‘Arrow’ season 4, episode 18 review: ‘Eleven-Fifty-Nine’ strikes death for a Team Arrow member

If “Arrow” was out to create an excellent episode for a beloved character, they certainly did that on Wednesday night’s new episode “Eleven-Fifty-Nine.” It was emotional, action-packed, surprising at times, and above all a tribute to the early days of the show. That photo above is precisely how we feel.

For the first time in a long time, the show really dived into the past between Laurel Lance and Oliver Queen, and the relationship that the two once had long before he ever the Arrow, let alone the Green Arrow. It was nostalgic in that way, and it helped us to really understand more of who these two characters were. Laurel was faced with a huge decision in this episode: Embrace her current duty as the Black Canary, or go a different route and become the District Attorney.

Throughout the hour, Laurel wavered on the choice, but was intent first and foremost on making sure that Damien Darhk was stopped once and for all. That’s why she accompanied the team on a mission to the prison, but the moment he got his power back thanks to Andy Diggle’s betrayal, he used much of it in order to fulfill a promise he made to Quentin: Destroying the one person he cared about the most, at least other than his other daughter. This is a man who has now lost both children in some way, and there is no resurrection here.

Are we upset over the fact that Laurel is no more on the show? Absolutely, but we’ll at least say that the show gave her a pretty great send-off that really focused almost entirely on her. Sure, we’re not exactly thrilled about the flashbacks still, but at least we didn’t have too much extraneous story here and we kept it on the people, and the heroes, who matter the most. (We recently tributed the Laurel character over here.) Grade: B+.

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