As Team Arrow is grieving for their fallen comrade, a mysterious girl has taken up Laurel's mantle.
- Alliterative Title: Canary Cry
- Bait-and-Switch:
- For a brief moment, we think that Laurel somehow survived, but it's just some teenager who stole her gear.
- Also, the opening scene appears at first to be Laurel's funeral, but it's actually a flashback to Tommy's.
- Bastardly Speech: Mayor Adams doesn't hesitate to blame ADA Laurel Lance's death on the Black Canary when announcing the reestablishment of the Anti-Vigilante Taskforce.
- Book Ends:
- In her final flashback scene, Laurel is wearing the exact same clothes she was wearing in her very first scene in the pilot.
- At Tommy's funeral, Oliver can't bring himself to read the eulogy. At Laurel's funeral, he can.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Nyssa comes back to attend the funeral.
- Dinah finally makes another appearance, after Alex Kingston's unavailability forced some awkward writing on how she found out about Sara's resurrection.
- Alex Davis, Oliver's former campaign assistant, makes his return.
- But Now I Must Go: Flashback-Oliver decides to return to Lian Yu to deal with his self-loathing and grief regarding Tommy's death.
- Call-Back: The events of the mid-season finale are connected to the Black Canary poser's backstory.
- The Cameo: Barry at Laurel's funeral, although it's just footage reused from the premiere.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Evelyn Sharp will go on to play a major role in Season 5.
- Continuity Nod: Quentin in his grief is quick to name all the people in the Arrowverse who were thought to be dead, but weren't.
- Corrupt Politician: Ruvé working with the bad guys doesn't change the fact that she's the lawful mayor of Star City. Diggle's attack on her gives Ruvé everything she needs to issue an arrest warrant for all of Team Arrow.
- Cosmic Plaything: The Lance Family. This is the third time that Quentin and Dinah have lost one of their daughters (meaning they have now seen their children die more times then they've been born, and unlike Sara, Laurel isn't coming back).
- Death Is Cheap: In a world where people really do come back from the dead via supernatural means, why wouldn't the Lances hold out hope that Laurel will come back to them like Sara did?
- Double-Meaning Title: Aside from the obvious that the episode deals with the effects of Laurel's death had for her loved ones, the other main conflict of the episode is about the retrieval of her eponymous weapon that was stolen.
- Due to the Dead: The main premise of the episode.
- Excuse Me While I Multitask: A Taskforce agent gets the drop on Oliver. Oliver is busy talking on the commlink, so he throws a tranq-dart at the man and continues on without even acknowledging the incident.
- Five Stages of Grief:
- Quentin is initially in denial when he tries to insist Laurel isn't really dead, jumps to bargaining when he talks to Nyssa about finding a way to bring her back to life, and reaches grief when he finally breaks down. Whether or not he ever makes it to acceptance is debatable.
- Diggle by contrast spends most of the episode firmly locked in anger.
- Flashback: While each season has at least one episode where the flashback is something other than Oliver's adventures five years ago, this is notable in that it actually takes place during the events of the series—specifically, between the 1st season finale and the 2nd season premiere.
- Fond Memories That Could Have Been: The flashbacks shown leave many thoughts regarding the different paths that Oliver and Laurel could have taken if they hadn't chosen to end it (or rather, if Oliver hadn't choosen to end it).
- Foregone Conclusion: Oliver's comment about never being able to defeat the idol's magic suggests that his flashback arc for this season won't have a happy ending.
- Foreshadowing:
- Ruvé is heard discussing the development of the sewer system over the phone. Two weeks later, we learn just what it is she's been really building underground.
- Dinah Lance is hopeful because whenever Sara was presumed dead she always came back to them, so maybe Laurel will as well. She's right, but not in the way she expects.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Evelyn's missing persons profile which Felicity pulls up details her personal history, notably her high school accomplishments and last status update: "Who do we turn to when our heroes fail us?"
- Giving Someone the Pointer Finger:Ruve: (pointing at the Green Arrow) Arrest him!Oliver: I've seen this movie before...
- Godzilla Threshold: Darhk's murder of Laurel has convinced Oliver to dispense with his usual policy and just kill him.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The reaction of the Anti-Vigilante Taskforce to the Green Arrow shooting a grappling arrow into the rotunda overhead so he can zipline away, followed by an Offscreen Crash as he presumably smashes through the stained glass windows, is simply to take a smart step back and do nothing.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Thanks to John and Evelyn's rash actions, Ruvé is able to turn the city against Team Arrow. However, Oliver tells everyone at Laurel's funeral that she was the real Black Canary, in order to preserve her legacy.
- Internal Reveal: Oliver reveals publicly that Laurel was the Black Canary.
- Invincible Villain: Discussed. Oliver believes that Darhk's magic makes him too powerful to defeat but Felicity refuses to believe it.
- It's All My Fault:
- Diggle spends most of the episode convinced that Laurel's death is his fault because he trusted Andy.
- Felicity blames herself for not being with the team during Laurel's final mission.
- Averted with Oliver, who notes that he used to think this way, but he makes it clear that he blames Darhk and he's going to kill him.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Diggle pistol-whips Ruvé Adams, Dahrk's Smug Snake evil wife.
- Legacy Character: Evelyn Sharp spends part of this episode as the second Black Canary. Her actions nearly ruin the reputation of the real Black Canary, but Oliver manages to redeem the name at Laurel's funeral.
- Little Miss Badass: As Felicity describes Evelyn Sharp, she is a 16-year-old "badass in the making" who excels both at academics and fitness.
- Manly Tears: Every single major male character sans Damien Dahrk shed them throughout the episode.
- Match Cut: An angel statue at the cemetery becomes a picture on Flashback-Laurel's wall.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Nyssa has to tell Quentin she destroyed the Lazarus Pit, you can tell from her face that she regrets it, especially since it was just to spite Merlyn.
- Mythology Gag: Evelyn Sharp's middle name is "Crawford", a reference to Evelyn Crawford/Starling, a character from Birds of Prey.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Diggle's attack on Ruvé gives her an excuse to reestablish the Anti-Vigilante Taskforce.
- Not Named in Opening Credits: Grant Gustin is not credited for his role as Barry Allen at the end of the episode. Justified, however, because the footage was shot for the season premiere and was simply re-used here.
- Offscreen Breakup: An interesting subversion in that the flashbacks shown are Oliver and Laurel's said Offscreen Breakup between the Season 1 finale and the Season 2 premiere.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Diggle, who is The Heart of Team Arrow and consistently its Only Sane Man, goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Felicity is actively encouraging Oliver to kill Darhk, a sign of how much Laurel's murder affected her.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The episode deals with Quentin and Dinah (the former, especially) coming into terms regarding Laurel's death.
- Out of Order: This episode takes place after Barry regained his Super-Speed. The Flash episode that aired the previous night ends with the planning of regaining said power.
- Plot Hole: It's never explained how Evelyn managed to bypass Cisco's security lock on the Canary Cry or how she connected Ruvé to HIVE.
- The Power of Legacy: A major focus in this episode is Laurel's legacy as the Black Canary. Team Arrow fears that Evelyn's actions in Laurel's costume will leave the Black Canary remembered as nothing but a murderer. To make sure that both Laurel and her secret identity get the legacy they deserve, Oliver reveals that Laurel was the Black Canary at her funeral, causing her to be remembered as the hero she truly was. Laurel's epitaph even reads "The Black Canary" as a reflection of this.
- The Reveal: We finally find out whom Oliver said he'd kill in the premiere - Laurel's murderer Damien Darhk.
- Rewatch Bonus: During the first scene when the camera pans past the main characters in the hospital hallway, a random young woman wanders right through the middle of them, unusually prominent for an extra. We later recognize her as Evelyn, and this was likely the moment that set the whole episode into motion.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Evelyn wants revenge on HIVE for killing her parents in their gas chambers.
- Secret-Keeper: The hospital staff decide that Laurel being the Black Canary falls under medical confidentiality and don't tell the authorities. Unfortunately they won't let Oliver know which patient took the Canary Cry gear for the same reason.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Notably, Donna isn't around for her boyfriend and daughter until two weeks later, and Curtis reappears the week after that.
- Stranger Behind the Mask: We learn fairly quickly on that the impostor Black Canary is not anyone we already know, but a new threat of the week.
- Ungrateful Bitch: The first words out of Ruvé's mouth after Oliver talks Evelyn out of killing her? "Arrest him!"
- Villainous Valour: Ruvé does not flinch or beg when either Diggle or Evelyn are pointing a gun in her face. She refuses to let her security team evacuate her and when Evelyn puts down her gun her reaction is more contempt than relief.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Ruvé, since there's no official connection between her and Darhk.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Evelyn chews out the Green Arrow for being so focused on rescuing his friends that he neglected to save anyone else from HIVE's base at Reddington Industries. Diggle reminds Oliver that those people were there of their own free will and attacked them the moment their cells were opened, but given HIVE's ability to brainwash people, this doesn't make Oliver feel any better.
- Oliver chews out Diggle for trying to kill Ruvé, pointing out it won't achieve anything to kill Star City's new and powerful mayor.
- What Would X Do?: Oliver talks down Evelyn by asking her what would the Black Canary want her to do.
- Would Hit a Girl: Diggle pistol-whips Ruvé Adams in the face.
