CarBe

I liked the show and will give it a few episodes. It's night soap opera fun. I find Liam and the American girl super boring but look forward to watching what happens between Eleanor and Jasper the bodyguard. Him turning the tables on her was the best part of the show. I am one of those who doesn't think he drugged her drink but only told her that after she told him she didn't remember what happened. He also looked kind of sick with himself at the mean things he was saying so I couldn't figure out his motivation for blackmailing her until I noticed, on the umpteenth re-watch of that scene, that his accent changes to an American one in the middle of him talking about her depraved acts. I initially thought the actor might be American playing British and couldn't hold the accent but he's definitley a Brit. So, I think there might be an American spy angle in there. I cannot wait until Joan Collins shows up.

Worst episode of Arrow EVER! The most boring episode ever. I fast forwarded through nearly the entire thing and I only usually fast forward through Lance family drama BS. ThoughI have to say I've actually enjoyed Laurel in the last few episodes. And in what universe is the CEO suite not locked up at night. No way does some entry level newbie IT hire have access to the CEO office nor even NEED to leave a paper memo on his desk. The whole Felicity scene was badly contrived and an insult to the audience's intelligence. Felicity and Oliver have a great first meeting in season 1, there was no need taint it with this useless scene.

I really enjoyed this episode. Taking 7 episodes to see SA without his shirt was almost worth the excruciatingly long wait. I think Oliver will recover due to the cold slowing his bleeding and someone finding him pretty quickly after the fall to the ledge. Look how many scars Ollie has. He has been stabbed/shot lots and always comes through. The man is T-O-U-G-H. I could almost buy Felicity's lame forehead goodbye kiss ***IF*** it had been accompanied by a rib-cracking I-might-never-see-you-again embrace. But it wasn't. So, Oliver's goodbye to her was super lame. Roy gets a hug and she doesn't? BS. (Diggle should have gotten a hug, too.) And the 'I love you' was standard manipulative Oliver. Keeping her dangling. As always. That is why she didn't say it back. She is onto him. [ As a side note, I really don't understand why the writers are keeping the physical contact between Oliver and Felicity so G-rated other than to telegraph to us that Oliver loves her more in a platonic way than a truly romantic way but he doesn't realize it yet. Moreover, all the verbal ILYs are a sop to Olicity fans. That is my suspicion. I guess it also has the secondary purpose of keeping Felicity 'pure' for the fans, too.] So tired of reading over and over what a stalker Ray is. He and Felicity are both hackers. Hackers on Arrow ping people's phones and break into computers on a regular basis and no one gets upset over it. Felicity hacked Ray's phone and computers and he took it in stride as revenge for misleading her as to who he really was in episode 1. The writers probably think it's cute someone on the show uses Felicity's tools against her. And it is, somewhat. Felicity isn't upset about the pinging so why are we? That being said, I usually really enjoy Brandon Routh as Ray but I didn't like him much tonight. Maybe because he and Felicity were more serious and they work better needling and riffing off each other. I really would prefer them to be romantically involved since they are perfect together on paper. Alas, he, too, has emotional damage to repair and it looks like she'll be his sidekick. Poor Felicity, doomed to be alone. I really want her to find a guy worthy of her. By the end of the series she better end up happily ever after with someone who treasures her. She deserves it.

Such good points!!! Yes!! Oliver seems to see Felicity primarily as the IT help. That really bothers me. He has never treated any of his other love interests like that. Great insight on how Ray is with Felicity and when alone. I never really thought about that. Ugh, I don't want to not like him and be suspicious of him but it does make the show a lot more fun to watch. As for Felicity being interested and wooed by a pretty dress/jewelry I like that the writers aren't making Felicity a one-dimensional tech geek like the scientists portrayed on the Big Bang Theory. Female tech types like dresses and other girl stuff. Kudos for the writers for making her both technically awesome AND a girly girl.

The reason she turned him down and said there must be a dozen other employees that could be your "non-boring wing woman" (Ray interrupts with the 100 employee quip which she rolls her eyes and gets even more annoyed at) was that she was majorly insulted that was the reason he gave for asking her out in the first place. If you have a DVR rewind and watch that scene. She is initially flattered he asks her to dinner to help woo the mine owner but when she asks why he needs her there and he says it's to prevent him from becoming bored she is insulted and turns him down. She only allows herself to be persuaded because his reveal of the dress showed her he had her mind in all along and it's "couture" and she's a clotheshorse.

Felicity being more and more removed from team Arrow and Ray wanting her for Atom's MC (good point!) - temporary or permanent? That ATOM suit at the end looked pretty substational for a one season guest arc. The show is definitely setting things up to be ambiguous with regards to Felicity's future. I loved the suit reveal at the end.

I get the feeling Oliver was showing up to Felicity's office just to be a c--- block and be his usual selfish self - to tell her yet again I sort of love you (a very awful sort of love that means endangering Felicity's life week after week) but I have to be alone because of the "life I've chosen". I am tired of Oliver being wishy washy over Felicity - it's episode 7 already, let's show some movement. I, too, used to really enjoy the show when it was just Diggle, Oliver, and Felcity but it's moved on so I guess I have to, too. Honestly, wishy-washy stuck-in-a-rut Oliver has grown boring (and could SA at least put on a tank top because eye candy was a fun part of Arrow and he took that away from us) and that is why I am enjoying the Ray Palmer character so much this season.

Do you think the reveal of the Atom suit at the end of Draw Back Your Bow means they are planning on splitting off Atom to be a separate show? The suit looked pretty elaborate and full of potential for it to be a one season/special guest star arc thing. I've combed the web and haven't found anything definitive about that happening. However, it seemed they were setting things up in that direction. If they do, I can totally see porting Felicity into it, too. She seemed totally on board with Ray's vision for QC/Palmer Industries. I'm just trying to read the tea leaves and figure out where things are heading.

I LOVED this episode. Any episode with a good amount of Felcity and no Laurel is a win. Like someone else pointed out above, Ray is Oliver 2.0 to Felicty - equally rich, equally handsome, (almost) equally looks-good-without-his-shirt, equally heroic (Ray is "interested in making the world a better place"), but, unlike Oliver 1.0, is a fellow awkward genius, is good at business, and, probably most important, isn't shy about showing an obvious interest in and appreciation for Felicity. He's also not PTSD and not a manwhore hooking up with psychos right in her face (Oliver's treatment of Felicity last year really annoyed me. He has to do a lot better for me to feel he deserves to be with her.) How can she resist when Ray is a (seemingly) better version of Oliver? And YET, Ray pulled away from that kiss when he was obviously very into it - and went to go play with his ATOM suit. So, I am afraid Felicity is doomed to fall for unavailable rich, handsome, hero-types that put making the world a better place a priority over having a life with her.

Good observation. Add to that hot and rich.I'm happy to see we have openly jealous Oliver actually voicing his unhappiness instead of just being curt and picking a fight with Felicity. So looking forward to this episode.

It does feel too soon for Felicity and Ray to get involved but I can see them as a couple. I wouldn't mind a lot more of them sparring and getting to know each other, though. They are fun to watch. If Oliver is throwing stuff at her chair/the fern in jealousy, good. He knifed Felicity in the heart in Russia when he slept with Isabel so I'm glad he gets a taste of that back. About time a female made him work for it. The new promo is pretty awesome - cannot wait for Wednesday.

Yes, so he said again, in so many words, he loves her. So what? He hasn't DONE anything to demonstrate he isn't still going to die in his cave, that he also wants MORE from life, as Felicity has decided she does. He was just dangling more maybes, keeping her on the hook, and she was having none of it. Maybe his moving in with Thea is a step in that direction but as of right now, and we're only five episodes into the season so of course not, we haven't seen a lot of change from him. That is what I mean by his words were cheap. They need to be backed up by action.

Easily my favorite episode this season and top 5 overall for me. I loved Felicity's more natural, less lipsticky look. I am happy Oliver dropped his mean tone towards her, but really loved that Felicity didn't fall for his "and you know how I feel about her" line. Words are cheap, Oliver, and Felicity knows this. You'll need to do more to let her give you another chance. I liked Felicity's mom more than I thought I would but only enough to see her every few episodes. I am a bit tired of seeing Dig's baby every episode. I also have major loft envy for Thea's new place. I also loved that Felicity isn't a martial arts ninja like everyone else on the show but was still able to save herself from the bad guy. I wonder if Ray's not respecting boundaries and popping into Felicity's life is how the writers think hackers act. I mean, we don't officially 'know' this based on watching Arrow alone, but Felicity did a similar thing to Barry last week on Flash. She traveled 600 miles to show up unannounced at Barry's place of work on Flash, and this was after they had last seen each other over 9 months ago. If someone did that to you in real life, lots of red flags would be going up. I think they are trying to portray Ray as a manic energy genius who is excited he finally has run across someone as smart as himself to bounce ideas off of and who can really 'get' him. For now, I am buying him as benign and a force for good. I know I'm in the minority but I ship Raylicity pretty hard and like the two geniuses bonding rapport building between the two. Even if nothing happens between them I kind of like they are building a quirky sort of friendship. As for Ray, Felicity is dropping lots of breadcrumbs in front of him about her whole secret life that I hope is paying off for an interesting confrontation down the line - the OMAC weapons blue prints a couple of episodes ago, phone calls about hacking people in front of him, Felicity crying in her office about inventing something important that went wrong right after a major cyber-terror attack. Ray also gave Felicity a hard look when Mama Smoak mentions she had been waiting for Felicity for 2 hours. However, I do hope this is the last we see Felicity cry in front of him (and Oliver for that matter) for a long while and she gets a little better about showing up for work. As for Laurel, I fast forwarded through all her scenes. She cannot be written off too soon for me. I loved the Roy reveal at the end. I did not see that coming. I also couldn't tell whether Malcolm was pleased or not with Oliver moving in with Thea but I love that Malcom and Thea are back in this season. If only they could bring Moira and Tommy back to life.

Yeah, maybe. I've seen a few Raylicity tumblrs. But do the writers care what the fans think so much? From their tweets it seems like they REALLY like the Ray/Felicity/actors chemistry/relationship. Additionally, this is only Ray's third episode. How much Olicity shipping was there by her third appearance? I forgot to add to my earlier post that Oliver often treats Felicity like the help and is very sparing in his praise to her. This last episode was a good example, he's mad the fingerprint lead didn't pan out and he practically rolls his eyes in impatience when she is explaining how she found Thea by pinging her phone. He is impatient with her a lot. Ray spending $1.2B to get Felicity to work for him, giving her a nice office and her own EA is nice to see him appreciate her. Anyway, whatever the outcome, if Ray's presence drives Oliver to treat Felicity better/show more appreciation for her I'm all for it. I've always felt she was a little shorted by him that way.

I think so, too - definitely testing "freeing" him. However, I don't know if they will push him to Laurel again since the majority of fans of the show really dislike the character/actress. Also, sexual tension keeps a show interesting so once the hot male lead has settled down with whomever shows get boring. I wonder if they will just leave Oliver free. He seems so damaged and hasn't really evolved too much over the course of the show thus far. I mean, he slept with Isabel in Russia, right in front of Felicity when he knew KNEW she had a major crush on him. It was such a dick Oliver-the-Player thing to do. He also put Felicity in serious danger in the finale by making her Slade's bait - Slade/Deathstroke, the biggest baddie of them all. If he truly loved her would he have done that? Then the writers skipped ahead in the season premiere and all of a sudden Oliver was in love (but didn't know it) and they didn't show us any of it. Oliver and Felicity were very touchy feely with each other when they had never been like that before. Their closer relationship felt fake and not earned. I really felt the writers were just pandering to the Olicity fans. Check, we threw the shippers a bone and got that out of the way. Now onto what we really want to do. Is an emotionally healthy and happy in love with Felicity Oliver really endgame for them? Isn't that the CW way? Look at Vampire Diaries. Stefan-Elena, Damon-Elena, back and forth. I wouldn't rule it out. I was a major Olicity shipper from the day she was introduced to the show but Oliver can be a real dick and I am seriously enjoying the Ray/Felicity banter. Ray will be a major catalyst for Oliver to change if he (the writers) wants Felicity. Ray is a true threat. Oliver didn't see Barry as a threat - Barry was younger, poorer (at the time the character was introduced), lived in another city so Oliver had home court advantage - but Ray is like best version Oliver - rich, nearly as good looking, successful businessman, smart, and hopefully undamaged emotionally (I don't read comics so don't know his back story at all but wouldn't bet against some damage, lol). Ray also really respects and appreciates Felicity's brain - gives her a job commensurate with her education and abilities - and that really has to earn brownie points with her. I don't think I would be super unhappy if Felicity did end up with Ray. She's been pining for Oliver for two years now and he's only given her crumbs, she deserves a guy who treats her right.