Orion

Add me to the afraid they will kill off Felicity to fulfill comic canon column. Its my fear because yes, the EPs have acknowledged that Olicity/Felicity is very popular and have shown a willingness to go there, but you still also get the feeling that group is clinging to Laurel like a chubby kid latches on to chocolate bar. I can see teasing Olicity through Season 3, giving us Olicity in Season 4 and killing her off Season 5 to give us what we "need" and ending the show with the BC/GA hook up that seem to love so much. I can see them trying to sell the network on "see we are giving the fans Olicity and they will never break up and get back together and by the time the last season comes around everyone will be so invested in the story that they won't leave." It all comes down to me not believing that they see all the problems behind the Laurel/Laurel & Oliver character/relationship.

Oh this episode has one of my favorite lines, "Felicity this is the IT department, not the ladies room." Cue Oliver smiles for Felicity. It was one of the first times that I remember thinking okay these two are cute and she lightens him up. If I'm remembering correctly this is also the first time we see playful Oliver. Before this he's normally just reacting to her babbles. I laughed re-watching this when Oliver tells Moira, Walter and Thea that he'll take care of everything and they don't have to do anything when I think about how much work the staff would have to put in to hang all those decorations last minute. Ah, the blindness of being a billionaire. Oliver to the staff, "Okay everyone were going to have a party can you start decorating this huge mansion with all the decorations? Great! Man, parties are hard work." I'm not sure if I'm filling in a plot hole in my mind or if this is what the writers intended but I thought the black arrows were so easy to trace back to that warehouse was because Malcolm was trying to kill the vigilante in his trap? I also love that Felicity calls Walter to make sure Oliver is alright after his "motorcycle" accident. It's a nice little scene that you only hear her voice but it really hints at what type of person she is. I think this is also the start of (could be wrong but first time I noticed it) Arrow using street names to honor people associated with DC comics. Quentin tells the Arrow he is going to leave the black arrow in a heating vent at the corner of Adams and O'Neil. Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams are the writer and artist responsible for reinventing Batman away from the campy 60's version in the 1970's.

Since Jennifer Crusie's blog was brought up in the Relationship thread I thought I would leave this here "How do you solve a problem like Laurel Lance." It's her take on Laurel and why should would work better going dark. http://www.arghink.com/2014/02/07/character-and-context-how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-laurel-lance/ She brings up an interesting point, I think, about taking sides on characters. From the first time Laurel is on screen in the grabs the remote and turns off the TV scene and the first scene with Oliver and she's bitching him out over not being hell longer than 5 years I picked a side. I think most viewers/readers choose sides when they are watching an argument or seeing conflict. Who's right or who's wrong. The problem with having Oliver and Laurel's first meet be a fight is once I decided that Oliver went through hell on that island and while Laurel is completely justified in her anger towards Oliver I felt sympathy for him, I put Laurel in she's a bitch box and every time she was on screen I saw her interactions through that filter. I honestly think the writers lost me with Laurel from that opening scene and never gave me a good enough reason to change my initial opinion, if anything it was constantly re-enforced. ETA because I forgot @BunsenBurner DA's can also be appointed by US Attorneys I'm assuming if Laurel does go to the DA's office that's how she'll get there. *sigh* One more thing handed to her instead of earned.

That's an interesting idea @Swebby and I think it would work as far as Laurel's motivations go but the one problem I see (two really but one is that it would mean Laurel would get more screen time and I don't care if she's curing diseases and rescuing puppies I don't want her to have more screen time) is that the writers would be "Fridging" two popular characters and putting another "On a Bus" all at alter of adding to Laurel's woman pain. That is never going to work well for a character like Laurel that already feels like to much of the story is sacrificed for the sake of making her relevant. That type of story breeds resentment. Quentin, Dinah and Sara all have their fans and using their deaths and exits to build up Laurel would feel cheap and badly used. I have similar feelings on the writers killing off Moira to add to Oliver and Thea's pain. But at least I could see that she really didn't have a believable story going forward. Whereas Quentin and Sara especially have so much more story to tell and imo Laurel hasn't earned the death of two characters to save her story.

Oh there is no doubt in my mind that Oliver was jealous of Felicity and Barry. I think SA started give those "he wasn't jealous, he was just wondering who Barry is" interviews right around the time that Heir to the Demon was written and he realized that he couldn't be jealous over Felicity while hooking back up with his ex-girlfriend's back from the dead sister (I just gave myself a headache typing that) . Even Diggle calls him on with, "I don't think you had a problem with Felicity's performance until Barry Allen came along." Now an argument, at least in my mind, can be made that Oliver was jealous of Felicity and Barry working closely together and the partnership they were forming (fun and flirty) was what Oliver wishes he could have with her or whether he was romantically jealous of Barry. I tend to side that is was both of those because we had Oliver grumpy face while she was working with Barry and we also had it when they were just flirting together. But I think SA attempting to explain that away was him trying to save the curveball story that writers threw at them with going back to Sara. The story full stopped and jumped the tracks at that point to make Sara and Oliver a thing.

I agree with you on this. My husband and his friends, who are huge comic fans, don't understand while Laurel is still on the show. After season one their conversations were about how great the fight scenes were and how much they wish they would replace the actress playing Laurel. At the end of Season 2 the conversation had changed to why don't they just kill her off already. When I asked them about comic canon every single one responded that this isn't the comics. My husband gave the example that there are a ton of Batman movies, they are all different with different themes - sometimes they have Robin or Batgirl or Catwoman but most don't, they go into the movie looking for a new take on the character and as long as they aren't breaking any golden rules (Superman doesn't kill, Batman doesn't use gun) then they are all for it. One of the things they were most upset about is that they made Laurel's world all about Oliver - in the comics she has her own thing going on. I think the "but comics" argument is mainly coming from KC fans or Lauriver fans who haven't read the comics but want something they support happening in the show. In theory, on paper, I think what she's gone through would be enough but the problem with how they've handled her storyline is that we never got to see her being emotionally tortured about all of that. Arrow, the show, moves through story so fast that they often don't develop the emotions of their characters and I think Laurel's character has suffered the most from that (I'm still not convinced even with time and effort KC could have pulled off a more compassionate character but..). We had Laurel blaming the hood and then crying when she realized it was her fault Tommy was dead but it was only for that episode. Laurel told Oliver that the Doll Maker kidnapping was just your garden variety traumatizing experience but it was never brought up again. She told Sara that she had ruined her life but she was doing pretty well for herself with a good career, nice apartment, and in a relationship with a good guy. None of those things line up a character that can't get past the loss that happened in her past. They could have shown her crying over a photo of her sister or waking up with nightmares about Tommy dying or having to take anti-anxiety pills to leave her house after the Doll Maker. But what we've been given is a character that just shrugs stuff off and moves on with her life. Other than the addiction arc and I still have no idea why they handled that so poorly. But no they can't tell me Laurel has had a hard life and show me something different all while showing me episode after episode of Oliver and Sara and even Diggle living with their truly tortured past and slowly becoming who they are today; earning through hard work physically and emotionally the lives they are carving out for themselves and then plop Laurel down as a vigilante hero and expect me to buy it.

The other cast might be more willing to stay on script and only give the fans what the marketing department approves, whereas SA wants more freedom? I can't really say, I have a huge fear of following actors on social media because I don't want to find out that they are douche nozzles in RL and have it ruin a show for me, so I don't follow any of them. I do know that part of all CW contracts are that actors, writers and recently EPs have a twitter account. (the stars of BatB were all required to open one) How much control they have over how an actor interacts with fans I don't know. If that is what happened SA will be back the CW would be morons to hurt the gold mind they have in him with how he interacts with the fans.

My guess with SA going radio silent, and it's a complete guess, is it has something to do with the Flash pilot being leaked. Last year I was a huge fan of Beauty and the Beast. They started having leaks about details of the episodes, not actually the video, including a scene by scene breakdown of the Season 1 finale. As soon as that happened, the actors changed their profile pictures to generic photos, removed any mention of Beauty and the Beast from their profiles and pretty much all went silent as far as interacting with the fans. (Granted most of them didn't interact very often but they essentially went silent, all except a supporting actor on the show, Austin Basis, who mentioned that he has interacting with the fans written into his contract.) It seems pretty likely that with the leak of the Flash pilot the day before its an attempt on the CW's part to crack down on off script social media and SA pushing back against them trying to control his interactions.

The only DC villain I can think of that matches that and has anything at all to do with Snakes is Edmund Dorrance, King Snake. He has a connection to the Triad and Hong Kong and he lost his sight so "snake eyes could fit" but I don't know of any connection he had to Oliver Queen. http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/King_Snake

Oh, I have no problem with Felicity being insecure at times. Everyone, is insecure at times during the lives, even Oliver has moments of self doubt. In fact the only part of Time of Death I enjoyed was her conversation with Diggle where she felt her skills were not good enough - that she wasn't pulling her weight as a partner on Team Arrow. The scars conversation could have been handled exactly the way it happened and ended on a close up of Felicity face looking insecure and left out. That would have accomplished the point and there would have been no need for the whole wisdom tooth part. That was part of the scene that was OOC for her. She's never felt the need to compare her life experiences with Diggle or Oliver in the past. By writing her comparing her tooth surgery to their knife, gun, mortar, and sword scars made her look immature. That's what bothered me about the whole episode. She took the jacket without asking, she put herself in a dangerous position without backup to prove herself and the face cuddle you will always be my girl; it was immature. Felicity has always been shown to be a thoughtful, intelligent and cautious woman (example would be the "can I trust you scene." She tells Oliver that she has been debating about telling him about the notebook for weeks and asks if she can trust him. When Oliver slips into his pre-island shallow persona she immediately pulls back until he becomes serious.) but in Time of Death she was none of those things. As far as Oliver not realizing that something was bothering Felicity and having to have Diggle clue him in, that has to do with a larger problem with the second half of S2 imo. Once Slade appeared on screen Oliver pretty much forgot that Diggle and Felicity existed as far as their safety goes. We were told that Oliver was having Roy stick close to Thea, that the security at Queen Manor was increased and that Sara was protecting Laurel, we also had Oliver pushing Sara away to try to keep her safe. But the only one thinking about Felicity's safety was Diggle and he took it upon himself to sit in his car outside of her house. Looking back now I can excuse that with Slade telling Oliver exactly who he was going to go after as the Amazo sank (Thea, Laurel and Moira). The problem with that is that A. Oliver is counting on Slade not changing and his plans and B. If Oliver remembered that conversation enough to only protect those 3 people why didn't he make sure they were safe and send them out of the city. There was a disregard for Diggle and Felicity and it started in this episode and I agree with @statsgirl that this episode really did emphasize some of Oliver's worst characteristics. I understand coming up with fan wank and head canon, trust me I do it to, but that's one of the real problems Arrow has in general. I shouldn't have to read interviews and tweets, I shouldn't have to fanwank or develop head canon or read the comics (Hi, Katie Cassidy). If I have to go to outside sources to explain their writing choices they aren't telling their story on screen. @Happy Harpy I love how you described this episode it really was like evasion of the "Pod People". ETA because I just saw @BkWurm1 comment on the jacket. I really think it was Sara's jacket. IIRC Sara isn't wearing her jacket and Sara says, "Nice jacket," Felicity answers back "What, I was cold." That didn't play to me as I had this jacket in the foundry and put it on as I left and we've never seen Felicity wear anything like that before, but that could just be me. The bullet hole I explain away like the bullet hole that Oliver should have in his hood from when Moira shot him but there is no new seam on his hood after that.

I almost quit the show after Time of Death. Everything about that episode made me angry and even after forcing myself to rewatch it knowing where everything was going it still feels like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. From the scars conversation, to Oliver's "what are you wearing," to Felicity borrowing the jacket and having Sara call her on it in front of every, to Oliver not noticing that something was bothering Felicity, and finishing it off with "You'll always be my girl." That whole block of episodes after Sara and Oliver got together really felt like the writers realized that A. Felicity and Oliver were getting away from them and starting to move faster than the scripts intended and B. TPTB last minute came up with the idea of Oliver and Sara getting together and they had to full stop all the other storylines to make that happen. My one hope with Felicity is that they got so much backlash from how they treated her during the Lance block of episodes and the fact that they had to start throwing out Felicity/Olicity teases to get the social media fan accounts talking (because when the publicity focused on Laurel or Lance issues the buzz online instantly died down/turned hostile) made the EPs realize that, yes the fans like Arrow but the Felicity fans will not watch a show that uses her to prop of other characters or scenery in the background. But that's probably wishful thinking.

SA said at Upfronts, I believe, that this season Oliver is going to have to decide how much of his humanity he wants back and I think the Felicity/Daniel relationship along with Diggle Jr. and Oliver Jr will all be used to slowly breakdown the walls that Oliver built up during his 5 years away. For good or bad jealousy is a powerful motivator. Right now Oliver has Felicity in a convenient emotional box. He cares for her and she's his partner but he doesn't have to evaluate those feelings. He doesn't have to take them out of the box and see exactly what it is he feels. He doesn't have to experience what it feels like when she has a life away from him. She's safe away from his damaged self but he can have her loyalty and affection without risking putting her in danger from him enemies and hurting her like he did to all the other women he "risked" being a relationship with. I put risked in quotes because except for McKenna Oliver's attempts at relationship were about other reasons then actually looking to try to bond with another person. (Laurel regaining the life he use to have, Sara finding someone who shared his nightmare, Helena saving her, and Isabel a meaningless one night stand that I actually think had more to do with throwing her off the sent of Oliver and Felicity being a couple). And to be honest Oliver needs a good swift kick in the pants to move forward. He's found a comfort zone where he doesn't have to push himself to come back completely to his new life and can still remain detached emotionally. Characters being vulnerable and overcoming obstacles are what moves plot along in the story and since Oliver is the main protagonist no character is going to be added to the series unless they impact Oliver. Love triangles might be cliché and annoying at times but there are reasons that writers use them, they cause characters to grow, think, change. And what Felicity said on the island is how she feels. Yes, she loves Oliver. She's not ashamed of that but she believes they are unthinkable; that he could never care about her that way. Confronting him and asking him to love her just isn't who Felicity is right now. She's encouraged him to try with McKenna, thought he deserved better with Isabel and supported his relationship with Sara. But she's not going to be the one to make the first move. Like EBR said at Upfronts this is Oliver's battle, Felicity isn't going to wait around for him to decide if he wants to fight it. If the new love interest is Ted Kord then from what I've read he's one of the more light hearted DC heroes. So Felicity finding someone who is fun to be around and shares her interest in all things tech sounds great to me. Oliver treated QC like it was useful when he needed a secret identity and the rest of the time he played at being a CEO, if he wants it back he's going to have to grow up in business as well as in his personal life. Daniel sounds like he is a multi use character that will be providing the incentive for Oliver to do both. I'm willing to give the writers some leeway on this because honestly I just want more Felicity in Arrow and despite failing on other storylines the writers have done a fairly good job of developing Oliver and Felicity in a healthy and strong way, slowly building the foundation of this relationship and I want to see how this plays out.

@quarks I'm not sure if having a clear motivation is KC problem with acting Laurel, I think it helps her but even in scenes where her motivation is clear she can't seem to nail it. I re-watched Time of Death last night, the scene where she should have knocked it out of the park, especially because she does better when she's angry, the person you come away thinking they did a really good job acting that scene is SA, not KC. I have yet to watch a Laurel scene thinking that was excellent on KC's part but I have scenes for every other actor on this show where I was impressed, despite borderline writing in those scenes. (SA -Tommy and Moira's death, EBR - the clock tower "I believe in you" speech, Malcolm - "they deserve to die, all of them" speech to Tommy, Thea - speech at Oliver's grave, Tommy - finding out Oliver is The hood, Diggle - quitting Team Arrow, Quentin - when he finds out Sara's alive.) I think what you see as clear motivation, I see a scene that is in her wheel house. KC does crying/weepy, wide eyed upset, and angry/bitchy scenes well and her acting choices tend to pull each of her scenes into those categories. Take that hallway scene again, SA shows pain, anger, heartbreak and resolve as he gives his speech about her. Whereas, KC is wide-eyed throughout, she adds a bit of weepy and angry but mainly just maintains that one expression until the scene ends. I've never seen KC in anything other than Arrow, never even heard of her before I started watching this, so I have no idea how she acted on previous shows and from the beginning I was willing to blame the writing for how poorly developed and inconsistent Laurel's character is, and they deserve their share of blame but after watching two seasons I can't even fault the writers for the majority of the problems anymore. They are giving her the material to work with she's just not doing anything with it to make Laurel a fully fleshed out character. I feel really bad for that girl that asked the question and giving "read the comics" as an answer, especially since KC said 2 weeks ago that she's never read them herself just shows me that she has no idea what her character is doing on the show. Even if I take her answer as legitimate though, The Green Arrow comics have been around since 1941 and have been retconned several times. Which version would she like me to read? The current one where Oliver and Dinah, (the BC has always been Dinah - first Dinah Drake and then her daughter Dinah "Laurel" Lance who was never called Laurel) don't even know each other or the one where they get a divorce and she's not a part of Oliver's team because she has her own team. If she didn't know the answer the simple way to respond to that person is "you'll have to wait and see what the writers are planning. I'm really excited" But really there is no excuse for not at least having an idea on what motivates your character.

Even if I can hand wave Laurel's training and accept that whatever she's doing over hiatus and whatever self defense classes her father signed her up for as kid makes her able to pick up where her sister left off and not be a liability in field (which I don't think I can but..) I'm still stuck on why Team Arrow needs her. Diggle, Oliver, and Felicity all have certain specialties that have earned them a place on the team, what can Laurel possibly bring to the table that the team doesn't already have. Even Roy and Sin provided eyes and ears in the Glades as something new brought to the team. The only thing Laurel has that the others don't is her connection the DA's office which is better served imo by Quentin with his connect to the Police Department because like they did in Season 2 he brought the Arrow cases and was an inside source to protect the Arrow and give the police needed information. Which was a lot more natural than The Hood helping Laurel be a lawyer in Season 1. I loved Sara when she was the mysterious woman in black that was attacking misogynist criminals, once she was brought into Team Arrow it got really redundant. She was essentially the female Oliver. But even saying that, Sara did have skills no one else had, blood analysis and experience with LOA weapons (pit viper venom, bow staff, the sonic thing). The best we can hope for is Laurel becoming the female version of Roy, inexperienced, unskilled and more often than not becoming a liability and one sidekick is more than enough for me. She has no defining skill set that is lacking from the current make up of the team, which means they are either going to have hand wave a skill that we don't know she has or they are going to have to dumb down another characters skill set which will just anger the fans of that character. Having multiple superhero origins in one series is going to, fairly or not, cause viewers to compare and contrast and the way the writers have set up Laurel's character she is always going to come out holding the short stick in those comparisons. She lost her boyfriend and sister. Sara and Oliver lost their families and were tortured for 5 years. She lost her ex-boyfriend, Oliver lost his best friend (Tommy), his mentor (Yao Fei), multiple friends (Sara twice, Slade, and Shado). Her parents got divorced. Oliver's father shot himself in the head in front of him and his Mother was involved in a plot to kill thousands of people. Laurel took self defense classes. Oliver and Sara had to fight for their lives and train with psychopaths. Laurel got addicted to pills and alcohol. Sara and Oliver have to deal with the guilt and PTSD of what they've done and what happened to them for the rest of their lives. Things just don't stack up evenly. And if I'm being honest Laurel's journey becomes almost laughable when it is lined up next to Oliver's and Sara's. I agree with others the only route I can see Laurel going that will get the writers out of the corner they have created for themselves and win over the fans is to turn character evil. However, that seems to be Thea's path so again Laurel would be walking a path already taken by another character.

ITA. Show me consequences! Show me Laurel looking like every other person that has ever had a hangover. Show me Laurel falling asleep in court. Show me Laurel loosing her apartment because she can't pay her bills without her job. Show me Laurel in a back alley trying to score more pills and getting mugged. Show me Laurel going to jail. That entire story arc was so badly handled. She got pulled over for a DUI, that she got out of, she lost a job she's not very good at, and she got yelled at by Oliver. The EPs and KC can tell me that the addiction storyline was her island all they want and I will continue to laugh out loud every time they say it.

I agree that scene was a real step forward for their relationship but Oliver's response of "I had help" to Felicity's "You did it, you beat him," that I found lacking. That was the perfect place for him to reaffirm their partnership. When you add Oliver down in the prison with Slade telling him that he, "helped him (Oliver) become a hero" it was unsatisfying for me. that scene needed a shout out to what Dig and Felicity had contributed. The mansion ruse would have paid off bigger in my imo if that beach scene had included an acknowledgement of the trust between them. Yes, it's understated and there in the subtext that he trusted her enough to go forward with that plan but I would still have liked him to verbalize it. She compliments him on how smart his plan was it would have been a nice beat if the writers had equaled that out with a compliment from him beyond "we both did". And I think all OCC moments for Dig and Felicity have to be laid at the feet of the writers going to far with the Lance Family drama. There were 6 episodes where they were literally everywhere action scenes, flashbacks, arrowcave, and Team Arrow. Felicity and Dig got steamed rolled and the writers lost their way. I really wonder how much of what happened in the middle of Season 2 was because the backdoor Flash pilot was pulled from the story they had planned. The writers really just seemed to flounder - plot advancement died and the flashbacks started mirroring the present instead of adding insight.

Diggle/Oliver training session. That scene alone is worth rewatching this episode. I always thought the water running in the background was from leaky pipes in the factory. IIRC the water is always running down there until Oliver starts to fix the place up for his club. The Starling City Police Department is the least secure building in all of Starling. I think this was the first episode with trick arrows? Oliver uses them to tie down the money bags. Oliver's little head shake, sigh, smile when Felicity says she should "add personal internet researcher for Oliver Queen to her job title" was so adorable. The flashback where Oliver wants to kill himself and hallucinates his Dad was really powerful. I'm normally not a fan of the flashback but that one showed how desperate and alone Oliver was. I agree with you Quarks this the episode I gave up on ever liking Laurel and it's also the episode I started hoping Tommy ran as far from her as he could. The CNRI party offer scene had me shaking my head but the moment where I remember yelling at my TV was at the begin of the party, Tommy turns around and sees Laurel, he smiles and his eyes open wider, he stumbles over his words just a little but says, "Wow. You look...just really lovely" And Laurel in what I guess was suppose to be playful banter, but KC's face has more of a smirk than a smile on it says, "Lovely? Well it's nice that you've extended your vocabulary from words like hot and mega hot." Tommy jokingly answers back, "You could just say thank you." That scene struck me as so mean spirited. This guy just got all his rich friends to show up to a party that he spent days planning for you, Laurel, and your going to make mean spirited jokes about him after he paid you a compliment. Not to mention Tommy shouldn't have had to ask her to say Thank you. Those should have been the first words she said. This was also the point where I realized it was not just a writing problem but also an acting problem. The two combined to really turn me away from that character. This was also the first episode where I started to think that the people BTS, in this case the music editors didn't like Laurel either, when you first see Tommy and Laurel walks up to him the song that is playing is Maroon 5's "One More Night" and the lyrics when he sees Laurel walking toward him are, "You and I get so damn dysfunctional, we stopped keeping score. You and I get sick, yeah, I know that we can't do this no more." During rewatch I had to hit stop to giggle about that.

I always assumed the next time we saw Slade would be the final season when everyone Oliver has caught and sentenced to Argus' super max prison manage to escape and return to Starling for one final epic battle.

You're right I phrased that wrong but I agree with what you had to say. I meant that Felicity had filled the love interest vacuum in viewers eyes. I know for me, personally, that let me overlook the Laurvier problem and get back into the show after I gave up on it pre-Felicity. That quote "because of what I do, I can't be with someone I could really care about." is going to have to be explained away early on in S3 because it would apply to all love interest. SA got around it with Sara by saying she could take care of herself but for any other relationship, unless they are going to keep all the LIs in flashbacks, because what does that say about the person Oliver is dating. If the EPs do Laureliver wouldn't that apply to her? She's not in a position to "take care of herself" anymore than Felicity is, at least not yet. I would think they would have to have Oliver come to terms with it and find another reason for him to hold back with Felicity.

I don't watch a ton of TV but my guess is that if any other couples failed as terribly as Lauriver we wouldn't remember them. Either they would have been recast after the pilot because of the chemistry/acting issues or they would have crashed and burned after one season. I guess because KC was the CW's choice they wouldn't recast her and Arrow had a lot of other things going for it and by the end of S1 had added Felicity to fill the female love interest vacuum. The same for me. At the end of day I'm in this for Felicity and I want her to have Oliver because she wants him. I would never buy she would betray him so I think I would just roll my eyes at any storyline about that. I can see them creating a situation where Oliver "thinks" she betrayed him. That could be interesting but I think to much of her to ever go alone with a true betrayal storyline.

I've seen the EPs mention in interviews that they acknowledge that there is a problem with the Laurel character and then follow that statement with something along lines of she's isolated by not being involved in the Arrow part of the story. That once people find out Oliver's secret it becomes really fun to write for them. I think S3 is their Hail Mary play with Laurel/Lauriver. Stick her into the action, give Felicity a love interest that hopefully distracts people from Olicity and try one more time for Laurel/Oliver. Which all boils down to them not understanding the fundamental flaws that Lauriver/Laurel have already built into the storyline. I'm still convinced that they think the problem most viewers have with Lauriver/Laurel is Olicity. And that's where the disconnect is happening. The problem chicken (Laurel/Oliver) most definitely came before the egg (Olicity) in this case. People went looking for another romantic option for Oliver because Lauriver fell flat out of the gate. But they'll try again, one last time, before they thrown in the towel. How they will retcon back after the "I love you," since he's never said those words flat out like that to anyone else on the show, I have no idea but they'll try.

She also managed to run towards Slade's guy instead of away when her father was fighting him to try to protect her after she woke up in the precinct. Oh I got it. The jacket handoff and what it could imply was unthinkable.

That's a worry I have too but at least I can set your mind at ease over Max Brown - he's the lead actor in a new FOX series that got picked up called Hieroglyph so he won't be available. In the end, I think the fans are invested enough in Oliver and Felicity and in the chemistry the EBR and SA have together that they will stick with it. Barry was cute but very few people "shipped" it beyond just wanting Felicity to have a love interest.