Arrow "Canaries" (REVIEW)
written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)
As the current week's episode is airing, I'm finally getting this up! I know, suuuuuuuuper behind but you can blame it on busy life and job hunting... but enough about my day to day... "Canaries" sees Laurel go face to face with a fear she's held since the day she decided to don the Canary cowl.
welcome back Caity Lotz
Caity Lotz reprises her role as Sara Lance thanks to a vertigo fueled hallucination. In the wake of Oliver's return, Laurel hasn't exactly been welcomed with open arms. Ollie still doesn't think Laurel has what it takes to continue where Sara left off. This of course creates a rift between the two former lovers... yet Ollie's "my house my rules" approach doesn't come as well received by the rest of Team Arrow, after Danny Brickwell's siege of Starling City, Laurel has more than proved her worth to Roy, Diggle, and Felicity... so when Ollie tried to go all "Batman" on her, the rest of the team stood by Laurel.
Lots of changes come, the biggest has to be Ollie finally coming clean with Thea about what's been going on the past three years. This entire episode I have adored Thea more than every collective scene she's had in the previous two seasons. Surprisingly she didn't go all "bratty Thea" on him and actually understood why he kept it a secret, this of course brings up some slightly awkward dialog when referencing the loft fight a few episodes back.
Ollie finally comes clean with Thea
On the Hong Kong front, the flashbacks primarily focus on the fallout from stealing the Omega virus from ARGUS. To be honest, flashbacks this time around didn't grab me... well, until the end but that's something for the next episode review.
As the title suggests, the primary focus of this episode should be Laurel, and it actually was. Werner "Count Vertigo" Zytle (Peter Stormare) escapes and in pursuing the escaped super-villain, Laurel is hit with a dose of vertigo and much like Ollie facing off against himself in a drug induced stupor, the new Black Canary faces off against the sister she feels she can't live up to be. A bit of criticism though, I'm torn with how the show runners are adapting Vertigo. I've been pretty vocal about how I don't want them to "Batman" Oliver Queen, still waiting for Ollie to grow a mustache and rock some witty sarcastic dialog.
Count Vertigo admires his handiwork
CW's vertigo drug feels to similar to the Scarecrow's fear toxin, perhaps it wouldn't be easy to adapt the drug into something that throws off the recipient's sense of balance. Unlike the comic counterpart, Arrow's Count Vertigo doesn't possess any meta-human abilities, but going the Scarecrow route feels too much like trying to throw a little Batman into the equation.
trying to live up to Sara's memory
Watching the two Canaries go head to head was the highlight of the entire episode, I'm still not a fan of Laurel's "head-to-toe" bondage looking outfit, but the show has been pushing forward with developing her as a strong member of Team Arrow.
Lately I've been slightly bored with Arrow episodes, watching The Flash gives me such a buzz I've been waiting for Arrow to pick it up a bit. "Canaries" delivered on all fronts, and after the way the episode ended... Arrow looks to be getting right back on track.
camping on a deserted island eh brah?
