Let’s talk about Sara Lance…
In a show filled with damaged characters, the younger Lance sister certainly could hold her own with the likes of Oliver in terms of how drastically her life transformed over the past five years. Beginning as an insecure twentysomething who committed a Gossip Girl-esque betrayal by sleeping with her sister’s boyfriend, Sara would subsequently have several near death experiences, be brainwashed by the likes of mad scientist Anthony Ivo, get recruited into the League of Assassins, enter a same-sex relationship and kill a significant amount of people. Yet, in the end, she found her way back to her family and decided to fight with Oliver against Deathstroke’s siege.
This makes it all the more heartbreaking that her eventful life came to a decidedly anticlimactic halt at the end of last week’s “The Calm.” Much like last season’s “City of Blood,” which dealt with the aftermath of Moira Queen’s murder, “Sara” is an episode that tries to capture a broad spectrum of reactions from our main characters— from Felicity’s guilt over always feeling jealous of Sara, to Oliver’s soldierly internalization of the events, to Laurel’s determined, blind desire for revenge (Quentin, as of the end of the episode, remains oblivious to this tragedy). Unlike “City of Blood,” however, the episode chooses not to dwell on prolonged scenes where character’s process their grief—a good choice considering such a shift in momentum would make for a whiplash this early in the season. Indeed, much of the episode finds the characters mulling over Sara’s death in between high-octane action sequences where Oliver is in pursuit of her supposed killer, a mercenary archer named Simon Lacroix (better known to comic book fans as “Komodo”).
Lacroix, it seems, has killed several other, seemingly unrelated individuals during his time in Starling City. After tracking him to a location, Oliver is even able to stop him from killing his next target. The surviving man is put in the hospital under police supervision, but that does not prevent him from being interrogated by a furious Laurel.
Right off the bat, the writers look as though they’re finally ready to give Katie Cassidy her due, as one of the hour’s most memorable scenes involves her going into the man’s hospital room and literally twisting his arm for information (he’s then shot by Lacroix before he can surrender anything). By episode’s end, when Oliver has captured Lacroix and Laurel is aiming a gun at him, she even goes the extra mile by pulling the trigger, only to realize that Oliver had removed the bullets at an earlier point. Here, we witness a darkness to Laurel that has been hinted at in previous episodes, but comes out in full force in the wake of this tragedy. After the events of “Sara,” it’s not hard to believe she will go to great lengths to find whatever bit of Mirakuru is left, and become an avenging Black Canary.
In the midst of all this tragedy and chaos, Roy is also dealing with his own conflict—that is, whether or not to tell Oliver that Thea is not off having R&R overseas but is, according to the note she left Roy, most likely somewhere else entirely. This pressure becomes all the more intense when, in the midst of Sara’s death, Oliver repeatedly calls Thea to see if she’s alright, only to get her voice mail each time. Eventually, Roy does show Oliver the note and, surprisingly, Oliver seems relatively calm about his sidekick withholding this info (although this could lead to some trust issues down the line).
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the Hong Kong flashback, which features the return of Colin Donnell as Tommy Merlyn. Tommy, it seems, had received an SOS email that Oliver sent shortly before being captured and has arrived in China to look for his friend. And while Oliver is ordered to terminate Tommy, lest he discover their secrets, our hero instead devises a plan whereby he kidnaps Tommy, and informs him (under a mask) that Oliver is dead and that the email was merely a ploy for monetary gain.
All in all, even by flashback standards, the story seems ultra-disingenuous to the main plotline, which is already trying to fit so much in (I haven’t even mentioned Ray Palmer’s continued pursuit to gain Felicity as an employee). Also, since we know Tommy will ultimately survive long enough to live through the first season of Arrow, Oliver’s conflict doesn’t exactly come across as compelling enough to tear our attention away from the infinitely more fascinating present-day plotline.
As I feared, the identity of Sara’s killer is still a mystery by the end, with Lacroix claiming ignorance of that particular crime (I can’t help but be a bit disappointed that Lacroix, a certified badass villain in the comics, fails to make much of an impact here). For a good portion of the episode, I felt certainly—based solely on the amount of times she was brought up—that Thea would be the surprise assailant. But, from what we’re lead to believe in the episode’s tag, the youngest Queen is currently training in some massive mansion under the tutelage of Malcolm Merlyn. And though Oliver claims that the League of Assassins would never kill one of their own, my money would still lean towards the yet-to-be-revealed Ra’s al Ghul as a potential culprit.
In addition to introducing what looks to be an engaging, long-term mystery to play out over several episodes, “Sara” works well in honoring its fallen character. The Black Canary Sara was a woman of action and intensity. It’s only fitting then that the episode named after her would carry those same qualities. In only two episode, the season three arc has been one defined by change—some for the better, but mostly for the worse. And while I’m sure actress Caity Lotz will be back in some capacity (read: flashbacks), this episode makes clear that Sara will now be joining that ever-growing group of Arrow characters in the sky.
RIP Sara Lance. You done good.
Mark Rozeman is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.