Jessie Robertson reviews the eighteenth episode of Arrow season 7…
Tonight’s opening was shot pretty brilliantly and really made me miss Arrow being on over the last few weeks. We sort of knew Black Siren was moving back towards her villain days and the whole thing had a very cool vibe to the look of the shots. Within 5 minutes, when Felicity is calling Laurel like a clingy ex, and starts dumping exposition like only Felicity can do to Oliver, I sat back and thought “This show is batshit crazy!”
I know these articles inevitably spoil things, but I write them with the pretense that you’ve actually seen the episode so the moments I bring up are fresh in your head. We’re just going to get right to the heart of this one early: the episode doesn’t work, as far as plot. So, Black Siren is on the run, wanted for murder, giving up her old life and back to criminal enterprising…even cutting out her one and only friend, Felicity. She teams up with “The Shadow Thief” which this is a poor version of the very cool comic book villain of the Hawkpeople, and starts creating havoc until the whole thing was a swerve! Huh? Siren was actually deep undercover as a villain to help bring this lady in. No! This does not work! And they were all celebrating afterwards! Then, we fast forward to the future where the network of Canaries is suffering major casualties and Laurel shows up there as well! I felt like the Arrow fan base by the time this one was over and heavily Laurel fatigued.
Bringing in Sara Lance was the one good move to find here. She is such an established character in this universe now that she instantly brings credibility and weight to any show she pops up in. She’s found such a rhythm on Legends too and I love it. But, she’s used perfectly here; as someone who misses her sister obviously but who can sort of get into the head of this Laurel Lance and let’s her know “this is not a mission; it’s a journey” to be a hero. But, again, if all this was for the act, even the good stuff on tonight’s episode was wasted. And I’m sorry, Laurel Lance in no universe beats her sister in a fight!
Our future stuff was mainly pushed as a girl heavy story, which I appreciated as was the whole episode; but making Laurel the centerpiece of this female centric story feels like the wrong choice.
6/10 – At this point, it’s hard for me to get invested in the character of Laurel Lance/Black Siren, especially in a crime story where she’s both the pro- and antagonist.
Jessie Robertson
