SPOILERS ahead for those not caught up on Arrow
Arrow is back, and after an explosive midseason premiere, there’s a new Black Canary in town. In ‘Who Are You?’, team Arrow is trying to deal with Prometheus’s latest trick - the reappearance of Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy). Of course, the Laurel who made her reappearance at the end of the midseason finale isn’t the real Laurel. Instead, as many fans predicted, she is Earth-2’s Black Siren, and she’s up to no good. Some may have expected this arc to continue a little longer, but Siren is unmasked and beaten by the Arrow team - thanks to a cry-dampening gadget created by Curtis (Echo Kellum) - in a single episode.
However, Arrow isn’t done with Black Canary yet. The final scene of ‘Who Are You’ brought a new candidate for the Black Canary title into play, as a woman in a bar manages to take out two men with her own version of the classic Canary Cry. We’ve seen a little more of her in the trailer for next week’s episode, and now a new extended trailer gives us an even better look at this latest Canary candidate.
The extended promo for ‘Second Chances’ [above] focuses entirely on this new potential Canary, whose real name is Tina Boland. Played by Juliana Harkavy (The Walking Dead, Constantine), Boland is a vigilante in Hub City, with her own cry, and with a lot of attitude. The extended promo opens with Team Arrow in the Arrow Cave looking at candidates for a new team member, including a CIA operative, a black belt, a special ops soldier, and a ninja, all of whom Oliver (Stephen Amell) turns down, saying that it is a “feel thing”. The team then approaches Tina, but she seems less than thrilled with their offer, knocks Oliver backwards, makes fun of their costumes, and threatens them if they don’t keep out of her way. The promo is accompanied by the tagline “When the Canary calls, cover your ears”.
The episode’s description tells us that it is Curtis who discovers Tina and suggests her to the team as a potential new Canary, and that the rest of the episode will see Talia Al Ghul (Lexa Doig) make her first real appearance following a one-line cameo in the midseason premiere. In a third storyline, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) will be attempting to help get Diggle (David Ramsey) out of prison. The episode seems like it will be absolutely action packed, and the heavy focus on Tina suggests that she’ll be around for quite a few episodes to come.
Harkavy looks absolutely incredible, and many fans are thrilled to see this new smart-mouthed, ass-kicking woman (potentially) join the team. With Thea’s (Willa Holland) retirement from vigilante work, Laurel’s death and Artemis’s (Madison McLaughlin) betrayal, Team Arrow is certainly looking very masculine at the moment. We’d love to see a new female hero join their ranks to balance things out a little bit. It seems like the team is ready for a new member, too, given that they are actively looking - although Oliver is clearly finding it difficult to let go of Laurel.
However, some fans are becoming increasingly concerned about the high turnover of Canaries in the show. The original Canary, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) has now gone on to become the Legends’ White Canary, Laurel is dead, Black Siren is evil, Evelyn was briefly a Canary impostor before becoming Artemis, and now there is Tina. That’s five Canaries in five seasons, which isn’t exactly what we want to see for such a huge character. We will just have to wait and see how this latest addition to the team is going to play out, but hopefully we’ll finally be able to see a long-term Black Canary that does the comic book character justice.
Next: Arrow Midseason Premiere Review & Discussion
Arrow continues next Wednesday with ‘Second Chances’ @8pm on The CW.
Source: We Got This Covered
