Arrow Review: Green Arrow and The Canaries (Season 8 Episode 9)

The penultimate episode of Arrow spends the hour setting up a whole new show in the new reality created on Arrow Season 8 Episode 9, “Green Arrow and the Canaries.”

This new reality seems to introduce a Mia Smoak-Queen free of resentments, disappointment, and regrets, trading that in for graduating from college and being raised with William. The question of who raises them is a mystery that probably means to tease in the event of an actual series order—or at least, one would hope that’s the case.

Her happy life is interrupted—without her consent—when Laurel and Dinah intrude on her graduation party and give her back her memories of the life she had before Oliver reset everything during “Crisis.”

All the sadness, loss, and anger, as well as the few memories she had with her father as she got to know him, are mixed in.

Mia makes some valid points about having those memories recovered, as well as the life she’s living in this reality is a testament to what her father strived to do for her and William.

Mia: My stupid and pointless life is the one that my father sacrificed himself to give me. Don’t you dare trivialize that.

It’s heartbreaking to see her bombarded with that trauma and work through it to get to a place where she can accept the Green Arrow mantle.

After getting to know these 2040 characters over the last 2 seasons, it’s strange to see all of them take a virtual 180 on their personalities. Mia is a perfect example of that, even if it doesn’t last long.

I get that it’s a backdoor pilot, and there probably won’t be many answers since the whole point of it is to entice viewers to be invested, the lack of solutions and building out a world feels so misplaced and at times, inorganic.

The crux of Laurel’s reason for giving Mia back her memories falls flat and doesn’t feel strong enough to sustain the premise. Coming back to save Bianca Bertinelli, while a smart way to drop some information about Helena’s life since she left, feels flimsy at best.

By the end of the hour, it’s not even clear if the whole reason for bringing her into this saves Star City or Mia, introducing yet another cursed newspaper headline into the Arrowverse.

It almost feels like they set her up to fail, which paired with her nasty attitude towards the Queen who just had her entire existence turned about doesn’t exactly endear anyone to Laurel.

I mean, there may be an attempt at setting up a dynamic somewhat like Oliver and Roy in the earlier seasons, but at least with the latter, there was a bit more of care in their dynamic.

There’s also the matter of this proposed team-up. Something doesn’t gel between the trio, and it goes beyond what we saw in the initial stages of OTA forming. Oliver, Diggle, and Felicity had their disagreements and trust issues early on, but there was always something there that felt right. Chemistry beyond the adversarial.

That doesn’t come through in the hour.

Seeing JJ not as Deathstroke, but as a seemingly regular man, engaged to Mia is another strange moment and not a relationship I get used to by the end of the hour. It’s clear, though, that there is a foundation for a love triangle between the Diggle siblings and Mia.

The jury is out on that part of the hour.

Not to mention the fact that JJ’s recovery of his own memories by some unknown force sets the stage for some potential double-crossing.

Ultimately, this new world set up throughout the hour doesn’t hold the same engaging aspects that Arrow has held for me for years. Of course, even the original series took a few episodes to reel me in.

It just feels like something is missing. The one ingredient to sell me on the show. Is it the lack of the Future Team Arrow we’ve grown to know – Mia, William, Connor, and Zoe? Or is it something else?

Random Thoughts

• To see Zoe walking around and alive is one of the best things to come out of the hour.
• Who is Trevor, and are we supposed to know who he is by the time he’s revealed to be Deathstroke or part of whatever organization he is in?
• Is it essential to bring up Oliver’s romantic past with his adult daughter? What is the point of that?
• There is not enough Mia and William interacting in the hour, which is a crime. What we do get, though, is extremely sweet, especially their moment with the hozen.

What did you think of this episode of Arrow? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Arrow‘s final episode airs Tuesday, January 28 at 9/8c with a retrospective set to air before it on The CW.

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