ohjoy

I have not even thought about Mycroft dying -- at least, not in the sense of him being ill and trying to prep Sherlock for his imminent demise. Ugh, Ugh, UGH. My excitement for this finale episode is doing a Schrödinger's cat thing with every viable theory I come across.

I kind of dislike that there's such an obvious consistent thread across all four shows -- it feels like I'm watching the same thing over and over again. Maybe that's because I wasn't much interested in either of those as major concepts to begin with.

It occurs that that is very much how Beth described Randall to William when she was explaining that Randall's vice was his goodness. She got pregnant while he was trying to make partner at his firm, so they got a fixer-upper of a house, he did the work to make partner, and then all the work himself to fix the house up so it wouldn't cost extra money and she wouldn't have to lift a finger while she was pregnant. Seems like of the three of them, Randall took after Jack the most. Yup -- -- and yup.

My headcanon for the note is: Real Faith started writing fragments, much like we saw at the beginning. There's a moment when her father comes in a she says that she can't remember who he wanted to kill. He puts his arm around her and takes the note. That was why her showing up at Sherlock's with the note seemed weird to me (before I got distracted by all the deductions and the nighttime stroll for chips), because we'd seen Culverton seemingly take the note. I wondered how she managed to hang on to it. Apparently she didn't; Culverton did take it, had put it away, and eventually gave it to Euros, who put it on display in her tiny kitchen while she prepped her plan to use it on Sherlock. I get the sense she wants to go after both brothers. If she's just trying to get to Mycroft and using Sherlock to do so, she could (and did) get directly to Sherlock without going through John at all (i.e. Fake Faith). But if she wanted to get to Sherlock, not just directly but emotionally, then it makes sense for her to get to John. Seems like she didn't make a move during all the time that Sherlock seemed dysfunctional and alone -- it wasn't until she twigged to how much Sherlock was connecting to John (and by extension, the people in general) that she got jealous enough to try to break (re-break?) Sherlock by breaking John -- with the two-for-one being that broken Sherlock = broken Mycroft.

WORD. I know it doesn't fit in with PLOT (we have got to make that an acronym for the show somehow), but even as an Olicity fan I would have loved to see Felicity date a nurse or an ER doctor or someone like that. (Although if they given her someone like that with Eddie's looks and personality then Olicity would have been dead as a doornail -- for me at least.)

With the exception of "The Sign of Three", there was at least one reference to "the east wind" in each of those episodes as well, right? I agree that they seem to be connected. I'm not great at theorizing, but I'm personally convinced that Euros was definitely involved in whatever happened to Redbeard (no idea how though). I really liked this episode, which is great because I wasn't fully looking forward to it. The finale next Sunday is both too soon and too far away.

I can't even answer that -- the mental images having my cry-laughing so hard!

Oh @FlickChick, I just barely cut "Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie" from my list -- I'm so glad you included it! You all keep naming episodes I love -- I may have to rethink my list.

I think I could really come to enjoy Jordana Brewster in this role, as someone who is committed to helping Riggs process what he needs to regarding his grief, his emotions, and even dynamic with his partner -- as long as the show makes it clear that her commitment is as a psychological professional only, and will not ever be moving into romantic territory. That would be refreshing on several different levels. I feel like Riggs' hair is his emotional weather barometer. It's gets more ridiculous when he is more emotional unmoored, and (slightly) more managed when his emotions are more in check. But that could just be me making excuses for the hair, because it amuses me.

The more I think about it, a potential Watson family reunion might really make sense in a way that (sort of) absolves John of the cheating implications and provides a more permanent home for his child while he continues to go gallivanting around with Sherlock solving crimes and getting into dangerous situations. (At least, I can totally see Moffatt/Gatiss coming up with that idea as a solution to "there are too many people in the way of the Sherlock/Watson focus".)

I'm definitely in that boat with you. Although, thinking about the O/F story they were determine to tell in Season 4B, I should probably be counting my blessings that they aren't telling one right now. I'm hoping I still care enough about the show to actually enjoy Olicity whenever they get back around to it. But the current equation of no O/F story + stupidhead Oliver/Susan story - decent acknowledgement of any of the previously established friendships on this show x (Curtis whining + Rene everything) = my interest in upcoming episodes nearing absolute zero.

You get ridiculously excited whenever the trailer for Matthew McConaughey's new movie comes on the screen, even though you have zero interest in the movie itself. ("Renegade" FTW!)

I agree about choosing more of the light(er)hearted episodes -- even though most of my favorites tend to be of the bittersweet/depressing variety. I was also thinking to avoid many of the "apocalypse is nigh" episodes that might evoke similar feels. My list (chronologically): A Very Supernatural Christmas: 1st episode I saw, and I can watch again and again Mystery Spot: favorite - laughter factor Wishful Thinking: Audrey and Teddy always lift my spirits Changing Channels: I'd probably aporeciate the variety in the scenes just as much as the humor The French Mistake: Sam and Dean dropped into the "real world" that doesn't look at all like their reality? I could probably relate. Fan Fiction: favorite - heartwarming nostalgia Baby: favorite - just Sam, Dean, and the car

I think I liked it. Oddly, Christmas episodes are usually not my favorite (although the very first episode I ever watched was "The Time of the Doctor"), and I've not particular enjoyed the last two full seasons -- but I loved last year's Christmas episode, and this one seems pretty decent too. Liked the references to River Song, since I like her, and since that was the most recent episode (man, this year flew by), and I even liked Nardole this time around. I'm not a huge fan of "Girl can't figure out that (a) the guy who constantly drops everything for her is in love with her and (b) the superhero who just swept her off her feet is the same guy who is constantly standing right next to her" stories (which makes my love of superhero/adventure stories somewhat complicated), but Grant was okay and Lucy was tolerable, and it made for something kind of lighthearted at Christmas, so that's alright. the eyes in the brains were disgusting and creepy, so won't be watching that part again. But all in all, this seemed pretty decent. I'm not sold on the next companion, but I have hope that she's less aggravating/annoying than the last one, at least.

Yes, THANK YOU to whoever decided to add that -- and also to CP and GG for Iris' delivery and Barry's reaction. That little moment is quite possibly my favorite moment of the entire crossover.

Seconded.

Coulson to Eli Morrow: "You're drunk with power -- or you drank your own Kool-Aid -- or you're drunk on Power Aid. I don't know."

Apparently verbal diarrhea + healthy appreciation for Oliver's good looks = pining. At least, that's what was implied to me by my comics-savvy friends. (Of course, they also referred to Felicity as "that blond girl", so take their interpretation for what it's worth.)

Almost everything I felt about this episode has already been mentioned, so I'll just add one thing: Sufjan Stevens' Christmas music! I was listening to that song ("Only at Christmas Time") earlier today in fact. They used one of his songs in the pilot I think, so no surprise there, but yay anyway!

Concerning LoT character time during the crossover, it seemed to weirdly work for me in LoT's favor. Flash: Okay crossover episode, although mostly focused on Flash characters plus Oliver and Stein Arrow: Okay 100th episode, but not a great crossover episode, with major focus on Arrow characters plus Sarah and Ray (with a little Barry & Kara in the mix) LoT: Best episode of the crossover, even though there was more focus on Flash & Arrow characters -- but also had decent focus on Stein and some Legends interspersed Thinking about it, Stein got decent focus on Flash and Sarah got decent focus on Arrow, but neither of those really felt like LoT focus because those are the shows in which the characters originated. Same for Ray on Arrow; he's LoT, but it was hard to think of him like that in the midst of the Arrow shared dream. With the exception of Supergirl, there just wasn't a lot of scene/plot pull for true crossover characters, until we got to LoT (I guess because it's the newest show). I think Felicity had been in a flashback or two, and Cisco might have shown up somewhere, but other than that Oliver and maybe Barry were the only ones who'd really interacted with the Legends on their own show before. So to me this episode actually felt like a crossover more than the other episodes, even if the Legends were in it less.

I'm glad they didn't go there. "Broken Arrow" is still one of my favorite episodes, being Roy's sort-of swan song, and I'm much more a fan of their platonic friendship than the idea that Felicity would be dating Thea's ex-boyfriend / Oliver's sidekick as the placeholder for Oliver. #RoyandThea4Ever

Not gonna lie, it's gonna take a while for me to hear Arrow Rhodes as anything other than a very weird shout out to Stephen Amell and/or WWE. I mean, I know Jensen at least sort of likes both of them, but.... (ETA: MTE @catrox14. :-D )

Just wanted to highlight the progression of my feelings over the course of the season so far, since they were on major display this episode. (And on a lesser scale, I have these same feelings about Wells. I actually trust this Wells -- I'm not calling him H.R. -- less than the last one. Ugh.) Why must you keep screwing with the characters I like, Arrowverse? Why can't I have nice things? That being said, I did enjoy this episode more than most of Flash this season, and this Oliver more than most of Arrow this season. (Though to be fair, my favorite episodes of "Arrow" tend to be the Flash episodes in the crossovers.) I think I have new favorite lines of the show, courtesy of Iris and Sara -- Iris: "Oliver's the Green Arrow? He just got so much hotter." (Complete with Barry's exasperated response) Sara, as Barry's repeating Oliver's "covert" instructions for the team-up: "Are we just supposed to pretend we can't hear him?"

Oh man, the initiation scene at the dojo was so beautiful and uplifting -- even as William reading Rebecca's letter was just heart-wrenching. What a tightrope of emotion. But honestly, Randall saying his piece and walking away, with his brother and sister waiting for him outside of the car in a show of support -- that little moment was everything for me. Big Three FTW! I just really love this show. (And to think I wasn't even planning to watch it -- I just wanted to see what the so-called "twist" in the pilot was!)

I'm so mad at William. Dude, she was completely ready to Uber outta there -- wwhhhyyyyy did you have to go "wise old owl" on her and convince her to stay??? I don't want to have to trade less time with Toby for more time with Olivia.