Team GATV Roundtable: Looking Back At Arrow Season 5

What did you think of Tina being “Dinah Drake” and the new Black Canary with the sonic cry?

CRAIG: I thought the notion that she was “Dinah Drake” was frankly kind of brilliant, even though people might cry foul that that’s the name of Laurel’s mother and “Dinah” is the first part of “Dinah Laurel Lance.” A TV show about a Green Arrow needs a Black Canary, and if Laurel is dead, that certainly does the trick.

It goes against my previous answer wanting fewer people in the lair, but I do feel that Dinah was underused in the later episodes of the season. I get it; there’s a lot of ground to cover… but it’s almost as though she was introduced with a big splash and then pushed to the background a bit. Hopefully in Season 6 we will learn more about her.

STEPHANIE: Love love love Dinah, but I’m rather conflicted about my love for Dinah. I enjoy her level of snark, her strength, her vulnerability and humanity while being a meta, and that she uses a bo staff. She’s been an engaging and unique addition to Team Arrow both as Dinah and as Black Canary, and I look forward to learning more about her in the upcoming season. However, the fact that she’s a replacement Black Canary bothers me. It makes it seem like they either killed off Laurel for shock value, which isn’t a valid reason to kill someone, or they killed Laurel because they felt like they made a mistake with her alter ego and needed to replace her, and that’s just awkward. Plus, it’s far too convenient that there’s another character in this universe with a canary cry who just so happens to have the same first name as Laurel.

MATT: I eye-rolled big; I’m not going to lie. I like Dinah and I like what she brings to the team, but the whole method to essentially erase the Dinah Lance they had to replace her with one they wanted instead was pretty ham-fisted. I get the impulse to name her Dinah Drake, but the fact that there were three Dinahs on the show, and it’s the kind of name that’s more or less died out in the collective cultural consciousness, is a bit to convenient and hard to swallow. And on a show where they went to the spirit realm to rescue a character’s soul, that’s saying a lot. That said, it’s kind of fun that they managed to incorporate some Canary history and legacy into the new character with the name, as well as making her a metahuman with the organic cry. In a sense, she combines all of the Canaries into a single package.

And thankfully, they found a way to bring Katie Cassidy back in and give a new spin on her own character. It’s a cheat, to be sure, but I’ve enjoyed her as Black Siren. I’m curious to see how the incorporate her into the show as a regular next season. Will she be an antagonist all year? Will she find some redemption and begrudgingly join Team Arrow? The interplay with Dinah and Laurel in the bunker could be quite fun.

MELISSA: I am not convinced Arrow needed yet another iteration of Black Canary on the show. Once Thea left, the team needed another female fighter (or two, let’s dream big) but I didn’t understand the need for one that specifically duplicated Laurel’s and Sara before her (and even briefly Evelyn when she stole the costume after Laurel’s death) skill set.

The promise Laurel exacted from Oliver – to always have a Canary on the team – also made no sense since when she made her request, she didn’t think she was on her deathbed. She’d even just rededicated her life to being the Black Canary.

The whole situation was contrived and forced, BUT if they were going to bring in another Canary, allowing her to have the benefit of a recognized, comic canon name was smart and I’m sure made it easier for some to accept her. I also think the show did a good job of easing her onto the team, not rushing her storylines and just letting her find her place within the show. I like Dinah probably because of that.

I think that slow transition let the writers find her voice and made it possible to accept yet another new character on to the team.

I have one big complaint, her sonic scream; the sound effect made me think of a dolphin spinning through a blender. I wince every time.