Death, betrayal, and magic on this week's episode of Arrow....
And the person in the grave from the first episode is...Laurel Lance. I wish I could say I was super broken up about her death, but I really wasn't. That's not to say that I am rejoicing or anything, but there's nothing about her death that made me super sad. It really felt like an honest end to her story and it really made sense. While there were all sorts of possibilities about who it could have been, she was in my top 5 people. We knew it wasn't Oliver from the start and when we saw Felicity in the car, we also knew it wasn't her. Curtis was also out because he's a regular next season, so the only ones who really made sense were Donna, Laurel, Lance, Thea, and Diggle. Curtis' husband was a possibility because ti would give Curtis a good reason to be on the team and Lyla was also a possibility because it would destroy Diggle. Samantha and William were better possibilities earlier in the year, but when they were sent away, I pretty much dismissed them from my mind.
More than her death, it was the events that led up to it that will probably haunt the team the most. If Diggle hadn't blindly trusted Andy and dismissed Oliver's concerns, Dahrk might not have gotten the idol completed and wouldn't have had magic. If Oliver hadn't shot the arrow at Dahrk, he couldn't have used it to kill Laurel. If Thea hadn't shot Dahrk, he couldn't have used his blood to jump start the idol to get his magic back. If Lance hadn't worked with and then betrayed Dahrk, Laurel would not have been chosen as his victim. Oliver and Thea's actions were more incidental, but I think Diggle's were crucial. Would Andy have gotten the piece to Dahrk anyway? Probably, but it's possible that had Laurel not been around when Dahrk got his magic, she would not have been killed. Then again, Dahrk did promise to make her father suffer for betraying him, so he may have hunted her down anyway.
All that being said, I want to reiterate and expand on a point I made above. Laurel's death felt like a good, logical conclusion to her journey. They seemed to be making a point to wrap everything up for her so there weren't any dangling stories left, so that was good. And her death will certainly have an impact on everyone, so it services the overall storyline, which means it was a good death. As I said in my review of the last episode of The Vampire Diaries, so long as a death on a show (or in a movie/book) services the overall story and makes sense, I can make peace with it. I may not like it, but it is easier to swallow. What I don't like is when a show kills people simply to kill people. That is lazy writing.
I wanted to smack Diggle throughout the episode. While I get that he wanted to trust his brother, he is the one who is constantly lecturing Oliver not to let his feelings for his family affect how he goes about his work of saving the city. Once again, Diggle exposes himself as a major hypocrite because that is exactly what he did with Andy tonight. And as for his remarks about Oliver being self-righteous and what not, sorry, but that speech more or less describes Diggle perfectly. Diggle sees the world in black and white refuses to acknowledge the hard choices Oliver has to make, and then criticizes Oliver's decisions again and again. As far as I'm concerned, Diggle is becoming less and less likable as the season goes on. Actually, it's pretty much the same problem I have with how they're treating Felicity, but I won't go into that again.
I thought for a bit that Thea was going to die and Dahrk would make it look like Malcolm did it. Doing so would turn Oliver against Malcolm permanently. The only downside to that is that it would also turn Malcolm against Dahrk, so it didn't make a ton of sense. I knew Malcolm couldn't kill Thea, so she was pretty much safe. The problem is that since Dahrk has his powers again, Thea is as vulnerable as anyone else since she was cured of the effects of the Lazarus Pit.I was thinking that she could be Oliver's weapon against Dahrk, but that is no longer the case.
You had to feel sorry for Oliver. He had seriously twigged into the fact that things were off with Andy, but Diggle wasn't hearing it. The problem was the Oliver had no proof other than his gut feeling, which was never going to be enough for Diggle. And now we know for sure that Dahrk knows that Oliver is the Green Arrow, which makes life very perilous for anyone close to him. If Dahrk manages to find Samantha and William, that would be a very bad thing.
Watching Lance crumble at the end was heartbreaking. He has lost both of his daughters now. Granted, he got Sara back, but then she left to stop Vandal Savage, so now he has no family left. Earlier this season, I might have said something snarky, but he had more than redeemed himself for aligning with Dahrk earlier. By testifying against Dahrk, he placed his own life at risk. I think he assumed that Laurel would be safe because she was trained to fight. And that did keep her safe for the most part, but no amount of fighting skill is going to protect you from Dahrk's magic.
Next epsiode is on the 27th, so I'll see you then!
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