarah singlehandedly survived a capsized yacht in a storm out on the open sea is rife with intrigue (and not a little dubiousness), but even more compelling is the fact that Ollie knew. To be frank, this particular revelation has the same, slightly unconvincing vibe as one of your average comic book twists, especially since Ollie spent a good chunk of the first season agonizing over the youngest Lance’s death. Kreisberg-Mericle manage to fudge it by having Ollie insist that the deception was one of timing, not substance, but this in turn makes Sarah’s survival even more incredible.
But let’s allow Arrow its fun, since the show is starting to embrace its comic book origins a little more. At the very least, Sarah’s reunion with Ollie on the island and in Starling City provides a much-needed link between the ongoing action and the flashbacks, something which the show frequently lacks. Sarah’s presence also prevents her from becoming a mere plot device for the series, as well as redeem her reputation as a floozy who cheated with her sister’s boyfriend then subsequently died for her betrayal.
Unfortunately, this episode only skims the surface of Sarah’s character, and largely parallels Ollie as he first appeared on this show: a person with a less than laudable past, whose tribulations have pushed her to strive for greater things (“No woman should have to suffer at the hands of men.”). Fortunately, Ollie recognizes himself in her and encourages her to skip past the mistakes he’s made and find peace a little sooner
The timing of her return either couldn’t be better or worse, now that the other members of the Lance family are going through a crisis of their own. Here, the show’s tendency to cut to the chase actually damages the plotline a little bit, as Dinah goes from having a few glasses of wine to a DUI to a half-assed intervention by Ollie and her father within twenty minutes. Arrow has always struggled to find something to occupy Dinah’s time until the inevitable moment when she takes on her heroic identity, and although alcoholism isn’t necessarily a bad way to do that, it’s also a thing that requires more time to develop to seem credible instead of melodramatic.
Speaking of which, after the convincing use of the Dollmaker last episode, the show takes a step back with a thoroughly urban criminal on an ego trip, who actually calls himself the Mayor. Again, the show’s haste limits how effective a villain the Mayor can be. For someone claiming to be the de facto boss of the Glades, his reign is brief and ends rather unglamorously, a mere stepping stone for a far more invasive antagonist to come out of the shadows. Still, the Mayor does his part in emphasizing how chaotic and desperate the city is becoming, meriting every new vigilante that may find his or her way there.*
The main thrust of the episode’s action may be so-so, but it’s a testament to the show’s evolution that it now carries enough characters to keep things interesting. As part of his investigative work, Diggle reconnects with A.R.G.U.S. agent Lyla,** and they muse on the parallels between their work bringing peace and order to Afghanistan and what they’re doing in Starling City. Thea and Roy demonstrate how much their relationship has grown as they encounter Sarah’s street friend, Sin. Even Isabel Rochev, Ollie’s reluctant partner at Queen Consolidated, gets an opportunity to show some dimension beneath her general chilliness.
Conclusion: If this is what the average episode of Arrow looks like from now on, you can live with it. While some tensions are poorly sold, the episode compensates with a plethora of smaller plotlines, each with some interest of its own.
Grade: B
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: * As blatant as the repeated news reports of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator are, I still get a tingle of excitement hearing them because they mean that Barry Allen’s appearance on the show is near.
** While I’m glad to see that she’s alive and well, I don’t know about her overt attempts to make a move on Diggle minutes after he tells her of his split with Carly: “Hey, Johnny. These days, I check the box marked ‘Single,’ too.”
– I find it interesting that at a gun trade-in event with tons of weapons and cops around, the Mayor still manages to inflict a mass shooting. Apparently, both gun control and gun liberty are not the answer.