Welcome back, guys!

Hope everyone had a nice break. I’m trying to thaw out from the frigid Midwest cold and ice, but ready to bring this column to you.

I guess the best place to start would be with the obvious: Laurel!

Errr… fake Laurel, that is.

I sort of thought something was up when we saw her at the end of last episode. Part of me believed it could really be her, but another (bigger) part of me knew it had to be some kind of work.

Admittedly, I rushed to the “what a cop out!” thought. But as the episode went on, I started liking the fact that it wasn’t this Earth’s Laurel. 

Why?

Two major reasons:

  1. Parallel Earths
  2. Prometheus’ Reach

Now let me expand on these points…


Black Siren from Season 2 of The Flash

Firstly, I’m a big fan of Parallel Earths and alternate realities—both in comics and in scientific theory (they’re just fun to think about). In the comic book world, they present an endless amount of ideas, characters and storylines. Just look at the DCU and everything the Multiverse encompasses—the possibilities of things to come are literally endless. Obviously, the same goes for Arrow. We got a taste of Parallel Earths with the crossover event a couple months back, but now it looks like it could be more of a regular thing with Black Siren returning to crash the party on Ollie’s Earth.

By the way, I want to mention the commenter in my last Couch Club column who suggested that Laurel might be Black Siren. Way to call it, sir! That’s some solid speculating!

On to my second reason. What does Black Siren’s return say about Prometheus? I’d say a ton. I mean, we understand that he’s not your run-of-the-mill villain. Over the weeks, we’ve learned he’s not only more than capable of taking on Ollie and the recruits from a physical standpoint, but he can be devastating in the psychological department, too. Tonight, we learned that he can break into STAR Labs (what was up with that security footage?), recruit a villain from another Earth and continue his quest to destroy Ollie and everyone around him. I’d say he’s bordering on Lex Luthor territory in terms of the lengths he’ll go to ruin Oliver’s life.

We’ll just have to see over the next few weeks what Prometheus has in store for the future.

Speaking of the future, how about that ending? Actually, let me say this first: I’m so glad it looks like Felicity won’t be the next Black Canary. I thought they were kind of hinting that she might be leaning that way. I don’t think I could buy into her in that role. But I’m kind of curious to see who this mystery woman with the legit fighting skills is. My guess is her appearance is foreshadowing to a new Black Canary.

While we’re on the topic of strong women…please tell me that was Talia al Ghul in the flashback. Looking at Ollie’s skills set, it would make a lot of sense if she trained him at some point because of their similar styles. Not only that, but who wouldn’t want some Batman ties bleeding over into Arrow? Too sweet.        

Now let’s get to my favorite takeaway from this episode.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I’m a big Mr. Terrific fan. If you’ve noticed, this season has been a slow burn with developing his character in terms of his tech side. They’ve been driving home that he’s struggling to hold his own on the physical side of things—as evident by him constantly having his arse handed to him. Tonight signaled the first time we’re starting to see him use his brains to develop tech to aid in the field.

I couldn’t be happier. Could it be that the development of the machine that neutralizes Black Siren’s voice and subsequent conversation with Wild Dog (who encourages him to focus on building tech) is foreshadowing for the introduction of his trademark T-Spheres?? If so, I’ll be like Homer thinking about an ice cold Duff: “Mmmm…T-Spheres…”

Until next episode,
Matt
 

Matt Ross covers Arrow as a part of the #DCTV Couch Club. Catch new episodes of Arrow Tuesdays at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. CST) on The CW.