EDITORIAL: Does Detective Lance Know?
It’s
has been two and a half full seasons since Arrow began its successful run on
the CW and since then there have only been a few major complaints, the first is
that Laurel is “whiney”, which I have addressed in “EDITORIAL: In Defense of Katie Cassidy’s (Dinah) Laurel
Lance”, and explained the reasoning by the complaints about her character.
The second complaint I will be addressing is “Is Quentin Lance the worst detective in history?”
The answer to
this is quite simple….no….because logic would dictate that Detective…Officer….Captain Lance….knows exactly who the Arrow is.
Three seasons in
and about 200,000 people have learned Oliver’s identiy, but of all of those who
have learned it, only two have actually deduced it that the show has
acknowledged:
1) Helena Bertallini aka the Huntess: Oliver essentially served this one up on a golden plate to her by telling her about his crucible and the breaking into her house, so personally I still would count this as ½ telling her.
Personally I would like Ray Palmer to
also deduce the Arrow’s identity…the man is brilliant…and clearly looks up to
Arrow and Arsenal, so I would be curious is he follows suit in attempting to
figure out who his idols are.
Touching back on
the Detective, just based on skill, and not due to his interactions with the
Arrow, Quentin Lance made his way all the way to Detective, and then eventually
Captain. In that time he has had numerous hints given, and also given numerous
hints that he does indeed know who the Arrow is, but choses to keep it a secret
for the greater good, and the respect he has for the hero.
Lance says it
best himself in the episode The Man Under
the Hood:
Quentin Lance: Listen to me, there was a time when I
would have sold out my badge to find out his name. You know that. But then I
realize I didn't care who he was. In fact I didn't even want to know who he was.
Laurel Lance:
Why not?
Quentin Lance:
Cause if I knew I knew who he really was,
then he'd become a person right? Maybe he's got a family. Friends. People that
care about him. Someone with a life. That he couldn't be what I needed him to
be. What this city needs him to be. It's the Arrow that matters. The man under
the hood isn't important. Look at me. Can you imagine what it's like to be him?
What he has to live with day in and day out, what that's gotta be like. Hey.
The least I can do is sit here and do a little bit of time for him.
I will now
mention a few key hints and scenes that show Det. Lance should and probably
does know who the Arrow is, as well as reveal how I would like this powerful
secret to be revealed.
Season 1 began
like no other TV show I had ever seen, the vigilante…was actually suspected of
being the vigilante. During the first five episode we see Oliver Queen called
into questioning time and we see Det. Lance bombard him with questions. It is
from this episode, to the end of the season that we know that Det. Lance still
thinks Oliver is the Arrow, every interaction with him is just as resentful and
rudely portrayed as it is whilst Lance is with the Arrow.
It isn’t until…
We don’t really
see a shift in how Lance treats Oliver…until he accepts the Arrow as more than
just a vigilante. Season 2 showed us strongly
that Lance’s views of the Arrow had shifted…but then forgot to mention how his
views for Oliver also seem to have shifted. No longer was every conversation
with Oliver about making him feel guilty, they were just normal conversations. This
dynamic has further improved going into the shows third season.
Various Facts
that Show Lance Has a Chance of Knowing Who Oliver Is:
S01E01 – Pilot – Oliver Queen and the Arrow
return/come to Starling City at the same time…and Oliver Queen is the first
person the Arrow (Vigilante/Hood at that time) saves…and Oliver is the only one
to see him.
S01E05 – Damaged – Not only does Lance bombard
Oliver with questions, but he also learns here that Oliver was tortured on the
island…and that he came out of that torture as a changed man.
S01E09 – Year’s End – It is Lance that deduces
that a copycat archer is killing people, we soon learnt his is Malcolm, the
Dark Archer as the show calls him…but again it is Detective Lance that deduces
that it is not the Hood killing people.
S01E10 – Burned – Lance learns of Laurel and the
Hood’s connection, figures it out on his own, he also begins to believe that
the Hood keeps a watchful eye over Laurel
S01E19 – Unfinished Business – Lance is
suspicious of what lies beneath Verdant
S01E23 – Sacrifice – Detective Lance works with
Felicity completely for the first time, and knows she both works for Oliver and
the Hood in order to stop the earthquake device in the Glades.
Note these are only SOME of the moments
in Season 1 that show Lance may just know Oliver’s true identity
S02E01 – City of Heroes – This episode started a
trend that continues even to this episode…Lance CAN see the Arrow’s lower face,
he makes remarks here and in other episodes to either the Arrow’s grin…or
solemn attitude
S02E03 – Broken Dolls – Officer Lance uses the
Arrow’s connection with Laurel in order to get him to save her, not that he
wouldn’t have eventually, this further shows Lance recognizing the fact that the
Arrow is a guardian angel in some sense protecting Laurel.
S02E04 – Crucible – In this episode we see Lance
turn to Oliver for help with Laurel,
this marks the first noticeable shift in how Oliver is treated by Lance.
S02E13 - Heir to the
Demon – Sara is revealed to be alive
(Lance finds this out), marking an end to his true hate for Oliver…however he
seems to have given up that crusade long before this episode.
S02E19
– The Man Under the Hood – Lance
delivers the following lines:
S02E22 – Streets of Fire – By this episode we
know for a fact that Lance knows Oliver and Sara are in a relationship, and
that Sara is the Canary, who is always working with Arrow.
Note these are only SOME of the moments
in Season 2 that show Lance may just know Oliver’s true identity, also … I am
forgetting the specific episode, but the Arrow receives a call from Lance as
Lance is speaking to Oliver…and Oliver plays it off with no questions asked.
S03E01 – The Calm – Captain Lance dismisses the
Arrow’s actions and tells the City to accept him as a hero
S03E02 – Sara – Capt. Lance openly begins to
maintain contact with Team Arrow, just in case there are any emergencies
S03E11 – Midnight City – Captain Lance becomes
the only one who doesn’t know Oliver’s secret that clearly Oliver isn’t around
and according to Felicity the Arrow is “gone”
Note these are only SOME of the moments
in Season 3 that show Lance may just know Oliver’s true identity
How I would like it to be revealed:
If the city sees
Oliver as a hero, Captain Lance playing devils advocate becomes a little bit useless,
despite the fact that I think Laurel has suffered enough I think it would be a
very fitting end for Lance to reveal he knows on his deathbed.
This or…they could take a queue from the
Flash and have a cop, Joe West, know who the hero, The Flash, really is
But back to my
ideal reveal (that rhymes!!!)… Imagine Oliver, after Ray finds out who he is
gets his company back, it seems to only make sense to me that Ray won’t own
Queen Consolidated (hopefully renamed to Industries) until the show ends.
Oliver is giving a speech to the people of Star City when a marksman takes aim,
and much like in Dead to Rights Lance
notices the snipers red dot crossing Oliver’s chest and dives in the way and
takes the bullet. As he lays dying…
Oliver: Why did you do it?
Lance: Because…this City…this City needs the Green
Arrow.
This end sets
him apart from the likes of Commissioner Gordon, especially of the Nolanverse,
seeing as he deduced the heroes identity, and ends up taking his own life for
the greater good of the city.
The end all be all of the situation is, the
evidence is two fold…
1) Quentin Lance has been presented with plenty of evidence in deducing who the Arrow is
you also forgot that Helena noticed how Oliver fights (when they were both surrounded by goons vs. the time they first fought each other).....that's how she also figured out he was the vigilante.
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