Arrow Season 8 Premiere Review: 10 Ups & 3 Downs From 'Starling City'

3. Laurel Lance Is The Black Canary

Just as Oliver Queen prepared for an incoming arrow, that arrow was swatted away by a familiar tonfa. And as he looked up, he saw none other than Earth-2's Laurel Lance - the formerly evil Black Siren who had completed her journey towards redemption in Season 7 and, in the process, became the hero we all knew she was destined to be. Triumphant, heroic and on her home turf, she was finally the Black Canary.

Everything about her appearances in the episode, from her incredible new costume to the fact that she was the one running the heroic operation from her very own Canary Bunker, was like a love-letter to the comic book Black Canary - and it was nothing short of wonderful to see.

A role that Katie Cassidy was consistently robbed of playing throughout the show's more questionable seasons, the spotlight was firmly on the Black Canary here and it was well worth the wait. And even though the episode could have benefited from utilising her a little more, that can't take away how much of an asset she ended up being.

Amell, Cassidy and Ramsey have always been the show's definitive core three, so it's only fitting that this final season is the one that finally remembers that.

And speaking of Black Canary references...