Orion

It's still to small of a sample size but there could be a pattern establishing that they are going in reverse order of when people died in the crossover. Original timeline: Oliver, Laurel, Diggle, Thea, Felicity. New timeline: Felicity, Thea ...

I fast forwarded this episode with a very heavy hand but from what I did see - I couldn't help being completely envious of Flashback Oliver as he snoozed peacefully through most of Poppy's scenes Solid plan, Oliver. Maybe next week they can paint the walls in the cell and we can all enjoy watching it dry. Felicity: "Guys, the Calculator, you know the man who tried to kill 8,000 people last week and also sent mercenaries to try to kill the team, is my Dad. I'm having a meeting with him to see if he is really bad, just go with that, but since I'm in a wheelchair and the only member of this team without a weapon maybe one of you can come with me? Just to make sure this isn't some sort of setup. I know Oliver is busy but, how about Digg? He used to work security in that building and he's not doing much this episode. No? Is it because we haven't reached the part of the season where the writers remember that he and I are friends? Okay, off I go." I had a ton of conversations with my husband about why a super villain should have been Felicity's father and this episode illustrated all of my points. It was a story that they could half ass and stick in an episode that was already jammed packed. Skip most of the emotional moments and claim done. Sure they plan on having him back like they plan on having the Huntress back and how they had lots of stuff for Amanda Waller and Slade but now they are under no obligation to do it. Felicity's father done and done. At least if he had been the seasons Big Bad it would have forced them to deal with a story. After a season and half of LOA it drives me absolutely insane that the writers STILL have not answer who the hell this group is. Do they have Geo-political goals? Do they kill for money? For fun? Can you hire them like the A-Team? "If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them....maybe you can hire The LOA." How do you even join them? It's not like all the members showed up with a super virus. Maybe if you show up with a case of Crystal Clear Pepsi and Zima for their hot tub parties they let you join. Being a LOA minion can't be an easy job. It's got a high death rate and probably crappy dental but those guys go the extra mile. Special shout out to the guys who have to drag around those kettle fire pits everywhere they go; including having to get them up on a roof. Nice swerve Arrow writers. I thought for sure since Felicity is stuck in the lair and Thea was there in their Med-level we might actually get a scene of those two talking. But they managed to avoid that. Good job. I'm back to Youtube after this.

Well there went my dream of a suit for Felicity. *sigh* To be fair to the people asking for Felicity to get better for stunt scenes I think it's just in response to fond memories of the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2 when we use to get a lot of them, a lack of them last season and this season and the felling that Felicity in a wheelchair is being used to keep her even more isolated down in the lair. On one hand, I understand those thoughts and on the other hand I've seen a ton of really heart warming replies on Twitter from people who are in wheelchairs that really appreciate that representation.

I see why you wouldn't want it. :) Before the show took away OTA from me I would have never wanted a mask for Felicity either. But the show has changed and I think her future needs to change too. Felicity inventing tech is what should be happening right now. It should have been happening all along but that's another issue I have with the TV universe that these producers have created. But inventing tech is not going to elevate Felicity to where I want her to go. It's not going to move her from supporting the Green Arrow to iconic character with comics and merchandise and action figures for years to come. And that's what I want for her. Cisco isn't going to remain a big deal because he invents tech, he's going to be a big deal because he's Vibe (I hate Cisco please don't make talk about Cisco I want to smother him with a pillow until I never have to hear the name Cisco again. :D ). And to be perfectly honest, as much as I hate it with a passion masks get agency. They get story and multiple arc episodes. They get story beats where they are called heroes (whether they deserve it or not). I hated Felicity off on Palmer island and that Palmer Tech is the new launching pad for every new hero that MG can dream up. And for a certain portion of people the best future Felicity can have is birthing Olicity children (not that having kids is a bad thing. I have 3 but that's not all I am and that's not all I want for Felicity). That's what she is going to be stuck with without a mask. And I want MORE.

I guess I have the unpopular opinion but I want her in a suit. I want Felicity/Olicity stunts (since MG claims they are so super hard to do and still be organic). I want to stop seeing people(idiots) in the media asking when Felicity will be a hero. I want Felicity to stop having to carry the emotional weight of the show because she is the sole person without a mask. I want her to have new skills!! I want Felicity to have her own comic series. I want the DC comic fanboys in management (not the trolls on the internet; I don't care what they thing) to realize they created a brand new super heroine, whose main skills are her brains, her kindness and her inspiration, that fights along side the Green Arrow and I want my daughters in 10 years time to not be able to think Green Arrow without thinking Felicity Smoak in every medium (sorry Smallville fans :) ). But mainly I don't want her destiny to be the only one that is limited in this show. And I'm not going to get that if the writers keep her chained to that damn desk hacking into the same systems that she has been hacking into for 4 years.

While I wasn't upset about Oliver learning his lesson and being there for Thea, although, I did note the difference, it does speak to a bigger issue I have with the show. It feels like the show is jumping through hoops to not include certain aspects the O/F relationship. We didn't get to see Oliver and Felicity go from 2X23 to 3X01 arguably one of the most important steps in a TV relationship, especially the Friends to Lovers trope, is the moment the characters realize they are in love to when they decide they are going to act on those feelings (cue all the questions SA, MG, and EBR get about when did Oliver fall in love with Felicity). Fine, Guggie wanted to sell his 2.5 comics so the viewers missed out on that transition. Then the viewers weren't given any scenes with Oliver telling Thea about his feelings for Felicity, then we missed out the initial domestic issues that come along with moving in with someone when they chose to play all of that out over last summer. By the time we saw Oliver and Felicity in 4X01 they were already basically behaving like a couple that had been married for 5 months. We again missed the conversation that must have happened between Oliver and Thea about him wanting to marry her and getting Thea's permission for him to give Felicity Moira's ring. Then in 4X09 we got a millisecond of Oliver reacting to Felicity being injury. 4X10 didn't even bother to let the viewers have the rush down the hospital corridor scene without cutting in moments of action. Oliver wasn't at her bedside, wasn't included in conversations with her doctors, wasn't there to support her before surgery, wasn't holding her hand as she slept, etc. The moments they did have in that episode were mostly set up to send Oliver back out into the field to keep fighting. It felt very much like a deliberate choice to focus on action, action, action. "See we aren't going to make this a shipper show. We won't even slow down the plot for Felicity being paralyzed. Now the people that don't enjoy Olicity won't blame us for focusing too much on that relationship. Yay!" AFor writers who love D.R.A.M.A all of that stuff should have been included unless they are trying to bury the relationship beats behind action scenes and that's where I get annoyed at Oliver for being there for Thea. She's his sister so no relationship cooties attached. The writers need to pick a lane, either they are committed to having Olicity be a major plot within the show and if that is what they decide then commit to it and stop acting embassed that that they need to stop the action during certain episodes or restructure the plot where the majority of the romance happens off screen and stop asking me to read between the lines or read producers interviews to understand romantic developments (like Oliver realizing he needs to be at the bedside of people he loves).

They made it even harder to differentiate between the Flashbacks and present day at one point in this episode. Your point reminded me of the really weird transition they had between Felicity and the Flashback where the wheel of Felicity's wheelchair rolled by in the foreground of the prison cell. I missed that scene completely (not that I don't zone out during the Flashbacks anyway) because I was trying to figure out if island Oliver was also hallucinating wheelchair bound Felicity or if present day Oliver was back in the cell and I somehow missed a huge plot point. ITA. But this issue is the perfect excuse to give Felicity a weapon. It's beyond idiotic that she doesn't already have one considering who she works with it. It would even be a fantastic excuse for a Digg/Felicity scene that I have been in desperate need of. Diggle: "Felicity, you know how much this team needs you here. We struggled without you. Now that moving around is more difficult for you, I need you to come with me to the gun range and let me teach you how to protect yourself. Especially since the three places you hang out, the loft, the lair, and Palmer Tech all have a history of having super villains break into it. Once you've learned how to use a gun I don't want you to ever put it down. I need to know you can at protect yourself (at least a little *throwback to season one) or (because your irreplaceable *throwback to season 2)." The scenes at the gun range wouldn't even need to be shown. It would take up NO time in the plot and yet Felicity would have a new skill which would thrill me to death and address the new reality that her injuries slow her down. And if they can't give me a Diggle scene because he's on lone to propping up other characters then have Felicity invent a computer generated force field around her wheelchair that goes on to save Palmer Tech so I can at least have that.

It was a Meh episode for me. It wasn't bad but it wasn't captivating TV either. Too much jammed into the plot. Roy, Thea, MM, Tatsu, Nyssa, Shado, Calculator, Palmer Tech and the board member that should have been gut punched for his comments. Just too much. It felt like 4 episodes that were edited together with no connecting thread. Flashbacks of I have no idea what is going on and dear god please stop already. Roy felt underused. Curtis can now punch and create batteries, lovely. I don't think they should have used another character developing hallucination right after having that be the main plot in last weeks episode. If Cisco on the Flash can now hack and create tech for the heroes(along with everything else he does) can Arrow let Felicity start creating her own things instead of having to reverse engineer things from villains, depend on something Ray created that she suddenly rememberd or something Curtis built? Why is she the only character limited to the skills she had in season 2 (and even some of those have been taken away and given to others). Remember when this show had day light parkour scenes where you could see Oliver clearly? Remember when continuity during those scenes was a thing and rain didn't start and stop at random places during the fights? Good times. Nothing captured me and other than the scene with Oliver and Thea and the Thea and Roy scene I just couldn't emotionally invest in any of it because it was so choppy. Still no Diggle/Felicity scenes and no Thea/Felicity scenes; do better show.

Is Donna scheduled to be in 4X16? I can't imagine a real wedding taking place without Felicity's mother.

Fans are mocking the CW Arrow's tweet with the #FelicityExposed hashtag listing all the things that Felicity is "responsible" for causing. I've seen global warming and the earth being flat. It's worth a look for a few giggles.

This could be one of the best episodes in several seasons. Not just because of the characters that it focused on and developed (although that is a large part of it) but because for the first time in a while the sound mixing was great, the score didn't drown out dialogue, there were no mumbled lines, the fight scenes were crisp and clear and well choreographed, the directing and pacing were perfect - allowing time for each scene to breath and develop, and the flashbacks were packed full of new information that tied back into the current timeline. I normally would have been annoyed with hallucination Felicity and using a gimmick to give a character POV but for a storyline like Felicity's injury I think her feelings would have been intensely personal and I don't think Felicity speaking to another character about her concerns would have been half as fulfilling because no one else could directly relate to what she was going on in her mind in that moment. EBR also did a great job of selling those two very different personalities - different body language and posture along with her speaking at different speeds for each Felicity. She really did a good job. This show can never have enough of Diggle. I can take Andy or leave him, although I have hope moving forward now that he is not confined in a cage and simply playing the douche to Diggle's good guy, I'll take any story that brings David Ramsey and his acting to the foreground. He made the flashbacks compelling and interesting. I also really enjoy the Dyla dynamic. A few negatives (although they were minor this episode) I didn't like that at the end Felicity said she wasn't on pain medication. That line seemed to imply that once she got over her justifiable anger and upset at her injury she no longer need the pills. I was really happy at the beginning of the episode that they showed her needing medication for pain from her injuries, nice continuity that this was still effecting her and I didn't think that line at the end was needed. I understood why Oliver was trying to be cheerful and make Felicity smile at the beginning but, and this could be me personally, but it reminded me of my husband joking around with me when I was in labor, I appreciate the distraction but I'm in pain and get to wallow in that for a time if I want to. Again that could just me my personal experience influencing my viewing. I honestly don't understand why this show has Laurel bring up that she dated Oliver like that somehow informs on who he is now. Laurel, you dated him 8 years ago. Who he is and how he is in a relationship is not something that your past experience with him would have any connection. The show keeps bringing this up through her dialogue. Last season when she told WildCat that she use to date him and the I don't know why I ever loved you line. I'm not who I was 8 years ago and I haven't been through a fraction of what Oliver was. It makes her appear clueless and trying to add an emotional intimacy which doesn't exist between those two. I almost feel bad for when she has say those lines. Oliver never brings that stuff up. Just let that relationship remain dead show stop dragging it back in the light like it's not something to be ashamed off. Good start at Delicity show but two sentences are not enough for me. More please. Arrow you are so incredibly frustrating when you have episodes with character development and agency like this and then have episodes like last week. But this week was so refreshing I'm going to let you drag me back in next week.

I'm preparing myself for the nod to Birds of Prey episode in here somewhere (probably 17 since that would line up with when they did that storyline with Sara in season 2). Now that Felicity is their Oracle they won't pass up the chance to have the women team up. Oliver will either spend part of an episode with the kid and require the women to take the lead while he's gone or the women will side with Felicity in the breakup and bond over a mission.

I wanted to like this episode so much. I had such high hopes. I should know better. Arrow once again shoving 3 hours of plot into a 45 minute show. How do you paralyze one of the most popular characters on your show and have 2 emotional scenes with that person? How do you yet AGAIN not have a Diggle/Felicity scene? How do you write it where Oliver learns she is NEVER going to walk again and have him peace out to go free a bad guy. Scenes that I would have loved to have had rather than watch Laurel pissy face her self through half the episode. Oliver calling for help, Oliver talking to Felicity at all before/during/after the ambulance, the ER, one of the surgeries, her diagnosis. Donna/Diggle hearing about the shooting. Donna/Diggle/Thea talking to Felicity. Honest to god half the time I think Felicity is a figment of Oliver's imagination and that Slade actually killed her way back in Season 2. But thank goodness we got to see Anarchy has a crush on Thea 10 or 12 times and Flashbacks of boredom.. The Oliver and Felicity scenes that they were allowed to have were fantastic and emotional and the scene where Felicity tells him he's not obligated to stick with the engagement was some of EBR's best work and I'm so glad they had that dialogue in there because that was very real as something someone would say and offer. But to just make this chopped up snooze of an episode when there was so much potential. Which should really be Arrow's tag line.

I'm curious where everyone is getting that Curtis has the same skills as Felicity? I miss a lot of scenes because most episodes I'm only watching on YouTube, so maybe I missed something? So far Curtis has computer skills like cleaning up audio and creating inventions but he was unable to hack into Ray's last message and couldn't brute force the password. A password has never stopped Felicity even back in Season 1 when she broke into the phone for the assassin that was targeting Merlyn. We haven't heard anything about him being able hack or design software/viruses have we? Not that I put it pass the writers to give Curtis all of Felicity's skills because ... Gary Stu but I haven't seen it yet.

Super excited that they have started filming for Season 4. Looks like we are going to get to see Emma in the hospital after her transplant. https://twitter.com/solace76/status/675353226250612737/photo/1

They are setting up the back half of episodes to be Felicity's crucible. She's going to have to fight her way back to the light. And they are going to throw everything and the kitchen sink at her (They'll have to after everything she has overcomeh since joining TA.) Whatever is coming up is going to shake her faith in Oliver, in their relationship (the lie), in herself and in her determination/ability to be a hero (Injury and her Father/abandonment issues).

I feel like this episode needs to donate to my health insurance for the amount of anvils that were being thrown around. I was disappointed at first that Felicity found about the ring (although I was not disappointed at Donna's reaction to the ring. She has a great career at jewelry story if she wants to give up waitressing) but when the story played out and the show gave Felicity all kinds of agency in the marriage conversations, I cheered. "Just to be clear I shot first." This show does love to reference classic movies. One of my favorite background scenes was when Curtis was holding Donna tight after she tells Oliver that Felicity was taken. Look Show, your CGI is legitimately terrible, if you are going to make me sit through Oliver swimming like he grew flippers like he's in a Harry Potter movie and a shark that looks worst than Sharknado, then I expect you to at least have him swimming shirtless to distract me. There seemed to be more problems with inaudible dialogue this episode than there normally is. And of course Arrow's constant problem with pacing was still a problem. John Barrowman could not have been more gleeful at wearing the Arrow suit. I aww'ed out loud a few times. The last shot of Oliver trying to find Felicity's pulse while he holds her. If anyone is interested the show used the Vienna Boys Choir recording of Little Drummer Boy Overall it was a really great episode. Character development, POV, agency, suspense, drama, wit and characters IN character.

The problem with Felicity's injury is she was shot on the right side of her rib cage. Bullets ricochet off of hard bone changing trajectory and velocity and/or ribs splinter and bone fragments can move throughout the chest cavity. So all injury locations are still on the table, unfortunately.

Okay, I tried to stay away from hoping that CC kid's father is not Oliver and after the DNA test was done last week, I gave up all hope but could William be Robert's son? This show clearly doesn't know how DNA works and Barry specifically mentioned the Y chromosome matched. Could that be why the kid aged up to 10? Could the sin of the father actually be about Oliver suffering the consequences of Robert's affair? And could part of the storyline be that if Oliver had just trusted Felicity to run the DNA from the beginning she would have caught that? It would be a way of having the father/son plot. But also a way to have BM not be a mainstay in their lives once Oliver finds out and only appear very rarely so Oliver could visit with his half-brother. I'll just be over here in my tinfoil hat.

There are two fairly easy ways to see Broadway shows at a discount that I use a lot. The first is that almost all Broadway shows run a special in July/August for one day only sale for select showing at 50% off the ticket price. There are a lot of good broadway handles on twitter that announce when that sale is going on. For a Wednesday matinee the price drops to around $40 for good seats. The second, and this one is a little bit harder but worth it if you have the time. Every theater has a certain number of standby tickets available for the day of the showing. If you go by the theater around 10am and sign up they announce the winners of the raffle for the tickets between 12-1pm. I find the best way to get a ticket is to go in a group of 3-4 people each of you sign up at 2-3 theaters and make sure at least one member of your party is at each of the places you signed up to be on the standby list. That way, the person at those theaters, can call the person who won to rush back and claim those tickets Depending on the availability the raffle winners can purchase up to 4 tickets. Those tickets go for $25. Obviously this works best if you don't have your heart set on one particular show.

I can't decide if this is intentional or not. But I absolutely adore this shot. The way the outline of Felicity's hair is creating an overlay over Oliver gives him the silhouette of wearing the Green Arrow's hood. It cuts his face in the exact same place. If it is intentional bravo to the director because it adds a nice little bit of symbolism.

A few days ago people on Twitter mentioned that he also mentioned the song Christmas in Fallujah by Billy Joel for episode 4X09 but I'm not sure where those people saw it tumblr or Twitter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm2aqyXL7YE

To be fair (ugh, sorry I feel like this is becoming my mantra) the writers have gone 4 years without having Felicity be seriously hurt. They even had her shrug off a head injury, twice, and a bullet wound like she got a hangnail. Diggle and Felicity are the only characters that haven't ended up in the hospital in this series. (Quentin, Laurel and Thea have been hospitalized a few times and Ray, Sin, Sara, and Oliver have been their once.) They have also had all of Felicity is in danger, since the Count, include Felicity at least helping to rescue herself (Slade, Doll Maker, Clock King, Captain Boomerang, the meta human guy from last year that she hit with steam (sorry I don't remember his name I stopped watching at that point, Double Down, and Cooper). This is one storyline that I will give the writers credit for. They have held off on this trope for a long time even avoiding having the Hood rescue Felicity from danger before she knew who he was and once she was moved in the LI role it has taken them a year and half to pull this story thread. We were never not going to have her eventually hurt. I'm just glad they have waited as long as they did. And I hope it doesn't become a reoccurring thing.

No he tells her that he has to look into something and when she pressures him for more information he says that there is something going on and he'll tell her all about it, he just wants to know what he is dealing with first. To be fair to Oliver, and god knows I don't want to be fair to Oliver, the show went out of it's way to establish in that conversation that he intended to tell Felicity everything. He didn't immediately default to I'm going to lie. The show also left how he answered BM's blackmail the first time up in the air. We don't know if he told her the same line he gave Felicity, that he needed time to process and decide if he could lie to his girlfriend or he could have told her that he was going to a lawyer because he wasn't going to lie. The show left that un answered. The writers seem to really want this BM breaks them up storyline but they don't want to actually have Oliver or Felicity be at serious fault (even though I think they missed their marks on not making Oliver look like a shit. Mainly because they left all this in subtext instead of giving Oliver a voice in show about what he is thinking) . BM is the fall guy with her stupid don't tell ANYONE and Barry Allen also has an assist for not being able to play whisper down the lane effectively.

I think going forward we are going to have to look at Oliver as if he separated into into two people in this episode because that will be how the show treats him. The lie isn't informing his decisions. It's just hanging around waiting to be the temporary guillotine on Olicity. There is the man who is crazy in love with Felicity. The man who has wanted to propose since 4X01. And then there is Oliver the lying liar who lied. To be honest it has always bothered me that Felicity forgave him so easily at the end of Season 3. He let her believe she was dying. He cut her and Digg out of their partnership. She was emotionally tortured thinking the man she loved gave up his soul for an episode or two. Digg got to express that anger and betrayal, Felicity never got that agency. That doesn't even get into what happened at the end of Season 2 and that lie/not lie. And if all this stupid story and plot for plot sake turns around and allows her to confront him about all of that. A nice, "How dare you not trust me after all the secrets I keep for you and all your lies I have forgiven," conversation; then fine lie about Baby Mama. As long as he has to earn her trust back and things aren't just handwaved and lampshaded to death once we reach episode 20. I'll live with this storyline. Unhappily, but I'll take agency where I can get it.