Ariah

Could the whole "knows where he is; knows where he is not" mean that Felicity is not looking for Oliver because he is NOT WITH HER? Maybe she will give him a choice and he will choose to leave instead of staying with her. So she will not look for him. I know it's rather OOC, but who knows with these writers. (Guggenheim twitted the scene is also "surprising" and Felicity being all "Stay with me, be with me, live, don't go, love me, i love you" would be surprising at this point of the narrative) But my romantic side still wants to see a scene like this: Oliver wants to leave without seeing Felicity, because he knows it can be too painfull for him. But she finds him in the Foundry. She wants to talk him down. He won't listen, won't even look at her (again: too painfull). She forces him to. If he won't stay, she wants to go with him. She will not let him do this alone. He won't let her go with him. They both blurt out truths about their feelings. They kiss. And just as they break apart, Felicity touches her neck: Oliver used the kiss to distract and tranqualize her, so that he can leave. He places her in the bed she bought for him, leaves something of value on the pillow (an arrow? a necklace like the one for Digglette?) and he's gone. Felicity wakes up, angry, shocked. She picks up the com, but there's only static... Ok, sorry for the rambling :)

I hope that before the hiatus of doom we will get a nice teaser for the second part of the season... with more characters shown than just Laurel being BC. I also hope to see at least two scenes with Oliver actually living at Thea's. You know, breakfasts, dinners? Meeting the sleazy DJ in the doorway and manhandling him out?...

I'm watching the gifs from the event and both EBR and SA are so adobrable! But at the same time I'm thinking that one has to really be careful what one does at such galas, because your every gesture, every look will be gif-ed and analysed. I kind of feel bad for SA's wife. A guy can take an innocent look towards EBR's fine legs and the Tumblr goes wild.

The problem for me is not that those 3 episodes are all about her, but that they are also sans Oliver. Or sans present time Oliver. Good that Mentalist is back since 30 November, i'll have something to comfort me.

...So Laurel is not in s3e08 much because she's... making her costume? (I just got a vision of Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman 2, stiching up her costume from a vinyl coat...) Anyhow, the Flash vs Arrow crossover, according to the twitter chatter, seems fine. Not too heavy on the Olicity front (good) and decent in action (another good).

Now I'm in two minds. I don't want the ratings to drop drastically, because I love the show and want the best for it... But if the drop means no more BC (or a lot less BC)... But what kind of guarantee do we have that a drop in ratings will result in writing off certain character? None.

Actually, instead of a sex scene I'd prefer the afterglow scene, with Felicity asleep and Oliver just watching her with that puppy eyes, maybe playing with her hair a bit. And then she wakes up to see him and says something Felicity-like. Ok, scratch that, i want a sex scene and an afterglow scene. Actually, one episode can end with a sex scene and the other open with the afterglow. As for the 9-on-Guggenheim-scale scene... I guess a goodbye/ "I will never see you again" / "I'm not coming back alive" kiss and a lot of "I wish things would be different" / "If I wasn't such a moron and push you away" dialogue.

If it's Thea, Oliver's sacrifice to LoA makes a lot sense - they are of the same (half) blood, and as such he may take her punishment on himself. In a twisted LoA codex. Why Malcolm would not want to die for his daughter? Perhaps because Malcolm is selfish to the bone.

I sort of think that was not the point of the whole dress-up. The dress and the necklace were a masque - Ray flaunted Felicity in her expensive attire in front of the Gardners like an eye candy. Felicity's couture was saying: we can afford this. We are very rich. Your mines are safe with us. Also: "Mr Gardner, please look into that V-neck line of my beautiful VP and don't think of the consequences of your business decission" And: "Ms Gardner, think about the fact that your husband can afford to buy you the exact same necklace onece he sells me his mines".

Knowing that Cupid/ Carrie Cutter was sent to the Suicide Squad, I'm hoping she develops a crush on Deadshot. That would be hilarious, actually.

Maybe he'll also rename Felicity, once she's his. Joy Megan Smoak-Palmer.

Well, that was a very CW episode. At times I felt like watching the Vampire Diaries or Beauty and the Beast. There's nothing wrong in that, it's just... I'm not used to this amount of romantic soapiness. Especially if it butchers characters in order to set up certain scenes. Oliver was suprisingly in character this episode. But I didn't recognize Felicity - this wasn't Felicity I knew from season 1 and 2. Don't get me wrong, what this girl did and how she acted was justified and plausible-ish. But this is not how the Felicity I know and love would act. It's like a CW heroine would have acted. Hey, it's like a Laurel would have acted. So this girl (not yet ready to call her Felicity) loves Oliver (but does she really? I mean, really?). Oliver makes a terrible choice and makes her and himself miserable in the process. She has her heart broken. Then an Oliver-stand in, who basically stalks her, enters her life. All of a sudden she goes from "you're a stalker" to "hey, I may have a crush on you, because you're doing the salmon ladder and buying me expensive dresses in a color that makes my complexion look too pale". And the girl goes for it. Suddenly, she has this belief in the Oliver-stand in that she expresses. Suddenly, she's ok with being bought with expensive things and words of awkwardness. Suddenly, she leans into a kiss with an elmost stranger. But Felicity (yes, there was a Felicity this episode!) tries the waters. She wants Oliver to tell her "I don't want you to go with Palmer!". She wants Oliver to be selfish and she blames him for being selfless. It's twisted. I'd rather have her tell him what she feels, like she told him what to do in 2.22 / 2.23. Maybe shout at him, to get through his thick skull. I wonder now how awkward things will be between those people: Oliver will probably avoid eye contact with Felicity and resort to passive-aggressiveness, Felicity will not understand why Oliver acts how he does and why Ray stopped the kiss, Ray will continue to scheme and pretend to be Oliver. Still, I don't believe the Felicity I know would be bought by a fancy dress (a fancy piece of tech - yes).

I still hope for the big scene when they will re-dug Sara... and the grave will be empty!

Could the Felicity's words in the published script-tease be about trying to cut the Arrow loose from the train tracks? If she left the fancy party she may have been "armed" with just a butter-knife.

Nyssa's young age scenes may correspond with Oliver's situation at (as we assume) LoA. I'm ok with it, as long as it's not another episode without Oliver. I'd like to see Nyssa's flashbacks to the time she met and fell in love with Sara, but... I guess it won't happen. Diggle/Felicity scene, emotional... Wow. All I can think of is Laurel as BC screwing thing up and almost getting someone killed and Diggle giving her the talk. I don't want Diggle to be all fine with Laurel, I need the Diggle that rolled his eyes everytime Oliver mentioned Laurel back.

From the spoiler pics I'd gather Oliver prefers more... hands-on approach. While Ray calculates the correct trajectory that will lead him towards Felicity's lips...

Cupid was in the comics. The Red vs Blue is for me Passion vs Calculation.

A crack theory number 124: the killer is Oliver's 7 year-old son (short height), taken on by Ra'S at a tender age of 5. Hey, it's silly and totally improbable! (Which means it can happen on this show...)

I just had a trope-ific idea... What if Oliver returns after his absence changed? Like brainwashed (clishe!) by the LoA, under a different name [The Dark Arrow] and not aware that the people he is supposed to kill are his friends... And then a young vigilantee, Black Canary, tries to fight him, and he breaks her arm and throws her off the roof... Sorry, i got carried away by Dark!Oliver brainwashed by Ra'S.

Ray probably did the background check on Felicity better than Oliver ever did, knows already that Ollie is the Arrow and that Felicity has a thing for sweaty shirtless men doing the thing with the salmon ladder. So he goes for it. Setting the perfect trap, saying only the things she needs/wants to hear at the perfect time. (But Brandon is soooo pretty!) ...But the real question is... is his tablet still emitting the sounds of porcupine flatulence?

Aaaand it looks like Ray Palmer will be doing the Salmon Ladder next episode (funny, he took the company, Felicity and now... Sally?...) maybe Palmer will pretend to be Oliver/ the Arrow after 3.09 ?... (the pics can be found in the just SPOILERS threat and on Brandon's tweeter.

I just hope (for Katie Cassidy's sake) that Laurel will not become the poster girl for "Don't do this at home, kids! You cannot just cut on your training time! Don't think that a mask and a costume make you an instant hero!" Remember how Kick Ass started?...

Hey, in each season we had Oliver on the brink of death, right? Maybe this time he sees Sara when he's flatlining shirtless somewhere.

Well it looks that Oliver trashes the lair because he finds Cupid's arrow on the table. Or just looks at it and then decides to break some things. The train tracks trap is positively menacing, something out of the Golden Age.

When binge watching a season, there are some episodes one would rewatch a few times... This is not one of those episodes. I liked several scenes, but on the whole the episode fell short, especially in comparison to the previous one. Liked: - Roy and Oliver, mostly. - impro!boxing arrow - Papa Lance being fed up with Laurel - Katy Cassidy's acting at some points (I know, it's a shocker!) - Cupid! Disliked: - the fact that Laurel thought everything is about her (but it's nothing new) - the fact that most of the team acted OOC. - the fact that Laurel thinks she did something against the kidnapper... Honey, you did no such thing! Watch this one good movie with Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox and see how to deal with an assilant in a car at full speed. I wonder if Oliver's "I care about you" to Laurel will raise all of her "I love Ollie" flags.