This week’s Arrow gave viewers a ton more information about the previous episode’s Black Canary candidate. The woman from the bar in the mid season finale turned out to be original character Tina Boland. We see Boland tortured and chased, realize she’s an undercover cop, and are shocked alongside Oliver and his team when she turns out to have a canary cry. “She’s a meta-human,” Oliver breathes, overwhelmed at the new Black Canary being more legit than Laurel, but, of course, that’s not all. Tina tells Oliver her name is merely a codename, which she used on the force. Her given name is Dinah Drake.
It seems, after months of teasing viewers about Tina Boland’s true connection to a comics character, that we’ve simply gotten another Black Canary dumped on our laps. She’s just got a classic comics name. In the comics, the original Black Canary, Dinah Drake, gave birth to Dinah Laurel Lance. Dinah Drake, the mother, is the one who dates Oliver.
On Arrow, Dinah Lance has a daughter, named Dinah Laurel Lance as well, though Oliver Queen meets and falls for the daughter instead of the mother. Now, an unrelated woman named Dinah Drake has appeared, and she wants to be Black Canary, which, in a weird way, brings the whole thing full circle. After exchanging convincing arguments and open fire rounds with Oliver for a few days, the second Black Canary on Arrow, named Dinah Drake, has decided to join the team.
Black Canary, aka Dinah Lance, as she appears in DC's current solo run.
The only fun in this reveal is the satisfying conclusion to the show’s name juggling. Although the storyline has strayed far from comics at this point, the originally named Dinah Drake fights crime as Black Canary. There’s no telling whether she’ll end up involved with Oliver — he seems to prefer blondes, anyway — but her background as a police officer will probably inform her work.
Arrow airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern on the CW.
