‘Arrow’: Character In The Grave Revealed; Actor Talks Exit (SPOILER ALERT)

“Arrow” said goodbye to
one of the team on Wednesday night’s episode, when The CW show finally revealed
a season-long secret
– who is in the grave.

(Spoiler alert! This story
reveals which character was killed off of the show.)

At the end of Wednesday’s episode,
which featured many twists and a little misdirection – could it be John Diggle?
Could it be Thea Queen? – Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance, an integral part of the series since its 2012 premiere, was the one who died, the result of an arrow that
pierced her chest courtesy of a repowered Damien Darhk.

PHOTOS: Laurel Lance: ‘Arrow’ Scrapbook

Katie found out the news the day
they were shooting the Damien Dahrk court scenes from a recent episode.

“I remember I just was like, ‘I
need to put this on the back burner for now because I had a huge day of all legal jargon,’ but
it actually worked out really well because in the next episode – 19 – I’m
actually in the episode and it’s a lot of flashbacks. And emotionally, it’s interesting because that scene that you see when I’m in the hospital in
[Episode] 18, and… I say to the team, ‘I never wanted this,’ ‘I was thinking about
giving up the Black Canary,’ and ‘I can do it,’ and honestly, that scene was
definitely – it was so real shooting it because it was my saying goodbye to the
team and all of us,” Katie told reporters at a recent screening, after
Access Hollywood asked her about the emotions of shooting her character’s
death scene. “It definitely wasn’t difficult for me to get to that
emotional point, but yeah, for sure it was hard, but it was very real and I
felt like that was, you know, it was good, it was genuine and it was
real.”

Oftentimes, the last scenes an
actor who is exiting a show shoots aren’t death-scene related, and Katie revealed
her final scene was the one where she’s stabbed by the show’s Season 4 villain,
at Iron Heights, by the arrow.

“The last scene I think I
shot was – we had to do a reshoot actually, of… when Darhk stabs the Black
Canary and that was like a week after, I think,” she said. “So that
was… the very last scene that we shot and it was so weird because I remember…
we had broken for lunch, we came back, and I was running to set, and I was
putting on my jacket and my gloves and they were just calling me to set to show
wrap me and I didn’t know that I was done, and it was kind of just sort of a
bit of a shock. But it was good. I feel like there was no other way that I
would want it to go.”

Paul Blackthorne, who plays
Quentin Lance, the father of Laurel and Sara Lance, said it was a real shock to
find out that Katie’s character was being killed off the show, but he understands
it sets up a lot.

“It was such a shock, I mean,
certainly to me and I think to everybody when the news came out that you’re
thinking, ‘And God, we’re right in the middle of this thing and it was
shocking. What’s it going to be to the audience?’ And in terms of fantastic
story — as awful as it is that Black Canary’s sacrificed, in terms of story
it’s just like wham, you know? And if that’s not what story’s about then what
is it about,” Paul said at the same screening. 

“It’s an amazing turn to throw at the audience and people aren’t expecting it and it’s fantastic. If it shocked us that much, what’s it going to do to the audience?” he added.

Katie, as she said, will appear in
next week’s “Arrow” in flashbacks. She also is set to turn up
sometime on “The Flash” as the Earth 2 Laurel Lance. Additionally,
producers (Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle) confirmed that Sara, Laurel’s
sister, who is currently time traveling on “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”
will find out about what happened to her sister.

While Katie now hangs up her Black
Canary jacket and mask, she now hangs them up in the place of her choice. When
Access asked if she got to keep anything from set, she revealed they gave her
both of those items from her costume as mementos from her time on the show.
It’s fitting, as when one reporter asked her to reflect on her favorite Laurel
memories, she brought up the first time she put the suit on.

“Obviously, I think at the
end of Season 2 going into 3, when I put the jacket on for the first time. I
mean that moment was like that something … I  still get a little choked up talking about it
because I was so excited and I remember trying on the jacket and it was like I
had been waiting for that moment,” Katie told reporters.

“Arrow” continues
Wednesday at 8/7c on The CW.

— Jolie Lash