Posted in: DC Universe, TV | Tagged: arrow, cw, entertainment, Paul Blackthorne, Quentin Lance, television

Arrow Season 6: Saying Goodbye to Paul Blackthorne

There is a huge batch of superhero television series on the air right now, and you can arguably credit Arrow for paving the way. Picking up the genre as Smallville ended, the series launched in 2012 with an interesting collection of actors pulled together.

The story of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) was simple — they told it to you during the opening of every episode. He was stranded on a deserted island for five years before returning home to save his city. The focus was on Oliver and the death of his father Robert Queen (Jamey Sheridan). But Oliver had taken a date on that cruise: Sara Lance (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), the sister of his girlfriend Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) — and when he returned he would have to deal with Sara's father, Detective Quentin Lance, played by Paul Blackthorne.

Blackthorne brought a gravitas and passion to the angry police officer who questioned why the spoiled rich kid lived while his daughter died. Lance was a thorn in Oliver's side through the first season as well as for the city's first-ever vigilante.

After Sara's death, Lance turned to alcohol and ended up losing his wife (Played by Alex Kingston, whom Blackthorne had previously worked with on E.R.), but he was working his way back with Laurel's help when Oliver returned. Lance was the first to think Oliver was the Hood / Vigilante and even arrested him. Oliver passed a lie detector test, and thanks to John Diggle (David Ramsey) wearing the hood and taking on a gun dealer, Oliver was cleared. By the end of the first season Lance was uneasily working with the early form of Team Arrow to stop the destruction of the Glades by Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman).

Over the course of the series, Lance went through a lot. He saw his daughter Sara (recast with Caity Lotz) return as a deadly assassin only to die again. He watched his other daughter spiral into alcoholism and then recover and follow her sister into becoming a vigilante and working with the Arrow. He would begin dating Felicity's mother (Charlotte Ross) and then see Sara come back to life again thanks to the Lazarus Pit, but without a soul. John Constantine (Matt Ryan) fixed that, but then Sara went off to travel through time with the Legends.

Lance ended up working with Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) in hopes of keeping his daughter Laurel safe, only to have her killed when he betrayed Damien. Her death led him back to the bottle, and it was Oliver's sister Thea (Willa Holland) who helped him back on the right path. He became a staunch ally of Team Arrow and close to both Oliver and Thea over time. He went to work for Oliver as Deputy Mayor and had to deal with Laurel's evil doppelgänger from Earth-2 coming to Star City.

Lance believed there was still good in the Earth-2 Laurel and risked everything to find it. When Oliver was impeached as Mayor, Lance moved up and put him in the crosshairs of Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo). When Diaz tried to use Laurel against Lance, he stood up to him and helped Oliver and the team bring Diaz down at the cost of his own life. The season ended with Lance dying during surgery as Oliver was being arrested by the FBI.

This show has brought back many characters who have been killed off. Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) died at the end of season 1 but has made multiple appearances since. And we know that there are other Quentin Lances, as witnessed by the Nazi commander Lance from the Crisis on Earth-X crossover event. But Blackthorne has signed on to a new series on NBC called The InBetween where he plays, of all things, a police detective. So fans of Lance can make our own story that he didn't die; he just changed names and cities and is now working with a woman who talks to ghosts to solve crimes. Is that really any stranger than all of the other things that happened to the guy?

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!