Carrie Ann

Yeah, that comment actually solidified a few things for me about KC/LL's intended role, or how she was sold on the show. It sounds like they basically told her she'd be a co-lead, and I still wonder whether they suggested to her that they might spin off LL into her own show someday. (Not anymore, obviously.) Adjusting down to a one-lead show, and now back up to some semblance of an ensemble, has not been a seamless process.

Also, something could have been a little lost in the translation in that question from the French con...? But anyway, if the CC Kid causes problems between them, I would imagine it would just be that Felicity doesn't quite know how to feel about it. Like, maybe Oliver's really excited about it and she's like "...yay..." and then takes steps back from him just because she's sort of uncomfortable and doesn't feel that she can be honest that she doesn't know how to handle this.

Ditto. I'd be fine with the kids thing being a problem for O/F in general, because I would believe anything about Felicity's feelings as far as kids are concerned. And yeah, there are five years (or...whatever) between her and Oliver. Pretty big years. Even if she did want them, I wouldn't expect someone of her age and career situation to be ready for kids right now. I'd put it five years out, if I had to guess. So! While I would certainly not enjoy seeing O/F having angst about it, it would be believable if done right, and that's all I ask. But the CC Kid is never going to be interesting or appealing to me at all. It involves two characters the audience has no emotional investment in; even their backstory is, like, negligible in terms of Oliver's character. She was a blip on the radar for him, in a string of girls he cheated on Laurel with, and maybe he felt sad for a few weeks after he thought she miscarried, but it's not like this was formative in his life. He went on to continue cheating afterward. It's just...ugh.

Okay cool. I just thought with that tweet of SA's about the 14 hour day on two shows, neither of which is Arrow, and the fact that they're probably in CC--just figured it was happening on The Flash or LOT.

Right, and if he's meeting the kid, rather than just looking on from afar, then--1) what an insanely huge thing to happen to Oliver on a show that is NOT Arrow, and 2) they will certainly come to SC after this. Not permanently, maybe, but obviously the Oliver is a Daddy storyline is happening. It's not just gonna be a little chuck on the shoulder and see ya in a year situation. UGH I hate kids on action shows. Also, now that we do know this is happening, and we know that there is talk of kids in the premiere, I have a suspicion that Felicity doesn't want kids, or is unsure if she does, or at least doesn't want them anytime soon. I've been thinking about how they could do organic conflict between O/F, and honestly they're so good for each other that there aren't a lot of obvious avenues, except that they could be at different stages of readiness as far as settling down and starting a family (two different things). We know the first is true--Oliver is happy with his quiet life and doesn't want back in the Arrow life, and Felicity isn't and she does. I won't be at all surprised if we learn that the second part is true as well, and that it puts some distance between them.

Uggggggggggggghhhhhhh. Stay in Central City, kid.

Based on this post about the overarching Golden Rule of the forum, it sounds like more detailed guidelines are forthcoming.

Unless they move Bonnie to TO someday--and of everyone on TVD, she'd probably be the one I'd most like to see over there because they could use more depth in the witch area--I don't see anything happening with Kol (or any other crossover romance or even crossover storyline, frankly, because I think they want those shows to be very separate for some reason).

OMG this is the greatest thing. I'm really looking forward to the Sara/Stein dynamic. I have high hopes for something Giles/Buffy-like.

Why on Earth would they keep using the images with Felicity in that sweater/jeans combo and messy hair that looks absolutely nothing like her character at all when they could have used these??? Dumb CW is dumb.

Yeah, it didn't look the same to me either, but if they'd had an earlier photo shoot, I'd think these photos would have been used before now. I mean, they're still pulling their Photoshop hatchet jobs together with photos from S1. Wouldn't they have used this stuff if they had it?

I love her hair both short and long--I'm assuming these are extensions or just photoshopped? Regardless, I'm so happy to finally have a new photo shoot. Thanks for spending several hundred dollars, CW Promo department!

I'm guessing you've answered this question for yourself in the intervening months, but just in case: Jack talks about how his wife had been living with her sister "for some time" at the end of Ep 105. (I avoided this forum all summer waiting for S3 to come out on Netflix so just saw this question, and mayyyyyyy have rewatched S1 for the third time recently...)

I suppose it's possible that being a hybrid makes both sexes capable of reproduction, but they haven't made that clear, and in fact, maybe the writers were using Freya here to tell us that it doesn't work both ways.

This episode felt very off to me. I've always found Wuntch too cartoonish, and then Dozerman was doubly so. So you have all these three-dimensional characters reacting to cardboard cutouts and it just doesn't work. Plus the episode just took a really long time to...get funny? I didn't laugh at anything until Boyle started his interrogation of Jake about the gym floozie. (Okay, Amy's crazed "NO!" and throwing the papers when Terry knocked on the window was funny too.) Hoping they just had a tough time getting back into the swing of things because I didn't love it. I was unhappily surprised when they pulled the whole, "Maybe this shows we shouldn't be together!" trope with Jake and Amy, so I was very relieved they nixed it so quickly. They were very sweet the whole episode.

We sing "Peter, Peter Dinklage, Peter Dinklage..." to the Game of Thrones theme, but I don't think we came up with that one either. Once I heard it that way, I couldn't unhear it.

I saw some chemistry with Stefan/Bonnie in the early seasons too, but I don't think there's a chance they're moving away from Steroline this season. I'm bummed that it's officially not Matt, because I love him and I thought they had some solid chemistry in a few different instances (305, where Matt drowns himself in order to talk to Vicki; 502 where Matt sees Bonnie on the Other Side).

Totally agree. Unless they had changed Felicity's whole look and probably some dialogue, they could have done one scene or the other, but not both--and certainly not all three, if you include the scene where he describes the dream to her. I thought Oliver's description of it was so much stronger than the dream itself--and it filled in that blank nicely, so you could hazard a guess as to what he'd been dreaming about on the plane. Plus, I think the "I'm happy" would have had less impact with the actual dream scene, so I think they made the right call.

Michael Trevino's not on the show anymore, so Tyler's out, and Christopher Wood is on a different CW show--not in the TVD-verse--so I think it's safe to say Kai is out, too. I would also say No on Kol, because he has a love interest on his own show and I doubt they're going to mess with that. I find Enzo so, so tiresome, so I'm not interested in that direction either, but maybe they'll fix...everything about that character?

That Emmy pool is the best awards pool format that I've ever used. It really soothed my indecisive brain, and picking the least-likely adds a fun wrinkle. Thank you, Andrew! (Also, I came in 14th and have never been prouder. If only I hadn't totally blanked on the fact that The Daily Show ended this year! Anyway this isn't about me and all of my regrets.) Joe, thank you for your eulogy for SYTYCD. The seasons have been up and down (I agree this was not a marquee season, but last season really was, IMO), but it's my favorite Reality Competition series of all time. Genuinely entertaining, moving, and thrilling on a regular basis. Cat Deeley, I will miss you most of all.

That's all it's supposed to mean. He's having what feels like a nice dream about this thing he really wants, and then she says that name and it freaks him out (or possibly makes him realize he's dreaming), and he wakes up.

Is this our first "game-change" reference of the new season? Should we start a tally?

It's officially Fall now, so I made this beef stew yesterday. I looked at just about all of their beef stew recipes, and settled on this one because I already had all the ingredients and it sounded fairly straightforward. It's a winner. They have a newer, fancier, "best-ever" recipe that is more involved, and I think I tried it a couple years back and I didn't like it nearly as much as this one.

Feels like a Bratva thing, maybe?

Oh, I didn't even really mean to make the distinction between amateur/professional, except insofar as that if an "amateur" creates work nice enough for the CW to want to use it for their marketing purposes, then they deserve to be paid and would then become a professional. (Which is great, because it tells that person that their talent and work has value!) (TBH, I wouldn't be up-in-arms if they did a one-off contest, as long as it didn't become a trend to exploit fan artists that way.) My point was more that--to answer @BkWurm1's question about instances where the project won't be done at all unless fans would do it: if there is work to be done (Season 4 poster), but The CW has decided not to do it, then it's probably due to a lack of resources (money, talent, staff time, or a combo of the three). My response is that if they won't pay for it, then they can't have it. Straight up. If that work cannot be completed in-house, then the answer is to hire a freelancer/agency to do the work for you (as @dcinmb said above, this is probably the norm). I don't care if that freelancer is a fan/amateur, just as long as they are paid from the beginning and no other artists are simultaneously giving away their time and work for free. (I mean, they are owned by CBS/WB; it's not like they're a non-profit org that needs help. The company needs to allocate more resources to marketing if they can't complete the basics.)