User blog:Eobard95/Is Laurel in 5x09 actually Earth-2 Laurel?

I think we can all agree that the ending of Arrow 5x09 caught us off guard when Laurel Lance / Black Canary came back to life, but is it really her? I am 92% convinced that the Laurel we saw is really Earth-2 Laurel / Black Siren. I think her appearance given that everything that just happened is far too convenient especially when there’s a homicidal maniac hell bent on destroying Oliver’s life running around, so why let up now? When something sounds too good to be true it usually is. I think Prometheus somehow found Earth-2 Laurel and convinced her to masquerade as her Earth-1 doppelganger to give Oliver false hope, that he’s been reunited with the love of his life only to later learn it’s not really her. Or alternatively Laurel-2 could have escaped the pipeline herself and is simply trying to take her doppelganger’s place to hide in plain sight.

If this is right what I hope happens is she finds some kind of redemption for herself, after all Earth-1 could be a fresh start for her, and grows genuine about Oliver’s cause and becomes the next Black Canary. Laurel-1 did make Oliver promise back in 5x01 not to let her be the last Canary maybe this is how he could honor that last request. It would also be more faithful to the comics as Laurel-2 is a meta-human from Earth-2 just like the actual Black Canary from the comics is. A nice further addition would be if she was named "Dinah Drake" like the original Black Canary so we don't have to call her Earth-2 Laurel or Laurel-2. It would be interesting seeing Arrow utilizing Multiverse for a change rather than just Flash, after all what's the point of having a shared universe if they don't borrow each other's resources from time to time?

Wendy Mericle did say that "Laurel Lance will return alive and well and Flashpoint may have something to do with it", but remember the producers either lie or twist their words all the time. Mericle said Laurel will return but she didn't specify if it was Earth-1 or Earth-2, and she didn't say return back from the dead. She also said Flashpoint may have something to do with it, maybe she means that Earth-2 Laurel wasn't imprisoned in the pipeline like before and may have escaped before Barry could detain her. Yes most think Flashpoint could have spared Earth-1 Laurel but that means she wouldn't have been dead to being with and she'd have been with Team Arrow this whole time, yet she hasn't been. This raises more questions like where has she been this entire time and why put her family through 8 months of grief, especailly Quentin whose now in rehab.

People have speculated that Sara is going to kill the 1987 Damien Darhk. However if she did Season 4 would be erased and yet right now the events of that season still remain intact Laurel's death included, so if 1987 Damien is going to die it would have happened already and Laurel would have returned earlier. True alterations sometimes take time to take effect but 1987 Damien is still alive and Laurel has turned up alive out before we have seen such Darhk die if he is going to at all that is.Even so Oliver shouldn't be aware of Laurel's deathto begin with because, again, it technically never would have happened as far as he's concerned. That just raises more questions as to where Laurel has been for 8 months and why choose now of alltimes toshow herself.

The timing of her appearance is way too convenient given what has just happened. Oliver just killed Billy, Diggle has been apprehended by the authorities and Evelyn has betrayed the team, and yet Laurel shows up now of all times? Yes Laurel could have faked her death but again there are too many implications against it. If it was to protect Quentin from Damien Darhk then yea that I could do, but she would have returned after he died and it’s been 8 months. Why put Oliver, Quentin and Sara through that much grief for so long? Rip Hunter and Vandal Savage, two men from 2166, have both all but confirmed as well that Laurel stays dead. Again Flashpoint may have altered her fate to faking her death but I have a feeling Sara would have discovered this aberration, especially now that she knows about Flashpoint and the changes it caused.

When she turned around and said “Hi Ollie” she kinda sounded kinda nervous and she even twitched a little like she’s playing a part and hoping she doesn’t screw up. Which brings up the question why would she be nervous around him? True she may be responding like “yea I got a few things to explain...” but I still don’t think Laurel-1 would fake her death and drop off the grid for 8 months and let her family suffer.

Just a theory but just looking at facts we know that Earth-1 Laurel is dead and Earth-2 Laurel isn’t and hoping this isn’t just a hallucination again, I think we can assume it’s Earth-2 Laurel. Her becoming the next Black Canary has been speculated for some time now and the producers do usually listen to us, unfortunately they listened to the wrong stuff and decided to do Olicity. Ugh! Maybe this time they could get it right and adopt a theory and storyline more than a few fans have speculated, of something that’s actually interesting.