Josh recaps Season 5 Episode 11 of Arrow, titled Second Chances, where Oliver and the team are in search of a new Black Canary! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Second Chances, Episode 511 of Arrow
- Her thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 11: Second Chances
On this week’s episode of Arrow, the episode begins with the idea the previous episode ended with—looking for a Black Canary replacement. Oliver and Felicity have been searching the internets looking for a candidate, and people that seem pretty qualified are being shot down by Oliver. Oliver doesn’t seem to have good reason other than they don’t “feel” right.
But not to worry, Mr. Terrific /Curtis talks about an “urban legend” of a woman who has been traveling the world fighting crime. It turns out this woman has the one thing Oliver was looking for in a new Black Canary—a built in Canary Cry.
So, this all leads to seeing this woman in action, where she seems like a pretty savvy fighter, and certainly does have a Canary Cry. We also learn a little backstory about who this woman is. We see that she (then known as Tina Boland) is being tortured by some thugs, since she is a cop, and they are trying to pull some information out of her. We also learn that she is in Central City, and this was right around the time when the particle accelerator exploded. She seems tough, but then her partner/lover is brought in and it looks like the thug leader—Sean Sonos—is going to put a bullet into him. As this is all going down, the particular accelerator at STAR Labs explodes, and this is what gave Tina her abilities. Vince, her lover, is dead, so this put Tina on a revenge streak, killing all of Sonos’ men she can find.
Oliver and Co. decide to head to Hub City, the last known location of Tina, and try to figure out whether she is a good recruit or not. They confront Tina while she is in the middle of one of her “hunts”, and she is not so pleased to be interrupted in her objective, and declines the club invite.
Oliver decides to continue the pursuit though, and calls up Captain Singh at CCPD. Singh isn’t convinced it’s the Arrow, until The Flash swings by in a blur and confirms it with a post-it. Arrow asks for some information on this vigilante, which gives Oliver the location of Tina’s home.
Doing some investigating at Tina’s home, they find her investigation into Vince’s murderers.
Confronting Tina yet again, Oliver tries to talk Tina down as she has another man tied up. Tina winds up Canary-Crying Team Arrow down and killing her hostage in the process.
Arrow and Wild Dog continue the recruiting process, but Tina is still not biting, and is still hell-bent on her revenge kick. The Team begins to question whether the pursuit of Tina is really worth it, but Oliver seems to have a theme going—people deserve second chances.
Tina then confronts Sonos, and while she is able to take out his henchmen, she is taken down by Sonos’s now revealed power—the ability to give people vertigo.
Oliver continues his pursuit of the new Canary, and even goes so far as to revealing himself as Arrow, and offers to help her take down Sonos. So, Wild Dog, Arrow, and Tina head to take down Sonos, and through the use of a sonic dampener, they are able to neutralize Sonos’ power. Oliver pulls off some interesting acrobatics involving hanging from a helicopter, and they take down the thugs. Oliver tries to convince Tina to not kill Sonos, but in the end she cannot stop herself.
But later, Tina visits with Oliver at his mayoral office, and reveals her vengeance did not give her the feeling she hoped for. She decides to give Team Arrow a shot. She also reveals her real name—as Tina was her undercover name. Her real name is Dinah Drake. This is a big deal for Canary fans, as that is the name of the Canary from the comics.
Moving over to Diggle, he is still in a pretty hairy situation, but there is some hope, and that is General Walker, who is trying to take down Diggle, is in some hotter water himself. Felicity discovers that the incriminating evidence has disappeared though. Lucky for Felicity, a hacker, known as Ghost Goddess Fox, sends Felicity a message saying she can help. So Felicity decides to meet up with her, and Ghost Goddess Fox talks about how Felicity’s old days of being a hacktivist.
But the good news is, it looks like Diggle has the information he needs to get out of jail, and hopefully return to his family, and more importantly, back to Team Arrow!
As for Arrowbacks, this week has Oliver working with Talia Al Ghul. Oliver learns she trained Yao Fei Gulong, which baffles him given the age of Talia, but we know that she has been using the Lazarus Pits.
Talia then helps Oliver take down Yurievich, and once fighting commences, Oliver beats him to death in his car. After all is said and done, Talia presents Oliver with an outfit—his first Green Arrow outfit. It looks like Oliver is about to become “something else”.
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 11: Second Chances
So it kind of bothered me that Oliver has all of these options of really great Canary replacements, but the one thing that drew Oliver in was the fact that Dinah had a built-in Canary Cry. The other characters in the show sort of elude to the lubricity of this, but it seems so strange that Oliver only thought about her as a candidate because of this ability. On top of that, why did Curtis not bring her up sooner as an option? In the end, Tina/Dinah does seem like a capable Canary though, as she did provide some formidability to both her adversaries and Team Arrow. She certainly had a pretty visceral feeling (as did the stunt double who I am sure did a lot of the choreography for her—those stunt doubles should really get more appreciation!)
One very exciting part of the episode is the (hopeful) freeing of Diggle! He has been spending all of his time behind bars, which is pretty frustrating. I want Diggle back on the team! I am worried Diggle is going to wind up in some trouble still with Walker, but c’mon, cut the guy a break!
We haven’t seen a whole lot of Prometheus recently, so I am hoping we get more of that soon. I am wondering what his motive is still, and who is underneath that mask! I am sure it is going to be a character we have seen before, but I am curious to find out whom. Tommy is still a possibility. I am wondering about the DA as well, but so far he has proved himself as being pretty supportive of Oliver, so that would be mind-blowing if it turned out to be him.
As for Arrow flashbacks, I am sort of tuning those out, as I am a bit over them and the bad wig Oliver is always wearing. It looks like we are getting really close to the present, so I am wondering what happens when time catches up.
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 11: Second Chances
COMING SOON
Scenes from Arrow, Season 5 Episode 12: Bratva
Preview of Season 5 Episode 12 of Arrow
