‘Arrow’ season 5 premiere reaction: Laurel Lance’s final words are…

We will be back later tonight with a full review of everything that transpired on the fifth-season premiere of “Arrow,” but for the sake of this article, we want to shine a light on one thing in particular: Laurel Lance getting a tiny bit more face-time in a flashback.

What were her much-discussed final words? They were a plea to Oliver to not let her be the last of the Canaries. He wanted her to strike out and make this team of newbies, but with Oliver being Oliver, of course at first he didn’t want to do it. Eventually, though, he did come around and we are at the beginning stages of a new team with Wild Dog, Artemis, and Mr. Terrific leading the charge. It’s going to take some time to get any of these people close in ability to where Laurel was at the time of her death; if you remember, she was hardly the perfect crime-fighter during her own early days on the streets.

One other fundamental change in philosophy for Oliver comes in how he’s, at least at present, handling criminals. After previously allowing many of them to live, he’s gone back to killing, feeling as though not murdering Darhk when he had the chance allowed Laurel and other people to die. Two wrongs don’t necessarily make a right, but the beauty of this debate is that “Arrow” does not force either philosophy upon you.

For those of you who enjoy Katie Cassidy’s performance as the Laurel character, rest assured that this is not the final time you are going to see her on the show this season. She will be back for the 100th episode, and Cassidy is a regular across the entire CW universe. In other words, she will likely turn up on other shows in due time.

Head over here now in the event you want to see a promo for next week’s episode of “Arrow.” Meanwhile, sign up over here to target some additional TV news on everything we cover via our official CarterMatt newsletter. (Photo: The CW.)