Arrow Season 8 Review: 11 Ups & 2 Downs From 'Green Arrow And The Canaries'

5. More Exploration Of Dinah Drake

Dinah Drake's introduction back in Arrow's fifth season was initially rather divisive because it appeared as if the show had lost sight of what it should have been doing with the Black Canary mantle, but the character quickly won fans over due to Juliana Harkavy's formidable performance. Since the end of Season 5, however, the character has been shifted from one storyline to another without receiving the development necessary for such arcs. And it seems that the reason for this is just down to the fact that there were too many characters.

Here, however, Dinah finally begins to break through that glass ceiling. She's still a little behind Laurel and Mia in terms of contribution to the narrative, but that's only because it was the former's plan they were executing and the latter who that plan was executed on. Dinah has always contributed to the narrative, so a slight backseat here is okay, because it allowed the writers to spend some time delving into her character instead.

Seeing her in 2040 as a bar owner (a bar that was brilliantly titled The Fish Net), unable to comprehend why she never existed and yet fully accepting of it, it felt like we were seeing her for the first time. This is the engaging character that couldn't breathe on Arrow because of the amount of people on that show, and she's finally beginning to come into her own. And now, after all this time, Juliana Harkavy is getting a well-deserved chance to shine.