We’ve returned from Arrow hiatus to something very familiar. Remember how the cliffhanger had a lead of the show potentially dying in the 9th episode of the season and then they survived in episode 10? And episode 10 deals with the characters figuring out if they can cope without the not-dead character? Felicity’s absence is shorter lived than Oliver’s, but the stakes still feel as false as they did when Oliver “died.” 

I love how the show didn’t even pretend Felicity was dead (unlike every promo until this week). Well, they had that grave shot, but marked it very clearly as 4 months from now. Why would this bullet have killed her four months from now with a fresh grave? Anyway, I hope that’s the last midseason finale with a fake death, because I’m over it. On to episode 4×10, “Blood Debts.”

(I don’t talk about Anarky himself all the much. I honestly just… didn’t care. Shrug.)

Green Arrow

Oliver, in his grief and despair, abandons Felicity’s side as she goes through multiple surgeries to go after the ghosts to find Damien Darhk. (He finds out they can’t fix her spine and he asks for her, yet he goes after Anarky first. He needs to find a better way to deal with his feels.) While the ghosts are suicidal when they get cornered, Oliver definitely helps them to their end. The message is clear: without Felicity, Oliver reverts back to the soulless anti-hero he was when he got back home. This would feel like a bigger shift if Oliver had done a better job of letting the team lead in the past few episodes. 

There have been a couple of moments where he’s deferred to their opinions or decisions, but too few for me to feel like this is a major reversion for Oliver. He was just back to his old ways which he didn’t give up all that long ago. Shrug. Now that he’s focused on Felicity again, seems implausible that he’d flirt with darkness like this again until after the flashforward, where she explicitly gives him permission.

What this potentially means for the rest of the Darhc (Darhk Arc) is this: Oliver and Felicity move forward through her paralysis, wedding stuff happens, we potentially meet her father (I’m still upset it’s not Damien), blah blah blah. Damien continues to go too far and Oliver struggles with “not doing enough” as he claims this week.

He distances himself from Felicity to attempt to take him down (no ring), but then Damien kills Felicity’s mother (it’s got to be her, right? Just like with Felicity, the writers know they’d lose too many viewers if they killed off Diggle. But more on this later). In her rage, Felicity breaks her the moral code that has gotten Team Arrow through all these years, and encourages Oliver to kill Darhk. They split in the process and hopefully get back together, mutual darkness, for better or worse actually kicks in, yadda yadda. They could totally twist any of this, but that’s what I’m getting so far.

Oracle

If you have really strong feelings about Felicity being placed in the Oracle position, you’ve probably read up on all your feelings and I have very little to add. I’m not attached to Oracle (as Barbara Gordon or anyone else) because I haven’t read the comics. I do accept the anger that 1.) it continues to make Arrow psuedo-Batman in an annoying way that they shouldn’t feel like they have to pursue and 2.) that Felicity isn’t right for the position. I’ve read several comments (various tumblr/twitter places, I forget where specifically and I apologize) that said that Barbara as Oracle felt earned because Barbara was physically fighting and saving Gotham and when she’s paralyzed, she uses the Oracle persona to continue that fight. Plus, simply being a paralyzed hacker isn’t what makes someone Oracle. As someone who doesn’t have the character history, it seemed like a valid reasoning for why the person was against this happening. Plus the showrunner has recently shot down the theory, so we may not have to deal with it.

But we will have to deal with Felicity’s condition. I do hope that they treat the paralysis with the respect it deserves, not from a comics perspective, but for the disabled representation one. I’m not handicapped in anyway, but it is an important issue to see proper representation, especially when most disabled characters on television are played by able bodied actors. The “disability as drama” seems a bit cheap. As it is, they talked around the issue a lot, avoiding directly mentioning her paralysis except when Donna tells Oliver.

There are two paths the writers could take:

• Felicity goes through the emotional crisis of now being disabled and eventually accepting it
• A solution is found for her to walk again (I’ve heard Ray’s nanos or one of Curtis’ toys as theories)

I’ll leave the debate of which is ~better~ to the people to whom it matters most, those who are disabled and affected by this storyline. I just hope the writers are sensitive in whichever path they take.  

Go Fish

I need more John stories please. The introduction of Andy has only marginally increased the Diggle time we get and I want more. I will always want more. I really enjoyed seeing Lyla and her advice — why hasn’t she said this sooner? — plus Diggle showing the lengths he’d go for his sister-in-arms.

I think the only problem for me here was, Lyla gives such good advice: so why is she allowing the helmet to persist? Or has Diggle not shown it to her yet?

I can’t think of where they’re going to take Andrew Diggle’s story. They probably don’t know yet either (if the interviews of them not knowing who’s in the grave are anything to believe), but it doesn’t look good for Andy. Malcolm and Sara, who were both dead, still haven’t been able to live normal lives again, so I doubt Andy will be able to. I fear that John and Andy will become close only for John to lose him again. A sort of parallel to what’s happened between Laurel and Sara…

Speedy’s Nickname is Gonna Get Her Caught

The thing that distracted me most about Thea’s storyline was when Anarky realized that Canary called her Speedy. I might have said this before, but this is going to bite her later if Oliver continues to call her Speedy at the campaign office or, really, anywhere in public. Hopefully he’s curbed his use of her nickname while in civilian clothing. I was confused over Thea’s angst in this episode. Not the part where she blames herself for Anarky being nutso, I get that.

“I only burned his face off in a murderous fit of Lazarus rage.”

But she talks about the blood lust and the “anger management” and how Damien seemed to have cured it, but seeing Anarky… brought it back? I thought her angst was just because she blamed herself for passing the blood lust on (in a way)… but I suppose it’s back and she’s growing strong enough to overcome it? I really wonder where we’re taking this, because it seems to me as though whatever power the Pit gave Thea, it’s the key to figuring out how to stop Damien…

To Rule in Darhkness Together

Who is Damien’s wife and what’s her endgame? She’s not an innocent homemaker who doesn’t know what her husband is up to, or even someone who knows but doesn’t participate. She is anxious for Project Genesis to begin. Does it help her in some way? There is probably a daughter angle — is she sick? In danger? Even just watching them as they were held hostage, the Darhk ladies seemed more dangerous than they let on.

Damien gives Oliver a “few months” to spend with his family. It’s easy to forget that Damien doesn’t appear to know that Oliver is the Green Arrow, considering he knows nearly everything else. Why does Damien have these blindspots when he’s so competent in every other aspect? Does Damien’s temporary truce mean we’ll see different villains for the next few episodes while Damien finishes preparing his… whatever he’s preparing?

The Grave Truth

We’ve now got confirmation that Felicity isn’t dead in four months. As I’ve written before, Barry would NEVER miss Felicity’s funeral, regardless of Zoom. So it must have been someone less important to him than Felicity. This helps me rule out John as well, but I don’t think Felicity would turn to this kind of anger over John’s death or anyone on Team Arrow. They’re all (semi)soldiers, they know what they’re getting into. Their deaths would mean sadness and some anger, but not rage. 

A hero’s death doesn’t seem like it would cause Felicity (FELICITY) to abandon her urge for Oliver not to kill anymore. Felicity doesn’t allow that for herself nor did she allow it when they still didn’t know who killed Sara last season. Plus: John is too popular of a character, Laurel has been built up too much for the writers to kill her off, and while Thea is a strong possibility, she’s been killed/near death before. The whole post-Lazarus arc would seem futile if they were just going to kill her for real. She feels a little invulnerable for right now.

This leaves someone not on Team Arrow. Someone Barry would want to pay his respects to, someone who’d get Felicity so riled up, she’d encourage death upon Damien Darhk. Her mother seems like the most obvious answer considering she’s been given more screentime, a love interest, and is still in the dark (pun always intended) about Oliver’s identity. She will probably find out and die. It’s just par for the course at this point. I hope we don’t see the grave again until we find out who’s in it, but now that we’re moving past that scene, flashforwards could be an interesting way to squeeze in more story. 

Flechettes:

• Team Arrow’s comms must have anti-Canary Cry tech. Because she gives no warnings nowadays.
• I loved seeing Team Arrow-less visit Felicity at the hospital. Though, now that I think about it, it reminds me of the scene on Angel, where their resident quirky nerd girl was in the hospital and then she became Illyria… Thankfully, their happiness lasted a little longer.
• “Aren’t we risking some crazy Bond villain stupidity here?” YES. That’s Oliver’s M.O.
• I miss Curtis. Come back soon.
• Related: who’s running Palmer Tech while Felicity is in the hospital?
• Why were the Darhk’s dressed in fully matching outfits at night? Where were they going? Put your PJs on, sillies!
• “Do you have any idea how many people Damien Darhk and H.I.V.E have killed over the last six months?” UHM YES, I think Laurel does because she was fighting them while you were off with Felicity, Oliver. Some of this felt like some of that “we were in love and ignored the world for months” guilt again.
• Oliver goes for Damien at his house. He’s forgotten that Damien has bested him EVERY. TIME. You haven’t learned anything new yet you idiot!
• “How did you get to be so strong?” “I took my lead from you.” I immediately thought of Hamilton, because that’s where my brain always goes these days. “And you know what? I learned that from you.”

Until next time!

From Felicity’s back and forth with pain meds to the Diggle’s being featured up front, Episode 4.11, “A.W.O.L.” gave its secondary leads lots of screen time. It was one of the season’s strongest episodes on that front, because fans always want more of Diggle and Felicity, and less of Oliver (and the darn island). We did, however, see how the DC Cinematic Universe could be ruining things for their TV properties. Let’s dive in real quick.

The Most Black People Since Season One or Ever

With John, Andy, Amanda, and technically baby Sara, this episode had the most black people in one episode (in one scene with the former three) that I can remember. Season 1 had a few black side characters and of course they all slowly disappeared.

What’s sad is that I tweeted this during the airing of the episode and someone tweeted back “One of them will be dead by the end of the episode.”

First of all, it was meant to be a joke. Second of all, I really thought it was going to be Andy if anyone. We’ll get to Waller later, but I was a little upset this turned out to be true.

Anyway, it was nice seeing a non-Oliver flashback, even if I didn’t care too much about the plot of this flashback either. Also, we seem to be connecting Andy to Oliver’s Island? Felt a bit nail on the head, and does that mean Andy and Oliver have met before? Where are they taking this? The flashbacks continue to be a mess.

I really enjoyed having Lyla back and seeing her and Diggle on their date. I’m glad we get a normal couple with little drama between them. I hope we get to see more of John’s home life, especially now that Andy is staying with them.

Do I trust Andy yet? Not really. I think that just like Felicity’s hallucinations disappearing for a hot minute and them reappearing at a vital time, Andy’s allegiances to secret organizations is definitely going to come back to haunt everyone soon enough. Also, GO SEE YOUR WIFE AND CHILD, ANDREW. I think the fact that he hasn’t seen them proves that he has MUCH to work on and could possibly die before getting to do so, giving John the line, “At least we don’t have to tell Carly.”

An Unexplained Hallucination

I don’t really want to focus too much on the Felicity story this week — I enjoyed Oliver’s support and their scenes together, but with the flashforward of her with no ring, it seems like I am being led down a bright sunny road only to be clobbered at the end of the road.

Also, I am a little frustrated by the ableism. For a character who has a TON of money, resources from good friends and superheroes, plus occasional mystical assistance, the show’s focus on how hard this is for Felicity falls a little flat. There was little reason for her hesitance to go back in the field that had anything to do with her legs. (She’s already proven she will continue the mission through Oliver’s DEATH, so her not wanting to come back for even a brief amount of time was very strange to me.)

I think in the end, they have to restore her ability to walk because of the whole Oracle thing (so does she exist in this -verse or not? Oliver mentions her, but how would he know who she is?) so it seems Felicity will probably walk again (and there are too many ways to fix it in universe). Then, however, the question goes back to last season’s wedding: then what was the point? I’m thinking this wheelchair arc might reek a little of that.

I’m not a fan of the name Overwatch. Cisco needs to run over to Star City and give Felicity and Spartan better names. Many super names are nouns turned into Proper Nouns (i.e., Arrow), but it doesn’t work in this case for me.

Your Universes are Separate, We Get It, Get Over It

Amanda Waller guys. What’s more frustrating than killing off your only recurring black female character (and right before Vixen because of Highlander syndrome) is the way in which she died.

The running theory is that Suicide Squad members are being offed in the TV universe because of the Suicide Squad movie coming out soon. When Deadshot was killed, however, he got a whole episode redeeming him and giving him the spotlight. We couldn’t have done that for Waller? I assume we have to see her again because she’s still alive in flashback times, but for this episode to be her last? Where we see her with her hands up surrendering to someone? And then killed with no warning, no battle, no last stand? That was annoying to me. I don’t even have the full comics history of Amanda Waller and I was annoyed by that.

Amanda Waller isn’t the surrendering type, which was even said when homie killed her (the whole, she wouldn’t give up the codes, she’d watch her people die thing), so why even show her put her hands up? Then to just off her like that? I needed a last stand moment. Amanda Waller, taking no crap, taking down this man infiltrating her base of operations. A gun battle, a hand to hand combat scene, Amanda offing herself might have even been better.

Also, this: If you’re going to say your TV and movie universes are separate DC/WB, then let them be separate. Don’t kill your TV characters to make room for them in the movies. Especially when you have a show as big (and great) as The Flash. You can’t kill all those characters. So why kill the Suicide Squad? Why make it so painfully obvious? Taking away the Squad members, who were mostly all fan favorites and added depth and good episodes to the show even when not presented as a whole, kills so many opportunities for the show. It makes us view the TV universe as lesser than rather than what it should be: merely an alternative. That’s like killing off the animated characters because the big screen films are coming up. It makes no sense.

The handling of Amanda’s death and the whole Suicide Squad erasure from the TV universe is incredibly frustrating. This is not the way to show up Marvel, which despite its own issues, is at least trying to craft a wide and complete universe. You can do that too, DC, with separate universes, just don’t act like your viewers are too stupid to be able to enjoy both. (Unless you’re afraid of the comparisons. Will the DC TV Universes’ Squad appear better than the movie one? Is it a lack of faith in your own work? Hmm.)

Another Oliver-light episode, “Unchained,” focuses on Felicity, Nyssa, and ROY’S RETURN! It was wonderful how much light Roy brought back to the group. He had Oliver smiling and everyone happily working together as a team.

Roy’s Revolving Door

Roy returned this week and it was SUCH a delight. From his apologetic sighs to Team Arrow for bringing mess into their lives to his heart wrenching goodbye to Thea, it was great having Colton Haynes (and Roy’s excessive parkour) back. I love that Roy can come back in a multitude of ways, but it makes me worried for both his and Thea’s safety.

Roy’s goodbye to Thea felt more final than any of their previous ones. Of course, Speedy thinks she’s not going to survive her Blood Lust, but even Roy seemed resolved that this was over. Does this goodbye prevent Roy from coming back? Or will Thea die by the time he does? Either way, after this tearful farewell (from them and the audience… you know you sniffled), can they ever meet again? It would either be repetitive or super awkward (Roy comes back with a wife or something — I think I remember seeing someone reference a Roy companion from the comics they’d like to see).

Hopefully Roy comes back, because his humor and baby blue eyes were missed and a welcome reprieve from some of the Darhkness we’ve experienced. And hopefully Thea doesn’t die, because really why would we destroy Ollie like that? (If she does die, I still think it’s Mama Smoak in the grave because as I’ve said before, Oliver and Felicity’s anger doesn’t match the death of a fellow warrior, it matches the death of an innocent. Plus Thea’s death by Damien would undo all Thea went through from her resurrection to now. She’s already had her life threatened. To kill her again would be repetitive).

I Choose Nyssa

That is all. Nyssa wants Malcolm dead in return for saving Thea’s life. Nyssa deserves this after all she has lost, plus it is her birthright. I think, obviously, it shouldn’t be Team Arrow to do the deed, but I approve of the general plan.

We, as the audience deserve, an awesome Nyssa vs. Malcolm fight where she destroys him. I doubt this is going to happen. Mostly because the cast and producers can’t live without John Barrowman. This, of course, makes sense, but I’m not sure how long they can sustain Merlyn’s storyline. He only exists for Thea and I am ready for her to be over her bloodlust. So hopefully they can find it in them to cut Merlyn from the story. It IS Sweeps Week coming up after all. They’ve got to go big!

Smoak ‘im Out

Daddy’s home, Felicity! I’m sure there is already a lot of hurt feelings and strife between Felicity and her father, but man wait until she finds out The Calculator is her father! I wonder if the Calculator as villain will be a mini-arc while Damien Darhk does whatever he and his wife are doing.

Either way, it seems that neither father nor daughter know that their new nemesis is blood related. But besides wanting a city on a Hellmouth to test his tech (because, come on, Star City is totally cursed with suck), why does Mr. Smoak come back to town? Did he hear of Felicity’s injury? Seems like he’d have shown up earlier if it were her accomplishments as CEO. Or perhaps he wants the battery Palmer Tech just created. I just want to know what he wants from her. Only Laurel on current Team Arrow is free from evil relatives, it seems. (See: Moira — who was complicated and redeemed herself but presented as an obstacle for Ollie many times, Malcolm, Andy, and now Papa Smoak).

Now that it’s officially debunked, I’ve realized how glad I am Damien isn’t actually Felicity’s father. I think The Calculator’s crimes are more redeemable — if they choose to go that route — and in this episode, he didn’t actually get to commit the crime he came to commit. Having Darhk as her father could have thrown her off the deep end with all the terrible things he’s done (I’d say including shoot her, but hey, Moira did it to Ollie).

The Calculator’s crimes are easily to comprehend as an irritating evil. And perhaps we’ll see where Goth Felicity’s ideals and morals come from, which we know Felicity has moved on from but is now coming back to haunt her in the form of her father.

I’m Worried About Katana

Like last episode, which featured more black people than ever all at once, “Unchained” featured three Asian women! It was awesome to see Shado, then Nyssa meeting up with Katana.

HOWEVER, last episode now made me wary. Will they all survive the season? History says no. Plus, there is the fact that Katana appears in the Suicide Squad films. Despite Tatsu not having any Squad connections in the Arrow-verse, have they reintroduced her only to kill her off before the season is over? It would track with Deadshot and Amanda’s treatment (though seeing Deadshot on The Flash’s Earth 2 episode was a delight). So clearly we need to protect Tatsu at all costs! She’s already lost everything, why kill her?

Mini-Flechettes

• Damien Darhk’s Wife is running for Mayor against Oliver. I know that their plans being a bit foiled has made her try to move things along herself, but why didn’t she run before? How does this help their plan. Also, WHAT IS THEIR PLAN? Is it an Earthquake situation?
• Felicity vs. her dad was great, just because you begin to see some resemblances in behavior. Just maybe her dad as her shadow self or something.

• MR TERRIFIC! I was so glad Curtis was back and that he threw a few punches! I think with all the attacks he’s experienced at work, he might slowly be realizing he should be taking self-defense lessons. Hopefully we get to see him do more as the weeks come.

• This week’s flashbacks, despite Shado’s surprise return appearance, were even less sensical than usual. Can we PLEASE get to the point or at least identify a solid goal? S1 Ollie: Get off the island. S2: Ollie: Get off the island and survive Deathstroke’s craziness. Ever since S3, they’ve failed to identify a strong enough goal for me to care.

That’s all I got because Zoom stole my recap speed force. I’m headed to Earth-2 to get it back.

Nearly everyone in this episode suffers from naive notions that they really should be over by now. Oliver naively believes that Malcolm would surrender his power. Felicity naively believes (though thankfully only for a moment) that her returned father has changed. Nyssa believes that Oliver would kill Malcolm for her, after all she knows Malcolm has done to Oliver personally. Malcolm believes that power is more important than Thea. Even Flashback Chick thinks that giving her jailer the stone will make him set her free. Silly rabbits, Trix are for kids.

But I’m gonna focus this quickie review on the two women driving the forces of the A and B story. Nyssa and Thea.

Nyssa Goes to Mount Doom

Nyssa and Malcolm have more in common than they think. They risk the life of one person (whom they both actually like and care about in some way) because they want power. I’m not sure if Nyssa’s goal all along was to disband the League. It seems that Laurel’s words about Ra’s’ power over her changed her mind from wanting it to not wanting to be imprisoned by the shadow of her father (pun intended). But before that moment, she does just want Malcolm is doing — risking Thea for power.

What bothers me the most about the whole Nyssa story line, is that Nyssa should be able to take down Malcolm herself. I know how stories work — Oliver is the protagonist, so he must be the most active member of the story and more often than not, resolve the problem — but Nyssa should be way more qualified to take down Merlyn than Oliver. She’s been in the League her whole life. Oliver was in it for a few months. Yes, Malcolm is older and trained and possibly a little older than we think he is, but that just means that Oliver’s defeat of him in season 1 was a fluke, not that he’s actually the only person capable of defeating him. Nyssa was trained by the same person who trained Malcolm, at best they should be equals and constantly tie. But we hardly get to even see them fight and Nyssa seems to think, without much proof, that Malcolm would defeat her. How is this possible? How is Nyssa not Malcolm’s equal for her being the Daughter of the Demon? And how is Nyssa’s self esteem that she wouldn’t believe herself capable of defeating him anyway? I think she would be more fearless and more confident.

Finally on Nyssa, why oh why does she insist on acknowledging Oliver as her husband? She doesn’t even like men and she’s still in love with Sara! I suppose it’s a respect for her culture thing, also, I think it’s 72% the reason why she disbanded the League. “In the eyes of the League, I am Nyssa’s husband.” Nyssa basically said, okay, no more League! But the constant reminders that they are married, with still no official resolution of, “okay so we’re NOT married. Here are League divorce papers.” In the end, Oliver wants to get married to Felicity quicker. Will he have two wives? (The answer already seems to be zero wives, because Felicity in the flashforward… I’ll get to that later). Anyway, seems like Nyssa destroyed the ring (must have been a sacred fire of some sort to melt the ring that fast) in order to get a divorce and finally be free. Live your best life, Nyssa. Make smart choices.

Felicity Signs Up For Zazzle

Felicity wants to make shirts for her and Thea regarding their terrible fathers. Only if Nyssa can join the club. Felicity’s dad’s return makes Felicity wonder if maybe he could be back in her life, but she wisely tests him to see if he had an ulterior motive — of course he did. Even without the reveal of her role in Team Arrow — seriously, how easy did he find out about that? Feels like everyone could find out by looking on page 3 of a Google search — and him being evil, Felicity suddenly becoming the CEO of a multi-million dollar company that just innovated battery power would be suspicious. At the very least, he’s an “out of the woodwork” family member coming to get money from his rich daughter. The evil hacking nemesis angle is just adding a Green Arrow sheen on to it.

Felicity calls the police on her dad — calling the best thing she’s had to a dad, Quentin Lance, to come get him. Kinda wish they’d had a moment together, even if briefly.

Before winding down…

I wanna get to the Olicity of it all. Their moment at the end of the episode was beautiful. It warmed my heart. But Malcolm knows about William and is going hard with Damien to exploit it. Oliver KNOWS that Merlyn knows, so his smartest option would be to tell Felicity. Of course, he still remembers the alternate timeline, where she got mad at him, and is trying to avoid that, but it’s going to be so much worse if she finds out from Malcolm/Damien!

Oliver though, is “handsome, but not all that bright,” so he clearly must not see this. It does, however, frustrate me that every Olicity scene, no matter how heartfelt and wonderful and sweet, is tainted with the knowledge that in 4 months or so, Felicity will be so upset with him (likely over the William lies) that they are no longer engaged. Felicity, in that flashforward, doesn’t even look at him as she commands that he kill “him” (most likely Damien, but after her and John’s support this week, it could also be Malcolm — finally), which seems to be further proof that their relationship is fractured. It just really sucks that every scene between them is spoiled because we know (mostly) what is coming.

Flechettes

• Did we ever find out who was hiring Noah Smoak? Seems like he just does this as a contracted hacker, but is his employer important? Is it Damien? Will Noah return later this season? If it’s Donna Smoak in the grave, we can bet on it.
• Oliver’s confused face at Felicity’s father reveal. Perfectly subtle comedy by Stephen Amell.

• When Donna gets that bass in her voice after Felicity reveals Noah is in town? Ooh! Great turn by Charlotte Ross.
• “Here you are. Outnumbered, outgunned, outmaneuvered.” THE WORD IS PLANNED! OUTPLANNED. HAVE YOU NOT BEEN LISTENING TO HAMILTON THE MUSICAL, MERLYN!?
• Even Nyssa says “RETREAT” Like Charles Lee.

• “We will forgo the removal of shirts.”
• Felicity’s wink.
• “I haven’t come empty handed.” “So to speak.”
• Was the Lotus Elixir Listerine?
  

On this week’s Arrow, Oliver gets justification for his lies and it still starts to blow up in his face: there’s a debate, an engagement party, and lots of buildings blow up. The episode is full of Darhk’s demolition team, but I actually use it to refer to all the people in this episode co-signing Oliver’s lies, which will clearly hurt him with Felicity, but also with William and who knows how it will play out with Samantha and Darhk’s larger plans. They’re laying down the explosives. It’s all gonna blow soon.

So it looks like Malcolm is now apart of Damien’s team. They’re in Phase 4 of whatever plan they have — the Undertaking Squared? Phase 5 depends on Ruvé now getting control of City Hall — the Darhk Council doesn’t agree but Damien force chokes the dissenter. Guess he’s watched The Force Awakens and gotten some ideas from Kylo Ren?

Thea and Oliver’s campaign team uncover the post-Earthquake Queen Tax Audit, which reveals Moira’s million dollar payment to Samantha, aka the Baby Momma Drama. “I dont see how something like this would blow back on me.” LOL You KNOW this is going to blow back on you, you idiot.

Later, Laurel senses her father’s 602 police call from dispatch is a trap and saves him from an self-exploding building. Hey, look at Laurel being useful (!) — mostly at the expense of Quentin’s stupidity. But hey, the man didn’t know Oliver was the Green Arrow for YEARS, so, he’s got something missing up there. Quentin then uses this scare to lie to Donna, distancing himself from her, when no one from Team Arrow (including her own daughter), said anything about doing that or it being a good idea. But the parallels are set and we must watch with heavy handedness, how the characters’ decisions in this episode mimic the future Oliver/Felicity blow out. The arguments made in this episode for keeping the secret are also given to Oliver with approval. I just wish in this Quentin/Donna instance, that people would stop underestimating her. She’s a survivor.

Lance to Oliver: “You’re lucky you’re with someone you don’t need to keep secrets from.” EYE ROLL.

The Felicity/Mom talk obviously parallels the future Oliver/Felicity talk about HIS big secret, but what are we supposed to take from it? That Felicity will be understanding? Or will she just ignore what she said this week and get mad at him anyway? (It IS a bigger secret, with consequences that involve both of them as they are getting married, but why go so hard this week establishing Felicity’s forgiving and understanding nature?)  

Thea confronts Oliver with William. “How can I marry Felicity with this lie between us.” Exactly! But somehow Thea agrees he should keep it a secret. WHY IS THEA CO-SIGNING THIS?! She presents it as the right thing for William, but CLEARLY IF THEA AND THEIR OWN CAMPAIGN team CAN FIND OUT ABOUT HIM AND FIGURE IT OUT, ANYONE ELSE CAN TOO.

This is not a well kept secret. It took a night of Googling and access to Moira’s apparently public or at least easily accessible records. Especially with Malcolm Merlyn, who Oliver knows KNOWS, is in the wind. You don’t think he’s going to Darhk with this info? You think he’s gonna sit on this, when he’s FURIOUS that you gave Nyssa power and destroyed the League? He threatened you last week! Naiive Notions still reign, it seems.

“Thank you. For saying what I needed to hear.”

You mean, saying what validates the plot point? It feels like I got hit with a Plot Truck and every time I think a character has reason to disagree with this secret being kept, I’m hit by the truck and they defy logic and past actions. I don’t think Thea would agree with this if it weren’t for plot. She grew up not knowing her father was Malcolm Merlyn, and yes she still had him in her life, but that didn’t ease the betrayal of the lie. It wasn’t the same as knowing he was her father, despite their severe disagreements. She HAS been in William’s position and knows what it feels like to have been deceived her whole life (I feel like there was an arc in Season 2 where she was pissed Moira didn’t tell her about Robert’s misdeeds, right? There was def a time when she was pissed at Moira for lying), so why are they having her co-sign Oliver’s lies? And we know that Moira and Robert’s lies have tarnished their memories in the eyes of their children. Does Oliver want that for William and Samantha?

“Sometimes a lie isn’t wrong if it’s for the good of someone you love.”

I assume Oliver is speaking more of William here than Felicity, but how is lying to your son and your future wife for their good? This seems to be for the good of Samantha, who you don’t love. Felicity will figure it out (the crossover fight didn’t give her enough time to recover from the shock, especially when Oliver just found out himself). William will stay in Central and see Oliver from time to time. Everything would have been fine if you’d told the truth.

But now — as ALWAYS in superhero fiction — the person being kept in the dark for their “protection” ALWAYS ENDS UP IN DANGER ANYWAY. Always. Every single time. I will gladly hear of a time where this didn’t happen. Name them in the comments. But in my recollection, the secret never protects and always backfires on the protected person, who gets angry for being lied to anyway. (Unless you’re a cinnamon roll like Iris West.)  

Anyway. Somehow, the team couldn’t see it coming that the prime target for building demolition would be the debate one. Ruvé’s plan fails, but Oliver gets a bit cocky. “Nice applause. Might bring the house down. Almost. Good luck!” Sure you should be taunting her Oliver?

Oliver wins the debate and has a sparkly engagement party thanks to Donna, and Curtis presents Felicity with a chip that could end her paralysis.

I’ve written about the treatment of Felicity’s paralysis before again: why do it if she’s 1.) not Oracle (and I understand why she’s NOT) and 2.) it’s not permanent, so I don’t want to hash it all out again, but I suppose we knew Curtis’ implant was coming. In a way, it helps his character have more to do (please give him more to do). But the simplicity of this disability storyline didn’t really give Felicity much struggle or really affect the characters or the storyline in any major way, especially if it is undone so quickly. Viewers who are disabled (temporarily or permanently) don’t get an accurate representation of their point of view and it trivializes their struggle. I’m almost glad we can be over it soon, because it didn’t add much to the show. (Now let’s do the same for Oliver’s Baby Mama lies, thanks.)

Then there’s the tag:

Darhk: “William’s mother asked us to look after him.” Dun dun dunnnn.

This blows up next episode in what will probably be a spectacular and painful fashion. But VIXEN!!!!! At least we get Vixen.

Flechettes

• “Darhk did not destroy Star City so his wife could be mayor.” Look at you using your thinking cap, Oliver!
• “You look good in glitter.”

• Since I’m writing this after watching the next week’s Flash, I’m really glad Cisco is gonna “take a look” at Diggle’s helmet. Seeing it in the trio shot of GA, Speedy, and “Spartan” made me wish Diggle could breathe in that thing. I know he can, but I felt suffocated just looking at it.

• “The first time we met, you asked me to pull data off a damaged laptop. It’s kind of romantic.” (Or it would be without the sense of impending doom surrounding their relationship.)
• I love that Felicity is wearing a S.T.A.R. Labs shirt at home! (But she can’t take Barry’s calls? What’s up with that?)
• What’s Andy’s status right now? I suppose they couldn’t squeeze in Eugene Byrd for the episode, but what’s he doing? How does he feel about giving up Ghost secrets these days?
• “You sound surprised. I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.” I need Curtis and Felicity to be best friends. They are the same person. Better yet: give me Curtis, Felicity, Barry, and Team Flash geeking out over science stuff. Please and thank you.

• Thank goodness for Thea and her simple, direct approach. “Can you hack the fire alarm?” lol “Can you hack my phone and call Diggle?” “Can you hack my bathroom and shave my face?”
• “Curtis, you’re terrific.” I see what you did there.

• Someone’s gonna wonder why Mayoral Candidate Queen carries a heavy duffle bag with him everywhere. Does the bow even fit in there? If not, where does he keep it?
• Their neighbor from Ivytown visiting was hilarious. Also enjoyable? The way Felicity squeezes Oliver’s hand, arm, jacket pocket whenever she is reigning herself in from embarrassment or saying something she shouldn’t.
• The flashback theme this week is apparently: “It takes monsters to fight monsters.” Except we know that it doesn’t? Oliver spends the next few years finding another way.
• Also in the flashbacks, I think Oliver is the Diamond in the Rough — “One who has been granted passage by the gods. I believe that person is you.” Are the flashback baddies looking for the Cave of Wonders?

VIXEN VIXEN VIXEN VIXEN! I’m excited for Vixen next episode, and… that’s it.

It’s been a month since Arrow’s last episode, but I’m still thinking about Vixen. How she needs her own show. How I want to know more about her character outside of a 30-minute web series. How awesome Megalyn EK was in bringing the character from voice acting to live-acting. But a few thoughts about the episode before I gush some more.

We knew we were heading here. Besides the fact that the Flarrow crossover showed Felicity getting upset about the Baby Mama Drama, Oliver lying to his fiance about something this big, when he had a choice was definitely going to lead to Felicity wanting no parts of it. It was an episode with an inevitable conclusion and I basically played Name the Trope as we watched.

Olicity Burning

I’ve said before how this arc annoyed me with great Olicity scenes knowing we were headed to this conclusion (spoiling the moments), but I’m also annoyed at the way they wrote Felicity’s anger. I get it here, Oliver lied for this long about his son (when he could have instead lied to Baby Mama Drama — that’s all I’m calling her) and said he didn’t tell Felicity when he could have (she can keep a secret) and this close to their wedding? Of course, Felicity is going to be angry and feel betrayed, and like typical Oliver making solo decisions when he’s supposed to be a part of a team (whether Team Arrow, or their relationship). 

But Oliver’s fear of telling her comes from that darned crossover scene where she gets mad at him when he just found out himself. I think Oliver never found the balance where Felicity was mad in the crossover, but would have cooled down soon after. Her anger would be directly proportional to the length of time he didn’t tell her. In the crossover, a few hours. Now? Months. But I am annoyed that the writers don’t give us time with Felicity where she isn’t angry about this. We know that forgiveness is in her character, she would help Oliver figure out how to be with his son and not make Baby Mama Drama upset. She’d help him figure out how to be the Arrow and protect his son. We see it in how she puts aside her anger to help William. We needed to see more of that. Because now it looks like she’s angry if he tells her, angry if he doesn’t.

With a wedding scene (even if just on the surface) coming up in tonight’s episode, it’s hard to say if Felicity’s anger will last through the flashforward, or if the anger isn’t directed at Oliver, but rather the death/situation. It’s hard to imagine she’d leave the team — Oliver’s death, his refusal to consider them as a couple, and her short-lived disability didn’t push her away, so I have to hope that her willingness to save Star City outweighs her ire. We’ll see where the show goes with this.

Miraculous Disservice

In addition to the inevitable explosion on the relationship front, I knew that the show wasn’t going to give any real weight or spend any real time on Felicity being in a wheelchair. Never any moments of reflection or appreciation for those in real life (or even another fictional character) who are differently abled and must use a wheelchair. A three or four episode struggle before an immediate fix (and a month-long hiatus to skip over any issues with the technology). And as I’ve said before, Felicity, as a wealthy CEO, never had any problems getting access to a wheelchair or healthcare or ramps or medication or anything to really make this an obstacle for her character. One episode of hallucinations (after taking like TWO pills) is not a substantial obstacle. If this arc didn’t change her character or have her really face anything, what was the point?

It feels like it was all done to be a clear Oracle mimicry, and we didn’t need that. The similarities already existed and they could have referenced Oracle existing in-universe in the exact same way that they did without putting Felicity in a wheelchair. I’ve been reading a lot on plot and structure in writing for film/tv, and one thing I recently read was: if a character achieves/doesn’t achieve their stated goal and everything goes back to normal, then the story isn’t worth telling. Felicity achieves her goal of being able to walk again, but nothing else changes. Yes, Felicity isn’t engaged anymore, but that has nothing to do with the wheelchair-arc. This story wasn’t worth telling. (Ahem, much like the flashbacks right now.)

I guess I’m just glad it’s over. The writers weren’t being sensitive to the fact that real people who cannot walk watch their show and made paralysis an easy fix, so it’s better that it’s over. I just hope that Curtis’ implant is indeed a permafix, in the sense that I don’t need it going haywire for dramatic effect.

Anyway, let’s move on to the best part of the episode!!

I Need More Mari

Mari McCabe saved this episode for me. A lot of it was frustrating, but she wasn’t. She’s an awesome, strong, confident, powerful (SHE DESTROYED DAMIEN’S AMULET), smart black woman who the hero needed to go to in order to save his son. She had more knowledge than the heroes and came to Star City like she owned the place. While every line she spoke was basically backstory or a pilot hook, I didn’t mind because I was legitimately intrigued. Oh she’s a fashion designer? She’s an orphan? Whaaatt?! I would love for Mari McCabe to have her own show.

We need more women superheroes anyway, with Supergirl still not officially renewed (I keep hearing conflicting things on its season two status) and Agent Carter constantly on the bubble. And the fact that she’d be a black female lead of a superhero show? Sign me up yesterday! Megalyn EK’s performance was awesome, and man did she pull off that black lipstick!! Even the graphics were really good for conveying her powers — a show with its own graphics budget would be able to do amazing things, in the same way The Flash does a lot with their budget, and The Flash has more they need to pull off.

I also love that Mari lives in a real city, not a fictional one like Star or Central. Even in a fictional, superhero universe, Detroit has real life issues that Mari could combat as Vixen. Plus, from what I’ve seen of the animated special, she has ties to Africa, other magical relatives, and lots of great potential villains. What does her normal life look like? How would she handle her magical life and normal life colliding? I need to know more!

Giving Vixen her own show, with more backstory, more agency, and more characters of color would prevent her appearance on Arrow feeling like the Magical Negro Trope. It unfortunately hits many of the markers (stepping into the white protagonists society, bringing wisdom and more “primitive” magic…), but giving Mari her own show and fleshing out her character would help lessen that feeling. Especially if there are more Flash and Arrow crossovers. Then she’s just a member of the pseudo-Justice League they’ve formed. (They really need to come up with a name for it. I can’t go beyond Super-Flarrowverse and that’s not even including Legends of Tomorrow…!)

So please. Please, give us Vixen. It can air on Monday nights at 8 (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend can move to another night). I’d say Fridays at 8, but premiering a show in the deathslot isn’t great, plus I think Sleepy Hollow is maybe doing okay there right now, and I can’t have more black on black primetime like when Sleepy Hollow went up against Scandal. And we know 8pm is Berlanti hour. It could maybe be a summer show or a hiatus show (what I thought Legends was originally going to be).

I just really need a black woman superhero on TV right now, Mari specifically. So here’s my voice to the list: Give us Vixen.

That’s all I have after a month off. Arrow returns tonight and I wait to see where things are going.

Apologies if you’ve been coming here the last few weeks for our Arrow recaps. I’ve been supposed to be Connie’s back-up, but I haven’t been able to muster the strength to recap a show that, honestly, I’ve been out on all season. Sure, I’ve been watching it (on DVR delay) every week, but this season has been more than disappointing. And if rumors about the death being revealed on tonight’s episode is true, I might be out for good. But more on that later.

The last two episodes — “Broken Hearts” and “Beacon of Hope” — share a similarity in that they brought back past female supervillains, though Emily Kinney’s Brie Larvan was originally on Flash — that happened to feature Emily Bett Rickards’ Felicity, so it’s still a hero/villain rematch. The other thing about bringing back the Bug-Eyed Bandit, as well as Amy Gumenick as Cupid, is that both villainesses were fairly forgettable the first times around.

In the first rematch, Cupid is back in Star City taking out celebrity couples because she no longer believes in love. This is because the last time we saw Cupid, she was on Task Force X and made Floyd Lawton her latest stalker obsession. Then, Warner Brothers figured there could only be one Deadshot because of the Suicide Squad movie and killed off the TV-verse’s version (which is also why they snuffed Arrow’s version of Amanda Waller)¹. Now, Cupid is even more unhinged and taking out “happy couples.” But really, this was just a way for the writers to shoehorn an “Olicity” scene despite the fact that they broke them previously.

Despite pretending to exchange vows and profess their love for one another, fandom’s favorite pairing remain separated when the episode ends. And Arrow descends even further in to melodramatic soap opera.

The following week’s episode finds Felicity trapped inside Palmer Tech HQ when the Bug-Eyed Bandit comes to Star City to demand the tech that restored Felicity’s ability to walk. Cut off from the rest of Team Arrow — save for Thea — by a swarm of robotic bees, Curtis becomes the team’s go-to tech expert when he stumbles his way into the their ArrowCave Bunker.

Echo Kellum’s endearing nerdiness in his scenes with the team harken back to why audiences were so enamored with Felicity’s original characterization way back in Season One — and which has been missing since the character was elevated to romantic lead. At this point, I don’t think we’ll ever get Season One Felicity back, so it’s likely that Curtis will stick around. In fact, Kellum’s recent promotion to series regular pretty much confirms that.

As much as I enjoy Kellum on the show, I’m of two minds about his inclusion on the team. On the one hand, yay more people of color! And hooray for LGBT representation! On the other hand, the ArrowCave is going to be significantly more dude-heavy, especially after what they’ve been hinting about Black Canary’s fate. And that’s a problem.

If there’s one thing Arrow doesn’t need it’s fridging yet another female character on the show. Look at the track record: Sara (twice if you count the pilot), Moira, Amanda Waller, Shado. These characters have all been sacrificed primarily to elevate the male heroes. Which is a shame, because for multiple episodes this season, Arrow has gone into battle with a team that at various times has consisted of Black Canary, Speedy, Vixen, Nyssa, and Felicity as Overwatch.

After tonight’s mystery death reveal and Felicity’s choice to stay away from Team Arrow, sadly, any progress the show might have made in moving away from its treatment of its women on the show could all be undone.

Now, if this is all prologue for an eventual Birds of Prey series, I’d be willing to forgive them. Since that isn’t likely, here’s hoping the show figures itself out sooner than later. Because even though Arrow kicked off the Berlanti-verse corner of the DCU, it’s starting to fall behind shows like Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow.

Originally posted at A Latina’s Media Musings

Firstly, as an almost disclaimer of sorts, I’ve never been a fan of Arrow. Even in the show’s heyday of seasons one and two when it was praised and lauded as a great show and comic book adaptation. Though it bares moderate similarities to Green Arrow: Year One overall, it just wasn’t for me. However, I can look back on the show’s beginning seasons and see a clear pattern of character arcs that were leading to a greater picture. A picture that would create an adapted vision of the classic Green Arrow comics mythology.

Needless to say, that from season three onward, Arrow did not only continuously strive away from that proposed picture, but did so almost gleefully. It often felt at times that the show was more interested in using the brand names of “Green Arrow” and the original materials (or should I say Batman’s original materials) for the sake of hollowed out Easter eggs, than truly adapting them in interesting and creative ways. One of the best examples of this is the show’s depiction — and mishandling — of the Black Canary, aka Dinah Laurel Lance.

See I can handle change. When it comes to adaptations, you have to be able to handle some level of change and flexibility towards the source material.

I could handle Oliver being moody because he was suffering from PTSD. I could handle Mia Dearden being changed to Thea Queen because it was a play on the name, and they operated in a similar manner — Oliver’s little sister, whether foster or blood related. As much as I didn’t like Laurel’s origin as a lawyer (clearly more of an inspiration off Rachel in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight saga than Dinah Laurel Lance’s comic history), I did feel that Laurel embodied key aspects of her comic counterpart; namely, her compassion and strong sense of justice.

So while not particularly a fan of the changes, or the show itself, I could ultimately see where it was all going.

Oliver would eventually learn to live with both his failures as a vigilante, friend, and romantic partner. He would learn to cope — note: not “fix,” but cope — with his PTSD and rise up as a people’s champion, slowly coming to embody more of the fun and righteous characteristics of his comic counterpart. Thea would become Speedy, Roy would become Red Arrow, and Laurel would become the Black Canary. The writing was on the wall, but the point was in watching how everyone would get there.

I was ready for the long haul.

After all, I waited ten years to see Clark Kent put on the super suit (and though he technically never does it’s for a good cause so I can’t knock Tom Welling for that) and become the Man of Steel. I could easily wait the five it would take to see Oliver and crew become not only the true blue team of Green Arrow/Black Canary lore but become a family. One of the most important aspects of Green Arrow canon.

The family building in DC Comics is one of my favorite themes within the DC Universe.

Bruce Wayne (for all that Arrow tries to imitate) isn’t simply a loner in a bat-suit and cave, he’s also a family man. His greatest tragedy is that he lost his family once as a child (Martha and Thomas Wayne) and continues to lose members of the family he’s built as an adult. It may be a running joke that all Robins die at some point (which is nearly true), but it also adds to the overall near Greek tragic aspect of Bruce Wayne as a fictional character.

Bruce is a flawed man who either physically loses his family members to the violence he’s trying to defeat, or ends up pushing them away due to the inability to cope with his own personal issues. Batman isn’t interesting solely because he’s a guy without superpowers that everyone respects; rather, he’s interesting because he’s a layered character.

Part of those layers exist in the family he’s built around him. These layers similarly exist in the “Flash Fam” which can be traced back generations from Bart Allen, to Wally West, to Barry Allen, to Jay Garrick and all the other speedster children beyond and in between. Superman has the recent Johnathan Kent, Lois Lane, Kon-El, and Kara Zor-El to operate as his “Super Fam” and so on.

The point is, in Green Arrow/Black Canary’s comic mythology they do have a family built legacy of Mia Dearden, Roy Harper, Connor Hawke, Sin Lance, and recently Emiko Queen. The problem comes in that none of this exists anymore in the show. The concept of “family” has been lost in the shuffle of Batman villains, poorly done plotlines, dropped and rushed character arcs, and pointless romances.

Which is why season five of Arrow has felt like a soft reboot to the entire series. Introducing new comic characters, less for their relation to Green Arrow mythology and more to fill out ranks, and pull in comic fans in — what feels like — a desperate move to “feel” more like a comic book show.

If you uplift random characters with no real, tangible ties to the source material, while removing the characters who do have those ties, chances are you don’t have a very good adaptation on your hands.

There’s no real purpose for Mr. Terrific or Wild Dog to become permanent parts of the Green Arrow team. It makes some sense, at least, for Artemis to become a member of the team for her part in Young Justice (too bad they didn’t cast her correctly as she’s half-Vietnamese in said show), but now that she’s betrayed the team [spoiler], that alone negates the connection. It makes even less sense that Thea has taken such a backseat in terms of story this season and last, or that Laurel died in a flash-finish shocking plot device to motivate Oliver.

One problem with Arrow currently is there are too many characters on the show who 1.) simply don’t matter, 2.) have nothing to truly do with Green Arrow mythology, and 3.) have little emotional weight within the larger fabric of the story. Five seasons in and we’re introducing a third woman to become a Canary figure, ignoring the canon previously established on the show (Dinah Drake Lance already existed as Sara and Laurel’s mother), and having a slew of new characters come in with little time given to develop them in meaningful ways.

The picture Arrow currently has is a mish-mash of characters from different parts of DCU canon thrown into Arrow with little care or respect.

Here’s where I’d like to bring up Smallville. Because for all its faults (and there were plenty), Smallville was able to bring in greater aspects of the DCU in mostly smart ways.

See, Smallville always remembered that the core of the show’s story was about Clark Kent himself. There was a core cast that lasted from the beginning until the end: Clark Kent, Chloe Sullivan, and Martha Kent. The show was even able to make the older “adult” characters like Lionel Luthor, Martha Kent, and Johnathan Kent relevant to the major plot points of Clark’s story without losing them in the shuffle (as Arrow has done with Detective Lance and Malcolm Merlyn).

Smallville was also able to introduce well known characters such as Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman, and even its own version of Green Arrow in its earlier seasons without allowing them to overcome the story itself. These characters aren’t a part of the core Superman mythology, they are outer aspects that are a part of Superman’s future, but not Clark Kent’s story.

This is where Arrow fails: by removing characters integral to Green Arrow’s story and replacing them with outer figures mid-way through its series run.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with bringing in characters like Ray Palmer, Mr. Terrific, Wild Dog, Ragman, and others into the Arrow fold. However, they should be used to showcase the greater aspects of Oliver Queen’s world, not become parts of it shoehorned in without thought. The point of introducing characters like Aquaman or Cyborg on Smallville was three-fold: have fun Easter Eggs for comic book fans, provide Clark an outlook on superhumans outside of his “meteor mutants,” and show him a greater view of his universe. They were all used to show what Clark’s future could be and who he would eventually become.

This was a similar tactic the show used with Lois Lane. Though Chloe was very much a Lois Lane prototype early on, due to copyright issues at the time, when season four of Smallville rolled around, it finally introduced the official Lois Lane a majority of the audience knew. This was it. Lois Lane and Clark Kent were the endgame. No matter what other relationships Clark would have or did have in the show, ultimately Lois and Clark were destined for each other. Because that’s what happens in Superman.

But the show wasn’t about Superman, it was about Clark Kent becoming Superman. So Lois Lane came in and out of the show, slowly developing a fun and flirty friendship with Clark that in its final seasons developed into a romance. The show changed the origin of Clark Kent and Lois Lane — by introducing them to each other at a much younger age — but ultimately they didn’t enter a romantic relationship until they were both adults. Until Clark finally was ready to become Superman.

Smallville recognized the importance of Lois Lane as a part of the overall Superman narrative. Sure there were ups and downs regarding her storylines, but most fans can agree that Smallville — at the very least — acknowledged Lois Lane was an important, if not vital, part of the story of Superman.

This is where, once again, Arrow fails.

The show never seemed to fully understand the concept of the Black Canary. Dinah Laurel Lance is ultimately her own separate character apart from Green Arrow and Oliver Queen. The show should have worked harder to establish her as a separate character from the get-go instead of making her only a spurned lover Oliver cheated on. There were shades of the comics’ Dinah Lance in Arrow’s depiction, and there were clear signs of a narrative journey being taken towards her becoming the Black Canary.

However, it became clear by the time season three rolled around that the show lost interest. It forgot who the Black Canary was — more than a leather jacket, motorcycle-riding woman with a sharp tongue and a sonic cry — and why she was important. Laurel, as such, suffered as a character. Reduced to a rushed short term story arc, quickly pushed further and further aside, and lost more narrative relevance. Until finally the show decided to just up and kill the Black Canary, a long-term important character within the DC Universe and an important part of the overall narrative of Arrow itself.

While Laurel lost screentime, her overall presence was still relative to the story at hand. She existed as a central figure within the overall fabric of the narrative having ties and history with Oliver, Thea, Sara, Moira, Quentin, Diggle, and Tommy. Viewers could see this in Arrow’s 100th episode, which emphasized how central Laurel and Oliver once were to the show’s narrative.

Now there’s little reason for Quentin to even exist on the show given that his storyline is a circular tragedy of losing one daughter to gain another, only to lose another and end up in and out of rehab. Thea also lost a sister figure and her own screentime has gone down dramatically because of it. Oliver lost a close childhood friend, and a huge part of his past (namely the first two seasons) as well as his canonical comic long-term partner.

So the misstep is two-fold: the show purposely cast aside one of the long standing characters that originally had an on-going and solid arc to explore and develop, and an iconic comic book character. This isn’t such a problem that can be fixed with the insertion of a new character that happens to also have the name Dinah Drake. Which appears to be the most popular name in Star City.

The problem isn’t simply Dinah Drake being introduced in season five, Lois Lane wasn’t introduced till season four of Smallville, after all. The problem isn’t the timing, but rather the overall execution. The payoff of Smallville was finally seeing Clark Kent go from a rather shy, closed off young farmboy who was confused about his abilities, into a strong, confident adult who fully understood his place in the world and what he was meant to do. His relationship with Lois, and seeing Lois herself grow into an adapted version of her own iconic comic imagery, was part of that payoff.

There’s a huge lack of payoff regarding this third — or is it fourth since Evelyn posed as Black Canary for an episode? — Canary running around Star City. A cheapening of both an iconic character, and the show’s female characters. As if “Dinah/Black Canary” is an interchangeable figure that can be swapped out with any female character that has the name. Instead of a character that has been individually built from the ground up and over time.

Let’s go back to the picture created in season one and developed in season two. Oliver went from a killer with PTSD, then later stopped killing, began trying to deal with his mental illness, and building his team up. Note that his team were people he was connected to in other aspects of his life. Laurel was his childhood friend, love interest, and outside team member who handled legal aspects of his vigilante activities as well as on her way to becoming the Black Canary, Sara was his love interest, and also partner in understanding personal trauma, Roy was his sister’s romantic partner, and his pseudo young brother, Thea was his sister, Roy’s partner, and well on her way towards becoming a hero herself.

There were very clear endgames in mind for all of these characters. Oliver would become the Green Arrow, Thea would be Speedy, Roy was Arsenal, Laurel was the Black Canary, while Sara served as the adapted version of the comics’ original Canary, serving as an inspiration for Laurel to take up her mantle in the future. If Arrow had gone the Smallville route, Sara would have eventually left the show as her story was finished, and her purpose served moving on but still existing in the greater canon of the universe as a hero instead of twice-dead/revived victim.

This is, ultimately, my problem with the new Dinah Drake. Other than the fact that there is a pre-existing Dinah Drake Lance in Arrow canon, this Dinah Drake is a poor payoff for four seasons of pre-established development and investment. She is a name that rings hollow given the previously established canon within the show’s narrative and as an adapted figure.

The picture painted for Laurel was clear as day from the get go. Her name was Dinah Laurel Lance, her mother was Dinah Drake Lance, her sister acted as a modified version of Dinah Drake’s original Black Canary that would inspire and pass down the mantle to Laurel. Her character was originally compassionate, had a strong sense of justice, acted as the emotional anchor for Oliver, Thea, Lance, Sara and Moira, and had some level of basic fighting skill. The expectation given all this was that eventually the leather jacket, the motorcycle, the canary cry, and the growth of her fighting skills would come with time and development.

Instead of finishing this story with Laurel, she was killed in a shocking and ham-fisted manner to motivate and punish the male characters of the show. Then half-way through season five — after the controversy of her death — the audience is introduced to a brand new character who has all the would-be traits of their would-be classic comic counterpart.

The problem isn’t with the character of Tina-turned-name-drop; if this was the first time Dinah Drake Lance or Black Canary had been introduced, there would be less of a problem. Unfortunately, she’s not. She’s a band-aid on the situation. An attempt to right the wrongs the show did previously, without any real thought into the character in the comics or the previously established story that was built before it was dismantled. She is currently simply a collection of shallow character traits similar to the comic counterpart of the same name but without any true weight within the show. Viewers are simply expected to let go of the previously established canon and story of the show, the original picture, and accept a bunch of new characters five seasons in.

Dinah Drake is a half-done do-over that was never needed if the show had finished the story it started with Laurel. Are we to expect a new Speedy, Red Arrow, and Connor Hawke as well? Or are we stuck with these random replacements that have no connection or ties to Oliver Queen as a character or Green Arrow as an adaptation?

Since Smallville was previously brought up, I have to mention that Smallville pulled a similar stunt with a classic — but overall, less important — character.

Jimmy Olsen was introduced in season six of Smallville and was positioned as the Jimmy Olsen. He later became romantically involved and even married to Chloe. Seemed like a positive way to combine a classic Superman character with a new fan-favorite Smallville character. That is, until the show killed him off for dramatic shock value in season eight. And then revealed he had a twin– with the same name. Or rather, the original Jimmy was Henry James “Jimmy” Olsen, while his twin brother was named James “Jimmy” Bartholomew Olsen.

Needless to say, it was ridiculously convoluted and unnecessary. Fans were invested in the original Jimmy Olsen; not just for his namesake, but also for his place within the narrative of Smallville. Not some random out-of-blue twin with the same exact name to take to be a second “real” Jimmy Olsen.

Though Sara’s death was unnecessary, her part in the narrative was always to help Laurel become the Black Canary — as Dinah Drake aided in Dinah Laurel Lance’s journey in the comics. This new Dinah Drake is just a replacement the show wouldn’t need if it had stuck to the original purpose behind Laurel’s character in the first place.

None of this is to say the actress and character won’t be a net positive for the show. However, when I look back on its last four full seasons, she ends up showcasing how far the show has fallen. This is ironic considering her character — and Juliana Harkavy’s delivery overall — is a positive and nearly refreshing addition to the show itself. Not to mention the fact that Harkavy, who has Dominican, African, and Chinese heritage, provides the show with much needed representation as a heroic woman of color.

But the show has a terrible track record with female and POC characters to begin with. What’s to say when the writers get bored or feel like revisiting Olicity again, Tina/Dinah won’t end up under the knife like Laurel did? Slapping the name “Dinah Drake” on a character, and introducing some comic inspired traits — canary cry, leather jacket, moderate snarky attitude — does not a character make. Nor a well adapted one.

So no, I don’t feel that Tina/Dinah has fixed any of Arrow’s problems and instead has inadvertently highlighted them.

Of course, there’s still an entire season left to see what Tina/Dinah has in store for viewers. I sincerely wish the actress the best and that viewers continue to enjoy her performance. Also that her character doesn’t fall into the same pitfalls a majority of the other Arrow ladies have fallen into repeatedly.

As for me, I find myself completely disinterested in pursuing Arrow any further. The show has proven to care very little for comic book canon, to the point the writers almost seem to deplore it. Oliver is more a sullen, uninteresting Batman rip-off than anything like his comic counterpart — even in his darker stories. Any other relevant Green Arrow comic characters have disappeared, replaced now by randoms and two original creations. The story has given up on producing coherent overarching story arcs for any of its characters and dropped those it was building toward.

As a fan, Arrow doesn’t balance the two aspects of adapted material and original material well enough for me to remain invested. Arrow has taken its adapted material and thrown most of it out the window, while twisting anything left into ragged origami scraps. What’s left is a lump of original material that is, for myself, uninteresting, messy, and vapid.

If other viewers and fans still enjoy Arrow, then I’m sincerely glad for them. Media is meant to bring enjoyment to its audience. For myself, I find more enjoyment in other Green Arrow/Black Canary adapted appearances such as Young Justice, Injustice 2, and the Rebirth comics. All while eagerly awaiting their eventual appearances in future animated and live action film franchises.

Arrow may be dead to me, but the Black Canary and Green Arrow sure aren’t.