Arrow

There are Lauriver fans? Really?

I read a theory that the whole plot to have Moira run for office is tied to Slade's overarching plan to mess with Oliver. That Krycek is working for Slade. I think that theory has some merit.

Though you're right that Diggle needs a clearer role. Right now his main purpose is to be Oliver's sounding board. He's the one who GETS Ollie, and the one who can get Ollie to actually talk about stuff. That is important, but it isn't plotty. But I imagine once the Suicide Squad thing goes into play Faux-Waller is going to have role for Diggle. Possibly using him instead of Rick Flagg.

My usual THIS SHOW post is supplemented with a GOD DAMN CAITY LOTZ ON THE SALMON LADDER.

Who knew two years ago that a salmon ladder was such an excellent source of pansexual hotness?

Hey, look, THIS DAMN SHOW.

I had read somewhere Stephen Amell saying that the end of this episode would be a "WHY ISN'T IT NEXT WEEK ALREADY" moment.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Queen."

He wasn't kidding.

That was such a great moment! Was not expecting Slade to reveal himself so soon.

I also really liked the Laurel/Oliver fight, and the Sara/Laurel reconciliation. Katie Cassidy did a nice job this week, and I hope the writers figure something out for this character. But I still don't know that I'd ever buy her as the BC. Not in comparison to Caity Lotz, who is very believable in that role.

My only point of negativity about the episode is w/r/t Felicity. I think that whole thing came out feeling like she IS a kid at the grown-up table, and I think the show thinks it conveyed the opposite. All I saw were these tough guys sort of scoffing at her attempts to be like them ("What are you wearing?" "What's with the jacket?"), or being patronizing ("You're still cute." "Diggle thought you might be feeling left out.") to her, all little smiles at how cute and silly she is. The "asprins" scene was adorable, but kind of the wrong choice if they were trying to make her appear as an equal to the others. I don't know. It left me feeling icky about the Team Arrow dynamics, and I've never really felt that way before.

The end stuff with Laurel going making amends was needed for her character (as was Ollie finally saying "fuck it" to her and her issues) but I still don't want her to become BC. I love Sara too much!

The talk Ollie had with Felicity at the end came off very paternal/big brothery. I didn't like that vibe after all the previous episodes and un-family like vibes between them. Saying she was always going to be his girl sounded too much like a dad reassuring his daughter that even though he had a new girlfriend he'll still make time for his favorite girl. It didn't jive right.

Then we have Thea pulling a Parent Trap trick on both Ollie and Moira that cracked me up. He has been acting like he and Moira were in the middle of separating instead of a son being mad at his mom.

I did not see Slade showing up there so soon but that was a great way to end the episode.

TiffanyNichelle wrote:The talk Ollie had with Felicity at the end came off very paternal/big brothery. I didn't like that vibe after all the previous episodes and un-family like vibes between them. Saying she was always going to be his girl sounded too much like a dad reassuring his daughter that even though he had a new girlfriend he'll still make time for his favorite girl. It didn't jive right.

Yeah, that's a good way to put it. I really like Diggle acting like a big brother to her--especially loved the moment when Sara was working with the blood sample, and he crossed the room just to be next to Felicity because he'd been watching her reactions and knew she was feeling down. Diggle is excellent at reading people, and fully appreciates Felicity's full scope of abilities and awesomeness. So his acting protective and reassuring of her doesn't come off as patronizing. It comes off as loving.

I think in this case Oliver's willful blindness about his and Felicity's mutual feelings for each other ended up hurting her, and he treated her with less care than usual. He didn't notice her unhappiness, and his questioning of and then reassuring her--from the position of the crush who is dating someone else--comes across as a little head-patting for my taste. And honestly, I don't mind if he's distracted by his new relationship and even if he ends up hurting her. I like that kind of angst in my ships. But then I want some consequences, and here I think the show thinks all is well. So whatever, hopefully going forward the team won't treat her like a kid.

I didn't like his whole "OMG what are you wearing??" when all she was wearing was just some workout gear.

Exactly. And then they doubled down by having Sara tease her about the leather jacket at the bank. I don't mind that Oliver asked--he's oblivious about stuff like this sometimes--but it should have clued him in that something was up with her. He shouldn't have needed Diggle to tell him that Felicity was having a sad. And again, if he did because he's distracted by the Lance family drama, that's understandable! But then I think Felicity still deserves to feel uncomfortable about it, and maybe pull away a bit. I kind of hope that's what happens. She shouldn't have to stand by like a loyal puppy, and she doesn't deserve to be treated like one.

But on that note, I think they have made her a little whiny/needy this season and I'm ready for that to be over. Starting with begging Oliver to promise he'll come back from dangerous situations, and then the OOC (in my opinion) crying that she might lose him last ep, and then this one. I get it about her dad/abandonment issues, but I think she's stronger than this makes her seem. It seems like it would be more in character for her to feel those things, but work hard to cover them up in front of other people.

It isn't next Wednesday already.

So, in the meantime, here's Caity Lotz doing parkour. Girl is for real.

Last night's episode was awesome and not just because there was zero Laurel, heh. Slade casually strolling through the house on tour while Ollie seethed was awesome. I really liked Team Arrow coming in to help Ollie out.

I wonder if we're supposed to wonder who that was that knocked out Diggle or if it was just supposed to be a faceless random Slade soldier.

Slade's face when Sara showed up was gold. I liked Shado but I never saw this amazing huge love between her and Slade so him doing all this for vengeance in her name isn't really striking a cord in me. But I still love him messing with Ollie.

I think we're supposed to believe it was his general affection for Shado plus the Mirakiru throwing his brain into a tailspin. Like, if it wasn't for the Mirakiru, he'd also see the "Sure, I SHOT her, but since I made Ollie choose, it's totally his fault" for the bullshit that it was.

And here's the three minute promo for the rest of the season.

I love Slade, and Manu Bennett, but the Weak Motive+Mirakuru=Deep-Seated-Rage does not work for me, on a story-telling level. It's oddly sort of the same problem as a superhero/villain who wears a full-mask. It might make sense logically, but it's hard to relate to.

I thought the episode was pretty weak, actually. I mean, in the present tense, we did nothing but follow Oliver around the house while he seethed, until the last few minutes when the others arrived and everyone stared at each other. The island stuff is inherently lower stakes, because we know in basic terms how these things turn out. And yes, it changed things up so that Slade is holding both Ivo and Oliver captive on the freighter, and Sara is on the island with some new characters. But otherwise, the Slade finding out thing went about exactly as expected, so that wasn't surprising.

Also, the editing of the last episode made it feel like the Clock King stuff and this entire episode happened in one very long night. We saw Oliver arrive home, presumably right after leaving Dig and Felicity in the lair, and Sara and Laurel at the bar. I checked the end of that one again, and I think we're supposed to understand that it's the next day (at least). Sara and Oliver have changed clothes, Sara's taken the bartending job, Laurel later meets her dad at an AA meeting. But because we see Oliver with Felicity and Dig, and then immediately afterward he's upstairs with Sara, it feels like those moments follow each other directly.

Suicide Squad! Semi-noble Deadshot! Poor Sean Maher shows up just to demonstrate what "Suicide Squad" really means! Ben Browder isn't going broke!

Plus:

Spoiler:

That was a fun one, especially giving Diggle the A plot and Ollie the B plot.

Agreed. I am way more interested in ARGUS and the Suicide Squad than I am in Slade/Sara/Roy right now. Or maybe it was just so nice to have a little break from that stuff? All I know is we definitely need more Diggle per episode than we've been getting, and I hope that next season has more to do with this type of stuff than Mirakuru. Not that I haven't been enjoying this awesome season either! There's just so much potential here.

Spoiler:

Ahem. I'm a little excited.

"She's going up Gail Street, approaching the corner of Simone."

I don't think I'll ever get tired of Creator Nods put into street names...

Well, I liked Moira as a character and Susanna Thompson was great in the role, but weirdly I'm okay with her dying.  I dunno why.  Maybe I'm a little relieved we won't have her as mayor next season.  I know Sebastian Blood is a supervillain murderer, but I'd vote for him before Moira Queen any day.


ETA: Oh yeah, and how many people have to know your secret identity before it's just...an identity.

Is it next Wednesday yet?

Kinda tired of the whiplash on how the show wants me to feel about Moira. So... on the one hand, glad that's over. On the other hand, Susannah Thompson did some great work on the show.

The range and scope of the show is just crazy. We've got some really excellent character work going on (and some that probably needed another few passes in the writing stage, but hey... that's network TV in the US), but we've also got this enormous superhero plot going on, and both balance and bounce off each other so well.

But I will be so glad when Ollie puts an arrow through Slade's other eye. Dude is just beyond sympathetic, even allowing for the fact that the Mirakuru is in the driver's seat and not the man who was Ollie's mentor and friend.

Well, one thing's clear: we won't get Kate Spencer as Manhunter on this show.

Double posting to say: The Flash is a go for next season.

I may have flailed like Kermit during the "I love you. Do you understand?" scene. But my joy only lasted a few moments, as I knew TPTB were just too evil to let me have this. And alas. But seriously, you two, you're not fooling anyone.

I loved Sara showing up with the cavalry. I really liked the arm touch with her and Felicity. I wish we could have seen more of their friendship. And I'm really, really going to miss her. Why do we get stuck with the boring, awful Lance sister while the awesome one rides off into the sunset with her hot girlfriend? Can't we make a trade?? When Laurel put on Sara's jacket and her father was all "Don't get any ideas" I was like "Seriously, don't! You are too much of a drip and you will come up so very short in the inevitable comparisons to your superior sister!"

Detective Lance's predicament is legit worrying. If anyone on the cast is "expendable" it's him, and I don't like it!

I wish we could have seen more of Diggle's relationship with Lyla. The baby revelation would have had more of an impact. Hopefully we'll get a more meaty storyline for Dig next season.

Roy getting his own mask and fighting mofos left and right was really great. I'm usually a little torn on Roy, because Coulton Haynes' acting makes me worry that he's going to randomly start punching people half the time, but he was really great in this episode.

SUPER excited to see the "island"/Hong Kong flashbacks next season! I was not a fan of the S1 flashbacks (although they have grown on me upon rewatch), but these S2 flashbacks have really upped the game. I think the addition of Sara had a lot to do with that.


All in all, a very satisfying finale!

Raksha wrote:I may have flailed like Kermit during the "I love you.  Do you understand?" scene.  But my joy only lasted a few moments, as I knew TPTB were just too evil to let me have this.  And alas.  But seriously, you two, you're not fooling anyone.

I sat with both arms in the air until the commercial break, when I made my husband high-five me eight times in a row. And then I immediately realized what was really going on, and got sad. But still! Even if he hasn't allowed himself to think about it yet, there was clearly some truth there because we've never seen Oliver to be that great an actor. I do think it was a risky move because Felicity could have easily bought it and started rambling her actual real feelings, and that would have been really shitty for her. But, um, who knows? Maybe Oliver was looking at it as a win-win. If she didn't, then they get to go on as they have; if she did, then you know, yay.

Otherwise, the episode was full of great moments. Det. Lance killing a guy for Nyssa (his future daughter-in-law and you can't convince me otherwise;) Roy coming back to himself; "Felicity Smoak, MIT, Class of '09;" Diggle and Lyla!; Deadshot; no Laurel! What's that? No, I didn't see any jacket exchange anyway back to how great everyone was!

Great finale for a great freaking season of TV.

Loved it, even if Roy's levels of stupid were very high. "I'm never gonna leave you again." (Phone buzzes) "Be right back, I got a thing."

That was a great finale, I loved it as much as I loved the Agents of SHIELD finale.

I might have paused the dvr after the Olicity scene at the Queen mansion to jump around my bedroom in happiness...ok I totally did. I was disappointed that it wasn't real. Sarah giving Ollie and the jacket to Laurel was a major eyeroll. Don't go there show.

Loved Thea shooting Malcolm. Any other show would have had her shoot at a guy behind him so that was cool. I actually like her going off with Malcolm at the end. She needs to get it together. I liked her character in season one but she's been floundering lately.

Felicity asking how Ollie learned to fly a plane and leading into season three answering a whole bunch of questions I've had for a while now. Like how did Ollie and Amanda know each other so well or Ollie's comment in this episode about Slade knowing how Amanda thinks. Or like how did Anatoli teach Ollie all that Russian and where Ollie got his tattoo.