[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

3 minutes ago, ComicFan777 said:

I think Felicity said she hated her when Oliver told Felicity about Susan digging up dirt on him and giving Thea trouble (don't remember details), but she said that she hated her already when she saw her on tv.

Yep. Felicity said she hated her.

I'm half-expecting a line from Oliver about how it's "slim pickings for mayors" or something. Because, you know, "back to basics." 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

With all this talk about Oliver and Susan's growing dynamic, has anyone addressed how Thea's going to feel about this in an interview? She's already called Susan "poison" and knows she can't trust her after their initial conversation. I wonder if that will be addressed... 

Along those lines, has anyone talked about what Thea is up to going forward other than covering for Oliver and helping Lance? I don't think I've seen any interviews talking about her after the premiere that doesn't link her to Oliver or Lance's storylines. 

[Target Practice: Poisoned Arrow (The Bitterness Thread)]

13 minutes ago, apinknightmare said:

I bet it's going to be that he needs to trust people and let them in. (And then he's going to trust

  Reveal hidden contents

Susan Billiams, and she will, in turn, "let him in." ::rimshot::)

Oh, I'm going to be so pissed if that happens. And if

Spoiler

they have Felicity talk to Mayo about Havenrock or anything emotional since she and Oliver "don't have that kind of relationship anymore" and I feel like she needs to talk to someone soon. 

I wouldn't be surprised about anything right now. 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

1 minute ago, way2interested said:

I get that. If anything though, I would think, by the way that they're executing it now, the scenario would be he would get hurt and then Oliver and Felicity would have a talk about it while he got hurt and recovered off-screen.

Or he'd end up in that one hospital room in the entire city, Oliver would visit him as mayor since he's on the task force, Oliver would then run into Felicity in the hall outside his room, they'd talk, then Felicity would go to enter the hospital room and... cut to flashback. Return to present day, the team's in the field. 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

3 minutes ago, Chaser said:

I was going to put this in the bitterness thread but I didn't want to spoiler tag. Mayo has more of a plot line set up at this point than Felicity does. He has the taskforce. She has him on the taskforce. UGH.

I wonder how much we'll see of him on the task force or if that was simply put in there so that Oliver would find out about Felicity's relationship with him.

And speaking of the task force, are we going to see more of it other than one guy getting killed by Prometheus and then everyone almost getting killed by Church's crew? Have there been any interviews about that that I've missed? I guess it all depends on what Prometheus' next moves are. But right now, it seems like the ACU was formed simply to make them very public targets. (I kinda wish Oliver hadn't originally announced who was on the task force during that press conference and hope he doesn't do the same going forward as more cops join.) 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

2 hours ago, Belinea said:

Oliver will beat Prometheus, Diggle's storyline is confusing but he will get out of his situation. Felicity/ Quentin/Thea don't really have something to do to write home about. And on top of that the emotional arcs don't exist either at this point. Am I supposed to root for Felicity and her 5 second booty call BF? Am I supposed to root for Oliver getting laid by as many women as possible in the shortest amount of time possible? Should I care about any of the newbies? Should I root for them in their quest to do what exactly? Is Quentin and Thea's storyline now father/daughter replacement therapy for beginners and should I root for them to have that relationship? And last but not least, should I root for Oliver to regress when it comes to killing or behaving?

I'm hoping that with episode 6, we'll get something good about Prometheus that makes us want to see him last all season? Hopefully? 

With Diggle - they know there are bad guys out there who framed him who I'm sure haven't just decided, "Hey, time to turn over a new leaf and be good." But no one has even addressed that. It seems to be "Hey, we got Diggle back, sure, he's a fugitive, but nothing else matters other than him being out of prison. Let's forget why he was there in the first place."  There will probably be some quick fix whenever the writers need it for the rest of the story. Meanwhile, everyone's conveniently forgetting that Mayor Oliver Queen took some time off when John Diggle just so happened to escape. 

I just hope that anything that comes up for Felicity/Quentin/Thea lasts long enough to be considered a storyline and hits the right emotional beats.

Something that's bothering me about Felicity and Oliver's love interests is I'm worried the writers will give more time to them than to Oliver and Felicity's relationship and reunion and they're hoping that by the time the reunion does come, enough time has passed that they can say, "Oh, we don't need to really fully address all the issues from the last time they didn't work out." 

The newbies. Oh, the newbies. I feel the worst for Evelyn, who has had absolutely nothing to do this season. The only time I've liked Rene is with Diggle, but I don't want to see Diggle's storyline reduced to being his mentor. I liked Curtis last year, but it seems like they're not quite sure what to do with him this year. And is there anything Rory's rags can't protect him from? Do I ever have to be worried about him in the field? 

As for Oliver's killing policy, part of me worries there won't be any consistency going forward but rather, "We want Oliver to kill now, so he will. We don't want Oliver to kill now, so he won't." 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

2 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

i thought Chase was Prometheus from early on but, so far I haven't been given any meat...except for that hint in his introduction about Oliver sleeping with his girlfriend/fiance

I think there's something to that exchange about Oliver sleeping with his girlfriend, but I don't think it has to do with Chase being Prometheus since Chase is going to be Vigilante. I think the two storylines (Chase and Prometheus) could end up being connected in some way, but not because they're the same person. 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

2 minutes ago, TwistedandBored said:

I don't know if I will be back if they had Felicity be the one fighting for him while he is with another woman. Like nope. Just no. 

Oh, I agree. I'm just trying to prepare myself for the worst. 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

3 minutes ago, TwistedandBored said:

Before they had Oliver win over anyone else, they should have shown us Oliver trying to win over Felicty. You can't put Olicity in the background without actually showing the audience why they need to be ship stalled for now. 

Oh, I agree. But I also think they're never going to show Oliver fight for Felicity because they still think that he was right to lie to her last season and since he didn't do anything wrong, he doesn't have to fix it. Therefore, they're putting Felicity in a relationship first, she'll realize it's not real, but Oliver will be involved with someone else and then she'll have to fight for him. Or be the one to initiate the reconciliation in some way.

Sure, this could also be Oliver respecting her decision to not be with him after the lie, but I still think they would've been better off having both Oliver and Felicity single this season (even for a majority of it if they wanted them to get back together close to or at the end of the season), since they're supposed to be too busy for their relationship (according to those comments from Wendy) and working their way back to one another. 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

Bringing this over from the Human Target thread:

5 minutes ago, TwistedandBored said:

Writers also don't let Oliver be proactive about wanting to get back with Felicity. I mean he talks and broods about it but he is not doing anything. It is like he expects Felicity to come crawling back to him or something. Which made me cringe when Writers had Oliver act surprised that Felicity moved on. Like did you do anything to make her think you have change or talked to her about y'all relationship. No, then take a seat Oliver.  The Arrow writers are so busy in trying to make Olicity have this "adult relationship/break-up, friendship, etc" that they are missing all the good relationship and post relationship beats. And, when you add the lack of Felicity POV in all of this then it makes the whole thing just frustrating as a viewer and as a fan of Felicity. 

Agree with this somewhat. But then again, Oliver's going to be busy this season trying to win over Susan and Tina. That's going to take up a lot of his time in the upcoming episodes. Maybe that's why they're having the Oliver/Felicity relationship take a backseat right now and had that conversation about moving on in ep 5. 

I just wish they'd give Felicity a POV and can only hope at this point that they give her something going forward. 

[S05.E05: Human Target]

2 minutes ago, ElleMo said:

I have some issues with the Human Target plotline. What was the purpose?  Does he have a super power that makes him impervious to bullets?  Because that is the only reason I can see switching Oliver with him.  Otherwise, why couldn't Oliver just wear kevlar?  And while Oliver may have been safe,  Thea was walking around right next to the target;  she was not safe and could have been killed if the shooter chose to hit her. Nice way to watch out for your sister, Oliver. 

Very polite of the shooter to just wound the bodyguards and not kill them like most assassins would. 

Yeah, this confused me. Maybe because of the risk, they couldn't have Oliver just wear kevlar? I don't know. Part of me thinks they would've been better off revealing that the assassin had actually been on Oliver's side all along and was part of the set-up. 

I honestly think it was just so the Human Target could tell Oliver about Felicity's boyfriend. And on the topic of Human Target, that "speaking of the devil" line later on bugs me, maybe because I'm still a little annoyed about how they treated Felicity last week.

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

2 minutes ago, way2interested said:

showing a beginning of the end type thing with that relationship while Oliver grows closer to the reporter?

I'm guessing this. And then they can have Felicity realize that her relationship with Billy isn't "real" just as she thinks Oliver is moving on.

Honestly? I think they don't know how to write the beginning of a relationship for Oliver and Felicity, so if they do get back together this season, it'll be at the end of it and then they can do the standard 5 month time jump before the premiere. Think about it. 301 - the first date, ended in a disaster. 320 - slept together, but they didn't get together until the end of 323. Picked up with 401, they were living together in domestic bliss. 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

5 hours ago, looptab said:

I think EBR said that, and it might have been another instance where they told her what would happen, she anticipated something, and then  the execution was very different from what she expected.

That's what I think too. Because wasn't there an interview that the Havenrock storyline would be eps 3-5? Where was it in 5? 

This worries me for whatever's supposedly coming up for Felicity in 5B. It'll probably be one or two scenes or a line or two here that's brushed aside for everything else going on. (Sort of like what happened with her father last year in 413; it seemed like every conversation about him became about Malcolm.)

4 hours ago, Belinea said:

I don't know if he’s ready to move on, but it's time for Oliver to have another relationship. -SA

What is that even supposed to mean? He just needs to get laid? 

I mean, I am not even against it but please just get it over with... At least it seems as though the reporter has a purpose other than bedding Oliver. What is Billy's purpose again? 

Billy's purpose is clearly so that Oliver doesn't look like the bad guy by "moving on" first. Hasn't Susan already had more scenes than Billy has in half the episodes? 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

1 minute ago, Sunshine said:

There is still time for Oliver to hook up with the reporter.*  Unfortunately, if it happens, we might get more than we bargained for.  I hate it because it will be Isabel 2.0 but I guess she's supposed to represent the city and that's Oliver's most important relationship (eyeroll).  If he doesn't then I'm sure Tina or Talia is a love interest.  Otherwise they would be doing S3 with Ray/Felicity again and I just don't think that's happening.

*The Felicity/Detective kiss in the promo (police interrogation room) didn't happen tonight.  It could happen next week and Oliver sees it and decides to call the reporter. 

I have a feeling we'll get both the Felicity/detective kiss and that "Mr. Queen, you're here late" or whatever it was (don't feel like going to rewatch that) in next week's episode. Maybe Felicity will break up with the detective just as Oliver sleeps with Susan? Or the kiss and that line could happen around the same time, so they can have both of them with their LIs at the same time? 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

11 minutes ago, EmeraldArcher said:

I don't like her at all.  I like what Thea said about her being poison.

I was afraid after Anatoly's advice about a beautiful woman that he was foreshadowing Oliver banging the reporter in present day, so I was happy to see the parallel could have actually been the blonde in the red dress setting Oliver up and Susan Williams setting her trap.  So, the only part I was relieved by was that Oliver didn't sleep with her. Ugh.

I agree about Thea's comment. Oliver should listen to her.

But I fear there's still time for Oliver to sleep with her - and then find out that she's setting a trap and it to all fall apart. (Sure, that sounds a bit like Isabel in S2, but hey, it's "back to the basics," right?) 

[S05.E05: Human Target]

A few thoughts:

So Christopher Chance was Diggle's friend? And it just so happens he also shared a past with Oliver but Diggle's the one who brought him in?

Also, clarity for Olicity? I'm supposed to believe that Felicity and her boyfriend can maybe be "real" when he's been in 4 scenes (one not even with her), we know nothing about how they met or who he is and Oliver and Felicity are still looking at each other like that?

(I'm also mad they had Felicity meet with for a quickie in the afternoon in her and Oliver's bed, but I guess it's a good sign they didn't give him a set? But really, shouldn't he be wondering what she does all day? What does Felicity do all day? Curtis? Evelyn? Rene? Rory? Does anyone have a job if they don't work in the mayor's office with Oliver? Diggle at least has an excuse right now.) 

And please, Oliver, don't sleep with the reporter. Be smart - both of them. It would be a bad decision on both Oliver and Susan's parts if they hook up while she's the reporter writing on him while he's mayor. But it does feel like they're setting it up and just using Felicity being in a new relationship first to make Oliver look better. 

Right now, I'm just going to continue to love Anatoly and ... that's pretty much it.

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

14 minutes ago, Soulfire said:

Not yet sure if it's an image from a so far unreleased preview clip for tonight's episode, or next week's episode, but for now I don't care because OTA.

I'm thinking it's from tonight's episode because isn't there a photo of Oliver and Diggle pretty much in that same spot with Diggle in that shirt and Oliver in the GA suit that was released already? 

And wow, this just reminds me how much I've missed OTA. 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

2 minutes ago, looptab said:

The LOA supposedly doesn't exist anymore because Nyssa disbanded it after she became Ra's al Ghul.

Maybe Flashpoint will mean it still exists. Or they'll conveniently forget that it shouldn't exist anymore. Or there will be some group of the LOA still operating. 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

Part of me feels like Talia may be the one new female character this season we can be absolutely certain Oliver won't sleep with. Maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm wrong. 

[Ratings and Scheduling: Hail to the Gods]

42 minutes ago, Chaser said:

Pretty sure any bad ratings are just going to be written off tonight.

Yep. CW seems to be the only network actually airing its regular lineup of new episodes tonight. CBS pulled Criminal Minds (but not Code Black for some reason?) and NBC pulled everything.  CW clearly doesn't care about the impact of the World Series.

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

So what casting news will be out tomorrow? (Just kidding. Maybe.)

Now that Talia's recurring, Church has to be gone by the midseason finale at the latest, right? At this point, there would be too much going on otherwise... 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

Not the LoA again. Please. (Mainly because I'm worried if they're back, they'll spend multiple episodes on them and rush through everything else going on at the same time.) 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

Maybe that's why they've been spending so much time with Wild Dog? And mentioning his ex? Because of a plan for a LI? 

Also just realized Tina is from Central City. Wonder if they'll have any mention of Barry or Joe knowing her. (Hey, maybe she's also a consequence of Flashpoint like Julian is on The Flash.) 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

4 minutes ago, lemotomato said:

Yes, but when is the show even going to find time to tell Tina's story of how a cop became a vigilante? They couldn't even manage to show LL's journey decently and they had 3 seasons to work with and far fewer characters in the canvas. This season they have the 4 boobs in addition to the regulars, 

Not to mention that the law-abider-turned vigilante storyline is already set to go with DA Adrian Chase, who's supposed to become, well, Vigilante. 

When are they going to have time to tell any of the stories they're setting up? In addition to Tina, the newbies and Chase like you said, there's the whole Prometheus storyline. There's Diggle now a fugitive. (How long are they really going to have him just hiding out? And what about the bad guys still out there who framed him?) There's whatever's coming up for Felicity in 5B. There's whatever's coming up with Lance, according to the ep 7 synopsis. There's probably a bunch other storylines I'm forgetting about. Oh yeah, and Oliver's mayor amidst all this and no one else needs a job besides Thea and Lance making excuses for him. Etc. 

[Spoiler Discussion Thread]

Am I remembering correctly that Wendy said that Oliver has to win over the reporter? And now Tina's someone who's hard to impress? Is that the new thing for female characters this year? Oliver must win them over?