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“Arrow” recap (4.18): One Last Time

What is going on with TV this season, y’all? Specifically, The CW? At one point they were winning the gayest race and had badass women at every turn. But it’s like they decided to make 2016 the year of senseless deaths, and have killed at least five women on four different shows in less than four months, four of them queer. And that’s only off the top of my head. And that’s one single network.

Okay, I’ll get more into this in a bit, but first, let’s recap.

We open in the Diggle residence, where Andy is taking out John’s gun, trying to act normal. Andy confesses that Merlyn approached him and that he’s concerned that HIVE is still active despite Darhk being locked up. Diggle takes this news to Oliver and convinces him to use Andy as a double agent.

Oliver has to go to the Mayor’s acceptance speech because it’s customary for the runner-up to do so, even though technically he didn’t lose, he just backed out. When he gets there, he finds out 48% of Star City wrote in his name despite him backing out of the race, a record high. After her speech, the new Mrs. Mayor Darhk tries to butter Laurel up, and Laurel tries to play nice back.

She even goes so far as to offer Laurel the DA position, saying they should work together. Back at the Arrow Cave, Thea asks Laurel if she’ll take the position, and while she knows it will be helpful to keep the new mayor close, she’s not sure if she wants the gig.

The girls start to talk about Merlyn, and Laurel notices Thea stopped calling him, “Dad.” Thea says this isn’t your typical father/daughter tiff, and that this time both of them are ready to cut ties, but Merlyn appears out of the shadows saying quite the opposite.

A bunch of assassins stroll right in, and they fight the girls to try to get Darhk’s idol, which is sitting out in the open in a clear plastic box. Meanwhile, Oliver had been working with the Diggles to stop a supposed crime, but they soon realize it’s a distraction. They rush back to the Bunker, but Thea and Laurel have bad news…Merlyn has the idol.

Thea decides she wants to strike out on her own to get answers, and Oliver tells Diggle that it’s too dangerous to use Andy as an undercover agent again. He acts weird about it, though, and while Diggle doesn’t notice, Laurel sure does. Once Diggle is gone, she asks Oliver what’s going on in that emo little head of his.

Oliver admits that he doesn’t trust Andy, but Laurel warns him to be very sure of what he’s accusing Andy of before bringing it up to John.

Laurel gets a call from her father and meets him at a Chinese restaurant (where he orders in Chinese because Sara taught him how), and he asks Laurel how she’s going to let down Mayor Darhk when she tells her she doesn’t want the DA job. Laurel isn’t so sure she’s going to turn it down now. She kind of wants to go into the belly of the beast. Lance warns her that taking this job would be retiring her wings and saying goodbye to the Black Canary.

At Arrow HQ, Thea is sharpening her sword, as you do.

They get a message from Andy that he has eyes on Merlyn, and despite Oliver’s hesitation, Team Arrow meets up with him. Andy takes an arrow for the Green Arrow and tells them to go on without him. But they’re too late, and Merlyn brings the idol to Darhk. Luckily for humanity, it’s missing a piece, and Darhk can’t do anything with it yet.

While Diggle is patching Andy up, Andy expresses his concern that HIVE will know he’s on Team Arrow now. But Diggle tells him not to worry; they hid a piece of the idol, so he doesn’t have to do any more double duty. Oliver tells Diggle to be better about keeping their secrets, but Diggle feels very strongly that family is family. Even though I feel like he gave Oliver a harder time than this, and Oliver wasn’t part of their enemy’s organization.

Anyway, Laurel says she can use her ADA powers to search Darhk’s cell block in search for the idol.

She is pretending she got an anonymous tip for the police, but she and Darhk exchange some thinly veiled banter, and Darhk threatens her in a way that only the Black Canary would understand. But Laurel is not afraid and says simply, “I’ll see you in court.”

The Green Arrow skulks to Diggle’s apartment to find Andy tearing the place apart looking for something. He swears he’s sweeping for bugs, but Oliver confesses to thinking Andy is on the wrong side of all this. He growls at him, trying to get Darhk’s plan out of him, but Diggle interrupts and starts to yell at his best friend in favor of his estranged brainwashed brother.

Oliver tries to say that men like Andy never change, just like he didn’t, which was 100% the wrong approach to this, because as angsty as he is right now, he’s still no S1 Oliver Queen. Diggle says that just because Felicity couldn’t put up with his manpain anymore doesn’t mean everyone in the world is insufferable, but all of this is beside the point.

Meanwhile, Thea does her best Felicity impression and hacks into the prison security cameras.

So far things look normal because the man with the sewn up mouth is just creepily giving out library books.

Laurel tells Oliver that she’s going to turn down the promotion because she wants to keep being the Black Canary, but Oliver implores her to reconsider. Felicity’s gone, Nyssa is MIA, Sara is traveling through space and time…maybe she should get back to her dream of being the DA of Star City. Laurel says that was an old dream, but Oliver reminds her that she became the Black Canary to avenge Sara’s death and carry on her legacy, but Sara’s alive now. So maybe the city doesn’t need more vigilantes, maybe it just needs DA Laurel Lance.

They get word that Darhk is staging a prison revolt, so Laurel picks up her mask and says that she’s going to go out as the Black Canary one last time.

Captain Lance gets to the prison first and swaggers around to cause a distraction, allowing Team Arrow to get inside. Oliver is salty that Diggle brought Andy along, but they don’t have time to duke it out right now. It’s go time.

Thea wants to fight Merlyn alone, so she sends Laurel to help the boys while she has some father/daughter bonding sparring. He eventually bests her and warns her that her lack of bloodlust means she lost her edge, and he will always have the upper hand. But he lets her go. She’s not the one in the grave.

In the room where Darhk is heading the revolt, Team Arrow and Team Darhk find themselves in a Mexican standoff. Diggle is the first to put his gun down, because Darhk is threatening Andy, and his team follows suit. But as soon as they’re disarmed, Andy strolls on up to Darhk and gives him the last piece of the idol. BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DID. YOU IDIOTS.

Eh hem. Anyway, Thea appears then and shoots Darhk with some of her arrows.

Unfortunately, she’s a few seconds too late. Darhk uses the blood from his wounds and also the lives of two prisoners as a sacrifice for the idol, and he regains his powers. He uses it to put everyone in a magical chokehold, then throws almost everyone to the ground. He turns on Laurel, the only one he left standing, and says that he has a message for her father.

He had warned Lance once what would happen if he betrayed him, and Darhk delivers by stabbing Laurel right in the gut. Another brilliant fighter, another woman who makes “strong female character” a gross understatement, another warrior, taken without a fight. Paralyzed, helpless. Laurel Lance wasn’t even the true target of this ruthless crime, nor was the Black Canary. Quentin Lance’s daughter was. It’s a goddamned tragedy.

Satisfied, Darhk makes himself scarce, leaving Oliver to scoop Laurel up and rush her to the hospital.

Captain Lance is cuffed at the station for his little outburst, but when a cop tells him that the Black Canary got hurt in the kerfuffle, he’s less amused and more frantic, begging to be let out, just for an hour or so.

Our darling girl Felicity, though not part of the team officially anymore, shows up when she’s needed most and is at the hospital for Laurel.

Thea says that Darhk, Andy, and over 50 inmates are on the lamb, and Diggle tries to apologize but can’t even get the words out. He did this. But Oliver doesn’t make him finish his apology, and just puts a comforting hand on his shoulder.

The doctor comes out and says that Laurel is going to be fine. She’s awake, and she’s asking for them, her family. “She’s a strong woman, your friend,” the doctor said. Everyone’s eyes light up in agreement, and Felicity says, “The strongest.”

Felicity and Thea stand by Laurel’s side, and Laurel confesses that she was going to give up being the Black Canary, but that despite the result of tonight, she knows that mask is part of her now, and that she’s never going to be able to separate the bird from the girl. Fighting on Team Arrow is what makes her feel alive. She loves her team, and her team loves her back.

They tell Laurel to rest, and Felicity promises she’ll be right outside. Oliver lingers behind, and Laurel tells him that even though she ships Olicity, he will always be the love of her life. She asks him to promise something, but we don’t get to hear what that is. Instead, we hear the pounding of doctors’ feet and the beep of a failing heart monitor.

Laurel is seizing, the doctors are giving her the paddles, and the team is panicking. But after a few seconds, the doctors call it. Time of death, 11:59.

The team breaks down in tears. Oliver walks into the hallway, dazed, and is faced with Captain Lance, who finally broke free of his cuffs to see his little girl. But Oliver’s expression is all he needs to see, and he knows. He has lost another daughter. And this one is not coming back.

What did you think of “Eleven-Fifty-Nine”?

Here’s my thing. (Okay, a few things.) They already killed a Canary. They killed Sara, and they heard the outcry, and they were told about the refrigerator trope, and the bury your gays trope, and they were given the opportunity to learn and grow. I am a very strong supporter of second chances. And granted, Laurel wasn’t queer, but she was still a woman, and she was killed to propel the stories of men. Sure, Felicity and Thea will be affected by this, but Darhk literally killed her to get to Quentin. And this will send Diggle reeling most of all, since this is as much his fault as it can be considering he wasn’t the one holding the arrow that killed her. It wasn’t even about Laurel. And despite the fact that she kicks major ass all the time, she wasn’t even given the chance to fight. An unsuspected arrow in the gut, just like her sister.

And I think what bothers me most is that, in the interviews I’ve read so far, it seems pretty clear that they decided at the start of the season that they were going to kill someone, so they had Oliver and Barry go to a grave, but they hadn’t even decided who it would be. So it’s not like they were thinking of Laurel’s story, and were like “actually I think this will be the best way to end her story.” They were like, “Hmm, who should we kill?” And chose Laurel, like she was the most expendable.

The show is on hiatus for two weeks, so we have time to think about it, but what would you guys think if I paused these recaps until Nyssa or Sara comes back? I was hoping to ride out the rest of the season in case Nyssa showed up soon, and maybe she will show up to mourn her milkshake buddy, but should I just play it by ear? I will likely keep watching for now, because Felicity has been badass since always, and will keep recapping if you guys want a place to talk about it/process, but I thought I’d get some feedback before I make that decision. Part of me feels ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me’ about it, part of me isn’t ready to let Felicity and Thea go. Also, the post-mortem interviews I’ve read say that, while Laurel is dead, she’ll still play a role in flashbacks. (Though not firing the actress isn’t the same as not killing the character.) I want to know your stance on the issue.

Let’s talk it out in the comments, yeah?

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