Arrow Season 4: 9 Ups And 6 Downs From 'Eleven-Fifty-Nine'
1. Laurel Lance, RIP
When I first heard that it was going to be Laurel Lance “in the grave”, I thought that was a great thing, but not for the same reasons why I thought it was great by the time that this episode came to a close.
Initially, with so much damage having been done to the character of Laurel Lance/Black Canary, it felt that Laurel would be better served in death than she would be by anything that the writing team could do for her, with them seemingly intent on constantly marking her out as a joke of a character.
By the time Eleven-Fifty-Nine came to an end, though, the death of Laurel Lance was a major “Up” for a difference reason: it was handled brilliantly in how shocking, emotive and earth-shattering it really felt.
Sure, Arrow is a show that so often has consequences for the actions of its characters, but this took things to an entirely different level. This was Team Arrow suffering the death of one of their own, which completely changes the outlook of the team and of the show as a whole. Consequences can be big, and now the safety net has been removed from Ollie and Co.
Not only was Laurel flat-lining handled brutally brilliantly, but this was a great moment in how those around her reacted, with those reactions and the repercussions of her death set to play out even further as Season 4 continues for its final five episodes.