The bait and switch of Laurel's return was short lived as it was made very obvious that she wasn't the Laurel we knew and loved. She was revealed within the first 10 minutes to be the Earth 2 version freshly sprung from Star Labs by Prometheus posing as her. I mean, tricking her in reaching for an alcoholic drink when the real (alcoholic) Laurel would have instinctively known to take the soda? How fiendish Felicity. And whilst Felicity's mistrust was ultimately proved to be warranted, I couldn't help but feel that her attitude towards the “fake” Laurel was never truly about her concern Oliver and the team but instead just the voices of a million Olicity fans bitching in the face of the number one love rival to their ship. Any and all mention of Felicity's dead boyfriend Billy were brushed over so quickly it was embarrassing. It's clear she regrets that he's dead, but also that she doesn't care enough, even turning moments where Oliver tried to console her into opportunities to flatter him.
Oliver wanted to save the Earth 2 Laurel, named Black Siren by Felicity, a feat Felicity thought wasn't worth the risk, as she pulled rank and ordered the team to try take her in at the site of the Black Canary statue, which was destroyed by Black Siren's very own meta-human canary cry. I could almost feel the Oliciters punching the air as the memory, legacy and figurative remnants of her presence on the show were obliterated. I let out an “Oh come on!”, as if they couldn't bring Laurel Lance any lower, even months after her death. The fact that it was Felicity who brought Black Siren down with a self righteous one hit KO cemented it for me, the writers see Felicity as their heroine and no-one, even dead ex-girlfriends or their alternate universe counterparts are going to stand in the way of that.
On a more positive note, this week's subplots were actually much stronger. Curtis, feeling sorry for himself as he got his ass handed to him once again, finally snapped over the toll trying to be Mr Terrific had taken on his life, including his husband leaving him. Rene countered with words of encouragement for him to focus on what he really brought to the team, his brilliant intellect. Choosing to do just that, Curtis was instrumental in bringing down Black Siren after he made a mobile version of the sonic dampening tech they had previously built into Black Siren's cell to try and hold her. If this leads to Curtis concentrating more on creating awesome gadgets to help him and the others fight crime, I'm all for it, because there are only so many times you can a bronze medal decathlete get beating up because he doesn't have “street smarts”. Also, I hope he gets his husband back. Curtis isn't a bad man, so much as a poorly written character up to this point. He's a good guy who deserves happiness.
In the episode's other main sub-plot, we saw Star City D.A. Adrian Chase take Diggle's defence at Oliver's request after he was captured by the military in the mid-season finale. Legalities of a D.A. defending someone being tried by the military aside, Diggle managed to convince Chase that if he was taken from his Star City prison he'd never make it to trial, the General behind the frame up making sure there'd be a good enough reason to take Diggle out in custody. Playing for time Chase, realising the General was very well connected and that he was going to need every trick in the book to keep Diggle out of his hands, managed to convince Diggle to assault him with a punch across the jaw. As D.A. he could override the military proceedings and instead keep Diggle in the Starling County lock up pending trial for assault. A smooth move I must say. I just hope that this plot isn't resolved with some deus ex machina garnered by Team Arrow in a form of heist, but we actually see the inside of a court room. I really, really think that could be interesting.
In the flashbacks, which haven't been as strong as I seemed to remember as I had trouble remembering exactly what had gone before, Oliver was at the mercy of the Bratva about to be killed before being saved by a mysterious woman. At first it seemed to be Laurel, but that was just a beating-induced hallucination. It was instead Lexa Doig debuting as the other daughter of the Demon's Head, Talia al Ghul. Is she friend? Is she foe? And does Oliver even come to know her as R'as al Ghul's daughter? She didn't introduce herself as such and Oliver's never once mentioned he knew her, which is odd when you consider he was married to her sister. Still, it's another Batman element introduced into ARROW that I welcome, as long as it more Talia from Arkham City and not THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.
Written by Nick Whitney, ARROW Beat Writer -- Click to read Nick's posts
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