‘Arrow’ season 4, episode 18 reaction: The memory of Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance
“Arrow” has been a revelation to the superhero genre on television, and it has been quite a journey getting to the point where we are now. The same can be said for the character of Laurel Lance.
It really doesn’t feel that long ago when our first interaction came about with the “Arrow” cast, where we saw a screening for the pilot and a panel featuring a few cast members at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto. You could sense their enthusiasm about the material, and also feed off of the reaction to the room. There were other screeners that weekend for the public, but none (at least out of the ones that we went to) generated even near that sort of reaction. Our excitement level was high for the show, to go along with that, our excitement level was high for what Katie Cassidy would bring to the role. There was no inclination as to when Black Canary would be entering the mix, but the hope was “in due time.”
If we’re quite honest, for the first season and a half we found ourselves mired in frustrations over the character. Our most-frequent use on the show was as a victim, and her apartment was destroyed so many times we wondered why she just didn’t move. There was also the Oliver romance, which at the time felt a little on-the-nose and like the show was really trying to make it happen. It’s a funny thing that, by and large, the thing viewers gravitate towards is often what is a little more under-the-radar. That may be why Oliver and Felicity became such a popular couple. (In turn, we haven’t found them nearly as fun now that they are such a fixture as they were in those first two seasons.)
A funny thing happened to Laurel as we went through season 3, and then carried into season 4: She was suddenly one of the most interesting characters on the show, a hard-working superhero who rarely complained about her responsibilities, cared about her family, and somehow managed to balance out this with a high-profile job in the District Attorney’s office. She had a chance to go and make a huge difference.
Also, one thing that we really began to appreciate is that in this age of CW romances running rampant, there was never a need to shoehorn a new love interest into her life. She was proof that a character could stand on her own two feet, be awesome, and do awesome things … only now she’s gone. Laurel died probably at a time we liked her more we ever had before, and it makes us wonder where the story could have gone from here. We do understand the need to shake things up, but in getting rid of a character so iconic to DC Comics lore (probably only behind the Green Arrow in that department), all we can do is frown for the time being.
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