The Fate of Laurel Lance - 10 years later
10 years ago, Season 4 Episode 18, "Eleven Fifty-Nine" aired on the CW. Its central plot development was the death of Laurel Lance at the hands of Damien Darkh. From the very beginning of the season, it was teased that one of the main characters barring Oliver would die. Similarly, the creators of the show warned that whoever died would stay dead. Sure enough, the Lazarus Pit was incapacitated after Sara was resurrected.
I knew that Laurel Lance was going to die before I started watching Arrow, having watched almost every other Arrowverse show that made reference to it. As a result, I tended to look at her through rose-colored glasses leading up to it. Still, I can understand why people would have disliked her.
However, I find her arc of overcoming her alcoholism and eventually becoming the Black Canary to be quite inspiring, if executed shakily in the latter case.
I'm pretty torn about it. On some level, I have to applaud the writers for sticking to their guns and not bringing Laurel back, as it opened story opportunities, such as giving an arc for Sara in LoT. Similarly, the introduction of Earth-2 Laurel Lance in the Flash took advantage of the shared universe, used a comic book-accurate character and kept Katie Cassidy on the show. Still, it came at the cost of a character who had a lot of potential. I've also heard it said that the writers didn't know from the start who would end up in the grave. Anyone who followed the show before and during Season 4's airing, what do you think?