Good god, who knew Felicity had all that rage in her? And who the hell is the new Black Canary in Hub City? This week, Arrow returned after its winter hiatus, and the show’s ever-shifting Laurel-Felicity-Oliver trifecta ran into some turbulence. Spoilers for Arrow, Season 5, Episode 9 follow.
First, the team’s new version of Laurel (Katie Cassidy) turns on everyone almost as suddenly as she appears, seemingly back from the dead at the end of the first half of the season. “That’s not our Laurel,” Oliver (Stephen Amell) breathes, hiding under a table with a similarly stunned Felicity (Emily Rickards). Later, when “Laurel” insists that she only attacked Oliver because Prometheus forced her to, he gathers up his troops and meets her at the Black Canary statue to discuss. Of course, that meeting doesn’t go well either, and after “Laurel” canary-cries everybody into the fetal position, Oliver hits her with a dart and tosses her in a cage.
Black Siren as she appeared on 'The Flash'.
When Laurel wakes up, she admits that she was previously imprisoned by the Flash’s crew in Star City, and she also drops a bomb that the Oliver on her Earth, Earth-2, is dead. That, of course, explains why we’ve never seen an Oliver Queen doppelgänger.
When Felicity confronts new Laurel, she tells her, “You’d better get used to living in a cage.” In response, Laurel makes a crack about Oliver being super into sisters, calling all the way back to the Arrow pilot, in which ol’ Ollie was cheating on Laurel with Sara. Not to be out-done, Felicity plays Laurel like a fool, feeding her a tracking device and letting her loose on the city. Fake-Laurel leads Team Arrow to Prometheus’s warehouse, but only after she changes into a black leather bodysuit and Matrix style shiny trench coat.
Simpler times between Oliver's ladies on 'Arrow'.
The entire ordeal ends with Felicity punching fake Laurel in the goddamn face, and Oliver can only smile at his protege’s clean K.O.
Later, as Felicity ices her sore fist, she and Oliver debrief. Turns out, Oliver’s still interested in breaking her down and finding “his” Laurel inside her somewhere, but he’s okay with Star City locking her up again in the meantime. They agree, almost out of nowhere, that it’s about time to train a new Black Canary.
The show then jumps back into Oliver’s memories with the Russian mafia, and we realize Talia al Ghul (Lexa Doig) was the one who saved him. Cut to Hub City, and a brunette girl — most likely Tina Boland — sonic-screams a couple of thugs out of a dive bar. Looks like Oliver has a new Black Canary hopeful already.
Arrow airs on the CW at 8 p.m. Eastern every Wednesday.
