SonofaBiscuit

Anything trending on Twitter this episode? Has MG stepped away from Twitter due to all of the people rage tweeting him? (I'm guessing "no").

Is Ted dead? I'm sure that was supposed to be crystal clear in MG's mind, but I really have no idea. I didn't hate you, Ted, but I won't be sad if you're dead. We just have too many people on this show as it is.

Here's what Felicity says to Oliver: "Before you left, the last thing you said to me was that you love me. Now you're back, and the first thing you tell me is that you're working with the man who turned your sister, a woman you're supposed to love, into a killer who killed a woman you used to love. I don't want to be a woman that you love." Follow all that?!

I'm typing this as I watch, so I'll put the stuff about Oliver's return right here at the start of my post. There's a giant fight between Brick and his peeps vs. Team Arrow/The people of the Glades and Oliver shows up in his Arrow gear to stop Merlyn from killing Brick. He then gives an inspirational speech on top of a van (or something), and Diggle and Felicity are back in the Arrow Lair watching this happen on the news. After the fight, Oliver shows up at Thea's apartment and tells her he spent the last few weeks in jail. The Team Arrow reunion is kind of underwhelming. Felicity hugs Oliver but later gets angry when she finds out that he wants to work with Malcolm. She "needs some air" and leaves, but Oliver follows her to the alley. She's upset with him, and here's where we get the "I don't want to be a woman you love" line (see my post further down for the exact quote). Eh, I don't think people are going to be that angry about this, really. I'm not raging, anyways. Now on to the start of the episode. The episode opens with Oliver leaving Tatsu's cabin in the woods. Elsewhere, Laurel and Roy show up in The Glades to beat some people up, and all I see is a lot of canary blonde hair flying around. Diggle has stayed behind in the Arrow lair once again because...reasons. Ahh hahaha. Captain Lance totally calls out The Arsenal and lets him know that he knows it's Roy Harper under the hood. Hilarious. Meanwhile, Oliver is hiking home really slowly. Tatsu is following him, so he gets her to show herself and they have a nice conversation. I'm liking this Oliver. Like SA said, he's more soft-spoken and humble. He knows that Ra's will likely come for him when he learns that Oliver is not dead, and he seems to want Tatsu's help training with swords, but she mentions that Maseo is better at that sort of thing, and only the student can beat the master. So I'm assuming Maseo will be showing up in a future episode to train Oliver in sword usage. Malcolm shows up and saves Laurel/Roy, who are trying to take on Brick. Back in the Arrow cave, Laurel is saying that they should use Merlyn as a weapon against Brick, but Felicity says no. Laurel seems slightly annoyed here, and then Roy comes in (fresh from drinking some Malcolm kool-aid), and agrees with Laurel. Diggle is the deciding vote and he says NO! Very ominous discussion between Tatsu and Oliver where she bids him farewell and tells him that he will have to sacrifice whatever he holds most precious in order to beat Ra's al Ghul. Not liking the sound of that at all. Oops, looks like I was wrong about Maseo training Oliver. Oliver shows up at Thea's apartment and asks Merlyn to train him. After the Team Arrow reunion, Felicity mentions that Oliver has been gone a month. I didn't realize it was that long...I thought it was like a week or two based on what people who watched the episodes had said.

They are on greenarrowtv.com right now, but I know some people hate that site, and it's a pain because you have to go through the pictures one at a time. They're also on comicbook.com and I'll post the link in the spoilers only thread.

Pretty sure Ray is always present in Felicity scenes. Get out your magnifying glass and you can probably see his reflection in a mirror or glass surface. The more they try to make me like this guy, the more I dig my heels into the ground. Stop trying to make it happen, show.

Yeah, it was that interview where he went on like a two minute long explanation about how KC looked good in her costume and that's half the battle. Looks like that was January 14th (Access Hollywood), when Oliver was still "dead." Don't know if that's why he said that, though.

It would be nice to get a picture of Felicity with Oliver, but no, we get Ray. Boo!

Yeah, it will probably be lil' Oliver and lil' Tommy, and they'll show Malcolm treating Oliver like a son & favoring him over Tommy since Barrowman said "I've always said that Malcolm loves Oliver more as a son than he did his own son Tommy." Basically, I don't care about Malcolm flashbacks and I wish they would show us more Felicity/Diggle flashbacks, and I'm only watching tonight so I can see the Diggle/Felicity/Roy/Oliver reunion. Oh, and Sin. I love Sin.

If Ray is actually meant to join The Flash full time, I'm fully expecting these EPs to do with Ray what they've done with Laurel. They'll just shove him in the story even if there are plenty of other characters who fulfill the roles they've envisioned for him. No matter if he's not working, they'll just keep shove, shove, shoving.

I don't think that MG likes some of these questions that he's been getting...he's quite pissy at times with his answers.

I'm a bit worried that Felicity is going to quit the team longer term in tonight's episode. On the one hand, yay! because these people are idiots if they are agreeing to work with Malcolm. On the other hand, boo! because this means even more Felicity/Ray interaction and maybe more Laurel/Oliver interaction (please no). I'd be all for it if it meant more scenes of Felicity with Diggle and Oliver outside of the Arrow cave, but haha, we're not getting any "Team Arrow troika" scenes any time soon.

I have like zero investment in The Flash, so it wouldn't bother me if he showed up there. I think that it's very possible it is happening since I'm not really sure what the point of having him cross over is if not to introduce the audience to their new future recurring character, Ray Palmer. If they're not moving Ray over, then I think that in the very least, he'll continue to cross over from show to show next season. I do feel a little bad wishing this on people who like The Flash, but I just don't want Ray hanging around next season.

But he might be soon...I hope!

I believe that we're allowed to talk about The Flash in this thread, unless I'm mistaken.

Does anyone else feel like The Flash is setting itself up to have viewers ship Barry with anyone else except the woman he's "supposed" to end up with based on comics? I could be biased, though, because I find Iris completely useless. I was so irritated last week when reporter Iris asked Dr. Wells a question (she literally just repeated the same exact question her colleague asked two seconds earlier), and everyone smiled at her like she was some goddamned genius. Why haven't they learned from Arrow?

With the talk about shark jumping and hard left turns, I think I'll watch this Wednesday's episode and then just follow the forum until episode 17. I'm kind of terrified that MG will destroy this show in short order.

Yeah, I was wondering if instead of Ray working alongside Oliver, it will be Oliver leaving for Nanda Parbat while Ray becomes the justice we can't run from.

Oh, Felicity. But he is going to agree to "this" and then you'll be mad as hell. Stupid. My reaction to the suit is a non-reaction. Meh, whatever. Don't care about Ray and don't care about his suit.

This article is a preemptive rant about this Wednesday's episode, so it contains quite a few spoilery bits. Don't read if you haven't been keeping up with spoilers!! It's pretty interesting, and the author voices his concerns about the damage they may be doing to Felicity. http://www.themovienetwork.com/article/preemptive-rant-against-weeks-arrow-ending

Oh gosh. The backlash on Laurel if this happens? Now that will be epic.

Haha, so Campea went to an event with one of the writers responsible for writing the very episode that made him quit because he thought the writing was so insulting that is was disrespecting his intelligence? That's hilarious. ETA: OK, I looked it up. 3x11 was written by Wendy Mericle and Ben Sokolowski, not Erik Oleson (Oleson wrote 3x10 w/ Guggenheim). Well that's just not as funny now.

Wow, are people really making fun of that? I've said that I'm annoyed about the ratings because it probably means we're stuck with Laurel, but I wouldn't say I'm "bitter" about it or that I've really complained about it that much.

Yes, here is the prattchris one: http://prattschris.tumblr.com/post/109457503600

Thanks, @Angel12d, I've bookmarked that page so I can read future reviews. One that I really like is the prattchris tumblr that people post recaps from. That person thinks like I do and never fails to crack me up.