Tonight’s midseason premiere of Arrow surprised fans in multiple ways with regards to the Black Canary mythos. After the death of Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) in season four, she miraculously reappeared in the Arrow Cave in the closing minutes of this season’s winter finale.
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As we discovered in ‘Who Are You?‘, this version of Laurel was actually her Earth 2 counterpart, Black Siren. After spending the episode at odds with Team Arrow, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) sent her to an ARGUS facility in Central City, with the hope that she will show some of the qualities of her Earth 1 counterpart.
In the meantime, Oliver realized that he has yet to fulfill his promise to Earth 1 Laurel’s of finding a successor to the Black Canary mantle. At the end of tonight’s episode, however, we might have gotten our look at the first candidate.
Tina Boland, played by The Walking Dead‘s Julia Harkavy, was revealed to have a sonic scream, which she used to take down misogynistic bikers at a Hub City bar. And in the promo for next week’s episode, titled ‘Second Chances‘, it seems that the team tries to recruit Tina to become the new Black Canary.
In her official casting notice, Tina – who is an entirely original character – is described as a “brash but tactful” detective who is unimpressed by costumed vigilanties.
Whether or not Tina is convinced to become a vigilante – particularly Black Canary – is yet to be seen. While executive producer Marc Guggenheim teased that the events at the end of ‘Who Are You?’ “[lay] a very specific seed, with a very specific game plan on our part that we hope to see come to fruition.”
The initial rumor of Tina becoming Black Canary began to hit the Internet several weeks ago, with a generally mixed response. Fans of the 70 years of Black Canary mythos argue that the role should be inhabited by some version of Laurel Lance, with Birds of Prey writer Gail Simone even weighing in on the matter.
Ultimately, Arrow viewers will just have to wait and see if Tina takes on the Black Canary mantle when ‘Second Chances’ airs on Wednesday, February 1st.
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OLIVER WANTS JUSTICE; FELICITY WANTS REVENGE — Worried that Prometheus is right and he is truly a killer at heart, Oliver (Stephen Amell) looks for any ray of hope and finds it in what seems to be the miraculous return of Laurel Lance (guest star Katie Cassidy).
However, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), still reeling from Detective Malone’s murder, is bent on revenge – she wants to stop Prometheus at any cost. While in prison, Diggle (David Ramsey) fights for his life.
Gregory Smith directed the episode written by Ben Sokolowski & Brian Ford Sullivan.
