Arrow Season 4: 9 Ups And 6 Downs From 'Eleven-Fifty-Nine'

Finally we find out who is in the grave...

by Andrew Pollard
Arrow Eleven-Fifty-Nine
The CW

After giving us a so-so episode at best last week (I’m beeeeee-ing serious…), The CW’s Arrow delivered one of its most hard-hitting and shocking episodes to date with Eleven-Fifty-Nine.

The title of the episode itself was ominous, for it related to the time of death of one of Arrow’s key characters: Laurel Lance.

Following on from the promise in the Season 4 premiere of how somebody close to the Emerald Archer would die, we’ve finally been given the pay-off to the conundrum of whose grave we’ve seen Oliver Queen stood by at several points in this season. With speculation ranging from Felicity to Thea to Diggle to Samantha to William to anybody with any sort of connection to the Master Bowman, it was poor Laurel who bit the bullet.

This latest offering of Arrow delivered plenty of ups and downs throughout as we headed towards one of the most shocking, gut-wrenching final 5 minutes in recent TV memory, so now let’s take a look at what Eleven-Fifty-Nine got right and what it got wrong.

15. Downs...

Arrow Eleven-Fifty-Nine
The CW

Laurel’s Trust

Whilst Andy Diggle has apparently been reformed from his Damien Darhk-inspired Ghost ways, it felt a little stupid of some of Arrow’s characters to be fully trusting him so soon. And by “some of Arrow’s characters”, I totally mean Laurel Lance.

There’s an argument to see why John Diggle would trust his brother, but it made Laurel again look ridiculous by how willing she is to convince Oliver to trust Andy once the Emerald Archer begins to suspect that the younger Diggle brother may not be as reformed as he claims.

Again, the poor characterisation of Laurel Lance continues, with her regularly being made to look like the show’s most braindead character since Arrow began in 2012. Sadly for Laurel, her blind faith and trust here would ultimately lead to her downfall.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.