History YMMV / ArrowS4E18ElevenFiftyNine

* WhatAnIdiot: Laurel's death was ultimately preventable, if not for a few very stupid moves.
** Firstly, what exactly was Team Arrow's reason to rebuild to idol and keep it as a trophy? They inadvertently made things much easier for Darhk. Strangely enough, they kept ''one'' piece separate so that it couldn't be used, but then kept that same piece ''in'' Star City where it could be found (and evidently easily enough, given Andy didn't have trouble finding it). Given Vixen helped break it and their close ties with Team Flash, it wouldn't have been hard to give ''them'' the piece, or just keep multiple pieces hidden in different locations. Or, you know, not rebuilding it in the first place. You could argue they rebuilt it to have leverage over Dahrk should he break out, as no-one on the team believed Darhk would stay behind bars for long, but to completely rebuild it while only keeping one piece missing is blatantly stupid.
** Secondly, what was John ''thinking'' bringing Andy along in the first place? Even ignoring the possibility he was still under Darhk's influence, but he was, as far as John knew, injured and, if he ''was'' loyal, then he'd have a target on his back as soon as Darhk got ahold of him. Especially when Darhk takes him hostage to get the team to stand down; if Andy wasn't working for Darhk, than Darhk would have killed him anyway immediately after.
*** By extension, Diggle's adamant refusal to believe Andy could be working for Darhk still. Given he was literally brainwashed and Darhk has magical abilities, even if he believes that Andy ''is'' good, he has to acknowledge that Darhk could still hold control over him. Hell, given Diggle is the poster boy for the 'don't have a blindspot for family' chant, him trusting Andy so much, given Andy has ''constantly'' let him down in the past, the fact he believed him over Oliver's logical reasoning is rather out of character. [[LampshadeHanging Even Oliver points out how irrational Diggle is, and literally spells out to Diggle that the latter advised him not to have blind spots.]]
** When the team rush Darhk and he takes Andy hostage, you'd have thought that Laurel might have remembered her Canary Cry, which would have allowed them to free Andy ''without'' surrendering, as well as thrown the prisoners off. This is particularly glaring since it got some upgrades last week that basically reminded viewers it was a thing.
** And lastly, when Oliver manages to gain enough freedom to fire an Arrow at Darhk, he of course picks one with a sharp head that Darhk could then easily use as a means to kill Laurel. Ignoring how stupid it is that Oliver, who's ''twice'' sworn to become a non-lethal vigilante, even ''has'' lethal arrowheads anymore rather than non-lethal trick-arrows or would use that instead of an explosive one, he knows that Darhk can magically catch arrows, so this tactic would be useless. You could justify Oliver having lethal arrows because: A) they live in a world of metahumans and sorcerers, so Oliver might find himself in a situation where he can't afford to hold back if he wants to live and B) Oliver is skilled enough to non-lethally dispatch criminals using otherwise lethal arrows. To use them against an opponent which has repeatedly proven immune to them, however, reeks of plot-enforced stupidity.

* MoralEventHorizon: It's needless to say that Darhk and Merlyn crossed the line a ''long'' time ago, but Andy crosses it in this episode, as it is revealed that everything he did for Team Arrow was nothing but trickery in order to lay them down to Darhk's feet. In a meta-sense, Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle crossed it by committing FranchiseOriginalSin. After two seasons of SeasonalRot, this was the episode where fans REALLY turned on them.
* OvershadowedByControversy: As detailed in FranchiseOriginalSin above, the outcome of the episode received ''huge'' backlash on from majority of the fans of the source material and even the comics writers, enough to take a toll in the show's ratings immediately after the following episode (which features laurel's funeral).

** Firstly, what exactly was Team Arrow's reason to rebuild to idol and keep it as a trophy? They inadvertently made things much easier for Darhk. Strangely enough, they kept ''one'' piece separate so that it couldn't be used, but then kept that same piece ''in'' Star City where it could be found (and evidently easily enough, given Andy didn't have trouble finding it). Given Vixen helped break it and their close ties with Team Flash, it wouldn't have been hard to give ''them'' the piece, or just keep multiple pieces hidden in different locations. Or, you know, not rebuilding it in the first place. You could argue they rebuilt it to have leverage over Dahrk should he break out, as no-one on the team believed Darkh would stay behind bars for long, but to completely rebuild it while only keeping one piece missing is blatantly stupid.

* {{Scapegoat Creator}}s: Marc Guggenheim, Wendy Mericle and some of the writers know that both the comic fans and Laurel/Black Canary fans will want their heads on a silver platter after this episode. The first two claimed that they understand how those fans feel but they're not that bothered by the backlash. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, they ''did'' have a major hand in Laurel's death.

* InternetBackdraft: Laurel's death naturally set the Internet on fire, especially since the whole rational for killing her off was "we said we were gonna kill somebody, so we have to kill somebody - let's pick Laurel". [[EveryoneHasStandards Even some Olicity fans were outraged at how the death was handled.]] This issue came from a variety of factors:
** The fact that they had admitted ahead of time that they were WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants the entire time with the death did not help in the slightest.
** Her death was immediately after [[HopeSpot it was said she was going to be okay]], as if intentionally digging into her fans.
** Barring her final words to Oliver (which [[SequelHook are thereafter said to be saved for Season 5]]), her last words were all about [[CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds the fact that she was happy Oliver was with Felicity and happy there despite still being in love with him]], rather than having her final moments focus on her.
** Her own family is not present at her deathbed, nor are they, even Quentin, able to say goodbye.

* HeReallyCanAct: The male cast members gave a very strong performance in this episode, Creator/DavidRamsey and Creator/NealMcDonough especially. Creator/KatieCassidy also gets to show how far she's come since Season 1.

* MoralEventHorizon: It's needless to say that Darhk and Merlyn crossed the line a ''long'' time ago, but Andy crosses it in this episode, as it is revealed that everything he did for Team Arrow was nothing but trickery in order to lay them down to Darhk's feet. In a meta-sense, Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle crossed it by committing FranchiseOrigianlSin. After two seasons of SeasonalRot, this was the episode where fans REALLY turned on them.

* MoralEventHorizon: It's needless to say that Darhk and Merlyn crossed the line a ''long'' time ago, but Andy crosses it in this episode, as it is revealed that everything he did for Team Arrow was nothing but trickery in order to lay them down to Darhk's feet.

* SpoiledByTheFormat: Many fans saw Laurel's death coming for a number of reasons, mostly from leaked photos of filming certain scenes. Firstly, Alex Kingston (Who plays her mother) was seen during filming for the funeral scene, meaning that someone in the Lance family would die. Secondly, Katie Cassidy had dyed her hair brown and was seen filming a scene for The Flash as her Earth-2 counterpart. And last but not least, someone managed to get a clear shot of a gravestone with her name on it when the season finale of Legends Of Tomorrow was being filmed.

** And lastly, when Oliver manages to gain enough freedom to fire an Arrow at Darhk, he of course picks one with a sharp head that Darhk could then easily use as a means to kill Laurel. Ignoring how stupid it is that Oliver, who's ''twice'' sworn to become a non-lethal vigilante, even ''has'' lethal arrowheads anymore rather than non-lethal trick-arrows or would use that instead of an explosive one, he knows that Darhk can magically catch arrows, so this tactic would be useless. You could justify Oliver having lethal arrows because: A) they live in a world of metahumans and sorcerers, so Oliver might find himself in a situation where he can't afford to hold back if he wants to live and B) Oliver is skilled enough to non-lethally dispatch criminals using otherwise lethal arrows. Yo use them against an opponent which has repeatedly proven immune to them, however, reeks of plot-enforced stupidity.

** Firstly, what exactly was Team Arrow's reason to rebuild to idol and keep it as a trophy? They inadvertently made things much easier for Darhk. Strangely enough, they kept ''one'' piece separate so that it couldn't be used, but then kept that same piece ''in'' Star City where it could be found (and evidently easily enough, given Andy didn't have trouble finding it). Given Vixen helped break it and their close ties with Team Flash, it wouldn't have been hard to give ''them'' the piece, or just keep multiple pieces hidden in different locations. Or, you know, not rebuilding it in the first place.

*** By extension, Diggle's adamant refusal to believe Andy could be working for Darhk still. Given he was literally brainwashed and Darhk has magical abilities, even if he believes that Andy ''is'' good, he has to acknowledge that Darhk could still hold control over him. Hell, given Diggle is the poster boy for the 'don't have a blindspot for family' chant, him trusting Andy so much, given Andy has ''constantly'' let him down in the past, the fact he believed him over Oliver's logical reasoning is rather out of character.

** And lastly, when Oliver manages to gain enough freedom to fire an Arrow at Darhk, he of course picks one with a sharp head that Darhk could then easily use as a means to kill Laurel. Ignoring how stupid it is that Oliver, who's ''twice'' sworn to become a non-lethal vigilante, even ''has'' lethal arrowheads anymore rather than non-lethal trick-arrows or would use that instead of an explosive one, he knows that Darhk can magically catch arrows, so this tactic would be useless.

* InternetBackdraft: Laurel's death naturally set the Internet on fire, especially since the whole rational for killing her off was "we said we were gonna kill somebody, so we have to kill somebody - let's pick Laurel". The fact that they had admitted ahead of time that they were WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants the entire time with the death did not help in the slightest.