Cerulean Blue

I'm in Atlanta, and there are rainbow bagels at shops here. My 4-year-old loves them, but they're pretty horrifying looking and basically just plain bagels with lots of food coloring. That said, I mostly liked this technical since it was essentially just making bagels (the rainbow thing added a tiny bit of difficulty, but not much). Bread week is always my least favorite (well, bread week and pie week, because the British pies full of meat are super-unappetizing to me)--maybe because everyone is so weirdly deferential to Paul? Also, for me, bread-making isn't as fun to watch because it all kind of looks the same when it's done. It's...bread. This season has been the best of the Channel 4 seasons, I feel. The previous channel 4 seasons really relied on the whole "attractive young person" thing, so I love that this season's cast is more diverse. Plus, all of them look like they're having lots of fun. In the past few seasons, there were always a couple of bakers that seemed like they were super-stressed and sort of miserable (Rahul from season 9, Michael from season 10), but there doesn't seem to be anyone like that this year. Dave seems a little tense, but not in an uncomfortable-to-watch kind of way. Speaking of: I swear Dave looks like an actor, but I can't for the life of me figure out who it is. It's seriously driving me mad trying to figure it out...

This episode was a delight! I love Darin Morgan episodes as a general rule, but I especially loved this one because of the way that it felt like the first episode of the reboot that really acknowledged how much has changed since The X-Files was in its heyday. And how perhaps the whole desire to re-capture the past is perhaps a bit misguided. Or, if not misguided, then at least comes with the danger of marring what was so great about the past. Plus, both DD and GA looked amazing--GA's wig is SO MUCH better this season. I also felt like the pant suit Scully was wearing near the end of the episode, which was a bit ill-fitting, was another nod to the early seasons of the show.

What's kind of funny is that I'm approaching it from the opposite perspective in that I've been a diehard shipper since season 1 (in my defense, I was literally a 12-year-old girl back when s1 aired), but I feel exactly the same in terms of the simmering anger. Because Mulder and Scully were such a novelty; they were unlike any other pairing I'd ever seen before (or since) and their relationship seemed so incredibly not-a-cliché. And while I wanted them to be together, I never wanted it to be the kind of relationship that could be described as "romantically entangled." That just implies a kind of emotional drama that I wasn't interested in seeing with M/S. I've always felt that the M/S relationship is one that could be so different than other romances; that they could be together without it turning into a romantic cliché. And I think that they are like that in some episodes, but they are NEVER like that in CC's episodes. He seems to think that the mere fact of them sleeping together means that they turn into different people. People who speak in cheesy romance-novel dialogue and can't seem to stop talking about their feelings. I think it's especially troubling to me that it's usually Scully who instigates these conversations, and that she's really the one who suffers in CC's writing of their romantic relationship. Like, she's the woman, so she must be obsessed with babies and her biological clock and making sure Mulder isn't looking to dump her for some younger model. Ugh. And it's this depiction of her that really pisses me off, and wishes that CC would just stick to writing them as platonic partners. I'd rather not see a romantic relationship between them if "Plus One" is what it looks like. "Pusher" is one of my top three XF episodes, and M/S in it is pretty much my ideal version of their relationship. I think Vince Gilligan is the writer who most understood what made the M/S dynamic so appealing--and could write that relationship while also constructing a pretty disturbing MOTW better than anyone else.

My issue with CC is very much related to his writing of the Mulder/Scully relationship. It's odd because I think most CC-written episodes were pretty strong through season 5. But starting with "The Beginning" in season 6, something went off the rails and everything he wrote became just sort of...overwrought, particularly as it related to the M/S dynamic. The voice-overs/Carterlogues, the stilted relationship talk, the "Dearest Dana" of it all. In Carter's writing, M/S have these cheesy relationship conversations, full of hackneyed phrases ("Will you hold me?") that I could not imagine Mulder or Scully actually saying, especially given how emotionally closed off they both tend to be. It's so cringe-inducing for me. One of the reasons I fell for the M/S ship back in the day was because they weren't a normal relationship; they didn't talk about their feelings and have long drawn-out conversations about their relationship. Instead, they were a couple of weird, badass, super-hot people who had this very intense connection that transcended the standard TV depiction of "romance." But every time Carter writes an episode that has M/S interacting in anything other than a professional capacity, they always talk about their feelings (in a super awkward way), and it just feels so out-of-character and trite, like the bed conversation in "Plus One." In contrast, "This" (the only non-CC written episode) has been my favorite episode in S11. M/S had a bunch of non-verbal communication, they teased each other, they did crazy stuff, they had this super intense connection, but they never felt the need to sit around and discuss their relationship and their feelings. So even though the plot of "This" was a mess--I totally enjoyed it. Most later-season XF plots are a mess, so I'm basically only in it for the M/S action at this point. And no amount of weirdly staged, off-screen sex scenes are going to be as enjoyable as watching Mulder and Scully traipse around a graveyard in the middle of the night, bantering as they solve an unnecessarily complicated riddle, while being stalked by a seemingly un-killable Russian (maybe? I'm still not clear about that part) assassin.

Speculating that it's Laurel in the grave is basically my favorite thing about the show right now (I'm like 60/40 Laurel vs. Quentin). I don't think it's Donna not only because of the MG/WM flying to Vancouver (I don't think it's Roy or any of the minor characters for the same reason), but also because of the dialogue between Oliver and Felicity in the limo. If Felicity's mom had just died, I don't think she'd respond to Oliver saying "Are you okay" with "Are you?" That's a super-bizarre response if your (ex?) fiancé asks how you feel after your mother's death. It feels to me like a response Felicity would give if the dead person meant more to Oliver than to her (I think both Laurel and Quentin would fit for this). As for Laurel, she's getting to be a lawyer again according to spoilers, which I think is another sign it's going to be her. If I've learned anything from my many, many years of television watching it's that useless, unlikeable characters, just before they die, suddenly become relevant. There have been a ton of shows where characters who've been useless for years suddenly become interesting and/or relevant and then they're immediately killed off. Lots of people have mentioned how little Laurel adds to the plot--she's just another mask, she has little relevance to Oliver's journey, etc.--so killing her off would mean very little. But if suddenly she's this person who can prosecute criminals (a role no one else can fulfill on the team), then her death matters in a way that it wouldn't have before. Plus, she's apparently the "backbone" of the team, and the moral compass or something, so them talking her up like this also reads to me like an attempt to make her more relevant and important so that her death has more of an impact. Of course, they could take the easy way out and kill Quentin, but I think there are a lot of signs pointing to Laurel. (edited because I have no idea how I got "ME" from Wendy Mericle)

I actually really loved the twist of Roy's death too. It was one of the few times Arrow actually surprised me and the twist felt like an actual, clever twist. But it was still another character who isn't really dead, but just pretend dead or temporarily dead. So I think the writers are going to do a really, for real, legitimately dead character this year, in part just to prove that they're willing to kill off a main character and have it stick. And with Sara, even though it was motivated by behind-the-scenes, business stuff, the in-narrative effect was that yet another character didn't really die. I guess my point isn't whether or not Roy and Sara's "deaths" were good twists or necessitated by business decisions, but that both showed that on Arrow, "dead" isn't really dead. ETA to reply to Morrigan2575 as well.

While I completely don't trust the writers, I do think they're going to make this death stick and have it be a main cast member just because they've gotten called out a lot recently on how little deaths on Arrow matter (not just by fans, but by professional reviewers as well). It's pretty much become a joke how little nerve the writers seem to have when it comes to killing off characters--they chickened out on having Sara be dead (a good call in my opinion because I like Sara, but it very much cheapened the gravitas of what they were trying to achieve narratively with her death) and then Roy's death turned out to be fake too. So I think they might be chomping at the bit to prove how they can kill off--and really, permanently kill off--a main character. Killing off Lyla, Samantha, Alex, William, or any host of recurring characters wouldn't achieve that. Quentin seems likely, but he's too easy. Killing off the one older character with a heart condition isn't particularly ballsy. But killing off the Black Canary would definitely give off the "no one is safe" vibe they keep trying to project while at the same time being the safest, easiest character to eliminate from a writer's perspective. They get the glory of being "shocking" and "daring" without actually having the guts to kill of a character who actually matters to the plot.

Yeah, after last night's episode, I'm more convinced than ever it's Laurel. Since we first saw the grave, I figured it would either be Laurel or Quentin and that the writers were using the season to kind of test Laurel out. They don't have the previous season's excuses for why people don't like Laurel any more (she's not a threat to Oliver/Felicity, she's now Black Canary, etc.), but she's still not a particularly popular character. At worst (as in the Sara resurrection arc), she's actively disliked and criticized; at best, she's generally ignored. Even the reviews I've seen for last night's review were more about how the Canary Cry is at least useful now, not about how Laurel is useful now. And I honestly don't get how her being Black Canary means she's bulletproof. Now, granted, I am in no way a comics reader but I had legit never heard of Black Canary before I started watching Arrow. I now know that comics!BC is popular in other versions of the Green Arrow story with comics fans, but I doubt the average Arrow viewer would be aghast at killing off a character who is, essentially, Oliver's least effective sidekick. Plus, going into season 4b, she's the only character without a storyline. Digg has his brother, Felicity has whatever tragic injury she has, Thea has the bloodlust and DD's seeming interest in her, Quentin has his double agent thing and his new love with Donna. Laurel has...thinking up a snappy comeback for Malcolm's sartorial insult? Finally, as @tangerine95 said above, Laurel basically gave Oliver a word-for-word speech that outlines exactly what he recites at the grave. If Laurel does die, he can very easily point to this speech as Laurel making her own choices, as him not being at fault for her death. Plus, she is literally the only person on Team Arrow who Oliver didn't involve on the team. He asked both Digg and Felicity to join him, and Thea's involved because she's his sister. I think he'd feel somewhat responsible for any of their deaths. Laurel, on the other hand, wanted to join in because she was bored and angry and hitting people makes her feel better.

The reason I'm willing to buy that Oliver with Felicity seems like a different guy than Oliver from season 1-2 as far as romantic relationships are concerned is that I've always thought that a lot of his behaviors around Laurel, Sara, and Tommy could be explained by his history with them. So he tended to regress a bit around those three since those relationships were established pre-island and he fell back into old patterns easily. But his relationship with Felicity is post-island only, so he doesn't revert to his pre-island way around her. He had to establish new ways of being around her, and I thought that they were showing that as far back as episode 2.06 when he seemed remorseful at the end of the episode when he did the whole "Because of the life I lead..." speech when she looked hurt that he slept with Isabel. Of course, then Sara showed up and he went right back to pre-island Oliver in his relationship with her, but I do think it was established that he thought of his relationship with Felicity differently.

This makes by far the most sense to me, especially since that would mean no killing off of BC, which seems to be the sticking point in terms of people thinking that Laurel can't possibly be in the grave. Oh man, I can't even imagine how much better this show would be if it got rid of wasting time on Lance family drama every episode.

I was actually thinking about that very possibility this morning. It's been thrown around a bit that the reason no one's talking about Laurel's season 4b storyline is that she'll be dealing with Quentin's death and they don't want to spoil that, but that doesn't quite add up to me because (thanks to the flashback in the premiere) the show has already made dealing with whoever's dead Oliver's storyline. Plus, Laurel already got the "dealing with the death of a loved one" last season when she became Black Canary as a response to Sara's death. So, if Quentin is the death this season, having her go "dark" is one of the few storylines that would be different from her storyline last year and from Oliver's storyline in 4b where he's apparently swearing revenge on whoever killed the dead character. I know that trying to apply logic to the narrative decisions this show makes re: Laurel is an exercise in futility, but having Laurel go bad is pretty much the only storyline that wouldn't be a retread of either her own storyline from last year or redundant with what we already know is Oliver's storyline at the end of this year. Although, really, the most logical decision for a character without storylines who is a dud by pretty much every metric available (social media, episode ratings, critical response) is to just get rid of her altogether, either by putting her in the grave or by having her leave Star[ling] City in the wake of her father's death.

Funnily enough, this was the first episode where I felt that Oliver and Felicity showed they were ready for marriage. Prior to this, they were in the blissful new relationship bubble (during their trip around the world), and in the first couple of episodes of the season it felt a little like they were in a kind of "don't rock the boat" mentality where they were almost unwilling to let their true feelings be known to each other (that Oliver was actually upset that Felicity lied about working with the team and wasn't open with her about her feelings about their new life, that Felicity was bored in the suburbs). But in this one, all that messiness came out, and rather than it turning into a huge drama or resentment, they both just worked through it. Sure, they don't know everything about each other, but I don't think that's necessarily the best determination of whether they're ready for marriage. Because what they did show--that they're willing to confront each other with these big, scary emotions and then work together and forgive each other to deal with them--is basically a great foundation for the whole getting married thing. Oliver didn't run when Felicity confessed her doubts, he gave her the space she needed. Felicity didn't just freeze him out (though that's clearly her inclination), she opened up and shared her doubts with him. Sure they have doubts and the whole process was a little messy, but they worked through it and came out stronger on the other side.

I guess I just don't see anything Felicity did as beating up on Oliver or even anything that really needed apologizing for. I definitely understand how it could rub some people the wrong way that he ended up apologizing at the end and she didn't, but I actually think that was kind of warranted. I've mentioned how I think that Oliver--as helpful as he was trying to be--was not actually helping, but was in fact just making what was already a stressful situation for Felicity even more stressful (by distracting her from her work of finding Ray, with bringing her mom to town, etc.). I'm sure I'm projecting all over the place here, but it's incredibly frustrating to me when someone keeps trying to help in ways that are completely unhelpful, and then gets hurt when the person they're "helping" gets annoyed. And I'm totally cool with this being a permanent characteristic of Felicity's and one that doesn't need to be addressed or fixed. If it was something that happened a lot, I'd for sure think it needed to be addressed. But at the end of the episode, Felicity thanked him for putting up with her freakout, thereby acknowledging that it was a freakout and not normal, rational behavior. And she also made peace with her mom, who she'd been short with and also snapped at with the whole "I'm not ten" snottiness when her mom tried to bring her some warm milk. It was a tiny arc, but I think it was indeed an arc.

Totally agree. I don't think Felicity was cruel to Oliver at all. After I first watched the episode, I thought she was pretty mean to him, but now that I've seen it a couple of times, I'd probably even downgrade that to "kind of mean." She was short and snappish with him, but certainly not cruel. I'm actually not even sure what lines or scenes could be considered "cruel." The meanest thing she said, in my opinion, was when she asked if he knew how to build a manifold when he wanted to go to Palmer Tech with her. And that was more snippy than anything else. And, to be fair, Felicity was right: Oliver would have been no help at all with that and probably would have just kept hovering around and telling her to relax. Combined with the fact that all of his previous "help" wasn't all that helpful to her, and I can see why she wanted him to give her some space. I also think the fact that she explicitly said she blamed herself, not him, for Ray's current situation is particularly not-cruel. (Compare that to Oliver's remark in 2x10 that the reason the mission failed was because Felicity "didn't have it" that night. That was pretty cruel since it laid the blame for not catching a dangerous criminal solely on her.) She was trying to work through some stuff and needed to do it in a particular way, which was away from Oliver (since her intense connection to him was really the reason behind the majority of her angst). Wanting to deal with her feelings her way and not his--and getting annoyed when he kept pushing her to do things how he thought the should be done (nap, hang out with her mom)--is understandable. And, sure, she didn't handle it super-maturely, but I also don't think anything she said was cruel.

I really liked Felicity in tonight's episode, even when she was being pretty mean and kind of terrible to Oliver. Especially because Oliver, as nice as he was trying to be, wasn't exactly paying attention to what Felicity actually needed. Like, he knows how stressed out her mother makes her, so inviting her mom to town right when Felicity was freaking out wasn't particularly helpful. And then his somewhat amused dismissal of her stress about finding Ray--I could see how that could be super-frustrating from her point of view. It always sucks when something is super-important to you and other people are sort of blasé about it. So, yeah, Felicity was snappish and frustrated with Oliver, but I don't blame her for that. Sometimes, having someone tell you to just calm down and relax when you're really stressed is annoying as hell. And I really liked that she confronted the fact that she just took off with Oliver at the end of last season, dropping everything for him when he (finally) decided he wanted to be with her. For all of the faults of season 3, I did like that Felicity's storyline involved her examining her own reasons for being part of the team and sort of coming into her own in that regard. I understood why she was so happy to drive off into the sunset, but it also felt a little abrupt considering all of the angst and stress that had come before. So it makes sense to me that she's now realizing that she just jumped all in with Oliver, living the life he wanted to live because of how much she loved him. But now she's had some time to think about it and to realize that she didn't want that same life--and that that's okay (even if she probably feels guilty about it). Lastly, I loved that she and Oliver worked through it and that she and Donna had a chance to talk about Felicity's abandonment issues. Arrow has a tendency to zip too quickly through storylines and character development--and it definitely could have spent a lot more time on Felicity's ambivalence about going all in with a man who has a tendency to run away, particularly given her history--but I bought that all of this had been brewing under the surface all season for her and that Ray's distress signal was just the catalyst that brought all of it to a head.