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Arrow "S3E13 Canaries" review


Arrow "S3E13 Canaries" review
8 out of 10

Canaries – After escaping custody in transit Werner Zytle sets out again to wreak some hallucinogenic havoc on Starling City and when Laurel tastes his medicine she’ll need more than a spoonful of sugar to make it sweet. Meanwhile Team’s Arrow and Merlyn unite forces when Thea joins the fold with the League of Assassins wrath ever looming.

“There will always be a Vertigo, you have given it the power” we were warmed we could count on his return and this week Arrow Vertigoes crazy once more. Yet when this results in Caity Lotz reappearing as Sara maybe drugs aren’t as bad as we thought? Seeing Oliver squaring off against himself when questioning his own identity in the season opener was interesting but it feels like this may have been the planned payoff all along when a dossed Laurel conjures up a Sara Lance for Canary Vs Canary cat/bird fight! Again it explores similar ideals to Oliver by expressing Laurels’ own fears of dishonouring her sister’s memory by never living up to her reputation. Sara’s words hit even harder than her staff as they rip Laurel’s confidence to shreds; “You’re not a hero; you’re a liar, a fraud and an addict”, we’re certainly not watching Sister Sister. The confrontation works great as a framing to the episode and even delivers a side from Caity that we’ve never witnessed before as she puts the black into her name (if anything it only makes us miss her more). Katie Cassady is also on great form both under the influence and dealing with the aftermath; her best moments being coming from her terrified twitching on the Arrow Cave table. An honourable mention must also be given to Peter Stormare for his very theatrical delivery of the big V himself (“May I suggest a grand finale?”). This is no less than the 5th non-consecutive episode in 3 seasons that the Vertigo character has been reintroduced as an episode villain; 3 of which happened before Stormare’s watch. Yet he manages to make the villain (and the trippy out of character scenes that he induces) a welcome sight. Unless he joins the ranks for episode 17s Suicide Squad offering, we’ve seen enough of him for one year but Arrow would do well to keep bringing back in years to come.

Despite The Count’s conniving concoction there seems to be a lot of sodium pentothal going around Starling this week as the truth is very surprisingly on everyone’s lips. Many secrets a whole season or beyond in the making burst out of their keepers like they have an expiry date. The biggest of which is the early delivered inclusion of Thea into the growing Team Arrow ranks following Merlyn telling Oliver that they’ll need Thea to fight with them rather than just protecting her. In many previous episodes we’ve seen Thea explain that everybody lying to her is that which drove her away in the first place and we feel Oliver’s genuine fear of losing her forever as he slowly leads her down in the darkened cave (which also a rare and very cool looking sight). Yet it all serves as fantastic spell of misdirection when Thea’s reaction completely hits us sideways; “All those times I got mad at you for being a flake or telling me something that I knew had to be a lie.... you were saving someone’s life.... thank you”. In this wonderful moment she actually grows up before our eyes as without prompting she overlooks her personal issues to see Oliver’s deception in the grand picture and understand. The rest of the episode even has some fun with the unmasking as the pair reflects back on past events like Oliver’s less convincing cover ups “lame excuses are sort of an occupational hazard”. This reveal also serves as great contrasting catalyst to many of the episodes over big character developments. Such as the way Oliver refuses to accept Laurel as masked hero now he’s returned despite Thea’s willingness to accept him as one. Or when Oliver aggressively tries to shield Thea from Laurel’s injuries it triggers a full blown team rebellion as after having to fight without him Roy, Diggle and Felicity are not content to suffer an Oli-tatorship anymore. This nods back to great moment in Midnight City of the team realising that it wasn’t just Oliver’s mission anymore; it was all of theirs and things have changed because of it. From a series point of view this is an excellent reinforcement as it affirms that the last few weeks are not just Oliver goes on vacation; they were significant character events for those that remained. Roy squaring up to Oliver especially is fantastic.

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The truth still keeps rolling as the Lance family finally has its moment of dread with so such unexpected positive reaction. The moment itself doesn’t quite delivery the fireworks we anticipated despite both father and daughter going all out as it would appear Laurel’s heart attack worries were misplaced making stringing this along feel less necessary. It’s still enjoyable though as the pair echo come to terms with the Canary flying to the highest of skies.  Also regarding the Canary, Detective Lance is on a bit of hot streak with guessing who’s under the mask. Having sussed out Roy and Laurel in consecutive weeks, doing the same for Oliver feels rather imminent. Then completing this round of Starling City confessions is DJ Chase..... but did anybody really care? Even if his League spy reveal was a nice twist has pinning over Thea has been immensely forgettable and when he tries it on again early this week I was even thinking “can’t they just fight already?”..... who says show runners don’t listen! Although the ensuing melee including Thea’s various male protectors isn’t as satisfying as we’d like its worth it for the end result alone.

The Hong Kong sequences this week are more of a transition to pick of the pieces from Oliver and Maseo’s rogue operations and bring them back under Amanda Waller’s control. It’s worth noting here that Waller action’s a quite possible the most evil person of the entire season as she threatens to have Thea killed off unless Oliver complies. It’s almost enough to make you wonder if Ra’s Al Ghul and The League is actually a long term distraction and instead Waller and ARGUS will become the end of season villains through some act of extreme necessity. She looks set to feature a few times in the following episodes (both present and flashback) which would imply that somebody wants her to appear more prominent. It’s been known for a while the next week’s episode was called The Return and would feature the fist pump worthy return of Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke. For the most part that seemed a reference to Oliver’s Starling City return but now in the episode’s conclusion does it finally make sense with very curious meanings for both past and present Oliver.

The episode feels like the fitting end to one story arc and the tantalising beginning of another as all roads are heading to the Ra’s rematch. It makes some wonderful use of the Vertigo tripping out and covers a hell of a lot of character work without feeling like a lecture. It offers some great action and stunt work as we’d expect (you had to love the double window jump) and plenty of good lighter moments along the way to balance the serious. The season continues to vector with direction and magnitude to blast through the top of the geek-o-meter. Even in a week when half the planet is talking about Spiderman, Arrow reminds us who’s the big slinger on the small screen.

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