Arrow Season 3 Episode 13 - Canaries Review

Arrow Season 3 Episode 13 - Canaries Review

So Laurel finally had her crucible. All I can say is it’s about time.

 

Episode 13 saw the return of Vertigo to Starling City. In the flashbacks we follow the aftermath of Oliver and Maseo betraying Amanda Waller to save Maseo’s wife.

 

Let’s face it, Laurel is most people’s least favourite part of Arrow. It’s not that the actress gives a poor performance, it’s that the writers never really seemed to know what to do with her. This episode however I think was one of her strongest ever episodes.

 

There were a lot of positives in this episode. While she does still seemed a bit rushed, Laurel was far more relevant here. Before she just seemed over her head, but here she acknowledges this herself. After being injected with Vertigo and fighting he greatest fears in the form of Sara, she seems to have taken a large step into becoming a Vigilante.

 

I enjoyed her scene with Felicity for highlighting that she can’t just copy Sara. We’ve all had this thought ourselves and half the problem with Laurel has been she’s always been overshadowed by other characters. I think she’ll be far more enjoyable being herself. The other great scene with her was with Quentin at the end. This scene was powerful. I’m glad Detective Lance figured out who the new Canary was (He is a detective after all) but what was really powerful was watching him break down. Laurel didn’t even have to say it, they looked at each other and he knew.

 

There were multiple powerful scenes throughout the episode. I enjoyed the scene when Oliver reveals his secret identity to Thea. While I was surprised, I was glad to how she reacted. I don’t want to see them arguing, I’d rather see them like this. It was strange however how she flipped completely 180 with Merlin.

 

My favourite part of the episode however was Diggle talking to Oliver in the Club. With all the new characters we haven’t been getting much of Diggle and I’ve missed his infinite wisdom. Here we got some time for Diggle to talk reason and sense into Oliver. Diggle is almost like our eyes into this crazy world. He says what logical and says often what we as the audience are thinking.

 

The main thing picked up from the flashbacks is that Amanda Waller is completely ruthless. She was the biggest villain of the episode, she threatened to kill Oliver’s sister. She truly thinks any means are necessary to complete her missions.

 

Finally there’s Roy who keeps getting better for me. He stepped up and stood up to Oliver. The time without Oliver has toughened him up and increased his standing and from a rather irritating character at first.

 

So what negatives were there? I think his name was Chase, the DJ assassin person. Who the hell was he? He literally didn’t do anything in all the time he was here. Then Thea decides to go and sleep with him because her life is complicated? But he also tries to poison her because he works for Ras Al Ghul. But why did he wait so long, he’s been alone with Thea loads of times before. Oh well at least he’s dead now.

 

I miss Felicity. She’s still around but she’s far less prominent. We still get her serious scenes where she’s the only one who can get Oliver to listen but I miss her more light hearted moments. She’s always balanced these two aspects really well but now she spends all her time miserable. Even with this though her scene with Laurel was great and I did like how she told Oliver that things had changed. It highlighted just how important she is but it seems as though she will get closer to the ATOM and move away from team Arrow for a while.

 

The villain was fairly weak for this episode. He is nowhere near as psychotic as the original count Vertigo. He’s just random drug dealer number 46, although at least when Arrow uses a ‘villain of the week’ he’s there for a purpose outside of being a villain. Stephen Amell himself has said that Arrow does not enjoy using so many villains but with 23 episodes in a season they don’t have much of a choice. The villains do always serve a greater purpose, here it is so Laurel can conquer her fears. This was a prominent theme of the episode, Merlin even says it. All of team Arrow needs to conquer their fears if they are ever to defeat Ras Al Ghul, hence Oliver and Thea are on the Island.

 

Next week’s episode is called the return. Oliver and Thea are on Lian Yu while in the flashbacks Amanda Waller his bought Oliver back to Starling. It is an interesting reverse on the formula we’ve been using throughout Arrow. I look forward to seeing more Waller and Maseo in the flashbacks but I’m more excited for Lian Yu. It made me laugh seeing Oliver and Thea hiking, it made me think of what my sister would be like hiking but really like most people I want to see Deathstroke. Manu Bennett reprises his role as Slade Wilson for the episode and I can’t wait. Slade really took Arrow season 2 to the next level and his return will surely be a great moment.

 

This episode though was a good solid episode like we have come to expect. Hopefully we can put all the bad Laurel stuff behind us and go forward. I enjoyed Canaries and look forward to seeing Deathstroke.