Scribbles

The way for them to make it a blend (dying as Laurel but b/c she is BC) would be for her to let something slip at trial that DD knows she could only know if BC. DD may be in jail, but he has Ruve on the outside to get it done. DD has the most immediate motives, fulfilling his threat to Lance and being prosecuted/jailed by LL. But, it seems doubtful they would opt for the obvious "him". If she wins the case to prosecute DD, that would be a change of pace.

See bold and please note the playful sarcasm to follow: Don't we see this every time the chosen story bit needs a character to go along? :) If they do go amnesia, they really need to go full on trope and give Slade his due. Let the guy have hypnotic abilities and torture Oliver with Felicity going googly eyes for him. I am not a fan of amnesia or hypnotism, so I guess I am hoping they avoid that.

When Oliver on the magic table of dreams and healing was spoiled, my first thought was....if they break up either of them in life threatening danger would be reason to ask "do I want to live without him/her?" I suspect it is a device to make Felicity put her feelings about his character flaws in perspective. Think ...every moment is precious.

Amnesia and it making someone go bad for a while got covered by Roy under Mirakuru, hopefully that fulfilled the fetish.

Hmm..wonder if "Tempest" = a coincidence or ties to Moira's off shore company.

She is holding the iconic Mr. Terrific ball

He makes some very valid points. But, then there is "Supernatural" where the misery the Winchester bros face knows no bounds and they could go on for a decade.

I recall that too and it fits with what they (producers and SA) have said about seasons 1-3 being one book/chapter. Maybe HIVE is the next multi season thing. It would explain the slow pace of revealing more about the big HIVE plan. HIVE has been cooking in the background in some way since the first season. Diggle's war on Deadshot has come undone this season with the reveal that Deadshot didn't actually kill Andy.... This may be a two year thing.

Oh this so fits, acknowledgment of a call to action of those disillusioned by the sufferings of the world = Andy Diggle. He feels just as justified in his mission to be a savior to the world (or at least on the team to do so) as Diggle. Right back to the idea that villains see themselves as the heroes of their own stories. Andy chilling in the cage is so entrenched in his beliefs that he see his brother and Team Arrow engaging in folly to save a world beyond saving. He has spared Diggle when given the chance so far, but what will he do if/when forced to choose between his mission/philosophy and Diggle (and by extension Lyla and Sara's)? Malcolm wanted to destroy the village to purge the evil (the Glades) out of grief/anger, HIVE wants to the whole enchilada because they are "true believers". They believe this world is not worth fighting for as it is and must be replaced. I just don't see how they are going to have the time left to flesh this all out this season. Malcolm may have wanted the Glades destroyed, but he is not warped idealist sort of the HIVE school and is not likely to be there to help them see their plans come to fruition. It will be interesting to see this all play out.

It is time for them to ramp up the threat and start filling in a lot of blanks about what the big threat is for the season. A fun twist might be if Andy is the him Felicity refers to in limo. Andy pulls and evil-Oliver from season 3 and kidnaps Lyla and/or Baby Sara. Can Diggle forgive his real brother, as he ultimately did Oliver? Maybe evil Andy kills whoever is grave filler in the process. Andy can't be good, and they all can't have been smart to let him out of his cage right???? At the least, it seems Andy might be the one to help Darhk out of his prison bind or aid Malcolm in fulfilling HIVE's plan. Andy noted early on he was a believer in the cause.

I think it was a failure in casting. That is not to say KC is bad. Arrow was my first time seeing her, but not my first time encountering Dinah Lance or BC. When I saw the pilot, I was thrown off by the contrast. Again, that is not to throw negatives at KC. If you read any BC comics and apply adjectives to describe BC or her alter ego, they just don't jive with what is onscreen. Had I been on the casting team, I would have looked for someone less modelish and more athletic. I would have been looking for spunk, quick wit, lots of body and facial expressiveness. BC needs an edginess that is just biting enough to pack a punch (verbally in dialogue and physically) without crossing that line to be caustic.

OK...got a wee mystery to see if anyone can help with: In "Taken" in the transition from the first flashback to Oliver/Felicity entering the parking garage, you see a symbol/characters on the concrete next to Oliver's cell and the same one on the concrete post Oliver/Felicity moving toward. Anyone know what the characters or symbol =?

My only reservations about LL/BC dying comes from the actress having to live with some things said by fans. No one would want to be in Katie Cassidy's shoes today. I suspect she has been carrying the weight of the negativity towards her character for a long time now. Sometimes the cliché is true: When a door closes a window opens. Hopefully for KC that will be true. If it is not her in the grave, I would predict the season ends with BC going away to continue her fight for justice elsewhere (Seatle maybe). If it is not BC, the next strong candidate for grave filler is Quentin and it would provide impetus for her to go away to train to avenge him or go elsewhere to escape the personal ghosts and pains. If they continue the show with Black Canary played by KC, I hope everyone will give her credit for standing tall in the face of all the negativity. As for the show, it would have a hole created by the loss of another character (Thea, Diggle, Quentin) who has been a part of the viewer experience since Season 1 per spoilers. Without knowing who, it is harder to even begin to know what the story of Arrow minus X character could be. The BC story however would have to have content and it would be time for her to have a love interest of her own. The producers don't seem to have much interest in a courthouse drama, so Laurel the lawyer doesn't have much room to roam. Perhaps a personal villain could provide a B plot.

Maybe this is where we see it differently....Laurel always has a narrative conflict, Laurel is her own worst enemy. Laurel's choices constantly create mayhem, despair, and unnecessary conflict. She doesn't need a direct nemesis, truth and her own behaviors reap enough trouble. For multiple seasons we have watched as the consequences are felt by others, it would be very "earned" for them to fall on her. We have yet to see her feel the brunt of the choices she has made this season. So for me, whether she has an arc this season rests with how it is resolved and we haven't see that yet. If she dies simply because she was made a target via Quentin's betrayal of Darhk, her death was earned by Quentin's choices. If she dies because she yet again stays true to character and acts impulsively, she will finally pay her own freight for her journey to being a "hero"

Over Oliver's dead body.......just saying :).

Don't ya think they did the comic fan service and can change the suit after this season? While Malcolm could wear the sleeveless suit and pass this season, Diggle can't. Diggle has had to stand in before....this could give the needed reason for a change. When the writers need Diggle to play Arrow again, something will need to be done about the suit.

Being the one member imposed on the team (invited to it by the villain/Slade) didn't help. She is the uninivited.

Laurel's arc goes as follows. Entering Season 4 Laurel seems to have found a way to deal with the grief following her sister's death, she is working with Thea and Diggle to fight crime {Intro). Upon discovering Thea was returned to life by the Lazarus pit, Laurel sneaks away with Thea to bring Sara back to life. Her actions conflict with the advice of friends and enemies, but as LL is apt to do she forges ahead despite that advice {Rising Action}. Sara returns cursed and at the costs of a civil war within the LOA, the lives of girls looking like Thea and so on. An unseated Malcolm as Ras, seeks a new source of power/influence at the cost of revealing Oliver has a son, the action continues to rise. I would argue Laurel was affected by the reveal Oliver had a son resulting from yet another instance of his cheating on her. She can't write it off to Sara as some one instance of the lack of honesty in their relationship, there is living proof Oliver was in a different relationship with her than she was with him. She accused Sara of ruining her life by getting on the boat with Oliver, but the truth is Sara was one of many. Quentin is not surprised by Oliver having a love child, Laurel is. She has to face that the lies she told herself and the blames she placed on others have kept her from wrestling her own demons. If we have not seen those conflicts climax, we could soon. She is in an arc, and if it plays out by convention her hubris or her Achilles heel will be her downfall. I really think her role in being the prosecutor will be a huge factor in her death. No rational attorney would act as the prosecutor under these circumstances. She is entering a minefield where her inside knowledge could make her vulnerable in the courtroom and risk effective prosecution. At the very least she is making herself a high profile target. We will see how they choose to write the rest of her arc, but if she is the one in the grave ....all we lack of her arc is the falling action to be revealed.

I have to challenge the idea that the writers haven't given LL an arc this season. Maybe the curve is more of a spike with a more gradual resolution than a smooth curve, but it is there. LL chose to act in a way that so far has produced a lot of consequences for a lot of the characters. When she crept off in secret with Thea to give Sara a dip in the pool, she ignited a chain of issues. 1. The slower burn between Malcolm and Nyssa was fueled to fire with Nyssa destroying the pit and Malcolm confining her to a cell. The fall out of that is still playing out for everyone. 2. Malcolm's fall from Ras to new HIVE drone all followed the showdown between Malcolm and Nyssa following the destruction of the Lazarus pit, with William the pawn that got taken. 3. Although alive, Sara is burdened with a curse we still don't know how she will ultimately resolve. and on and on..... We know LL is going to seek a conviction of Darhk. It is a terrible idea for her to be the prosecutor. In court the accused has rights regarding chain of evidence and facing the accuser (something written as an issue in season 3 with the new Vertigo). If wise, cool headed and so forth, LL would not act as the prosecuting attorney because she should know she is too close to matters being tried. However, because she is LL as portrayed for years, she will forge recklessly ahead to be the hero and others will pay for it.

She (LL/BC) should die as she lived. The death should have something to do with not telling the truth, being headstrong, defying good advice and being reckless with a strong history of rushing to judgment (often the wrong one). Season 3 Laurel was the culmination of a great deal of screentime that developed a full character with tendencies and traits. Season four LL continued with the same---lying to people close to her, charging into situations ill informed and ill prepared without regard for broad consequences. Unless the next two/three episodes she finds enlightenment and emerges a whole different character than she has been for three and a half seasons, she will die because she decides she knows better than all the others, lies and rushes into danger without a cool head. Someone will tell her to stay and she immediately will charge in...that is LL.

I should have added to my earlier post....Ruve killing LL in a matter of fact way would have been fitting. She, unlike DDarhk has been presented as less talk/more action. The problem with this is Ruve is not a "him"

For LL to die in a way that feels organic and "earned", it needs to be a death that is in character. For LL that would be rushing in on emotion and natural consequences that follow from doing so. They have shown us repeatedly Oliver calling LL out for this. One of my favorite scenes was LL jumping MM in an alley and him toying with her. Her recklessness and his cool/confident condescending attitude with her was true to form for both of them. Her secret keeping and first instinct being to lie to those close to her (see Nyssa's statements) should play into a earned death.

Just a thought but....everyone questions why Oliver didn't know to be on the look out after Malcolm threatened. What if the Malcolm v Oliver fight was staged by the two and the hand was a ruse, all to get the lotus. When Nyssa destroyed the ring, Malcolm didn't get what he expected to get from the deal with Oliver. Oliver assumes all is fine between them, but Malcolm sees it differently and goes to Darhk to get the power he lost from the LOA disbanding. So Oliver goes on with no reason to think Malcolm is hostile to him, until the report that the man who kidnapped William had one hand. This allows Malcolm to still have a hand and explains why Oliver was so clueless about a threat pending for his son.

Darhk has reason to target Laurel. 1. He promised Quentin he would and 2. It appears she puts him on trial. Malcolm has reason to kill Laurel: It is not a stretch to see Malcolm blaming Laurel for his son's death (the pesky bit about there not being an earthquake is hardly an issue for Malcolm) The thing that throws me a wee bit is Oliver saying it is his "responsibility" to kill "him" and Felicity insisting the him die.

If Sara cries for Laurel...a canary cries. Also AK pointed out at that comic con that she is the original canary.