ARROW – Eleven-Fifty-Nine

All cat’s out of the bag now, at last! Andy is a traitor, he’s been playing the team all season long. Now we know who is in the grave. It is Laurel Lance a.k.a. Black Canary. Am I excited about that or annoyed? I’ll get to that in just a moment.

The episode starts with Andy feeding John some bull story about Malcolm and seemingly being on Team Arrow’s side which took Spartan and Green Arrow away from the cave in enough time to have Malcolm infiltrate the hideout and steal the idol. BTW how does that man still have (former) members of the League of Assassins (which allegedly doesn’t exist anymore) at his bidding?

Oliver smelled a rat on Andy from the beginning of the episode and rightly so. I was glad that in this episode he was right on something his instinct felt not partly wrong or confused but he was able to judge with the feelings in his guts and he was right. Now, that’s one Oliver I want more of. It’s funny how in the episode Laurel was like Charles Xavier who pretty much had a psyche connection to Oliver coming with the “talk to me” attitude with just a talk’ she felt something the undertone in his talk with Diggle, just saying.

I really still don’t understand how in this episode Merlyn is like working for Darhk because he seemed just fine moving on with HIVE without Darhk last episode. Andy really is one real sly son of a gun. He cause a rift between Oliver and John for a while there, whew. I suppose there really is no saving once you are a ghost.

We got a first mention of the relevance of the endlessly pointless flashbacks in this episode – the idol. I guess the question now is how did it pass from Reiter to Darhk and if Reiter is in now. The mention still doesn’t justify the torture of me watching those flashbacks every episode for 18 episode now yet though and I honestly don’t think any way in which they tie it in can justify that torment but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

On a last note, let me talk about Laurel’s death. Was I upset about it? Yes. Was I excited? Yes. Here’s why:

I have anticipated the "who is in the grave?" question to be answered for so long that I hoped it would be a death that would really break my heart like a character that I would really miss and then it turns out it’s Laurel which wasn’t heartbreaking for me at all. So, I am upset about that. Hang on with me a minute before you bite my head off. Laurel Lance stopped being a really important character in the show after Tommy died, in my honest opinion. I mean after that she was hecka annoying then went on a downward spiral of being a pain in everyone’s side then somehow became The Canary and moved with the group blah blah blah and blah, you know the story. Point is, the Team will be just fine with or without her.

So, yes, I was upset about my dashed expectation of an important character dying and yes, I was excited Laurel is off the show since she wasn’t really a pillar to the Arrow series story going on here. I think I’ll just drop a piece on Laurel and the show later on, I have some more talk (if you can call it that) to write.

What are your thoughts on Eleven-Fifty-Nine? Are you Team Finally-LL-nightmare-is-over or Team LL-deserved-better?

QUOTES FROM ELEVEN-FIFTY-NINE

Merlyn: Mr. Diggle’s upgraded security needs a few upgrades by the way

Quentin: I never thought I would say this butt I am glad that you are the black canary

John: I know exactly where that Kevlar wouldn’t protect. Let him go!

Darhk: I want you to give your father a message… for me. I want you to tell him *stabs LL with arrow* I am a man of my words

Laurel:  Ollie, I know I am not the love of your life but you’ll always be the love of mine.