Laurel Has a Choice to Make on ‘Arrow’ — What Will She Do? (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 8, Episode 4 of Arrow, “Present Tense.”]
Laurel (Katie Cassidy) was building a life on Earth-2 when it was wiped from existence, and she’s been struggling with that loss.
But she may be able to get back those she misses, namely, as she mentioned in Episode 2, her sister and Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra), who’d been working as that Earth’s Hood. At the end of “Present Tense,” The Monitor is waiting for her when she leaves SCPD.
“You ache for the world you lost, and I possess the power to restore it,” he tells her. “The recovery of your universe will require a single task. … You must betray Oliver Queen.”
Will she do it? We saw how desperate she was to get back to her Earth in the aforementioned second episode of the season, refusing to believe it could be gone.
Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) advised her to move forward “by doing the right thing.” “We honor the dead by fighting for the living,” she told Laurel at the time. “This world needs you, too.” And after that, Laurel told Oliver (Stephen Amell) she’d help him make sure what happened to Earth-2 wouldn’t happen again.
(Sergei Bachlakov/The CW)
However, we’ve also since learned that Lyla is working with The Monitor, so their conversations in “Welcome to Hong Kong” may end up coming into play if Laurel struggles with his offer. Lyla did tell her she tried making deals “with any god [she] thought might listen,” but it didn’t “exactly” work. Could Laurel remember those words? Or could she seek Lyla out for advice?
Laurel also knows that Oliver went to find answers about The Monitor, to see if they could trust him. And we have to take into account a few key factors, including Laurel saying she “used to play for team villain” and her and Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) seemingly on the path to creating the Canary Network sooner rather than later. After Mia (Katherine McNamara), William (Ben Lewis), and Connor (Joseph-David Jones) were brought to 2019, they told the present team some of what happens in the future, and things may be changing as a result. Plus, there’s a potential spinoff, so it’s hard to imagine Laurel taking The Monitor’s deal and then working alongside Oliver’s daughter.
But this is only Episode 4 of the 10-episode final season. Anything could happen. Might Paul Blackthorne’s return as Quentin Lance come into play somehow?
Arrow, Tuesdays, 9/8c, The CW
