Carrie Ann

Poor Oliver never smiles, so the dimples are not on display nearly enough.

Yeah, I was assuming the premiere will be like peak happiness and peak sadness for Olicity. So I think whatever the discussion is in ep 3 or 4, it probably relates to Barry specifically, or it is another sadfest for Olicity, and she just wants a break. I strongly suspect the double date is just to serve both the O/F and B/I relationships, and if I had to guess, I'd say it comes about sort of awkwardly. Like, Iris makes an assumption that Barry's still interested in Felicity and suggests they all go out or something. I'm looking forward to that ep!

Yeah, I think it was the Berlanti interview. He says something like, "Well, Felicity and Oliver have...a discussion that makes her feel like now is a good time to visit Central City."

Right, he left Diggle, Lyla, and a bunch of other agents in the lurch; those redshirts got killed and Deadshot got away. Laurel had a client, a kid who'd been orphaned at the beginning of the episode and who'd been targeted along with Laurel at her apartment. The guy was about to get on a plane and disappear, which I guess would have made the kid and Laurel unsafe forever or something? But yeah, the danger was less immediate.

I've been thinking the same thing, and the "literally sees a vision of himself" makes me wonder whether he has some sort of dream when this bomb goes off on their date? Otherwise, like you say, it could just be that he goes sort of rage blackout and it scares him. I've been trying to figure out what each of their reasons for pulling away would be, and it's a lot harder for me to figure out Felicity's. I feel like it's either that she's also a little scared of Oliver's penchant for murderous rage; or that other spec is right, and that Oliver has known about his child for awhile and the fact that he doesn't want to be in his/her life bothers Felicity. And she doesn't want to be with him until he realizes that he IS Oliver Queen, not just the Arrow, and that he deserves a full life. But neither of those reasons would make me think that she would really let go of him enough to be interested in someone else like Ray, unless he pushes her away really hard. Angst! The best.

I've been staying away from a lot of the Sleepy Hollow comic con coverage for that reason. I love this silly show, but I was hoping they'd make some course correction in this long, long hiatus, and I'm concerned that instead, they're just doubling down. I've never spoken to anyone who cares about Katrina, or is intrigued by Ichatrina, though I do know they're out there. But I would say it's not a large portion of their audience, but they don't seem to be making any adjustments to make that more interesting. It's just "Your Princess is in Another Castle!" She's just gone again, and Ichabod has to find her. And then when he does, she has more secrets? But they have a miraculous love that I'm supposed to care about? Still no on that count. So I'm mostly just ignoring all that, and continuing to focus on Abbie and Jenny Mills, and Ichabod and Abbie's relationship, because that's what I care about. Oh, and I hope Irving gets out of jail. I'm just hoping that the things I dislike don't outweigh the things I do this year.

Yes! That's where I knew her from! I can't believe I didn't make that connection, because yes, those two characters are very, very similar.

I haven't, but I know her character is really popular on that show. I was shocked because I could not stand her Kristina.

Post-finale, Stephen Amell kept referring to the speech Oliver gave Felicity in S2E06 when people asked about the "ruse." So my feeling is that Oliver had been thinking about Felicity romantically for awhile, since S1 and his five months on the island. I've said here before that I think he wouldn't let himself look at it too closely, and I think that's even more true after Berlanti or Guggenheim's comments about how he came really close to actually saying something about how he felt in E06. I think his feelings for her continued to grow, whether he allowed himself to really acknowledge that or not, and at some point in the 3-part finale, he realized that he loved her. If I had to guess when he really let himself feel it and accept it, it was her "you're not alone and I believe in you" speech. Those feelings are what allowed him to come up with the plan to trick Slade, and I think he really wanted to say the words, in case anything did happen to either of them. Anyway, I'm bummed that we won't see five months of lovesick puppy Oliver, because that sounds like about the cutest thing ever.

Oh, I just meant of the type that a lot of people do at SDCC--the ones in the ballrooms, with several journalists at the table, a few minutes at a time. I assume some footage of those would have come out by now. Just wasn't sure whether KC had done any.

Has KC done any individual interviews? They're scheduled so tightly with all this stuff, I would guess that she was doing something like that during that shoot, given that she was present for most of the other stuff (post-Friday). Like, John Barrowman was elsewhere during the EW Hideout interview.

I can see that perspective, but I guess I just feel like ALL he has are consequences. He's punished for his mistakes more than just about anyone I've ever seen, in big ways and small ways. So far, from my perspective, the show has been on the "right" side in terms of judging Oliver for his bad decisions. I know some people got fed up with Oliver this season, but for me, him making mistakes just makes me want to hug him a little tighter. :) But what you say is definitely true: part of what I love about him is that he's on a journey. The most important thing isn't that he makes all the right decisions or is charming and lovable all the time--the most important thing is that people continue to root for him. Whether that always means rooting for his plans to work isn't as important to me as rooting for him to become better as a human and a hero, and to be happy. He's trying to do the right thing and become a hero, but when this series started, he didn't even think the latter was a possibility. Now it sounds like he's going to try to figure out whether he can have a full life--again, even during Season 2, I don't think he believed he deserved a full life. I like to see that kind of growth out of my heroes.

I don't actually consider it a "triangle" unless the third point is an actual, long-term contender--like a series regular. I don't get the feeling they intend BR to stick around for three seasons or anything. So I see him as the spoiler or foil in a two-person love story. If there is a triangle here, it would be between O/F/L, and I think it's actually possible we might be past that for good. I'm optimistic about the season direction with all of these comments.

Other than it being embarrassing for them both, and the pressure Tyrion was facing from his family, what would have been the motivation for faking consummation? Just to shut people up? If it became dangerous for either of them to continue to avoid consummation, they probably would have done something about it--either just getting it over with or faking it, as originally suggested. I have no doubt that the Lannisters would force Sansa to be examined to see if she was still a virgin, so she'd have to do something about that too. I don't know. I think they were just hoping to put it off as long as possible, and then it became a non-issue on its own. And in fact, should Sansa ever be able to show her face publicly again and be remarried, she'd be more desirable as a virgin, right? So in the end, she played this about as well as possible by doing nothing.

I just think one of the problems with the Mary story is that it's not going to have a satisfying conclusion unless she pulls a Kelly Taylor and Chooses Herself, or they wipe out all these dudes and find someone new (or hook her up with Tom, which is still the only avenue for either of them that interests me) (but I know that's not popular and I know JF hates it so I don't actually hold out any hope for it). Otherwise, these options all pale in comparison to Matthew. I'm sure not everyone was enamored with him or their story, but it was certainly more compelling than this. And for Mary to be so ambivalent about these guys just indicates to me that she's not actually that into any of them. So if she did end up choosing one, it would just feel like settling, and that would be disappointing. I don't know. I let the S4 eps pile up on the DVR for almost six months before I finally finished that season, and so far there's nothing about S5 that's making me excited. I think this might be where I step off the train.

Awwww, a Buffy/Giles reunion. So cute.

Lucky and Emily were supposed to be pre-teens when they started on the show, right? JJ's Lucky is actually what sucked me in to GH in the summer of '94. And Emily didn't show up until a couple years later, and I don't remember any "romantic" stories for him in between. I could be mistaken. But anyway, I think there's a huge difference between young teen love stories and freaking NINE year olds in a love quad. For one, the odds of finding four decent young kid actors is slim to none. So spending a lot of time with them in scenes together is just painful. But two, nine year olds shouldn't be involved in love stories. One or two scenes hinting at a future conflict between Cam and Spencer over Emma would be kinda cute. But a whole storyline about it is ridiculous and off-putting. Also, none of those kids is developing an actual friendship with the others, which is what made the L/L/E/N Fab Four so appealing to me. They all had friendships/relationships with each other that were meaningful and believable. Again, too much to ask of nine-year-olds, probably, but it would be more appealing to watch Cam and Spence become friends than to watch this silly farcical crap.

Sara's conversation with Oliver made it sound like Laurel and Oliver had not been together yet when she told Laurel about her crush. And I don't think a normal person would feel that she was entitled to first crack at everyone in her grade over her younger sister, but that's sort of the point, I guess! The more I think about that story, the more I think that the intent was to show that things are always complicated. That there wasn't one bad sister and one good sister. That what happened to them all wasn't Laurel's fault, by any means, but at the same time if you trace things back far enough, all of them made choices that brought them here. But instead, as @Morrigan2575 and many others here have noted, the story made the already sympathetic Sara seem even moreso, and made Laurel seem...weird and kind of awful? I'm 99% positive that wasn't the intent.

Yeah, that panel is composed of half of my favorite people on TV, basically.

This episode was actually a little clunkier than I remembered it being. There are some great moments--Oliver asking McKenna out is possibly the cutest he has ever been (I think we see more SA than OQ there, but I don't care because it's so adorable), and Felicity locking Oliver into the lair is excellent. But some of the dialogue is pretty bad and there are some weird editing choices. Still a fun episode to watch, but not as skillfully done as I came to expect by end of S2.

Again. Commit suicide for a man, AGAIN. I mean, one could argue that Elena's done this or attempted to do this multiple times, but at the very least, are JP and CD not going to count Elena jumping in that car in the S5 finale to die with Damon? I mean, sure she thought they would both come back, but it was a risk. And she DID die. She did commit suicide. For absolutely no reason at all.

At least Chris is supposed to suck. He's supposed to be a grouchy jerk, and maybe some viewers find that charming like Audrey apparently does, but I think the character and his story still work if you don't see him as likable. We have no reason to believe anyone, aside from Audrey, would like him at all if he weren't troubled, so I don't mind his presence because a) it's pretty brief, and b) I don't get the feeling the show thinks that I should like him, necessarily.

Well, sure, the writers make every choice, and they haven't made this one yet. That doesn't mean they never will. But even if they don't bring her back or have her join the Clone Club even as a tenuous ally as you said, I don't see why that's not fair to Rachel. She's a character. And if they go a different route with her than with Helena, they're trying to say something different. Something about the nature/nurture balance maybe. Just because Helena and Rachel share the same DNA and were both indoctrinated for their entire lives doesn't mean they would respond to it in exactly the same way, or respond to their eyes being opened to the truth in the same way. That's more interesting than the alternative, in my opinion. And back to the writers' choice not to let the other clones open up to Rachel: sure, it might have been nice if one of them had raised the idea of trying to bring her in, but as I've said, she was actively working against them. And she wanted to bring THEM in, forcibly, on her terms, not theirs. That they didn't react by trusting her shows intelligence on their part, not a lack of empathy.

I'm rewatching too, and another thing I'm grateful was dropped after Season 1 was Peter's shady past. Who cares? Also, Peter was a lot more shrill than I remembered, especially when it came to Walter. I love him, but he and his storylines just irritated me for most of S1.

I think Rachel could be redeemed, but I would personally prefer if they didn't redeem her. For one, as this discussion proves, we've already done that exact story with Helena. Right down to being apparently killed by Sarah in the season finale. I'd rather she actually stay dead, for that same reason, but if she does come back, I'd rather that she not turn good. She's a good villain--I understand her motivations and where her psychosis comes from, and it only makes her scarier. I don't see why one of the clones can't be on the side of badness. I don't think ANY of the clones was interested or willing to bring Helena into the fold or to help her get better while she was a threat to them. They were afraid of her and they tried to kill her several times. They developed a shaky truce this season, after Helena saved Sarah from the Cylon, and after Sarah convinced her not to kill Rachel and Paul. That only developed into a real relationship on the S/H roadtrip. So it's not like the Clone Club was just like, "Oh, I think we should save THIS one, but not THAT one." Rachel has done nothing to indicate that she wants a relationship with them, and actively works against them most of the time. Until she shows otherwise, she is a threat to them and their loved ones, and will be treated like one the same as Helena was.