Spoilers ahead for Episode 18 of Arrow Season 7!
Fans of DC’s Arrowverse have had a quiver of bad news fired at them in the past month after it was announced in March 2019 that their pioneer show Arrow would be ending after Season 8’s shorter run and that long-term fan-favorite Emily Bett Rickards aka Felicity Smoak would not be returning for the show’s final curtain call.
However, after this week’s Birds of Prey-style episode “Lost Canary” which focused on Katie Cassidy-Rogers’ Black Siren revert to her old villainous ways leading to a conflict between her, current Black Canary, Dinah Lance, and special guest returnee Sara Lance aka White Canary, the resolution to her two-year story seems to have concluded with the character leaving the show.
After being framed for murder by this season’s main antagonist Emiko Adachi/Queen, Laurel decides she will never be seen as anything other than a villain and so returns to her criminal antics as Black Siren, seeking out a partnership with former associate Shadow Thief.
SCPD Captain Dinah Lance is quick to jump to the solution of detaining the two women despite Felicity trying to point out the fact that Laurel has been starting to redeem herself and even become friends with the group during Season 7. Due to this falling on deaf ears, Felicity resorts to calling in a favor from old friend and Laurel’s pseudo-sister Sara Lance who tries getting through to Laurel herself by both recalling her own morally grey history and the journey her sister, Earth-1’s Laurel, went on.
A couple of confrontations and one well-choreographed fight scene later and Laurel realizes that she needs to keep fighting for redemption and that it isn’t as tough a fight as she first believed. However, Laurel decides this fight must at least begin “back home”, meaning Earth-2. So, with a parting gift from Felicity of Earth-1 Laurel’s Black Canary Suit, Laurel departs Earth-1 leaving her villainous Black Siren persona behind and instead taking on the mantle of the heroine Black Canary.
Her story was not over yet though, as in this season’s continuing flash forward B-storyline, Mia Smoak is ambushed by a trio of thugs but sent running by the surprise arrival of Laurel Lance in the Black Canary suit complete with platinum blonde wig. Does this mean Laurel will continue to appear in the remainder of the season’s flash forwards? Only time will tell.
According to Arrow showrunner Beth Schwartz in an interview with TVLine, Laurel’s apparent departure shown in this episode is not the last we see this season of Katie Cassidy-Rogers. It does beg the questions when, how and which Laurel will Cassidy be returning as.
Katie Cassidy has been a part of Arrow’s cast since it’s first episode back in 2011. For the first four seasons her main role was as Earth-1’s Laurel Lance who became the Black Canary during Season 3 after the apparent death of her sister Sara who was the original Canary for the series.
After the character was murdered by season four villain Damien Darhk in 2015, Cassidy returned as a universe regular with the Earth-2 doppelganger Black Siren across multiple shows within the Arrowverse, as well as the guest role of Earth-X’s Siren-X in Season 4 of The Flash.
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Arrow stars Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak, David Ramsey as John Diggle, Willa Holland as Thea Queen/Speedy, Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake/Black Canary, Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog, Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt/Wild Dog and Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance/Black Siren. Check out the synopsis below:
“There has been no shortage of close calls for Oliver Queen when it comes to protecting his Super Hero identity, but in the season six finale, he was finally backed into a corner and forced to reveal himself to the world as the Green Arrow. Now, Oliver will come face-to-face with many of the criminals he placed behind bars, as he makes a new home for himself at Slabside Maximum Security Prison. Oliver will find himself vulnerable in a way unlike ever before when a mysterious new enemy begins to unravel his work as Green Arrow, challenging him to redeem his name or risk losing everything.“
DC‘s Arrow airs Mondays at 8 pm ET on The CW.
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