This week’s episode of Arrow focuses on the two Canaries, which given the title of the episode, makes sense. Check out our recap and thoughts on this week’s episode of Arrow after the jump!
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Episode Recap of Arrow, Season 3 Episode 13: Canaries
So on this Arrow episode, it opens with Laurel being beaten down–by her own sister. Sara gives her both a verbal and physical beat down. What is going on? The episode flashes back 48 hours, and Roy and Oliver are pursuing some no-do-gooder. Laurel shows up though, and claims the victory for stopping the criminal, and Oliver isn’t happy for her help, and even goes so far as saying she is not a hero.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Oliver is annoyed with Diggle allowing Laurel to play Canary. The Arrow Cave is interrupted by Malcolm Merlyn’s presence though, and he tells Oliver that it is time for Thea to know who Oliver is. Diggle is still completely against that idea.
So, the next day, a familiar face is seen: Count Vertigo. He seems to have just left court, and there are a bunch of reporters around to interview him. He demands to speak to Arrow and makes a commotion. Laurel shows up to make sure he gets where he is going, but suddenly an officer begins shooting into the crowd. Laurel is able to take the cop down, but the Count has already escaped.
At Verdant, Thea is visited by Oliver. Oliver makes his move, and takes Thea to the Arrow Cave. She looks around taking it all in, then comes to the resolution that Oliver is a hero, and seems to embrace that Oliver is the Arrow. Not quite as bad as Diggle thought it would be.
Malcolm shows up, and Oliver explains that Ra’s Al Ghul is after him, her, and Merlyn. Thea realizes that Merlyn was playing her, and isn’t happy about it. She storms out.
Team Arrow reviews the footage of the Count’s escape, and Laurel explains that a report provided the means for his escape. Oliver and Laurel continue their argument over if Laurel should or shouldn’t be Canary, bickering back and forth.
After their argument, Oliver and Roy find the reporter who got the Count free. He unfortunately has been strapped with a bomb, and forced to kill the Arrow or his family dies. He detonates the bomb, but the two Hoods are able to make a jump for it out a window. The Count had been watching the whole time, and seems to assume the Arrow is dead.
Moving to the police station, Lance is talking to Laurel, and he is inquisitive about Sara’s whereabouts, and brings up Sin saying that Canary isn’t Sara anymore.
Oliver returns to Thea’s house, and they talk some more. Oliver says they have to work with Merlyn, but Thea has flip-flopped, completely wanting to abandon Merlyn. Thea heads to Verdant, and Roy meets her there. She now knows he is working with Oliver. They talk, and Roy seems to support her decision of not working with Merlyn at all. Oliver interrupts Thea though, and in the Arrow Cave, Oliver finds that Laurel has gone to the docks to try to stop the Count. Team Arrow suits up to help out.
At the docks, Laurel eventually gets surprised, and the Count hits her with some Vertigo. The Count then attacks her, and the drugs shift the visage of the Count to Sara, catching us up to the beginning of the episode. She is pummeled and beaten pretty badly. Roy sand Oliver show up, and the Count flees. They take down some henchmen, and get Laurel to the Arrow Cave.
Back at the cave, the Team tries to help Laurel, and Thea walks in. Roy and Oliver get in a fight, as Oliver doesn’t want her there, but Roy defends her coming down. Tensions rise, and Felicity jumps in, and tells Oliver that since he was “dead”, things have changed, and basically tells him their mission isn’t a dictatorship anymore.
Thea heads out, and runs into her new DJ friend. They head to her place and have some extra-curricular fun. Unfortunately, Roy had tried to catch up with her, and just missed. At the club, Diggle talks with Oliver. Meanwhile, in the Cave, Laurel wakes up, and has an epiphany, and she realizes that maybe she isn’t up to the task. Felicity tells her to, “stop trying to be Sara,” and to be herself. Their sentimental moment is short though, as it looks like they have another lead on the Count.
Just after their fun, Thea and DJ share a drink. But Thea recognizes a scent in her drink–a poison. Thea attacks him, and demands to know who he is. She says she is a servant of Ra’s Al Ghul. Roy shows up and takes on the DJ, but Merlyn then shows up and provides further back up. Ra’s Al Ghul’s minion chooses to suicide his way out of the situation.
Meanwhile, Oliver gets ready to take on the Count. Oliver decides that he needs Canary for back up. It looks like the Count has taken over a lab. Oliver and Laurel show up, and the Count lights the building on fire, and flees. Laurel is hit with Vertigo again, and Laurel’s hallucination of Sara returns. They battle yet again, and the vision turns to her dad–and back to Sara, and back again. Laurel pushes through the visions, and takes down the Count.
Back at the police station, Laurel talks with her father. She seems to be getting the guts to admit that Sara is dead. After some tears, she pushes through and tells the truth about Sarah.
Back with Thea, Oliver finds Thea shaken with Roy. Malcolm emerges from the shadows. Thea admits that Merlyn’s help might be needed, but will hold her grudge. Merlyn tells them their first step in beating Ra’s Al Ghul–heading back to the island he was shipwrecked on with Thea to conquer his fears.
In the flashbacks this episode, Maseo wants to flee, fearing Waller will be looking for them after Maseo attempted to steal the virus. Oliver and Maseo go their separate ways. On the streets of China, Oliver makes a call to his family to try to get home, but he is captured by some men. Waller has him, and tortures him for information as to the location of Maseo. Also, Waller lets Oliver know that the message he left for his family was erased before being heard. In the end, Oliver gives up Maseo.
Maseo is eventually caught, and Oliver apologizes for ratting out Maseo out. Turns out that Maseo planned on getting caught to help Oliver escape. Oliver and Maseo wake up in a car, and rather than being killed, Waller has another mission for Oliver–and it turns out to be in Starling City.
Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow, Season 3 Episode 13: Canaries
My biggest hope for this episode of Arrow was for Laurel to give up being the Canary. I just am not a fan of her. I don’t feel that she has had the thorough training that the others have and in my opinion, should be fumbling around a lot more than the show has written her as. Her only fighting training was some boxing lessons with some random guy. She has had no weapons training, nor acrobatic training. How is she taking down thugs as well as Oliver is? I mean, I didn’t really like Sara either, but at least her storyline made sense. If Laurel had been in constant training with someone like Diggle or Oliver, then I would be able to buy her progression. As it stands, it is pretty annoying.
The plus side for Laurel, is she finally stopped being a jerk, and told the truth about Sara. Lance’s reaction was brutal to watch because of how sad it was. It was even more sad because Lance assumed that Sara was just too busy to chit-chat with her ole father.
I am a little confused by Thea. She willing went off with Merlyn, has been training with him still when returning to Starling City–why is she all of a sudden flipping on him? I mean there is plenty of good reason to–I just don’t understand why, as she is pretty in the dark as to what Merlyn has been up to.
As for Oliver this episode, I am in a conundrum with him. On the one hand, this is his crusade, and his team should either join him or leave. He is the one who started this, and is risking his neck the most. But on the other hand, Oliver is opting to work with Merlyn, a pretty awful guy, who could betray them at any moment.
I guess we will see how Oliver’s training goes back on the island. I am sure it will be stirring up some bad memories.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 3 Episode 13 of Arrow: Canaries
Wow, I was pretty surprised to see not one but two major secrets come out this episode. Although my attitude was that of “It’s about time!” I also was skeptical at first about whether the secret of Oliver’s identity as the Arrow had actually come out or not. It seemed like it came way too quickly and easily after all this time of stalling on telling Thea, that when it happened, I kept expecting it to be a dream sequence, and that for what we were seeing happen on screen was actually how Oliver wished that the revelation would go, and that we would flash to how it actually went. As it was, things felt like they went over with Thea a little too smoothly. It was also odd how she immediately turned against Malcolm. Not only her, but also Roy, who was all for him last episode. Then suddenly, both were adamantly against him. What? Okay… It just didn’t make any sense. I thought that Thea would be fine with Merlyn until the other secret came out – that he made her kill Sara.
I almost don’t even want to talk about Laurel, because it will make me angry. I totally agree with Oliver, Laurel definitely should not be out there fighting. Sure, she can get in a lucky punch every now and again, that makes sense, but for her to continue to be Canary? No way. She really should be dead by now. That would be nice, so we could get rid of her (I don’t like Laurel, if you couldn’t tell). Then Thea could take over as Canary, which would make way more sense, as far as training and fighting abilities go.
Well, now that two big secrets are out in the open, I’m glad the show can move past that, because it was getting really annoying. It will be interesting seeing Oliver and Thea work together out on the island next episode.
Scenes from Arrow, Season 3 Episode 14: The Return
Here are scenes from the next episode of Arrow, titled The Return:
