ARROW: “Canaries” {Recap}

We start out this week with a battle of Canaries, where Sara eventually kicks Laurel’s butt all before we flashback to forty-eight hours before. In that opening, two days before, Laurel and Oliver are having a fight over if Laurel should be out in the streets fighting (Oliver is against it) before Merlyn shows up and has a heart to heart with Oliver about letting Thea know that Oliver’s the Arrow.

Is it worth it for Thea to lose Oliver’s trust when she finds out or is it better to keep the lie going?

However all of those issues aside, this week’s big bad is Vertigo, back for another round of causing mayhem in Starling City and escaping Police custody. Never a good thing for the villain to be that evasive so early.

Thea has a quality moment with our least favorite R’as al Ghul operative before Oliver finally shows her the Team Arrow “cave”. Putting one and one together, Thea’s shocked (rightly so) and putting the pieces together and then turns grateful for all the times that he saved her life previous. That went far better than it could have gone. Good job Oliver! But that was short lived when Thea learns that Merlyn knew that Oliver was the Arrow and didn’t tell her soon.

Back in the Vertigo case, a reporter was responsible for dosing the Federal Agent who was holding him, and Laurel has some good information. Too bad Oliver wants to discount all of Laurel’s work as the Canary as her chasing another high, like she did with drinking and drugs. Following that lead nearly gets Oliver and Roy killed as the reporter had trapped a bomb to himself with order to kill Oliver. Is it going to be good for Thea and Oliver if there’s no more secrets and no more hiding C-4 explosions from her?

In the life of Laurel, Captain Lance says that Sin told him that the Canary wasn’t Sara, but Laurel won’t give up her secret. How long will that one last now?

Oliver put a tracer on Laurel to see where she was and ends up being pricked by Vertigo and has that fight with herself we saw at the beginning. Laurel gets back to the lab and is tended to, but Thea sees it and freaks out about how many people she knows are involved. Roy also makes a point of telling Oliver that Oliver can’t dictate everything Oliver’s way. Thea’s response is to kills the secret agent – which will turn out poorly later, I’m sure.

Oh, Thea’s choice just got worse – she slept with secret agent man – and now he’s trying to kill her with cyanide. At least Thea can smell it and soon Roy’s fighting him before Merlyn joins in to make it interesting. Secret agent man kills himself, because he’d rather die than let Merlyn kill him.

At the factory to reproduce more Vertigo, Laurel and Oliver together take him down, but not before Laurel gets another dose of Vertigo and has another fight with Sara and then Quentin. Only after realizing that she’ll never be Sara can Laurel take out our big bad of the week.

Of course that’s before Oliver hears that Thea’s in trouble and finds out about the evil DJ, Roy and Merlyn. Thea wasn’t as strong as she thought from R’as Al Ghul’s men but she can get there if she and Oliver go on a journey together to the Island.

Thankfully Quentin figures out that Laurel’s been in Sara’s costume, but then has to also know that Sara’s finally dead. That’s a rough night after everything else.

Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 PM Eastern/7 PM Central on the CW.

Feature image: The CW