statsgirl

It actually does, both in terms of mindset. When you know you're the best and you've got all the self-confidence, you go to the best knowing you're going to ace it. You set your sights on MIT, or Columbia or Stanford. There really is a qualitative difference in behavior between someone with an IQ of 120, and someone with 140. The puzzling thing was why she accepted in mid-level job in IT with all that education, and the show answered it with Cooper's death and Felicity needs to lay low and not stand out. Five years later, and with her confidence back, she's standing beside Ray Palmer comfortable with being his VP. I started at 17, finished too young to know what I wanted to do. Went back at 27, and again 7 years ago. It's better when you're older, you know who you are, you know what you want to do, and you don't get as lost in the emotional angst.

I'm bitter because I'm reading comments all over the place of "Laurel is so great, she's stepped up to lead the team when Felicity quit and Diggle and Roy didn't know what to do". No one seems to get it that Laurel putting on Sara's costume and going out to fight when she can't is the same kind of problematic response to Sara and Oliver's deaths that Felicity and Diggle had. Also bitter because they keep getting rid of the best in the actresses. Caity Lotz was the best physical Canary and she brought the vulnerability the role needed. EBR and Willa Holland are good, but they're no Susanna Thompson.

Hopefully Caity has decided that she's got enough work that she doesn't have to keep coming back to Arrow whenever they get the whim to call her and that's why she's not coming back. They treated her well season 2 and gave her a good showcase, but this season she doesn't need to come back to glorify Laurel. Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish..

I think it depends on why she's wrong, and whether she's going to get thrown under the bus for another character. That would be comic gold. Oliver, Laurel and Malcolm would spend all their time arguing about who is giving the orders and Roy would be all confused and "how did this happen to me?"

She may be at first, and she certainly will be by the people who thought she was weak in the last episode. But it all depends on how they write (I almost wrote 'right') her. As MG said

I wear my hair up too because I can't stand it in my face but it's a very severe look, there are no curls wafting romantically down to soften the lines. I'm going to have to figure something else out before I start looking like my great-grandmother. So, still envy you, except for the part about being scarred.

Sounds like curls are like bra size -- it's always what you have that you don't want. Me, I'd kill for curly hair. Mine is the kind that no matter what I do to it, no matter what curler or product, it's straight as a board again by the end of the night.

I'm not MG's biggest fan, but I laughed at this:

I'd laugh if Roy was Laurel's next love interest. Because, status. Or Laurel if Oliver decides she can fight well enough to join. But I hope not. Thank goodness for small mercies. It's bad enough that Oliver and Felicity are at odds without adding Ray into the mix. I wonder if Felicity-in-the-hospital in 3x18 is when it ends. That's a pretty long time from 3x12. And stay strong! But if Oliver has to team up with Malcolm in the end for reasons, I hope she doesn't have to admit that she was wrong and apologize for not having faith in his decisions. Uh, no you didn't.

I don't think MG's tweet was all that smart about the Olicityers buying his book, but I'm glad to know he knows on which side his bread is buttered.

While I can see the benefits to Felicity getting a job at STAR labs at the end of the season, that's so Castle. At the start of season 7, Beckett got a job in Washington and Castle was trying to find a way to make it work. They could show in in Central City at the end of 1x17, she either mentions Felicity or Barry puts it together, and Barry gives Felicity a call. At the start of 1x18, she goes down, taking Ray with her because he knows the techy stuff too. It's not a bad way to introduce Ray to Central City and give him contacts there so it would make sense if they moved him to The Flash at the end of this season. MG said that he wasn't going to The Flash because he knew the people in Central City, this will give him the chance to meets the others. Same here, from NCIS to House to Castle. Oddly enough, the only thing I didn't like her in was the vampire show she did with Dylan Neal (Dr. Ivo).

Yes, I've got enough of her being with Ray all the time, which is why I'm hoping Ray will get to interact with more people. And while I don't like it that Felicity's story is being played out so much on The Flash rather than Arrow, at least we are getting her story there. Between Laurel and Roy and Ray and the Suicide Squad and all the LoA stuff, there wouldn't be time to do anything with Felicity, it would be like 2B all over again. At least on The Flash, till they build up their own characters, there's room for her. I like it. I mean, I like it in terms of something to do, not that I like it that she could be moving to The Flash. It also keeps Oliver and Felicity apart but together, if that's what they still want to do.

There should be a whole lot of guilt over how she treated Sara in how Laurel reacts now that Sara is dead. Whether there will be, that's up to the writer's. I saw her non-reaction to Oliver's death as her way of coping -- Felicity went through the stages and eventually quit, Diggle felt bad because he couldn't protect him, Roy was sad and Laurel picked up Sara's things and started to fight. (I'm bitter that she's getting praised on the boards for something that was as reactionary and dysfunctional as everyone else.)

I think she was right in the content of what she said, but she as wrong in bringing up Anna because that's crossing a personal boundary. Let's leave that for Ray. But I also think that she only did it because she was so distraught and pulled out all the stops to keep Ray from being dead too.

A girl's got to have her priorities, ya know?I It did look like Sara's wig ironed out, and not the straight platinum one from the promo picture.

I love how he just puts is out there -- If you're a Laurel Lance/Black Canary fan, you'll be insanely happy. If not, you're SOOL. If they were really thinking of putting Laurel into a A.T.O.M. spin-off, they would have had her in scenes with Brandon Routh to test the chemistry and set it up but I don't think there's been any yet. It looks like they're both at some meeting (is Cristina Cox playing the mayor?) along with Lance and Felicity that Brick messes up. Maybe they'll interact then, unless Laurel rushes out to put on her BC costume, and Ray rushes out to build his. Brick says what sounds like "Bring her and the alderman???? and kill all the rest." Did anyone catch who they were supposed to bring?

I couldn't tell if they were talking about Felicity herself, with the "oversized shades and red lipstick" or the villain. Not the best worded spoiler. Because they never do the legit emotional beats with Laurel. I don't know why, if it's because they want to rush BC or if it's because of the way KC plays Laurel, but they miss every time: after Tommy died, after her realization she had helped to cause his death; after her addiction arc, after Sara's death when she went all vengeance is mine! and boxing lessons instead of doing it like a lawyer and actually looking for Sara's killer.. If she gets beat by the hallucination, she'll contact Nyssa and get her to come to Starling City and train her, because she can't time take away from her job to go to Nanda Parbat, she's too important. Right now, I'm resenting that Laurel, after 4 months of training, gets the epic Me vs Me battle that it took Oliver 7 years to earn. That's always been one of the problems with Laurel, that if they show her journey, it overshadows The Arrow part and it cheapens it. That's another reason why Sara was so right, as the Canary she came on the show already having done her journey to become a superhero. I wouldn't watch it, but I think it would be the best solution to a number of problems Arrow is having, especially the "What do we do about a problem like Laurel?"

Random thought in the shower this morning -- the new form of Vertigo makes you hallucinate your worst nightmare. There's no point to giving it to Felicity who recently lost both Sara and Oliver. In that scene when she's watching Roy and Diggle in the warehouse, worrying they could be dead and unable to to anything to help them, she's living hers. The show rarely take the time to show how hard it must be for Felicity when her boys are in danger, glued to her monitors back in the foundry and unable to be there to help them. I've read a couple of fanfics that do it well, get into her head at those time, but the show itself rarely goes there. No stunts, probably. In terms of why didn't she stop them from going out in the first place, probably a combination of working on automatic pilot and thinking they could get the job done. Like she said when they got back, Oliver would have got them out but Oliver's not there any more and it took seeing Roy and Diggle get their asses kicked to make her realize that. I thought it was a good idea to make this an episode about everyone connected with Oliver and especially Team Arrow. But it was a mistake to give the impression that it was the start of the Laurel trilogy because that probably turned a number of people off it. I'd like to have seen a cut like that, just to see which would have worked better. It may have been that 'less is more' in that situation; it certainly would have been better to cut the "I am the Justice" line and just have Laurel's scene parallel Roy's. I assume that Sara's things were laid out on the table because they (that is, Felicity) were still investigating her murder but on screen, it looked absurd. They should have done something like 'Laurel, realizing Oliver is dead, goes over to the cabinet where Sara's things are, remembering her, and gets an idea....'. The writer of the review, who seems like a nice guy, tweeted that the Felicity hate in the comments made him uncomfortable. To try to answer: 1. It benefits Malcolm to wait because Oliver has less time to figure something else out. Basically, he has to go with Malcolm's plan because there's nothing else he can set up or investigate. 2. It could have been any old LoA assassin but by being Sara, it creates more conflict in Oliver and Team Arrow. They loved Sara and event though they know Thea was brainwashed (if she was), it would be hard to get rid of all blame for killing her. They may even be reluctant to welcome Thea to Team Arrow and keep their distance, thus giving Malcolm more of a hold over her. 3. I have no clue as to why Malcolm thought Oliver could kill Ra's when he himself could not, and even less as to why Malcolm didn't try to do something to fix the fight to help Oliver win. 4. I think someone else from the LoA would take over, like the Heir to the Demon herself.

Malcolm with Alicia Florrick would be gold. And he's spend to much time trying to get one over on her, he'd leave Oliver & Co. alone.

SA has said that they have a very good archery consultant for the show and if his form isn't perfect, she really lets him know it. And he's so damn competitive, he'll want to be perfect. There's a clip on youtube with him shooting real arrows at a target; not too shabby at all.

I'm wondering at the logic of having an episode that is a major Felicity episode and where EBR gets such good reviews followed by three episodes in which Laurel/KC takes center stage. Unless KC does really well, the contrast is going to be, well, contrasting. Sometimes I really wonder if they're not setting up Laurel to fail.

From the EW reviewer:

It's taken me a while to type a reply.... I was laughing too hard. Not the intention, I assume. It's funny how worried we were about 3x10 and it turned out to be a great episode for Felicity. And now this for Laurel. Laurel's worst fear turns into her greatest hope -- she finally beats up her sister for good. Someone could write a thesis on that relationship. Yep. What were they thinking?

USA Today The Five Most Emotional Moments from Last Night's Arrow 5. WHEN DIGGLE GOT EMOTIONAL 4. WHEN FELICITY BROKE DOWN IN FRONT OF RAY 3. WHEN ROY LIED TO THEA 2. WHEN FELICITY LEFT THE ARROW CAVE 1. WHEN OLIVER WOKE UP I can see why Guggenheim is happy. More mainstream media are reviewing the show, and they pretty much love this episode.

Thanks for the EBR quote. But she said it after Draw Back Your Bow and was dealt with in The Climb. Unless MG told her that yes, Felicity will be getting in bed with Ray, I think she was just throwing that out there to tease the potential ship. Which has now sailed because of what happened with Oliver. still in denial