User blog comment:Eobard95/Is Laurel really dead?/@comment-3221148-20160520062612

Whenever the Arrowverse writers want to make a "twist", they tease details about it in the earlier, seemingly unrelated episodes. Eobard Thawne was revealed through the introduction time travel, Hunter Zolomon stayed in two places thanks to the introduction of time remnants, and each Arrow villain had a long line of hints and flashbacks leading to their identities.

In Laurel death's case, this very season had Flashback Oliver fake Taiana's death, making it appear as if she's lost her pulse completely. This is the key to it.

Prior to Laurel's "death throes" we've had four things established on screen:

1) Darhk knows about everybody's secret identity, Laurel included

2) Oliver had to reveal Laurel's identity to the hospital

3) The doctors were sure that Laurel's going to be fine

4) Laurel asked Oliver to promise something, after which a whole scene was cut

This is not how you do a "character goodbye" episode, but it is very alike to our earlier "deaths" of Oliver and Roy. "Death" is a set-up for the next episode/season.

Then there's the next episode, with the doctor, after speaking about confidentiality, leaving the morgue, with Oliver and Laurel alone, after which Oliver hears her voice, turns around, cuts to flashback. Suspicious. And then, the funeral scene, no body is shown, the coffin is closed from the start of it. Funny if we see Laurel looking over her own funeral later, like with Sherlock, heh.

I speculate that Laurel, knowing that her identity was compromised, and that her presence would continue to make her or her dad a target, asked Oliver to help fake her death, AS both Laurel Lance and "that" Black Canary, allowing her to disappear and resume her training, before returning to Star City as the "new" Canary, just like Oliver had the Arrow "killed" and the "new" Green Arrow introduced. Darhk intends to use Quentin's daughters to have leverage over him, so if Laurel was to disappear, with no one knowing just where she is, suddenly there's no leverage and Lance can dedicate himself to fighting Darhk without worrying about his daughter's life. Of course, to keep the charade Oliver would have to lie again, and a lot, so for him it is indeed a traumatic experience, knowing that he has to lie straight to everyone's face, knowing that Laurel's alive while everybody suffers from thinking that she's dead.

In the end, I think the "new and improved" Laurel's return will be the "big twist" for the next season, and a source of drama (because Oliver had to lie to his friends, again!)

Oh, and the "Guggenheim confirmed that she's totally dead" thing? Hey, he "confirmed" that Ra's al Ghul killed Oliver, so meh. After Laurel's return is revealed, the writers can say "Laurel Lance died that day, indeed, but the Black Canary was reborn!"

I was never really a fan of Laurel's, but I've watched too much of this shit to not see how typical such a "death" is.