It’s Star City in 2040, and there has not been a single crime in the city since Oliver Queen’s death in 2020. Mia Queen is getting ready for her college graduation with the guy of her dreams standing by her side. However, two women completely change her perspective very quickly when they force her to remember everything. The second-to-last episode of Arrow, “Green Arrow and the Canaries,” serves as a backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off of the same name starring Katherine McNamara, Katie Cassidy, and Juliana Harkavy. Full of action, heart, and twists, keep reading to find out everything that went down in the newest episode of Arrow.
A 2020 Laurel makes her way into a bar and tells the bartender she’s looking for the owner. He points over at Dinah, who is at a piano, singing. Dinah takes Laurel up to her loft and asks her how she found her, was it Sara? Laurel says Sara said she found her there a couple of months ago and didn’t want to come back with her. Dinah admits that the day after Oliver’s funeral in 2020, she woke up there. She had no idea how or why. When she got there, she found out she doesn’t even exist; there is no trace of Dinah Drake or the Black Canary. And she’s fine with that?
“I guess I came to realize that not having an identity can either be sad or it can be oddly freeing. I can let go of the people I’ve lost, mistakes that I made.”
Dinah tells Laurel there’s been no real crime in Star City in 20 years, and Laurel says she hates to break it to her, but Star City is no longer safe. Bianca Bertinelli, Helena’s daughter, has been kidnapped. Laurel tells Dinah she needs her to help her find Bianca. “You really came all the way to the future to rescue a kidnapped socialite?” Laurel shows Dinah news footage of Star City a year later, with fires and riots. Dinah says that’s not possible; the city’s safe. Laurel tells her it doesn’t stay that way because Bianca dies. Three days from now, her body is found in the bay, her killer is never caught, and the city falls apart, ruining everything that Oliver sacrificed his life for. Dinah tells Laurel she thought she left all of that behind. “Then don’t do it for you. Do it for Oliver”. Dinah agrees, and Laurel says there’s one more person they need who’s well-connected.
Mia is at her graduation party, and she walks up to Trevor (Bianca’s ex). She asks him if she’s seen Bianca, and he says no. Laurel and Dinah walk up to them, and Laurel says that he was the last one to see her, wasn’t he? Dinah chimes in, saying his number was the last one she texted. Not knowing who they are, Mia tells Laurel and Dinah they can’t just crash her party and harass her guests. Dinah tells her they were friends of her parents, and Mia asks how come she hasn’t seen either of them before? Laurel says she has zero time to explain, but Bianca is in trouble, and they need her help to find her. Mia starts to walk away, and Laurel uses a device on her ring to make Mia remember what happened before Crisis.
Mia wakes up, and the first person she sees is JJ. She remembers what he did to Zoe and being the leader of the Deathstrokes Gang. She tells him to back off. She looks at Connor and gets flashes of him. She looks at Zoe and remembers her dying. She looks at William and remembers their first meeting when she was Blackstar. Mia plays off her fainting as having too much to drink without eating, saying she just needs some air. She looks at Laurel and Dinah and gets flashes of them as the Black Canaries, fighting. She goes with them.
Mia asks them what they did to her, and Dinah wonders the same thing. Laurel tells them about J’onn and that he’s why they remember everything that happened before the Crisis. Cisco was able to replicate J’onn’s Martian powers using tech. “So a friend of Supergirl’s has a power a friend of The Flash can replicate.” Mia tells Laurel and Dinah she wants to say they’re crazy and that none of this is possible, but she knows they’re right. She remembers everything: them fighting alongside her dad, Zoe dying, her fiancé killing her. She remembers her father dying. Laurel tells Mia she woke her up because her friend Bianca was kidnapped. Mia says they don’t know Bianca; she’s flaky; she’s probably on a beach somewhere having a ball. Laurel tells Mia she saw her, and she was taken. Dinah says she knows Mia is torn between two worlds, but they need her help. Mia says she doesn’t even know if she can do this anymore. Laurel throws a glass at Mia, and she catches it, proving she still can. Dinah tells Mia that Bianca is actually in trouble, and if they don’t find her, she’s going to die. Mia agrees to help, saying it’s just a one-time thing. Laurel says Bianca was adopted; any chance there was tension? Mia says Helena was a great mom before she disappeared, and Bianca lives with her great-aunt and uncle now. Laurel tells Mia it’s time for her to pay that family a visit.
Mia is at the Bertinelli’s, distracting them while Dinah and Laurel implant listening devices in the house. Mia leaves in the clear, and Laurel tells her they’re all set up; they can see and hear everything that goes down in that house. Back at Dinah’s loft, she’s trying to find anything on the Bertinellis, only hearing them talk about a couple of stock tips and where to go vacation, nothing that helps them. Laurel is trying to get more information out of Dinah about why she’s hiding out and why she’s okay with the world not remembering her. Dinah reveals when she first ended up there, she spent a lot of time asking herself why. It took a while, but she thinks she finally understands the answer. “This is the universe’s way of telling me I’m not supposed to be a hero.” Laurel tells Dinah she inspired a bunch of women to fight for something greater than themselves, herself included. Mia comes in, and the computer dings. Dinah says Logan Bertinelli, Bianca’s cousin, just got chatty. He’s worried about something, mentioning “taking precautions” and specifically moving “it” out of the city. What are the odds “it” is Bianca? Laurel shows Mia the Green Arrow costume Oliver gave her, and Mia says she can’t wear it; it’s her father’s.
Mia, Laurel, and Dinah are riding motorcycles and chasing a van, stopping it. Laurel tells Mia she’ll get Bianca, and they’ll take care of Logan and his friends. Mia races over to the van, and when she opens the back, there’s no Bianca but some briefcases with some chemical, drug, or something. Logan says he gives up, and a bomb drops. Deathstroke comes into view.
After the fight, Laurel, Dinah, and Mia get back to the loft, and Laurel tells Mia her fiancé just became suspect number one. Mia doesn’t believe her, saying it could’ve been anyone under that Deathstroke mask. Dinah says it does seem like a pretty big coincidence, given that JJ led them before. “Yeah, and I used to be a cage fighter. That is not who I am anymore, and that is clearly not who JJ is”. Laurel asks Mia if she has the slightest bit of doubt that it is JJ and Mia says no. “Prove it.”
Mia shows Laurel and Dinah a video of Bianca, clearly made to keep people from looking for her. Dinah tells Mia they should analyze it and see what clues they can get in finding her. Mia is worried about her relationship with JJ, and Laurel asks her if she sees how selfish she’s being.
“Me? You’re the one who’s using my friend to drag me and Dinah back into this superhero crap just because you can’t handle the fact that Star City’s fine and doesn’t need you to be the Black Canary anymore.”
Mia tries to tell them that Bianca is fine and that they had no right to make her remember; all that did is bring back the suffering and the loss.
Laurel meets up with Mia, apologizes to her, and tells her she spent so much of her life choosing the easy path. And for her, that meant becoming Black Siren, destroying things, and killing people. Laurel asks Mia if she can honestly tell her she was happy with her life before she woke her up, truly. Mia says she spent her whole life looking at pictures of her dad, all of the amazing things he did for the city, and what a hero he was. “Wondering how I could possibly live up to that in anything I chose to do, and so I chose to do nothing.” Mia says Oliver would probably be disappointed in her, and Laurel reassures her, saying she doubts that. “Your father. He wanted you to be happy. And he gave you all this, but I also think he wanted you to have a choice.” Laurel admits that being a hero kind of sucks, and it never gets any easier because it is the hardest thing that you can do. Then why do it? Laurel says for her, it gave her purpose, which is why she woke Mia up so that she could have the chance to realize her own.
“Mia, this is your city. And you’re the Green Arrow.”
At the loft, Dinah asks Laurel how it went, and Mia comes in. She says that Bianca’s her friend, and Dinah tells her although she doesn’t have a location yet, she is in a greenhouse of some sort. The only problem is there are hundreds in the city; it’s going to take time. Mia says that’s not a greenhouse, the design’s biophilic. It’s meant to power the building photosynthetically. 12 buildings in the city fit the bill, but there is only one that is currently unoccupied. Green Arrow and the Canaries suit up.
Once at the building, the three get into position and break in, finding Bianca. Laurel says they have to go now. Trevor, the guy from Mia’s party, comes in and takes out his Deathstroke mask. Trevor tells Bianca she’s just a pawn with the fancy family name; that’s the only reason she’s important. Mia, Laurel, and Dinah fight Trevor and his guys, bringing Bianca along to save her. They get back to the roof, but now what? Trevor makes it to the roof, telling them not to come any closer. All the greenery in the building is linked to the same system, all very explosive. Dinah says if he drops the lighter, the whole place is going to go up. Trevor says they can’t stop what’s coming; she won’t let them. And who the hell is she? Trevor drops the lighter, and the girls try to run away and zipline off the building before it explodes.
Back at the loft after everything, Dinah says Trevor’s not just a jealous ex-lover trying to get even. Somebody pushed him to do this, and they still have to figure out who or why. Mia mentions that Star City needs the Green Arrow. She’s not giving up her life, but she’s also going to protect her father’s legacy. Laurel tells Mia living a double life is really hard. “Somebody once told me that being a hero is the hardest thing you can do. It’s also the right thing.” Mia says putting on the suit again wasn’t easy, but it reminded her it’s not all bad. “Cheers to the Green Arrow.” “To the Canaries.” “To the future, whatever it holds.”
Later, Dinah says they can turn the loft into a base of operations for the Canaries. As in more than just them? Dinah tells Laurel that while she figures out why she disappeared and how she got there, she can help a whole new generation of women. Laurel admits that Sara said when the city falls, someone’s at the center of it — Mia. She shows Dinah a news article with the headline, “The Woman Who Failed Star City,” with a picture of Mia.
Mia and William are at a statue that depicts and pays tribute to Oliver as the Green Arrow. Mia sees that William has the Hozen, the rock that Oliver gave to Thea when he came back from Lian Yu, then gave to Felicity, who gave it to William. Mia asks to see it and notices the same design that Trevor had tattooed on his arm. A dart shoots out at Mia and William; William is taken, and Mia passes out. At JJ’s, someone breaks in and uses the same device Laurel used on Mia to make her remember everything before Crisis. JJ remembers being Deathstroke and killing Zoe. “It was never a mask.”
Green Arrow and the Canaries would be a perfect way to continue the Arrow legacy, especially with such strong female leads. So fingers crossed that The CW picks it up to series. The Arrow series finale airs Tuesday night on The CW, with a retrospective special Arrow: Hitting the Bullseye airing at 8 p.m. ET and the final episode “Fadeout” airing at 9 p.m. ET.
