insomniadreams88

Black Siren clearly decides to stop and get a nose ring before the big reveal that she's not actually Laurel. She probably figures she has time since it takes them so long to realize she's not their dead friend.

Factoring in BMD, 407. Pretending BMD doesn't exist, 409 and 411. After that, it was just a matter of waiting until the BMD came out and the break up happened. There are moments after that that I've enjoyed, including some from S5, but I think 411 was the last time I was looking forward to an episode.

H.R., you've known them for, what, a couple of months? Why is he giving the toast? Please tell me he's not the only one.

Could be both. Could be that they had to cover up a tattoo in order to add a brand/tattoo and it just failed in how it looks onscreen and they didn't want to bother correcting it/didn't have the time to do so?

I'm waiting for the interview where one of the EPs goes, "Oh, you saw that? We thought we were being subtle zooming in on it." Sort of like the "Oh, you noticed the Russian vodka? We thought we were being so careful about revealing Susan's shady. Never mind 503 or her investigating Oliver's past in Russia."

Thea should have noticed it too - she knows firsthand that Susan is shady.

I feel like that tattoo or whatever was on Susan's wrist can easily lead back to Talia. (Give me a really good female big bad please. I'd be all for that.) But the thing is, who's going to care? (And sometimes I wonder if the writers just want to forget 503 altogether when it comes to Susan considering it made everyone dislike her for manipulating Thea, so maybe they won't even return to that. Maybe that was the original plan but they're going to change it and try to pretend that doesn't exist?) Like has been said before, either Susan betrays Oliver and he looks like an idiot, or she switches sides or whatever and he turns out to be right to trust her? But the thing is, he never should have trusted her in the first place for it to get to the point it's going to. Hey, maybe Oliver learns that Susan's shady while he's in Russia in 512 (maybe someone says something like, "Oh, you're from Star City? I've been talking to a reporter from there...") but doesn't do anything about it until 515 because of CP's availability and they want the episode to end on his revelation that she's been investigating him? Or he finds out, returns home, goes to see her and says, "Oh, I understand. You were just doing your job. Here, let me tell you all about Russia." That's when they sleep together onscreen, she sees his tattoo, and that cues up the last flashback of the episode, of him getting the tattoo. They can even insert clips of Felicity doing her own thing and Diggle researching the bad guys who framed him on his own.

Maybe we'll learn that HT is a meta who can make people believe what he says - hence why it's so easy for him to pretend to be others. Therefore, when he told Oliver to date Susan, Oliver just had no choice.

I am going to have so many issues if he even thinks about telling a reporter he's GA. As I've said before, that puts the entire team at risk. (That and the word "love" even being mentioned in relation to Oliver/Susan on the show are my big two NOs.) Just going to quote my own post from yesterday here: Just because she might have "genuine feelings" or whatever for him doesn't mean she wouldn't use information he gives her on anyone else. And if he stupidly thinks that he can trust her that much.... Hey, maybe he can tell her about William while he's at it. (I'm going to hope that the writers realize there's a limit to how stupid they can have their main character be, but...) That's the main problem this season. We got a few nice moments early on in the season, then Oliver found out about Billy, decided he needed to move on too, Susan basically threw herself at him and he went, "Hey, Susan. Perfect! Never mind what you did to my sister" - I will never understand that, and I'm happy that the writers haven't had Thea forget about that and switch to cheering her on or something like that - "and never mind that I have all these people on my side, including my sister and the people I've been closest to for years. I have no one but you to talk to." Susan told him he needed a friend, so he decided that was true. The way that Oliver's acting towards Felicity right now, I'm not surprised that he's not going to realize something's up with her until around 515 and that other people are going to know before him (and my hope is they fully support her not telling Oliver because of his stupidity). Now, they can use the excuse that Oliver feels guilty for accidentally killing Billy to keep them apart - even if she doesn't blame him and has said that, he can think that she does/should and maybe feels he shouldn't be around her? I have to admit, I'm finding it hard to even rewatch earlier seasons, because I start thinking about what their relationship is like in season 5. I liked how they were in S1/S2 in S1/S2. And right now, all we're getting is everyone saying in interviews "Oh, isn't it great they're friends?" but we're not seeing that onscreen. It looks like Rory cares more about Felicity right now and they just met.

And maybe to have Oliver distracted until they want him to find out what Felicity is up to? They might not want that to happen until a certain point (15-ish, as SA teased). They might just want another reason for Oliver to not be around a lot - and being mayor isn't enough - so they figure relationship?

I remember cheering when Barry unmasked in front of him. Eddie was a good guy, and I really wanted him to stick around after the inevitable end of his relationship with Iris.

If Tina's smart, I don't see how anything she's going to see of Oliver (assuming he doesn't suddenly regain some brain cells in the next couple of episodes, and with Susan around until 516, that's doubtful) would make him look like a good LI choice. Then again, he has to say something good enough to get her to Star City (unless it's just the promise to help her with her past and Carlos?), so... ETA: They'd probably keep Felicity single in hopes of keeping Olicity shippers around. Or have her casually date. Or give her a BF and have him die.

Hey, maybe 515 ends with whatever happens with the limo, Susan gets hurt, and 516 will see Oliver staying by her side at the hospital. (Blame the conversation over in Heartaches from earlier for this post.)

Could be. I have a feeling that 512 is going to see Oliver and Susan in bed together, her asking about his Bratva tattoo, leading into the flashback of him getting it. Maybe that's Susan's only scene in 512? Or maybe we'll get scenes with her bookending the episode, kind of like in 509 - the holiday party date/her apartment. It can serve as a reminder of her investigating him like the Russian vodka ... only he doesn't find out until 515? 516 is the fallout maybe? At least then the whole team would be going to Russia for something Prometheus-related maybe? And then it would at least make sense for Tina to go with them even though she just joined the team. I honestly want to know why the writers think this relationship is a good idea. Why they think writing Oliver this stupid is a good idea. (Though I do wonder if any of this storyline has to do with CP's availability with her work on Suits? Maybe they stretched it out because of that?) I really don't feel like seeing Oliver open up to Susan about his past when there's still stuff he hasn't told Felicity or Diggle and he's known them for years or Thea and she's his sister. Speaking of Thea, please let her have something else to do in 5B then continue to point out dating Susan is a bad idea. But the longer CP is around, the more I fear that will be the case.

Ugh, please don't tell me Oliver's going to be with Susan until 516. Please tell me that relationship ends after Oliver finds out she's looking into him. If it doesn't ... I'm going to be convinced that the show doesn't want me to root for Oliver. Also, the longer that relationship lasts, the more time we're probably going to see Oliver juggling things - mayor, GA, relationship. No wonder Felicity's going to be looking elsewhere to take down Prometheus. When exactly would he be able to focus on Prometheus like he should? Agree with both these points. And if Oliver thinks that Susan can be a lasting relationship for him? Seriously? I will say this: If Oliver stupidly thinks about telling Susan he's GA, I hope everyone kicks him off the team. But how long can a relationship last for Oliver with someone who doesn't know? Is he just going to keep making excuses? Pretend to be dealing with mayoral business? He should remember that his security detail will tell her where he is at all times. I still want Susan's storyline to end with Thea delivering on her promise/threat and her unable to even write a blog. Come on, Arrow. Don't let me down.

I try really hard not to think about that because it can't be anything good.

Yeah, but also think of this: Before he did finally go to see Felicity, Thea told him that she needed him and he needed her. So it was partly about Oliver, especially when you consider that they addressed how Oliver was feeling and what he was doing before talking about Felicity's diagnosis and why she thought he hadn't been there. In 410, it seemed like they just needed Oliver to be beating up ghosts and not in the hospital. They wanted Oliver part of the action scenes but wanted to hit a couple of emotional beats, so they had people tell him he should be with Felicity and the two scenes of him with her. It was in 412 when Thea was dying. It wouldn't have made sense to be talking about the crossover because Thea was with them for the crossover. How would it have mattered if he was in Star City then to notice something about her if she wasn't?

See, that's the problem with the BMD storyline. We have no idea when he went to CC because all we got was that one line in 412. It was never addressed. I'd like to say there's no way that he went to CC while she was in the hospital, but it doesn't look much better that he went to CC when she got home from the hospital and was adjusting to life in a wheelchair either and he had to if he was making trips to CC considering the timeline. Unless he made all those trips between 408 and 409, but where would he have had the time for that?

Me too. (Please let that happen in 5B.) But I think that pistachio line from Donna may be the closest we get to addressing Felicity's feelings.

I really liked Eddie, so I'm happy to see him again - but I do worry about how they're bringing him back. I think that's the problem with Flashpoint/other Earths/etc. It's getting to the point where if someone dies, I feel like if they really want to, they can reverse it/just bring in another version of the character.

I think this is an ongoing problem on Arrow with Felicity. You could argue the same thing about 416 and the fake wedding - they need to bait Cupid, so Felicity has to go through with a fake wedding to the man she thought she was going to marry and Thea and Diggle see no problem with it and the team just decides that's okay in, what, barely a minute's time? You could even say that what we see in 509 is because of that - the team's surrounding Oliver while she's off to the side, sort of getting some comfort from Thea and then alone. Sure, we've seen that Felicity grieves alone, but it wouldn't be a stretch if the reason for that turned out to be because she feels like she has to grieve alone, that there's something else more important always going on.

Maybe it could have been part of his vows - "I vow to love and cherish you - and by the way, I have a son I've been visiting for the past X months." Yep. Wasn't there a complaint about Oliver and fighting from last season? They probably thought they'd solve it with 410 - not realizing that they "solved" it by making him look awful for not being by his fiancee's side. And think about the scene before Felicity's going in for another surgery - when Laurel and Diggle (with flowers that I'm still not even sure were from Oliver) joined Thea and Donna in her room. Donna has no idea why her future son-in-law isn't there. It just looks like he doesn't care. Oliver could have been there. There's no reason he couldn't have taken five minutes from beating up ghosts and getting nowhere with them to check in with Felicity. Besides, didn't we mostly see Oliver suited up as GA at night? He was in the bunker and stopping by Lance's office when he wasn't hitting the streets. Really, no time to stop by the hospital?

Me too. I also suspect/fear that Felicity's arc will be wrapping up just as Prometheus makes some big move/something else happens and any fallout/aftermath is pushed aside to deal with that. We'll get a conversation or two, but since they don't want to make Felicity too dark, I don't think we'll be getting anything that necessitates a "yellow crayon" moment like on Buffy or someone else bringing her back into the light. I wouldn't be surprised if they use OTA to promote 5B, but promotion (articles RTed, even focus in episode descriptions) doesn't mean it's what we'll see on-screen.

I'm fine with them going to Russia for any reason except Susan needs help/protection. I don't want Oliver to enlist the help of the entire team to help the reporter he shouldn't be dating. But since it looks like Diggle is going, they'll have to have proven his innocence beforehand. If he's in prison, I doubt they'd give him a day pass to leave to go to another country. They could prove his innocence without catching the real bad guys and then have everything tie to Russia in 512.

That's two episodes in a row - 511 and 512 - they're leaving the city with almost no one to defend it. Seriously, Prometheus, make a move then. Make Oliver wonder if leaving the city was a bad idea and maybe he could have stopped whatever happens. (Wasn't there a BTS photo of a memorial or something from 513? Maybe something does happen in Star City while everyone is gone in 512.)