Arrow 100th Celebration: The Best Episodes to Date

4.04: “Beyond Redemption”

The episode where Oliver decides to enter the mayoral race, but the hour really belongs to Quentin Lance. Quentin comes face to face with his resurrected daughter Sara and it sends his world into a tailspin. On top of this, he’s dealing with a corrupt group of cops who are robbing drug busts to make some cash during hard times. Quentin reminds the of duty and how good their fight for justice. First, he has to be reminded of it, and that sets up one of the best scenes of the series as Oliver confronts Quentin in his apartment after learning he is working with Damien Darhk. Meanwhile, Felicity’s phone begins acting weird anytime she’s in Ray’s former lab, which is currently being used by Palmer Tech employee Curtis Hall.

4.05: “Haunted”

Though Sara’s body is resurrected by the Lazarus Pit in Nanda Parbat, her soul is still trapped in the netherworld, threatened to be sealed away for evil. Oliver calls in a favor from an old acquaintance, supernatural investigator and demonologist John Constantine. Constantine performs a ritual which allows Oliver and Laurel to travel to the spirit realm to rescue Sara’s soul. In the past, it’s revealed Oliver and Constantine met on Lian Yu when the Brit was brought to the island to help dastardly Baron Reiter in finding a mystic artifact. Oliver and Constantine work together to thwart Reiter’s plans and get the surly investigator off of the island. Before leaving, he transfers a mystic guarding spell to Oliver in the form of a tattoo. Sara’s soul is returned to her body in the present, and while she recovers from being a psychotic monster, she can’t help but feel something is not right.

4.06: “Lost Souls”

Felicity discovers that Ray Palmer is actually alive. The accident in the lab that led everyone to believe he was killed at the end of Season 3 actually miniaturized him. However, he’s been captured by Damien Darhk. Felicity’s guilt over seemingly abandoning Ray when he would’ve needed her most causes a bit of a rift between her and Oliver. The team organizes to rescue Ray from a H.I.V.E. facility, including Sara in her old Canary gear, fighting alongside Laurel as Black Canary. Sara can tell that the effects of the Lazarus Pit are giving her problems. The group manages to free Ray, who is stunned to discover that the world moved on after his death, seemingly with little impact from him. He decides, for the time being, to remain “dead” as far as the larger world is concerned.

4.13: “Sins of the Father”

Daughters and their fathers are at the forefront of this episode, as Nyssa challenges Malcolm Merlyn’s reign as the new Ra’s al Ghul to take over her father’s legacy. With a duel set up between the two, Oliver takes her place as League law allows as her husband. The two fight and Oliver manages to chop off Malcolm’s hand rather than kill him. He reclaims the ring and title of Ra’s al Ghul without killing Malcolm and hands them over to Nyssa. Thea has to struggle with her relationship with her birth father, Malcolm, as the bloodlust after effect of her resurrection with the Lazarus Pit nears a climax. Oliver learns from Nyssa that Malcolm is in possession of a serum called Lotus that will cure Thea. Once she has control of the League, Nyssa gives Oliver Lotus to aid Thea. Meanwhile, Felicity is reintroduced to the father that disappeared from her life when she was young. Noah Kuttler is also a cyber criminal known as the Calculator, so trust issues abound. She learns that it was actually her mother, Donna, who take Felicity and left Noah because of his criminal ways. Felicity, struggling with recently being crippled and having to use a wheelchair now, tries to allow her father into her life, but she discovers he is still too self-interested to keep in her life.

4.18: “Eleven Fifty-Nine”

The outcome of the episode is telegraphed from miles away: Laurel Lance will die at the hands of Damien Darhk. The mystery of who is in the grave that Oliver and Barry visit at the beginning of the season is revealed. And the hour doesn’t try hard to keep the obvious from being true. With Ruve Adams, aka Mrs. Darhk, elected mayor, she offers to appoint Laurel the District Attorney. Laurel decides to accept the position, if only as a means to be on the inside to see what the Darhks are up to. She goes on one last mission as the Black Canary with the team to Iron Heights, where they find that Darhk has gotten ahold of the same silly looking idol that Baron Reiter found on Lian Yu and regained his use of magic. He uses it to pin everyone down and hold Laurel hostage. He chooses to hold up the terms of his arrangement with Quentin and take his punishment out on the captain’s daughter. With an arrow, he stabs Laurel and flees. Freed, the team rushes to get Laurel to the hospital. They originally seem to be successful with Laurel looking like she’s going to recover. She admits to Oliver that she still loves him, but that she’s happy for he and Felicity. She also shares a secret before she suddenly takes a turn for the worse and passes away. The team is gutted and Quentin is naturally heartbroken for having lost a daughter once again.

4.19: “Canary Cry”

As everyone prepares for Laurel’s funeral, word hits the street of Black Canary sightings, convincing Quentin that Laurel is not dead. The team discovers a teen named Evelyn is masquerading as Black Canary to carry on the legacy. Her methods and attempt to kill Ruve Adams run counter to that legacy and Oliver has to convince her that this is not what Laurel would’ve wanted. At the funeral, Oliver reveals to the public that Laurel Lance was indeed the Black Canary and gave her life to help protect the city. Quentin has to come to grips with the fact that Laurel is actually gone. Diggle, meanwhile, takes on a huge amount of guilt for Laurel’s death over the fact that he trusted that his discovered alive brother Andy betrayed the team and was working for Darhk the whole time, leading to the circumstances that allowed Darhk to kill Laurel. The flashbacks show us Oliver trying to cope with Tommy’s death in the Season 1 finale and Laurel trying to be there for him. He becomes consumed with guilt, eventually leaving to spend time on Lian Yu where Diggle and Felicity find him at the start of Season 2. He leaves Laurel the picture of her that he kept with him during his five years “lost,” the same picture she returns to him in the hospital the night she dies.

Fans voted Episode 4.09: “Dark Waters” as their favorite episode of the season in the 2016 GreenArrowTV Awards.

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