‘Arrow’ season 5: Why ‘new Black Canary’ Tina Boland is worthy of a chance

If you think back to when Laurel Lance first died on “Arrow,” one of her wishes was to see the legacy of the Black Canary live on. It looks like that hope turned into somewhat of a prophecy, given that the trailer below for next week’s “Second Chance” is offering up an a chance to take a closer look at one Tina Boland, a woman who could end up taking on the title.

One thing that is immediately apparent from the promo below is that Boland is more than qualified for the job, in some ways significantly more than Oliver Queen ever was. She’s been in combat, and already is a vigilante who’s spent time in Hub City and beyond. She’s also got a version of the Canary Cry that is completely her own.

We understand the desire to dislike the character without even seeing her on the show. Many people love Laurel Lance, and we get that — so did we by the time she died on the show. We’ll admit that we had a hard time with the character the first season or two, but in her final years she was one of the best parts of the entire series. Having another Canary for the sake of diving into all of the comic-book mythology feels like a smart move.

Now that we’ve said all of this, don’t just make an assumption from this preview that we’re automatically going to see Boland become the new Canary. She could easily say no to the offer, and eventually we could see another form of Laurel step back into the role. Remember here how Team Flash managed to go through the multiverse in order to find a version of Harrison Wells that they saw fit to be a part of the team. It feels like you could easily do the same thing with Cisco Ramon coming to Star City to lend a helping hand in the search for a new Laurel, one who has some of the better qualities of the Earth-1 incarnation without the inherent evil that was there with Black Siren.

Maybe all of the events of Wednesday’s episode were a fake-out for everyone who thought the Siren would become the Canary; maybe you can argue the same thing about Boland. Even if she becomes the new Canary, she’s certainly worthy of a chance in the way that many new characters are. We may have high expectations after Lauren, but sometimes we do get new additions to shows that end up better than expected.

Where do you think that “Arrow” is going with their whole Canary story right now? Share some of your thoughts in the comments, and head over to the link here to get some further news when it comes to the show. (Photo: The CW.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIYlfoRiOD4