The titular hero takes a backseat on his own show once again to give some other characters air time. A recent subplot takes center stage, more of Emiko’s background is investigated, and another character takes their leave. We also get to see a bit more of the future story (which I’m still hoping can be avoided). We also get a guest star from another show on “Lost Canary.”

The show opens with Laurel back in her Black Siren gear, making a grand entrance and tearing through some thugs. She’s coming to pay a call on an old friend, Shadow Thief. In the comics, the Shadow Thief is a Hawkman foe who has a gadget that gives him some weird powers. Here, Shadow Thief is a talented female thief with a penchant for knives. They were apparently introduced by Diaz when he was still a going concern. After having been outed by Emiko last episode, Laurel has decided to go back to being a supervillain. Their reunion gets interrupted near the end by a call that Laurel ignores.

 

The other end of the phone call is Felicity, trying to get Laurel to go out for one of her weird food cravings, and checking in on her friend. Felicity and Oliver talk about what’s going on with Laurel, and Oliver’s new plan: solving Emiko’s mother’s murder to try and get some leverage on the newest evil Queen sibling. We learn that Rene is sitting out this episode because he has a “school thing with Zoe.”

 

The ubiquitous Channel 52 News is covering the news about Laurel’s past and warrants being issued for her arrest. I’m not really clear for what; so far all she seems to be accused of is talking to Diaz. At any rate, Felicity protests how Laurel is being treated, but Dinah isn’t exactly sympathetic. Both of them have their minds made up, and they’re more talking at than to each other. Black Siren and her new partner, meanwhile, hit the back room office of a dry cleaner that has some hidden features.

 

Back at the bunker, Felicity has been digging and come up with some reasons to get Dinah to ease up on Laurel. Once again, Overwatch and Black Canary have completely different agendas, and aren’t about to listen to each other. Off on their own, Green Arrow and Spartan check out a house looking for leads, and end up finding one of the Longbow Hunters, which leads to more questions than answers.

 

Laurel is… somewhere or other working on a computer. In this world, that’s pretty much an invitation, which Felicity takes full advantage of, and hacks in for a video chat. Felicity is still trying to get Laurel to come back into the light, and Laurel isn’t having it. She says some nasty things and finds a way to get past Felicity’s takeover of her computer. Laurel isn’t a techie, but she’s got some wits about her.

 

Black Siren and Shadow Thief go for a diamond heist next, cutting through the guards easily enough but then running into Black Canary. Laurel and Dinah have some words, which is when Laurel gets a surprise. Felicity made some long-distance calls, and White Canary Sara Lance is there with the first mechanical version of the Canary Cry. The fight is a lot more even now, which leads to a typical mid-show inconclusive battle with the bad guys getting away. If Felicity has had the capacity to whip one of these mechanical cries up, why didn’t she give it to Dinah when she first lost her cry?

 

Felicity goes to see Dinah at the SCPD, teasing her that the team always comes back to the Bunker after a mission. Dinah, less playfully, says she had work to do. They argue some more over Laurel, her choices, and giving a friend support. We also get some background on Shadow Thief, who’s never much more than a plot point through the episode. Laurel and Shadow Thief have their own debriefing, with wine and future villainous plans being hatched.

 

Oliver and Diggle make some progress on their own investigation, but once again end up with more questions. In a flashback to earlier episodes, Sara is doing the salmon ladder as Felicity walks in, which leads to some nostalgia and some flirting, which strikes me as very out of character for Felicity twice over. For one thing, she doesn’t babble and trip over herself, and for another, she’s always stuck me as straight. Yes, I know they were probably kidding around, but it still seemed a bit odd to me. Sara is surprised to hear that Felicity almost killed Diaz, and Felicity drops more bad news in that Dinah is playing by the rules and White Canary isn’t one of the “authorized vigilantes.” After some talk about redemption, Felicity leaves to help Dinah confront the villains of the week. Again, odd choice twice over. Felicity pretty much never goes in the field, and she decides to do it while she’s pregnant? Dinah and Felicity’s hunt ends with a fairly clever booby trap and Felicity being shocked at what almost happened.

 

Back at the Bunker, Dinah grudgingly admits they could have used White Canary, and Sara generously offers her help again. The three women go over the evidence from the attack, and Sara gets an idea. Felicity and Dinah play another round of “I should have done more” vs. “She’s a monster.” Considering Felicity’s general disposition and Dinah’s ugly history with this Laurel, both sides are understandable. Oliver and Diggle try and sort out what to do with their new information.

 

Sara’s idea leads her to her father’s grave, which is where she finds Laurel. They’re both in awe of the “original” Laurel, and Sara shares her less than stellar past, impressing Laurel. They argue over how redemption works, and Sara tells her sister’s counterpart that you atone for the past by facing it, not running from it. Laurel decides she is who she is, and I’m sure Popeye would be proud. Black Siren meets up with Shadow Thief so they can go stage their next robbery.

 

The target this time is a bomb inside a huge weapons storehouse of some kind, and the villains split up to find it. Black Siren runs into Canaries White and Black, and then learns even Felicity is there to try and talk her down. This episode is supposed to be inspired in part by the Birds of Prey comic, but I’ll point out Oracle was smart enough to not go into the field, and she wasn’t even pregnant. Between them, the heroes persuade Laurel to switch sides. Again. Shadow Thief pops up, claiming to have been expecting this (then why did she let Laurel go off alone?) and goes with plan B, lots and lots of thugs. This, of course, turns into a big fight as the action-oriented characters somehow keep getting into hand to hand range with the heavily armed gunsels, while Felicity sets the bomb to blow up and take out the warehouse. They barely make it outside and Felicity shows she’s the smart one as the three fighters get caught in the dramatic blast and knocked off their feet while Overwatch immediately ducked to the side after making it out the door and out of the bomb blast. They triumphantly strut off commenting about “Birds of Justice.” They toast each other in the Bunker, Laurel covers for Felicity’s pregnancy, then decides the way to handle her past is going back to Earth 2 where it all started. How she’s going to get there isn’t mentioned. In a very overdue moment, Sara leaves the Canary Cry gadget for Dinah to use.

 

Felicity gets home and catches up with Oliver, who is remarkably mellow about his pregnant wife going out in the field. They end their day on the couch together. Sara and Laurel get another scene at Quentin’s grave, talking about his memory and not being alone. The sort-of sisters part on good terms.

 

In the future scenes, Mia and Zoe get chased around by a heavily armed and armored thug from Galaxy One. Mia continues her rebellious streak while both Zoe and Dinah try and talk some sense into her. Apparently Galaxy One has been striking back since the attack on their headquarters, and many of the Canaries have been killed. Mia just wants to attack their pursuer, while the others suggest some degree of planning and caution. Dinah tries to explain to Mia that the Canaries are about supporting other women (I guess there aren’t any male heroes in the future, or none that we’ve seen or heard of), but Mia isn’t listening. True to form, she goes out, gets herself in serious trouble, and then is rescued by the timely arrival of Black Siren/Canary, who I guess came back from Earth 2 after all.

 

What I liked: I was a huge fan of Birds of Prey, especially under Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone’s writing, so the nod to them was nice. Felicity and Dinah spending so much time arguing about Laurel made perfect sense given both of their histories. It’s always great to see Sara Lance, who I think spent more time in costume and using her codename here than she has all season on Legends of Tomorrow.

 

What I didn’t: Sara having the artificial cry and Dinah not didn’t make any sense to me. There were far too many times when the heroines managed to get in arm’s reach of the guys with guns without a good explanation of how. Laurel flip-flopping so many times this season is getting old. How are they going to explain her disappearance if she goes back home? I agree with Diggle that Oliver is sounding like he’s going soft on Emiko once again.

 

It was a decent episode. I’ll give it a 3.5 for the Sara appearance and the nod to Birds of Prey.