TrueMyth

I've been thinking of the buckles sightings during the finale filming and the fact that we got to see Olivers Darkness-tape-reel, but not the lightness that let him fight off Dahrk's Magic. As corny as it is, I am now bracing for a "good thoughts" greatest hits to be part of Oliver defeating Dahrk in the final battle, including a flash of Black Canary (w/out KC) throwing a punch. If this is true, knowing how writers love parallelism, I suspect Felicity and the ring will feature as the final "happy" image.

Really? Because I assumed that the corn itself was evidence of the breathable atmosphere (well, and the whole them not dying thing). Like I thought the corn was part of the CO2 scrubbing system. I really had no idea why they needed the algae, but I guess that will also help produce oxygen. The corn was obviously quite mature though, so that had been growing for much longer than the gas chamber tests. Your answer does make sense though (I mean, as much as any of the deeper plot this season), so you are no doubt correct.

I'd really like to know this, too. Will someone please get through to the writers about the need to craft a better second act to their seasons?! Suggestion for next season: write as if episode 18 is the END of your season and take out the presumptive big bad then... and then look for the character who's been pulling the strings and have that be the final big bad. I mean, they almost did that with Dahrk by putting him in prison. The problem is, he really was the biggest, baddest bad they had. But yes, I'd like to know a little more about his motivations for working with HIVE. I mean, obviously he thinks he is purging the world of ... something. Is it a racial thing? Capitalism? What is it that he feels must be cleared away? Can it POSSIBLY tie to the supposed grand purpose of the League of Assassins? Because I'd love to have that clarified slightly. Ruve seems to be in it to rule in some sense. That is a fair purpose, but I'd like to know why he thinks she is worthy. What bond to they have that makes them work together? It would be rather cool to have a Ruve/Damian scene that mirrors a Felicity/Oliver scene. DD can totally tell Ruve that she brings out the darkness in him! Also, do we have any ideas what the gas chamber experiments were about? Are they somehow connected to the survival of the dome? Was it some elaborate way to kill people to power Dahrk's magic? Is it a fail-safe in case they couldn't get Rubicon or Rubicon is stopped; Will they then trigger poison gas to kill off people? I enjoyed this episode very much. I'm still looking for some grand demonstration of trust from Oliver towards Felicity to bring their relationship back to equal footing before they get together, but I love their synergy in the field when they are at peace with each other on some level. I hope to see Ersin Fortuna back, especially if we can't have Constantine. She doesn't have to teach anyone magic. She can just play cards with Felicity and make fun comments and try to get more lace into the girls' wardrobes.

I hope it's not the citizens of Star City thinking 'happy thoughts.' It worked for me once in Doctor Who, but it is honestly so cheesy! I really, really don't want a citizen army because that retreads their own Brick/BC arc. Now, what I could accept is some form of Oliver taking non-magical strength from the city. He gives the speech, but then random citizens tell him how much he means to them: he saved their brother, he stopped that druglord, etc... And knowing the city is behind him helps him move forward. Like a Felicity pep-talk from the whole city! It would be nice confirmation that he is making a difference. Of course, such a scene would have more meaning if the city didn't believe the Arrow died last year.

I want them to share the vision. I want Felicity to hit the "Deathstroke" with something heavy as they try to get past to the caves. I'm sure Deathstroke is just a stunt man in the mask as we would have heard if Manu was filming in Vancouver, right? Plus he was a bit miffed at the narrative of his last cameo, right? What is the context for the "I thought of you" line? I missed that spoiler. Ideas: (1) he could say it when he's explaining the vision quest idea and Felicity says he needs backup and he says "I thought of you" or (2) it could possibly be a reference to what Oliver saw at the end of 3x09, as part of a heart-felt scene between O/F. The second might have to do with Oliver finding his inner strength?

Exactly! So why did they say it? I honestly would have little issue with a smart girl tweaking the collar to a different frequency, especially since she whipped up a whole costume in a few hours.

What is with the tag "Arrowheads"? Is that a thing? Do we fans actually call ourselves that? Or is it like "fetch"?

For me, the lampshading by the writers, repeatedly being reminded that Cisco had keyed it specifically for Laurel was what really strained credibility, since we never got an explanation of how she did it beyond "good grades" and it apparently took her less than a night to finish the modifications. Honestly, if they hadn't reminded me THREE TIMES that the device was keyed to Laurels DNA or whatever, I wouldn't have cared at all.

I would totally plunk down 100 for a OTA picture signed by all three. The in-person autograph experience typically doesn't give you that much time with the actor; the only real bonus would be having it personalized.

Does anyone know if someone has done a fanfic in this AU? I'll take my answer in the fic thread (I'd have quoted it there, but I'm not sure how to do quotes in different threads).

Yep, one year after Jesse L. Martin.

Now I'm just missing Walter more. *sniff*

Maybe it is a tacit promise from the producers that the Baby Mama Drama is dead and buried?

If I found Echo less engaging, I would be super irritated. I do agree he is too much. I never connected with Ray Palmer partially for that reason. But then, isn't Mr. Terrific, the superhero character, supposed to be awesome at everything?

My Californian school district takes its Spring break around Easter, so I've been off all week and won't be back teaching until Tuesday.

Yes. I know they needed the lab scene to establish Curtis's chip and motivate him to expedite it, but there are other ways to run that scene: Have Felicity using the lab for its "processing power" or some such when Curtis walks in and gets all panicky and protective, explaining how he's working on a surprise for her. Much of the dialogue stays the same, no problem. They talk for log enough for the screen saver to trigger, because that was a fantastic beat. The only other bit of awkward triggering the dramatic moment when Felicity gets the blueprints... But that could also be modified slightly with 1) a direct to tablet alert Felicity rigs when the HD is reconstructed or 2) a beat at the end of the first scene when Felicity asks Curtis to keep an eye on the recovery THAT SHE SET UP and text her the info immediately because she is so busy with debate, engagement party, CEO stuff. It's not that hard.

So, I actually liked this episode, but a few things: FLASHBACKS I was floored to see Shado again. So glad I wasn't spoiled for it or anything. And then I was so sad that it was some nonsensical hallucination. When she started to advise Oliver to go THROUGH the darkness, I was excited again. I've really been looking forward to seeing darker Oliver in the flashbacks. Here's how the flashbacks could get bearable; instead of Oliver waking up weak from fever with Poppy mopping his brow, have him jerk out of his passed out state chained up being tortured and go BADASS on those MOFOS! He should use those totally too slack chains to choke someone, make Shado's shot real and stab something into the lead guy, be badass. When they wrestle him down, they should try to torture Poppy to make Oliver talk, and then Oliver should be like, "whatever, like I care about her. I killed her brother!" He could use her reaction to make them stop torturing her (he feels bad, we see that, but it's much more dark)... next episode, he breaks them out and they go commando on the Shadowspire installation, but Poppy doesn't trust him... I don't know, just give me more than these boring, one note scenes! CALCULATOR Okay, so he knows his daughter is living in Star City and CEO of PT... why exactly was he gearing up to KILL EVERYONE IN THE CITY? I know we'll obviously get at least one more episode to get to know the scope of his plans, but I feel like we should have had some indication that he either 1) created some kind of protection bubble around the area he expected Felicity to be in, 2) didn't realize that Felicity was in Star City until after his 'net bomb was blown, or 3) didn't know Felicity was his daughter. I know they wanted the shock value of his smarmy lean-into-frame reveal with Oliver, but that makes it seem that he's figured out who Felicity is, you know? They COULD have had him approach Felicity as the Calculator who's somehow figured out that Felicity is the hacker who helped foil his plot, only to have FELICITY recognize HIM. Felicity has probably changed a fair bit since he last saw her... To sum up, why you trying to kill your daughter, Mr. Smoak?

I'm trying to imagine the rules previously established for the Mind Palace. While it is an actual memory trick and they gave Sherlock the throwaway line that he uses it differently, I feel it is a bit of a cheat that we saw several scenes from the point of view of Watson or other non-Sherlock characters. Many here seem to assume that it is simply Sherlock's lense we are watching through, but I feel there was not enough Rashamon'ing of character traits for that to be the case. I have to knock the whole episode down several points for that, and I'm surprised as Moffat typically does better at such high concept narratives.

I did love the last scene with Malcolm and Thea. He grew so serious when she brought up Dahrk and then he was positively tingling at the idea of messing around with dark magic with his daughter. I mean, how awesome would that be for Merlyn? Gain Dahrk's evil life drain powers (especially with the Pit now lost to him) while also helping out his baby girl with her pesky murder-rage dealio. Not to mention the fact that they will do all sorts of fun Daddy-daughter bonding while pouring over the old necronomicons and such. It basically ticks all his boxes.

I totally don't know technical things about directing like framing shots and lens choice, but things so often seemed OFF tonight. There were many times when I felt like something should be a close-up or wide shot, and it just hung in middle ground, or when things were super in focus but with no real depth of field. Ugh. I also hate when the timing is messed up in the script. Oliver and Thea are having an obvious day meeting with the campaign adviser when they get a call from Felicity about the tooth. They rush out. Cut to a night time raid on the company. I suppose it takes time to plan and suit-up, but they exited with such conviction and urgency and flimsy excuses... Also, they EXITED... shouldn't they just be sending him away and using the secret elevator to the lair? Isn't that why they have the secret elevator in his office? It's ridiculous that it's taken seven episodes to give flashback girl a name and some form of backstory. If they really wanted the audience to bond with her, she needed that earlier. Also, wasn't one of Oliver's first instructions to her DON'T MAKE A FIRE DURING THE DAY BECAUSE THEY WILL SEE THE SMOKE? I liked the gala and loved Felicity beaming at Oliver. I adored her talking him out of making another stupid choice. I would have really loved Diggle brother flashbacks this episode, even if they were poorly shot.

The caption does say "Percentage of adult viewership among men and women," so we might assume the stats only looked at viewers 18 and older. While the early 40s may still be older than we'd expect... eh. I can also see the younger viewers different modes of viewing the show potentially skewing the results. If the ratings are pulled from broadcast Neilson only, for example, older viewers will be counted more than younger viewers who opt for Netflix, Amazon, or other means.

I'm curious if Felicity and Oliver will ever have a talk about money. So far, Felicity seems to have funded a large suburban house, at least a portion of a world tour of sexy times, a truck, a downtown building, an underground lair, and Oliver's start-up election costs. While I think they both get a kick out of the dynamics right now, I do think Oliver can't be that good with money, and Felicity never had much and her company is supposedly in difficult times. I realize it probably won't come up on the show because the writers seem to have less of a grasp of this than Oliver (given the "he's lost all his money/naw that just means he's a millionaire not a billionaire" attitude of season 3), but I'd like to see them address the disparity in their world views. Maybe I just have to look for it in fanfic.

When the episode has cops sweeping in on a drug buy and taking out all the dealers, it's a sad commentary on the state of Oliver's "no kill policy" that I actually paused to wonder if they were going to say the dealers were "knocked out" the same way Diggle and Oliver only "knocked out" the Assassins when infiltrating the LoA at the end of season 3. Why the hell couldn't Laurel keep Sara in her apartment? It is actually less public than the apparently communal basement of her building and would be more comfortable for Sara. Her roommate is the only one totally in on the whole thing. Oliver doesn't stop by unless Thea almost kills someone. Why? Also, 'amen' to those who've observed that, as fetching as Caity is in that black corset (you know, the one she's be slowly rotting in for the last year), why isn't she in something more comfortable? Of course, when the LoA trained killer escaped the chains at the end of the episode, I told my husband, "Hey, maybe Laurel's right! Things are coming back to her!" This episode felt rather oddly paced and edited. I know they shifted production to accommodate actor availability for 4x05, but the whole mayor plot seemed like it was meant to follow 4x02. Oliver even says he had the idea "last week," right? As nice as some of the scenes with Lance were, I didn't feel like there was a through line with him in some scenes, as he crossed from the "Sara plot" to the "Cop plot" and back again. If the glitches in the new lair systems ARE caused by Ray, then I'm a bit creeped out, since that means he must have hitched a ride on Felicity at some point, and... I can't even finish the sentence. I never got past his stalker stuff in early season three. I didn't mind the idea of Ray trying to send Felicity a message. He's had five months as a little atom guy, so he could totally have cooked it up. Seems odd that he'd arrange to have her hear his final words. At the same time, it would be like a flight recorder, right? So why couldn't Felicity give Curtis the password and then let him prescreen the file? One of the odd beats for me was the intercutting to Felicity listening to the recording and crying during Oliver's speech, when she was standing there in real time grinning at her adorable boyfriend in a suit. It was a jarring juxtaposition, and added to the "cobbled together" feel of this episode.

I think he means it's a Catch-22 situation. If he makes a simple statement of "yes" or "no" (or one that may be reduced to such in a soundbite) then he will upset a big group of people. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. If the writers are influenced by fans, people will cry "fan service." If they are not influenced, people will cry "liar" or "power trip."

I had the same thought as Primal Slayer. If Arrow's cross-over episode wrapped on the 15th, then today's filming is likely for Flash or LoT scenes.