Carrie Ann

I'm assuming Thea's only being kept alive by machines, since the EMTs do bring her to the airport. But yeah, she might die for real before going into the LP.

I thought Cami felt way out of place this episode. Even more than usual. I don't want to wish someone out of a job, but she just straight up does not fit here, and it's time to stop forcing it. I hope they let this character go by end of season. I'm kind of too sad about losing Aiden and his pretty face to really figure out whether I liked the episode or not.

Ugh, that's bad. Why all this justice talk all season long if they're not going anywhere with that?

I'm happy for Adrianne Palicki, and I think she's great as Bobbi, but Nick Blood does nothing for me and I don't feel any chemistry between them so I'm kind of bummed they're building a show with that relationship at the center. But I'm not even a regular AOS viewer, so I will probably just skip this one and hope AP finds something better sometime.

You're not alone. But I actually liked Karen (and DAW) more by the end of the season than I did to begin with. I said somewhere here before that one of the only things that didn't work for me on the show was the lack of development in the Foggy/Karen/Matt team/friendship, and particularly in the Karen/Matt side. All of a sudden, we were just supposed to believe that they had all settled into a nice friendship together, and they honestly did not show that. I saw Foggy and Karen develop a friendship, and obviously Foggy and Matt. But not the three together, and not K/M at all until like Ep 11? And by that time, they were acting like it was this real bond, and I just don't buy it. Which is unfortunate, because obviously the show is going to rely on that team (and probably pair K/M romantically) going forward, and I'm bummed that the foundation of it is shaky. Okay, that said, the thing that was irritating about Karen in the beginning for me was that naivete, and as you say, the blindness (heh) to how she was endangering herself and those around her. But...I don't know, by the end, even as the worst case scenarios played out, I'd somehow come around to her side. I came to see her as someone desperate, obsessed with bringing this guy down, and that obsession blinded her to the fact that she was crossing lines and getting into serious danger. But it didn't feel willful or arrogant; it felt like a flaw, and I think the show treated it as one, and that's all I ask. Like, I don't find what she did admirable--tricking Ben into visiting Fisk's mom literally got him murdered, tore him out of his wife's life. It's horrible, and doing that did not help bring Fisk down, in the end. But it's clearly a mistake she's going to have to live with, and I think she does feel the weight of it. My concern about this in the next season is that they seem to be putting more emotional weight on the fact that she killed Wesley. And honestly, to me, getting Ben killed is way worse. His wife didn't have the full details when she absolved Karen. As a viewer, I don't absolve her, and I don't think she should absolve herself. I hope they don't forget about this in light of her feeling like a murderer for killing a guy who would have killed her.

This isn't spec so much as throwing wishes into the universe, but now I want Roy to have relocated to the desert, let's say Nevada, let's say right outside of Las Vegas, which is where Thea comes to find him, and then they get quickie married for no reason except that they're both impetuous kids in love. (This is no longer actually legal in Vegas but no one who writes fiction seems to accept that, so I am also happy to overlook it.) And Roy has to stay there while Thea leaves (probably, but maybe she stays for the summer too!). But most importantly, Donna Smoak can take him under her wing, keep tabs on him. Donna wouldn't ask any questions--Felicity would just tell her that Roy's a friend who needs to lay low, and that would be enough for her. Picture Donna taking Roy out to brunch at a casino buffet! Getting tickets to, like, the Blue Man Group for him! Which he would hate, but he'd swallow that and be really nice about it! Poor Roy, with the absentee junkie mom, could have this little firecracker mother figure, and now I just need that so when it doesn't happen on the show, I'm just gonna headcanon it anyway.

Laurel knows, Quentin does not, and apparently everyone in Starling goes temporarily blind every time Malcolm walks by.

As far as the Arrow (or Arsenal) ever being able to be out in the world again, I think that will happen by the end of S4 if not earlier. I think that ultimately, all of these heroes are going to be legitimized via ARGUS or [insert DC-approved government agency name here]. I think that effect could ripple across The Flash and the Spinoff too, so that the threat of the local police is neutralized, and real identities are known to certain officials.

Sweet! It looks like they did and it's fully funded.

The GoFundMe site is not accepting donations, unfortunately, so that's a bummer. Hope they resolve that issue quickly!

Ha, yeah, I edited my post because reading all the responses at once made it feel like they were connected (b/c otherwise I didn't see where the O/N wedding discussion came from). But yeah, I agree that there's some big governement/military/international agency situation happening with that plane.

I don't understand how Oliver being on what looks like some sort of high-tech airplane with Ra's and Nyssa in the finale translates into a wedding between them? That's like...the last thing that makes me think. I'm not saying that it's not happening (though I do doubt it) but the plane scene doesn't indicate that to me at all. ETA: Okay, I read this thread too fast, and it seemed like there was a connection between the plane scene discussion and the O/N wedding discussion. But if that's not the reason for the speculation, then did I miss some other spoiler that suddenly made this seem more likely again?

Today I made the Lexington-Style Pulled Pork (Cook's Country), for the fourth or fifth time in the year since I made it for the first time. It's great. The first time I made it on my Weber was one of the first times I'd used a grill in general, and the recipe is so simple, it's basically fool-proof. Seriously, the rub is like 3 ingredients, the sauce is no-cook and takes about 60 seconds to come together. The grill/smoking piece is basically foolproof too, because you just follow the directions and cook until the coals burn out, then it goes into the oven. Highly recommended, and if you're not a fan of vinegar based sauces, you can use whatever BBQ sauce you like and that works fine too.

Yeah, I feel like Season 2 is empirically the best season. (Kidding! Everyone is entitled to their opinions.) Season 1 is pretty terrible for the first five episodes, and there's awkwardness even past that point. I don't think it really starts to gel until about Ep 10. And yeah, Season 2 gave me Elijah, and for that alone, it's my favorite. I think my personal order is probably 2, 3, 1, 6*, 4, 5. (*Reserving the right to adjust--haven't been thrilled with the show for the past few eps, but loved the first half of the season.)

But I just cannot imagine Oliver and Felicity riding off into the sunset together after Oliver murdered Lyla, or if Lyla died in any way.

Aside from Andy, or Evil!Oliver doing something that Regular!Oliver would never do (and I agree, Diggle staying mad about something Oliver does under the influence seems OOC), it's possible that Oliver will involve Lyla in something that puts her in danger or in a compromised position, maybe. Another option is if Oliver is basically running a con on Ra's, and doesn't tell Dig (especially if he DOES tell Felicity, then Dig could feel hurt by both of them).

Hey, Fellow Twin Citizen! I haven't seen that promo because Tivo rules my world.

Most of the complaints I see from Laurel-BC fans seem to want her to just automatically be the Best At Everything like BC is in the comics, and the problem is that's not how Laurel was written. But a lot of BC fans get up in arms every time she isn't the best or isn't given everything on the show. She's the female lead, in case you haven't heard. The problem is in the formation of the character, and honestly, I don't think comic BC fans are ever going to get what they want out of Laurel or this show. It would be completely unrealistic if they did. Like, when is Laurel going to turn into the World's Greatest Martial Artist? When she's 40? That takes a hell of a long time, and she's too old to just start from scratch now and the show will be over before they should even TRY selling that. I appreciated MG's response there, even though I don't really buy it because I DO think they're going to rush this BC thing along faster than I will find believable.

Cons against Roy & Thea: Roy would have to have established a new, legal identity in order for the marriage to be valid, right? And Thea getting married could draw the authorities to Roy's location and new identity. So there's that, plus I agree that it's not a great situation for her character to be married to a dude off-screen, and now that Roy IS legally dead, that spousal privilege thing doesn't matter. Cons against Nyssa & Sara: Unless Nyssa is joining the spinoff as well, I don't see this happening. Even if she is, I think the show is going to want to spend some time showing Sara's struggle with her new, even more effed-up soul or whatever, so I don't see her getting married so easily. I'm...at a loss, because Oliver and Felicity are kind of the only people who make logical sense now (well...insane troll logical sense, anyway), and that is crazy. I suppose the Random LOA factor is still in play, though again, that seems odd to me because it would not be a valid marriage with any legal standing. But MG probably doesn't see it that way.

Allllll right, I'm going to need all of you to stop with these Alias parallels because they are killing me. And I'm going to need something to get debunked here soon because all of this sunset ride off into the distance stuff is just making me feel positive feelings and optimism and hope and I don't like it. I feel unsafe.

Yeah, I'm guessing waving them away at the hangar, but no idea why they'd actually leave without the presence of other medical staff onsite, so that's why I'm assuming payoff.

Well, they're getting her/her body onto the plane to NP, right? Maybe those paramedics were paid off by someone, or maybe Felicity worked up some sort of false transfer order, or they employed that one doctor to help them...

No, the confusion was that I thought that tweet was regarding filming for 320, but it was for 319. And yes, it was a direction given to another actor, not to Stephen. My theory is that they changed the way a scene played out--possibly originally Oliver found out about Roy before Thea did.

This Alan Sepinwall article on "hope-watching" made me think of my feelings about Arrow this season. Especially:

Oh you're right! Yeah, weird...no idea when that direction would have made sense.