Welcome back, Arrowheads! We’ve hit the final batch of episodes this season, and we got a lot of ground to cover. First off: Ollie is contending with his half sister Emiko being an agent of the evil Ninth Circle, and whether any of what she told him about her quest to find her mother’s killer is true or not. Second: things aren’t so good for Evil Laurel Lance as she gets accused of murdering a gang leader among other things (some of which she probably did do, but likely not murder), all because she ratted out Emiko to Ollie. And things aren’t as rosy in the future flash forwards either, as the bad guys are unleashing a new weapon against our future heroes. So let’s get to it, shall we?
Back Into The Shadows. Evil Laurel pops up at some bad guy’s lair, looking for someone called the Shadow Thief. Well, she is curious to see Evil Laurel back in her Black Siren bear again, and interested in hearing Black Siren wants to go back to being a criminal. Also, Evil Laurel has been ducking calls from Felicity like someone trying to blow off a clingy ex, and maybe for good reason. While Felicity is looking into the gang leader murder that Evil Laurel supposedly committed, Dinah believes that Evil Laurel has finally gone back to being a baddie, which means we get to hear about how Evil Laurel was once a villain, always a villain, blah blah blah. In the meantime, Felicity has given Ollie a lead on who killed Emiko’s mom, and he decides to take Diggle on a road trip to grab this guy.
So, let’s just explain how that “road trip” goes because it’s not a big part of the episode. Ollie and Diggle head to this guy’s place and discover…it’s one of the Longbow Hunters (the one with the shield in case you forgot)! They knock him out, and find out he was the one who killed Emiko’s mother, and from the way it sounds, Dante was the one who ordered the murder. So maybe this news given to Emiko will pull her away from the Ninth Circle, who knows. Maybe? Maybe not?
“Diggle, this Carly Rae Jespen playlist is fine, but this is the third time we’ve listened to it on this trip! Don’t you have any other music?”
Canary Convention. At the Bunker, Felicity has figured out that the Ninth Circle (or maybe Emiko) murdered that gang leader, so that gets Evil Laurel off the hook, right? Wrong, because Dinah lets her know that Evil Laurel and her buddy just ripped off a mob money launderer, one that was being investigated by Evil Laurel’s office. So at least now they know she’s using the office to case some more scores, which leads Felicity to hack into Evil Laurel’s computer to have a chat. Evil Laurel seems less impressed that she’s been found innocent than disillusioned her so-called “friends” weren’t there when it really mattered in the whole Emiko thing. So, that conversation goes well.
At the next score Evil Laurel and Shadow Thief arrive at, they find Dinah waiting. As lopsided as this fight may look, we get a surprise partner show up on Dinah’s corner: Sara Lance, the White Canary! Looks like Felicity called in some backup, as good as that goes, because Black Siren and Shadow Thief still escape. It looks like Evil Laurel’s way to score some cash is gone, but no worries, because Shadow Thief has another score lined up that’s outside their plans. Now all they have to do is deal with Felicity and her pesky friends…
Falling Into The Wrong Crowd. Felicity locates Shadow Thief’s lair and goes with Dinah to check it out, and all they find is a bomb trap that somehow leaves them time to get away relatively safe. Back at the Bunker, the two talk to Sara (who stayed behind), and she figures out Evil Laurel maybe hasn’t gone all evil again, and takes a long shot by visiting her dad’s grave. Evil Laurel happens to be there, and Sara tries to convince the alternate universe version of her sister to stop running away from these problems, and face them. While it seems Evil Laurel is having second thoughts about all of this, she tells Sara to keep everyone away from her.Maybe this is for a good reason, because the newest score Shadow Thief has found is stealing a bomb for a terrorist operation!
Not many more times these two are gonna have happy moments like this.
Birds of Justice. Our lady trio isn’t giving up yet on Evil Laurel, and somehow find Evil Laurel and Shadow Thief at the place where the bomb is. But they corner Evil Laurel, and confront her with the idea that they won’t let her take a bomb that will kill innocent people, so she’ll have to kill them to do it. And…Evil Laurel turns on Shadow Thief, and surprise, Shadow Thief thought this might happen and brought a lot of heavily armed backup! Our ladies decide to blow the bomb in the place as a way to cover their escape, and get out as the building goes up! Well, a bunch of baddies are probably dead (we learn later Shadow Thief isn’t among those dead), but Evil Laurel’s not evil again. Take your wins as they come.
A New Leaf. Later at the Bunker, Felicity, Dinah and Evil Laurel have a little celebratory toast, where Dinah admits she was wrong about Evil Laurel, and that she can rebuild things now she’s found innocent of that gang leader’s murder. But Evil Laurel has come to a realization that she needs to head home and try to do good in her own universe now. So we leave with Felicity getting a foot rub from Ollie for her little adventure, and Sara sees Evil Laurel again at Quentin’s grave, and they lament still missing their dad (literal dad and metaphorical dad). But that’s not all that happened this episode…
Canaries Forever. In the future, the Canary network is being decimated, primarily by some shadow soldier dude wearing that freaky helmet we saw the last time we were in 2040. Mia and Zoe get the bulletin to head back to the only remaining Canary lair, all while avoiding creepy helmet guy, who seems to have a lot of technical do-dads on it. When they get back, Dinah and Felicity are there to tell them things are looking bad, and Mia just wants to end the helmet guy permanently before turning Galaxy One into cinders. Dinah tries to reason with Mia to regroup and strategize how to take them on smartly, but Mia is all “I’m so badass, I’ll fight them all, grrrr” and storms off. Kids.
Anyhoo, Mia lays a trap for our helmet guy which goes…the opposite of good for Mia. Before helmet guy is about to end her, a Canary cry sends him flying into a wall. And it’s Evil Laurel in the old Black Canary suit, much older and offering up help. She takes helmet guy’s, um, helmet, and gives it to Mia. While admiring how much Mia looks like her parents, older Evil Laurel tells her she’s capable of being a real hero, but it’s all up to her to succeed or fail at it. Well, Evil Laurel seems to have fared well in the future. Good on her.
Forget “Future Arrow”, give me a spin-off of this!
–Comic book connections: Shadow Thief is a villain more aligned with the Hawkman side of the DCU, and is not a woman in those books.
–Well, while we we’re on hiatus, news broke Felicity (or specifically Emily Bett Rickards) will not be a regular in the final season. Doesn’t mean she won’t appear in the final episodes, but it does line up with the future flashbacks that she’s in hiding to take care of baby Mia. And I would think she would show up for…well, you know…what we all think is going to happen in this year’s crossover, which lines up with the last episodes of the show.
–So, nice start with that cold open long take of Evil Laurel visiting that lair.
–Hey, the salmon ladder returns! And someone uses it!
–This might be the only time all season Sara has been in her White Canary suit. I mean, they just gave up finding a reason to pull that suit out on Legends of Tomorrow.
–“Like Charlie’s Angels, minus the feathery hair and casual sexism.”
–“I’m having deja vu in the best way possible.”
That’s it for now, but come back next week for the recap of “Spartan”…
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