In the future, Dinah’s Canary network fights to survive. In the past, the mistake Dinah made that led to the creation of the network comes home to roost,

Damn, this is fun. It’s difficult to tell whether, with an end in sight, Arrow is taking some time to empty the locker but it ultimately doesn’t matter. This is an exceptionally fun episode in a season that’s never been less than entertaining to date. Remember at the top of the year where we were all ‘Oh Diaz as a regular? Hmm. Frowny face.’ Yeah, no. Most fun season the show has had in years.

Which I’m telling you upfront why? Because this my friends is also not really an episode of Arrow. There’s a different, and very familiar logo, Ollie spends the episode on the sofa and the cast includes Dinah, Laurel, Felicity, the 2048 cast and Captain Sara Lance. My friends, this? Is a Birds of Prey stealth pilot. And it’s wonderful.

Birds of Prey, as a team, have been around in the Bat comics for Bat years. The idea is simple: Oracle is the brains, Canary is the fists (And feet. And knees. And elbows. And headbutts.) and crime is in big trouble. As the series expanded, they folded in Huntress, Lady Blackhawk and others and it remains a beloved and frequently referenced series. Get the Gail Simone written run, trust me, it’s an all time great.

It’s also what this episode is built on. Both in the future and the present we have the Canaries working together and embodying the spirit of cooperation and hope that the present day plot explores. These are tough, hard-bitten women who have made some amazing mistakes and done some amazing things and both of those are central to the episode. In the future, Felicity battles her best idea at its worst. In the present, Dinah faces the possibility that she wasn’t just wrong about Laurel, it may have hurt people and hurt people badly. Laurel for her part, in one of the best turns Katie Cassidy has had in the role, is spiky, angry, hurt and ultimately who she always was. That in turn leads to a very well judged flash forward and the first time in this show’s weird, often deeply badly wigged history, where a character’s hair has carried a legit emotional punch. Season 7, one to go and they’ve even made the wigs a thing.

Verdict: These women need their own show. That is literally the one issue with the episode. My hope is that recent hints that perhaps 2048 is not going away with Arrow may speak to this group too. They deserve another outing and a few seasons of their own. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart