Heroic actor of the week: Katie Cassidy

In this week’s edition of Heroic Actor Of The Week, we take a look at how Katie Cassidy Rodgers stole the show with her emotional performance as Laurel Lance in the latest episode of Arrow.

Welcome back to another edition of Heroic Actor Of The Week – our newest column in which we celebrate the best performance(s) across superhero television over the past week. Now, last week’s edition saw Titans‘ Curran Walters take the crown for his moving turn as Jason Todd and, just like his predecessor, that set the bar very high for whoever would have to follow him.

Much as we’ve seen lately, this week’s line-up of TV saw some real heavy-hitters, with Titans‘ Brenton Thwaites and Arrow‘s Stephen Amell and Joseph David-Jones all bringing their A-game, making it hard for us to choose the strongest performer.

And yet one stood out so far ahead of the rest, that it was impossible to pick anyone but her.

Katie Cassidy – Arrow

It’s really something when a performer that you’re used to seeing strong outings from manages to catch you off-guard, especially when that performer has been doing it for almost eight years. But that’s exactly what Arrow‘s Katie Cassidy accomplished in this week’s episode, “Welcome To Hong Kong”.

Having just barely made it off Earth-2 alive with Oliver Queen and John Diggle, her character Laurel Lance a.k.a. Black Canary (and formerly Black Siren) was left to deal with the realization that her home, and everyone she ever loved was gone.

More from Arrowverse

• The 9 best (and 8 worst) Arrowverse characters
• 27 best fighters in the Arrowverse, ranked
• All 8 Black Canary actresses ranked from worst to best
• 11 things nobody wants to admit about the Arrowverse
• The 7 best (and 6 worst) Arrowverse villains

But how do you get across to viewers that you’re grieving over the fact that your entire universe (literally) and everyone you ever loved had been wiped from existence? Well, it was up to Cassidy to figure that out… and boy, did she ever.

From the way in which she angrily lashed out at Oliver to her attempt to threaten her old ally with a gun if he didn’t open a portal to Earth-2, it was clear that denial and anger were Laurel’s first trusted reactions. But as the gun trembled in her shaking hands, then came the emotion and grief – all of which fueled Cassidy to deliver an incredibly powerful and emotional performance.

Being Arrow‘s leading lady, Cassidy has delivered countless powerful performances throughout her time on the show (as both versions of Laurel). But this was something else entirely. It was passionate, raw, powerful and, most of all, authentic, and in spite of how antagonistic the character was being, our hearts were breaking for Laurel – a testament to strength of the Arrow vet’s performance. This Canary knows how to Cry, and this was perhaps her finest performance ever.

Eight years in and Cassidy is better than ever.

Arrow airs on The CW on Tuesday nights at 9:00 P.M. ET. Come back next Sunday to find out who will be crowned the next Heroic Actor of the Week!