WARNING! SPOILERS!

After the slightly disappointing episode of last week’s Midnight City, it’s clear that Season 3 hasn’t been Arrow’s finest. However, with Canaries, the team behind the show was able to deliver one of the finer episodes of the season as several major revelations happened this week that really worked.

Let’s start with the big one. Thea now knows that Oliver is the Arrow, and her reaction was superb. She wasn’t bitter and resentful at him and that showed how much her character has grown over the course of the series, because Season 2 Thea would have turned her back on him pretty much instantly. However, what she’s been through since then has changed her, and the training from Malcolm has helped. So it looks like with Malcolm now supporting Oliver, things are getting really interesting indeed with lots of potential for some great story developments. One of things that I loved about this episode was that they got rid of the pointless DJ/Assassin Chase, and showed that once again, the series is going in the right direction for sure.

As well as the reveal concerning Thea, the other major part of this week’s episode was Laurel’s storyline. It continued to impress and be one of the stronger moments of the show this season, which again, has really turned around from the last two seasons where she was, like with Thea, among the weakest links in the show. This time round, we got to see Vertigo-induced versions of both Sara and her father fight against her in what proved to be a series of fantastic scenes. It was a great way to bring Caity Lotz back without actually bringing the character back from the dead, and it was handled pretty well indeed. However, what was more important was that Laurel’s dad (who, like Roy, knew that she was Laurel and not Sara under the mask) found out that Sara was dead, at last. It packed a pretty hefty punch and it was good to see that the cat is now finally out of the bag even if the after-effects are still yet to be dealt with properly.

The inclusion of the good Vertigo this week was fantastic to see as well. Werner Zytle really left an intimidating presence as the crime boss continued to make himself known as a reliably entertaining villain, and with this being his second outing following his role in the season 3 premiere The Calm, it was great to see him have another chance to impress with Peter Stormare delivering a pretty solid job. Once again, it’s great to see that there’s still room for his character to return in the future, which would be awesome.

It’s also worth noting the Hong Kong flashbacks this week which finally improved, especially towards the end, which seem to move the action away from that setting. Oliver still isn’t freed from Amanda Waller’s clutches just yet, and with the ending scene showing a return to Starling, there’s lots of room for this to develop going forward, especially as it brings Oliver so close to reuniting with his family. Although, as we know from the present day storyline, he won’t presumably be able to meet them.

And speaking of people reuniting, next week’s episode will feature the return of Slade Wilson, with Thea and Oliver returning to the Island. It’ll be great to see Manu Bennett back on the show in The Return, and hopefully he’ll be once again playing a major role in the season to come. That could certainly be what the series needs to return to the form that it has seemed to have lost lately. I certainly can’t wait to see what happens, and based on what we’ve seen in The Canaries, I’m optimistic that the second half of Season 3 should be very exciting indeed.