Violet recaps Season 4 Episode 19 of Arrow, titled Canary Cry, where a teenage girl is impersonating the Black Canary! Following the episode recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Arrow Episode 419: Canary Cry
- Her thoughts on Season 4 Episode 19 of Arrow: Canary Cry
Arrow Recap, Season 4 Episode 19: Canary Cry
This episode of Arrow opens with a funeral – not Laurel’s, but Tommy’s, back in May 2013. Oliver was supposed to deliver the eulogy, but he is nowhere to be found, so Laurel steps up and does it in his stead. She talks about how she loved Tommy, and sees Oliver standing off in the distance.
In the present, Captain Lance enters Laurel’s hospital room and cries over her dead body.
At the Arrow Cave, Diggle tells Oliver that Lyla and his daughter are at an ARGUS safe house. He blames himself for what happened with Andy, and regrets not listening to Oliver. On TV, Alex announces Laurel’s death, and says that Damien Darhk is the leading suspect.
Meanwhile, across town, Black Canary interrupts an illegal gun sale by emitting her Canary Cry, then runs off with the guns.
The next day, Felicity, Thea, and Lance join Oliver and Diggle at the Arrow Cave. Lance shows them the news article about the Black Canary, and Lance thinks maybe Laurel isn’t dead after all. However, Oliver points out that Laurel’s sonic device is missing from her bag of belongings, so someone must have taken it. Lance thinks that there’s a chance it was Laurel.
Oliver and Lance go to the hospital morgue to see if Laurel’s body is still there. To Lance’s dismay, it is. Oliver thanks the doctor for her discretion in not revealing his and Laurel’s secret identities. She assures him of doctor-patient confidentiality. He asks her for her help in who might have taken Laurel’s sonic device. A frequent visitor to the ER comes to mind, but the doctor will not reveal the patient’s name due to doctor-patient confidentiality.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity looks into the frequent ER visitor. Diggle tells Felicity what happened with Andy, and blames himself for what happened to Laurel. Felicity doesn’t know what to say, since she wasn’t there and doesn’t know what happened. Diggle says there is nothing to say.
Thea and Alex have dinner together. She thanks him for talking to the media at the hospital. Their dinner is interrupted by the Black Canary, who attacks Alex with her Canary Cry, then beats him up, as she exclaims, “You work for them!” Thea fights back, and pulls off the mask. The girl blows her back with the Canary Cry, and runs off. Thea calls Oliver to give him a heads up.
Green Arrow chases down the Black Canary impostor. She is angry at the Arrow for abandoning her and others to die, while all he cared about were his friends. She says he failed this city, emits the Canary Cry, and runs off.
Upon returning to the Arrow Cave, they wonder how the sonic device worked for this girl, because it was only supposed to work for Laurel. She is also using it at a higher decibel than Laurel did. They talk it over and figure out that this girl was one of HIVE’s prisoners at Reddington Industrial, where Darhk held Felicity, Diggle, and Thea hostage. Felicity checks missing persons and finds out the identity of the teenage girl, Evelyn Sharp, whose parents were found dead two days after Christmas.
Lance meets with Nyssa at Laurel’s apartment and asks her about the Lazarus Pit. She sadly tells him she destroyed the pit months ago, and that she cannot help him. He says he’ll find help somewhere else.
Felicity talks with Oliver, who regrets coming up short when he tried to do the right thing. Felicity regrets not reassuring Diggle that what happened to Laurel wasn’t his fault. She herself regrets not being there at the computer and thinks if she was, then maybe Laurel would still be alive. Thea calls Felicity just then and tells her that Lyla called asking for Diggle, who is supposed to be checking in on her. Felicity says she has trackers on all of them, and will get back to her.
Meanwhile, Diggle pulls a gun on Ruve Adams’ limo, shooting the driver and front seat passenger, then demands that Adams get out of the car at gunpoint. She pretends that she doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he mentions his brother. He is just about to shoot her, when the Green Arrow shows up and stops him. Oliver points out that Diggle can’t go after the mayor, and says this isn’t who he is. Diggle wants to find his brother, but Oliver says that whatever he does to him won’t bring Laurel back. Oliver tells Diggle that he can’t forget who he is, and “We can never become them.”
Oliver and Diggle return to the Arrow Cave. On TV, Ruve Adams announces that she was attacked by a vigilante, and talks about the Black Canary vigilante assaulting Alex. Adams says that she has asked the DA to issue arrest warrants for these vigilantes, beginning with the Black Canary, and dedicate the arrest and prosecution to Laurel Lance — though the Arrow Team knows that she knows Laurel was the Black Canary.
Nyssa meets with Oliver and tells him about her conversation with Lance. Oliver is upset about Laurel’s legacy being dragged through the mud.
Oliver catches up to Lance, who thinks he is on the trail of bringing Laurel back. Oliver tries to get it through to Lance that they have both lost Laurel. He says if there was any way to bring her back, he would find it and do it — but there isn’t. Lance breaks down crying, saying Laurel’s always been there, she was his rock. It seems he has finally accepted Laurel’s death and breaks down even more, as Oliver tries to comfort him.
At the Arrow Cave, Felicity apologizes to Diggle for letting him think he could have prevented what happened to Laurel. She explains that she has her own guilt for not being there. Diggle doesn’t understand how he could have been so blind about Andy, but Felicity points out that it’s because he’s family. Felicity assures Diggle that what happened was not his fault.
Just then, facial recognition picks up Evelyn Sharp’s location — she is outside of Star City Plaza Hotel, where Ruve Darhk is. Felicity points out that since Evelyn is wearing the Black Canary outfit, that in killing Ruve Darhk, she’d be killing Laurel’s legacy.
The Arrow Team heads over there to catch Evelyn. The Black Canary is spotted by Ruve’s guards, and Ruve tells them to let her come. Green Arrow catches up to Evelyn and tries to talk her down, but it doesn’t work. Evelyn goes into the gala and emits her Canary Cry. She then shoots at Green Arrow, then points her gun at Ruve. Green Arrow gets up, unharmed, and tells Evelyn this is not how to get justice done. He goes on to tell Evelyn that Black Canary was a hero, and tells her to ask herself what the Black Canary would want her to do. Evelyn reluctantly puts the gun down, and runs off. Ruve gets up and tells her guards to arrest Green Arrow, but he uses a trick rappel arrow to make his escape.
The Arrow Team reconvenes at the Arrow Cave. Felicity has been unable to track Evelyn any further. Thea is upset that Laurel’s legacy as the Black Canary has been destroyed by Evelyn. However, Oliver vows that he won’t let that happen.
Lance and Dinah attend Laurel’s funeral together. Dinah thinks that Laurel will come back, because their girls always come back to them, but Lance tells her that won’t happen this time. When Oliver delivers the eulogy, he reveals that Laurel was the Black Canary, and praises her as a hero. We also see Evelyn standing off in the distance.
We then come to the scene we’ve partially seen before. Barry shows up while Oliver is standing at the grave we now know is Laurel’s and apologizes for missing the funeral. Oliver says that he knows that what happened is not his fault, but it is his responsiblity to end it – and vows to kill Darhk. Barry asks if there’s anything he can do to help, but Oliver says he wants to be left alone, so Barry speeds off. Oliver mournfully kneels in front of Laurel’s grave, and we see that “The Black Canary” is part of the epitaph. Oliver gets in the limo, where Felicity is waiting, and tells Oliver he has to kill “that son of a bitch.” Oliver says he doesn’t know how, and that Darhk feels unstoppable. Felicity tells him that one of the reasons she fell in love with him is that he always finds a way. She tells him that he has to find a way – for Laurel, for the city, for all of them.
Flashbacks
Oliver stops by Laurel’s apartment after Tommy’s funeral, but he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to come inside. He talks about how he stayed up all night working on the eulogy, then realized that he didn’t have the right to say those things. Laurel assures him that Tommy loved him, but Oliver says he failed Tommy. Laurel tells Oliver that he can’t blame himself, but as he walks away, he tells her she would too if she knew the truth.
A week later, Oliver goes over to Laurel’s place, and they look at old pictures and reminisce about Tommy. She thinks that they can still make the city a better place — together. They share a kiss. She tells him that she is really excited about the future, as she lays her head on his shoulder.
Later, Laurel finds a letter from Oliver that he slipped under the door. In the letter, he explains that he has to go away because he doesn’t want to hold her back from the good things she’s going to do for the city. Also enclosed is the picture of her that he had with him on the island. She breaks down crying, as we see Oliver in a plane flying back to the island.
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 4 Episode 19: Canary Cry episode
The title of this episode of Arrow, Canary Cry, turned out to have multiple meanings. After seeing the previous episode, you would think that it would refer to people mourning over the death of Black Canary. However, when the episode opens, we’re not at Laurel’s funeral, but at Tommy’s – where Laurel ends up giving the eulogy. And where Laurel cries over Tommy’s death. Then later on in the flashbacks, when she learns that Oliver has left, she cries again. Then, of course, the third meaning is the literal meaning, referring to the Canary Cry that Evelyn is emitting when she goes out posing as the Black Canary. Very clever, Arrow writers.
I had thought that somehow Laurel’s death was not real. After all, pretty much the only person who has ever really died – and stayed dead (so far) – is Tommy. As I’ve mentioned before, I was a big Tommy fan, so it kind of adds insult to injury every time the show makes us think someone is dead, but it turns out they aren’t, or they somehow come back to life. As you also may recall, I was not a Laurel fan. I hated her and Oliver together. However, I did like her and Tommy together. So, knowing that she had cheated on Tommy with Oliver, it kind of upset me to see Laurel up there saying how much she loved Tommy during the eulogy. It felt like too little, too late. I’m sure Oliver felt guilty about his betrayal too, though he was also feeling guilty about failing to save Tommy. Then later, after saying in front of everyone how she felt about Tommy, she and Oliver seem like they’re getting together/staying together (I can’t remember exactly what their relationship status was at that time) despite Tommy’s death. To me, that seemed like a slap in the face to Tommy’s memory. I’m glad Oliver went off to the island and effectively broke things off with Laurel.
I think maybe one of the reasons that Tommy’s death was brought into this episode was because of what I mentioned before – that he seems to be the only permanent death in this show. It seems like a lot of people, myself included, weren’t buying Laurel’s death. It’s possible that by bringing up a permanent death, the show intended to associate Laurel’s death with that death, thereby sending the message to viewers that Laurel’s death is permanent too. Or I could just be reading way too much into things.
Anyway, so we’re finally caught up with the grave scene that the show has been teasing us with all season. Although, I was a bit confused when Barry sped off like that, because at this point, he wasn’t supposed to have speed, so the writers kind of need to work on lining up their shows better! I figured his excuse for missing the funeral would be because he didn’t have his speed. But I digress. It looks like the next step is figuring out how to kill Damien Darhk, and it also seems like Felicity is back on the team. I had been surprised at how broken up Felicity had been over Laurel’s death, as they never were particularly close. But now I think it’s because of her guilt for not being there for the team, because of her belief that she may have been able to help prevent Laurel’s death if she had been there.
But yeah, onward with taking down Damien Darhk!
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 4 Episode 19: Canary Cry
I am still very surprised about Laurel being dead. The way the episode played out, I did not feel she actually was. Again, the doctor said she was going to be just fine. What happened?! We also still do not know what this promise she requested of Oliver was. I wonder when that reveal will be made.
As for this episode though, I was not a big fan. We didn’t need a fake Black Canary roaming around. I am wondering if this person will be taking over the role of Black Canary. I kind of hope not, as while I have not been the biggest Laurel fan, I think making a new Black Canary so quickly would be an odd move, and not really honor the hero Laurel was becoming. I was actually starting to think Laurel might be an okay character, but then she is dead!
As for Lance, the poor guy has lost both daughters now. I have a feeling he is not going to find the solution he is looking for either, in bringing Laurel back. I also have a feeling that he might either go off the rails again, or he might eventually leave the show, as he doesn’t have a direct connection to any characters anymore. He sort of is like the Commissioner Gordon of this universe, but not quite as important to Oliver as Gordon is to Bruce Wayne.
Scenes from Arrow, Season 4 Episode 20: Genesis
Preview of Season 4 Episode 20 of Arrow
I’m still not really convinced that Laurel is truly dead. I mean, the general rule of thumb with comic books is to never expect anyone to stay dead. So it’s still likely that she is either not dead, or they will bring her back somehow.
I completely agree Serena. Especially given the matter of her death. I guess the show tried to say shes definitely dead by showing us her corpse again this episode, but it was so odd how they decided to do it. It is really bothering me. The only thing I can think of that would make sense that she is dead is that the show initially planned to just have in her injured in the episode, but then at the last minute shot another scene of her dying.
I feel like the whole “showing the body to prove the person is actually dead” scene is often done when the person isn’t dead. For example, in BBC Sherlock. There is something that Laurel told Oliver that we won’t know about until Season 5. I’m wondering if the whole thing was a ploy to get Darhk to stop attacking her. Or if Laurel knows of someway to bring her back. Plus, we do know that the Lazarus Pit has the ability to bring people back to life. While the pit itself was destroyed, Darhk still has some of the water. I was thinking there’s the chance Oliver could get it once they defeat Darhk and use it on Laurel, but I wasn’t sure if they would go that route again. If all else fails, they could easily find a way to have her on Legends of Tomorrow.