Poor Quentin Lance.
He suffered through a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week on Arrow Season 4 Episode 4.
With actor Paul Blackthorne at the top of his game, this installment of The CW hit found Laurel taking her dad to where she had hidden the newly-resurrected Sara (to whom Lance has already said goodbye twice, remember).
Was Lance happy to have his child back? No, because “this isn’t back,” he said. “This isn’t mu daughter.”
And it was hard to blame him when we saw Sara shackled to the wall, acting like some kind of feral beast.
Already shadily involved with Damien Dahrk, Lance asked the former League member how to handle the situation, to which Darhk replied:
“Father to father, if it was my daughter, I’d put her down.
So Darhk is a father? Noted.
Toward the end of the hour, Lance went to follow this advice, only for Laurel to stop him and for Lance to break down in tears.
Elsewhere, Lance learned that members of anti-vigilante task force he brought back during Oliver’s absence have gone rogue, stealing drug shipments for resale.
They aren’t criminals, their leader claims, they are just victims of a “dying city,” doing what they can to provide for their loved ones. (Good thing Oliver is officially now running for Mayor, huh?!?)
Eventually, Team Arrow defeats these enemies, although not before leader Liza (played by Rutina Wesley) got the drop on Oliver.
It took Quentin talking down the good-cop-turned-bad-cop with a rousing speech about believing in the city that to save the day.
Finally, Oliver caught Lance meeting with Darhk via the cop cameras. This led to a tremendously tense scene between the characters.
“You don’t get to pass judgement on me!” Lance bellowed, only for Oliver to respond: “You always held yourself up as better than me, and you were. Until tonight.”
Not even an explanation about protecting Laurel could save Lance here, with Oliver telling him to “stop hiding behind your daughters.”
In the end, Lance went to resign, only for Oliver to come up with a different idea:
Keep your badge. Be the man on the “inside” and help them take down Dahrk.
So that’s the set up we have heading into Arrow Season 4 Episode 5.
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