Quentin Lance

"Lieutenant, I know he's breaking the law, but what we're up against is not about the law, it's about survival. We've got masks tearing our city to pieces and we're gonna need a mask to stop them."

- Quentin Lance to Frank Pike, about The Arrow

Detective Quentin Larry Lance (born 1963) is a police Detective, formerly a sergeant and officer, of the Starling City Police Department. He was partners with the late Lucas Hilton before being demoted, and was a good friend of the latter. He was reinstated as detective by Lieutenant Frank Pike when Slade Wilson, a former ASIS operative, launched an assault on Starling City with the intent of destroying everything Oliver Queen loved. Quentin is the ex-husband of Dinah Lance, and the father of Laurel and Sara Lance.

Quentin had originally sworn to take down The Hood by any means necessary, even using his daughter as bait once. This changed when The Hood told him about Malcolm Merlyn's plan to level The Glades and everyone in it. He came to see The Arrow as a symbol for good, not as a menace to the city, and frequently helped the vigilante and The Canary (his daughter, Sara Lance) on their missions.

Loss of his daughter
In 2007 his youngest daughter Sara went on a boat trip with Oliver Queen. She was presumed dead when the boat sank. Her loss hit Quentin's family very hard, and as a result he became an alcoholic. Both he and his elder daughter Laurel buried themselves in their work, but his wife Dinah couldn't handle it. She left and divorced him.

About a month after Sara's death, a serial killer called the Dollmaker (Baron Mathis) emerged in Starling City and Quentin was assigned to case. In a way every girl Mathis murdered reminded him of Sara and how he couldn't save her. Quentin managed to capture Mathis and put him in prison.

At some point after five years, Quentin became sober and joined a support group for alcoholics and other addicts.

Season 1
Around the time Oliver Queen returned to Starling City, he told the Detective about a man in a green hood who saved his life from a group of kidnappers. At first, Quentin thought he was joking around and holding something back. However, while investigating a recent attack on Adam Hunt's operation by the same person Oliver described, he comes to believe Oliver and begins a mission to arrest The Hood. 

Soon after, Quentin visited Martin Somers following The Hood's attack the night before, questioning him as to why The Hood would attack him. He later went to CNRI to give Laurel protection in case someone tried to attack her, as a reaction to the recent Hood attacks on the rich and wealthy. He also thanked John Diggle, Oliver's bodyguard, for saving Laurel's life from the Chinese Triad when they had invaded her appartment. He appeared at the docks when there were reports that The Hood was fighting China White, and he found evidence there that proved Somers's criminal activites. 

A few weeks later, Quentin was at the scene of James Holder's death, correctly assuming that The Hood wasn't the one that killed him. At the police department, he was informed of the curare found in James Holder's system. Quentin is then seen at the Queen Mansion speaking to Walter Steele, warning him about the deaths of potential stockbuyers of Unidac Industries by an unknown shooter (later revealed to be Deadshot. Quentin is later called by The Hood, saying that he needs help to protect the people at the auction for Unidac Industries.

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Around Christmas time, Quentin discovered Adam Hunt murdered by a black arrow. He quickly realised it wasn't The Hood, but a copycat archer. He was told he could only go after one, and so chose to chase The Hood over the Dark Archer. 

Quentin discovered that Laurel stole his only contact to The Hood. He decided to let her keep the phone after placing a bug on it to trace the calls. 

Quentin was seen on the television report about The Dodger robberies, giving the press the same statement as last time, "No comment". 

After Thea Queen was arrested for driving under the influence of Vertigo, Laurel spoke to him about her to see if he could help get her out of trouble and possibly help her get a better deal. Quentin later led a task force that interrupted a "drug deal" between The Count and Oliver Queen. He then went to the Queen Mansion with McKenna Hall to speak to Oliver about his presence at the drug deal. Quentin and his task force responded to a call at The Count's hideout and were on scene when The Hood held The Count and injected him with "the fruits of his labour". 

Quentin used the bug placed on The Hood's phone to find out when Laurel would be meeting with The Hood. When The Hood found out that he was on to him, he escapes. Quentin tried to chase him, but The Hood knocked him out. After Laurel was captured by Cyrus Vanch, he and The Hood formed a rare alliance. He attempted to kill Cyrus, but was told by The Hood to just arrest him. 

Quentin was seen at the Queen's Mansion questioning Moira after the Vigilante attacked her. 

Quentin questioned Roy Harper after he was caught after robbing Thea. He is then seen talking to McKenna Hall, asking her to work with him on the Vigilante case. 

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Quentin was reunited with his ex-wife, Dinah Lance, who he refused to talk to initially. He was skeptical, at first, of Dinah's idea that Sara may still be alive, but he soon warmed up to it and helped her in her search. He soon learned that Dinah's evidence was based on another woman and not on Sara. He confronted Dinah, who revealed that she knew Sara was leaving with Oliver, and allowed her to go with him on the boat. 

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Quentin was informed by his tech assistant of a hacker who tried to use the same methods as the police technical analyst to infiltrate Merlyn Global Group. This hacker was revealed to be Felicity Smoak. 

Quentin soon arrested Felicity Smoak, suspecting she was working with The Hood because of the hacking of Merlyn Global Group and the evidence trail left by the "research" Oliver had her run before he revealed his identity to her. In the middle of his interrogation of her, Quentin was called by The Hood and informed that the Glades will be destroyed by Malcom Merlyn. Felicity alluded to the fact that she knows what the call was in reference to, basically stating "Sounds like you have bigger problems then me". Despite the fact that it might endanger her later, she pointed out that her opinion of The Hood was the same as his once, but had changed when she realized he had sacrificed a lot for the city and it made him a kind of hero. This, tied to the fact that The Glades was in danger, led Quentin to inform his superiors about the Undertaking, despite the fact that it would reveal his contacting The Hood and his not arresting him. Instead of mobilizing the forces, Lieutenant Frank Pike suspended him, and the police took no action until Moira Queen held her press conference. When Diggle decideed to go with Oliver to confront Malcolm Merlyn, Oliver called Detective Quentin to dismantle the earthquake device, instead of sending Felicity directly into the impact zone. The newly suspended-Dectective Lance, along with Felicity's help, searched for, and successfully deactivated the Markov device. Nonetheless, Malcolm Merlyn hid a second device, which activated, and took out half of the Glades. Quentin rushed back through the crowds and towards CNRI, where he found Laurel barely escaping the rubble of her workplace's building. He held her back as she tried to go back in to save Tommy Merlyn, telling her that it was too late. They stood there, watching, as most of The Glades was falling into rubble and ash. 

Season 2
In, Quentin has been demoted from detective to officer. He continues to hold a better opinion of The Hood, after the attempt to avert the Undertaking and the fact that policing The Glades is a near impossible task, and the pair speak briefly when The Hood delivers his imitators to be arrested. In, he learns that the serial killer Barton Mathis, aka the Dollmaker, whom he had put in jail, escaped during the Undertaking and had begun killing again. He reveals that he has realized after the Undertaking that strict law and order can't solve all the problems in Starling City, reversing his previous position of law solving every criminal problem. He teams up with The Arrow and Felicity Smoak to track down Mathis. Eventually he is captured by Barton and forced to watch as the killer turns Laurel into a doll. Just before this happens, he and Laurel are saved by the intervention of The Arrow and The Canary.

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In, Quentin responds to an emergency in a tunnel but is ordered not to by Frank Pike but Quentin arrives anyway, his partner Lucas tries to stop him and Quentin discovers a girl strung up like a doll and knows it to be the work of Barton Mathis who escaped prison during the earthquake but Pike has been keeping it quiet and has ordered Quentin not to get involved or will be arrested. Quentin disgusted by Pike's actions goes to the Arrow for assistance instead and tells him about Mathis and his history with him. Later Quentin and the Arrow visit Mathis' lawyer and get his location from him but arrive and discover only a phone where Barton tells them that he has another girl and forces Quentin to listen as he kills her. Later Felicity Smoak uses herself as bait to lure Mathis out while Quentin, John Diggle and the Arrow but it fails and Quentin is arrested by Lucas for obstruction of justice but is freed by Laurel who tries to convince him that the Arrow is evil but Quentin realizes that Laurel is still blaming him for Tommy's death. Later Quentin and Laurel are abducted by Barton who forces Quentin to watch as he kills Laurel but the Arrow stops him and with the help of the Canary, kills Mathis. Quentin and Laurel walk out of the facility where Laurel has a breakdown moment to Quentin believing herself to be responsible for Tommy dying.

In, he has become worried about Laurel when she is nearly arrested for DUI. He even asks Oliver to check up on her, confirming how far he has come in his opinion of Oliver Queen.

In, he is reunited with his daughter Sara and helps her fight off the League of Assassins members pursuing her. When she leaves Starling City, he agrees to keep her existence a secret from his ex-wife and Laurel in order to protect them.

In, Quentin arrested Roy after he was caught beating up a gang member. He then releases Roy, saying that it was a mistake after Roy bought up that he was working for The Arrow.

In, Quentin is seen at Queen Consolidated's Applied Sciences Division, after the break in, joining in on speculation of what happened. He questions Barry Allen's credentials along with Oliver Queen and is extremely skeptical of Barry's description of what happened, despite the evidence he presents. He takes Felicity to the side, asking her to get in contact with The Arrow, to see if he could help. She assures him with a smile that The Arrow is already on the case (as Oliver is still right behind them examining the scene.)

In, he is informed by the Arrow that Cyrus Gold was responsible for the break in of Queen Consolidated and warned of the threat Cyrus posed. He manages to convince Lucas Hilton to perform a manhunt for Cyrus. They track Cyrus to a warehouse but fail to take down Cyrus, instead resulting in most of the team being killed. During the fight, Quentin manages to steal a key off Cyrus, which he gives to the Arrow when he comes to visit him in the hospital.

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In, Officer Lance leads a raid with policemen and SWAT against Hugo Mannheim. During the gun fight between the police and Mannheim's men, Quentin gets shot but the bulletproof vest protected him. The police arrests the assailants and Quentin has a talk with Arrow and Canary. He tells Canary that she can't toss a guy out of a window but she argues back, saying that the guy shot Quentin. In a brief talk with the Arrow, he realizes that it is a matter of time before The Huntress returns. During the hostage situation at the courthouse, Quentin runs to the scene and screams after Laurel but Oliver tells him she got separated from him. Fearing for his daughter's life and in his rage, he punched mr Donner and asked if the hostage situation was his idea. Officer Lance calls The Arrow and coincidently, Oliver got a call from his "mom". While Oliver walked away, Quentin started to talk to The Arrow about the hostage situation and Arrow replies that he's aware of the situation. Quentin, Arrow and Canary kidnaps Frank Bertinelli to make The Huntress release Laurel. During the prisoner exchange, the police opens fire against the vigilantes and one of the policemen aimed his gun at the Arrow but Quentin saved him by knocking out the policeman. After the drama, Quentin quickly arrests Helena.

In, at the Arrow's request, Quentin arrests Slade Wilson for Thea's kidnapping but is forced to release him for lack of evidence. Because of this, he is himself arrested by his boss for working with the vigilante.

In, Quentin is in prison. Laurel visits him, and he denies all knowledge of the Arrow's and the Canary's identity. Later, a vengeful prisoner, blaming him and the Arrow for his arrest, manages to break into his cell and beat him up.

While visiting Quentin in the prison hospital, Laurel tells him she knows who the Arrow is, at which point he stops her and says he does not want to know. He says that knowing the Arrow's identity would compromise the Arrow's mission, that the Arrow is more important to Starling City than "the man under the hood," and that doing some jail time is the least he can do for the Arrow. Laurel later manages to get him released from prison and the charges against him dropped.

In, Quentin is reinstated to Detective after Slade's army attacks the city to help take charge of coordination against the Army and allowed by Frank Pike to call in The Arrow.

In, Quentin tries to rally the SCPD to stop Slade's army. After a fight with one of Slade's super men, he was thrown across a room. Later, at the very end of the episode, he is shown to have collapsed on the ground and started throwing up blood. It is revealed he has internal bleeding puncturing his lung, as he is coughing up blood and cannot breathe.

Personality
Quentin is described as a "gruff, determined city police officer" who believes true justice can only come from law and order. He is arrogant to the point where he seems to think he can go in a person's house without a search warrant or an arrest warrant when he said, "I have a badge and a gun, that says differently". He initially hates The Hood because he believes he is strictly a murderer who doesn't answer to anyone but himself. He even once coldly used his own daughter as bait, which resulted in her getting kidnapped. While he reluctantly works with The Hood occasionally to get cases solved, he still makes it his goal to apprehend The Hood.

His morals and beliefs center around true justice coming from law and order, and his beliefs about The Hood being a menace to the city begin to change after being told by The Hood himself, that Malcolm Merlyn plans to destroy the Glades and everyone in it. In Season 2, after being demoted to a beat cop for five months after the Undertaking, seeing how powerless the police is in dealing with the various crisis in the city and knowing how effective The Arrow is with dealing with criminals, his beliefs about law and order have changed. While he still hold himself as an enforcer of the law, he now believes that the law isn't omnipotent, and that justice should prevail over doing what is strictly legal. As such, he is now more willing seek extra-legal measures to seek justice and is now pro-Arrow, especially after finding out that The Arrow is now going out of his way to avoid killing his enemies. Quentin even told Felicity to inform Arrow of a breakin to Queen Consolidated and even referred to him as a "mutual friend". He also defended The Arrow by asking Laurel if she was just blaming The Arrow when she said it was his fault Tommy died, a stated that later turned out to be true. Later on, when The Arrow killed Count Vertigo, Quentin apparently gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed The Arrow didn't have a choice evidence by the fact he continued to work with The Arrow. Quentin also has developed a high opinion of Oliver as well, still unaware Oliver and The Arrow are one and the same. He chooses to remain wilfully ignorant of the Arrow's identity, telling Laurel that knowing the identity of the man under the hood would endanger the Arrow and diminish his effectiveness.

Quentin is a man of honor, even during when he despised The Hood, he refused to let him take the heat for a murder Malcolm Merlyn committed, even when his commanding officer gave him an order to blame it on The Hood, even though it resulted in him being taken off the case. Even when he got demoted for associating himself with The Hood, he never blamed him and continued to work with him, especially after The Arrow is trying to avoid killing unnecessarily.

Overtime, Quentin began to realize what The Arrow has to give up in exchange for maintaining his identity a secret while at the same making Starling City a better place. Even when Laurel learned Oliver was The Arrow, Quentin told her to not speak about it and said he would rather spend 18 months in prison than uncover The Arrow's identity for his freedom even though he was attacked by a prisoner he and The Arrow previously put away.

Abilities

 * Expert detective: As a police detective of the Starling City Police Department, Quentin has proven himself a highly skilled detective, unlike most of his co-workers. He rarely jumps to conclusions before he gets his facts straight, except when he is emotionally involved in the case.
 * Advanced hand-to-hand combatant: Quentin is shown to be a formidable fighter for a cop, but he is not as adept a fighter as Oliver and Sara.

Equipment

 * Gun: Quentin is very proficient in using guns.

Appearances
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Comics
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 * Arrow #14
 * Arrow #18
 * Arrow #27

Trivia

 * Quentin was originally the second person to discover Oliver Queen's secret identity, The Arrow. After viewing CCTV footage (left deliberately by Oliver) in . However, this discovery was later legally disproven when John Diggle dressed up as The Arrow, unbeknownst to Quentin, absolving Oliver.
 * Unlike his DC Comic version, Larry Lance, a keen supporter of the superhero known as Black Canary. Quentin Lance was, at first, intolerant of vigilantes and a vehement antagonist of the vigilante known as The Arrow but eventually he began trusting and working with The Arrow in many occasions especially after he found out that his daughter Sara is a vigilante too.
 * Quentin is quite comparable to Commissioner James Gordon, a police commissioner who helps Batman in the comics.
 * In, it is revealed his middle name is Larry, in homage to his DC comics character.
 * Quentin Lance is the seventh person to discover Sara Lance's secret identity; as The Canary. He discovered this in, he realizing this when Sara returned to Starling City that she had been back around the time attackers in the Glades were being put in the Hospital.
 * In, it is revealed that Quentin's emergency call code is "Delta-Charlie-52". This is a reference to DC 52, the new universe in the comics resulting from the Flashpoint crossover.

Behind the scenes
In the comic books, Laurel's father's name is Lawrence "Larry" Lance, rather than Quentin. In Arrow this is referenced by Quentin's middle name being "Larry".