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The late Sara Lance lends her name to this episode and it feels entirely fitting. Her loss not only overshadows the drama but drives it. This story could feel like a wake but Sara’s death proves to be a crucible, used to reveal some powerful emotional truths about Team Arrow.
As predicted, it’s pretty clear that Laurel is being lined up to inherit her sister’s role as Black Canary (could that final shot of her holding Sara’s leather jacket be any more of a signpost?). Laurel’s an active character for once: the way she twists Kelso’s broken arm in the hospital gives us a hint of her inner vigilante, and while it plays as a jarringly brutal note for the character it’s an improvement on her victimly drift into booze and pills last year. If it’s a way for the writers’ room to finally make her a vital part of the ensemble then hoorah. Just a shame it had to come at the cost of Sara’s death. It feels like a popular character being ritually sacrificed for the sake of a less popular player.
Not to be confused with the two Marvel Comics characters of the same name, Komodo is a recent addition to the DCU, debuting in Green Arrow 17 in 2013. He was the business partner of Robert Queen and ultimately betrayed him, setting in motion the events that cast Oliver away on the island.
The episode delivers two surprises. Tommy’s back, albeit in flashback, and I can’t imagine we’ll see more of him during Oliver’s Hong Kong sojourn. Like Laurel, he feels like a ghost of Arrow’s fumbling first season, but he’s a good choice to test Oliver’s moral code as Amanda Waller shapes him into an assassin. Thea’s end-of-episode reveal as Malcolm’s ass-kicking protégé is an amusing left turn for the party girl. Maybe we’re about to end up with a show where everyone in the cast has a black belt in ninja goodness.
Komodo makes for a fairly featureless villain but he’s not the thrust of the story. Ultimately “Sara” is about Oliver and Felicity and both Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards do fine work here. She’s especially good, showing the depth of Felicity’s emotional wound, but Amell owns it for his delivery of the line “I don’t want to die down here.” Feeling searingly honest, it may be the most human we’ve ever seen Oliver.
Arrow is broadcast in the UK on Sky 1 HD on Thursday nights, and in the US on the CW on Wednesday nights .
| Writers | Jake Coburn, Keto Shimizu |
|---|---|
| Director | Wendey Stanzler |
| The one where | Oliver investigates Saras murder and discovers another masked archer operating in Starling City but is he the man responsible? |
