statsgirl

I thought it was going to be Deathstroke, which I thought was a really good episode but then they did The Man Under The Hood followed by Seeing Red so I didn't think the chain was broken until City of Blood (minus Laurel in the Cave).

I really liked Jennifer Crusie's blogs on Arrow because she not only commented on the episodes, she broke it down in terms of writing why something worked and something else didn't. I can understand why she gave up this season but I miss her analysis. Thanks for bringing the links here, GirlWednesday. quarks, you should be writing for the show. Your scene give Diggle and Felicity agency, make Laurel smarter and less self-absorbed, and more likable. A really rich guy offering to donate money to your charity because he wants something from you done the right way can be one of the most romantic of set-ups. (I remember it in a book years ago and it still hits me.) But even if Laurel didn't want to sleep with Tommy, she still should have been savvy enough to know it would have saved CNRI and let her continue to be the do-gooder she believes herself to be. What I find most annoying about Laurel, other than the way they shoe-horn her in, is that everything in the world, everything, she sees through how it affects her personally. I think one of the hardest things is, when you see something in your mind's eye, to see it as it really is. (A big reason people stay in bad relationships.) They decided that Laurel was going to be Oliver's OTP and the Black Canary, they hired a name CW actress, but when it didn't work, they brought in other characters like Felicity and Sara but it seems like they're still hanging on tightly to their original vision. I think there is a role for Laurel on the show but it's not as Oliver's OTP and it's a long time from being BC.

I don't think that there is time left this season to corrupt Felicity. Slade may try to corrupt her and fail, or he may force her to do something that she would have refused to do before, but with only one episode left, I don't think he can truly corrupt her light. I don't know if this post of mine got lost in the creation of this thread or if no one wants to play but in case it's the former, I'm going to re-post it: In the season 1 finale, Sacrifice, there were a number of characters who sacrificed other than Oliver. Tommy sacrificed his life to save Laurel; Moira sacrificed her freedom and her reputation to go public on The Undertaking; Diggle sacrified getting hurt for Oliver and to stop the Undertaking; Quentin sacrificed safety to try to defuse the earthquake machine; Felicity risked herself to stay and help him; Thea sacrificed to try to get Roy out of the Glades;even Laurel sacrificed (in the EPs eyes) her safety to gather together the files so she could prosecute the criminals. Could there be multiple 'Unthinkable's in this season's finale? BkWurm (I think) has suggested that Felicity does the unthinkable for someone who has always been against killing and kills someone. Maybe Sara does the unthinkable and promises to go back to the LoA in order to get their help to saving Starling City. Diggle could do something against his moral code when he takes on ARGUS.

Thanks, Stacey. :-)

There isn't a speculation without spoilers thread so I'll put this here: In the season 1 finale, Sacrifice, there were a number of characters who sacrificed other than Oliver. Tommy sacrificed his life to save Laurel; Moira sacrificed her freedom and her reputation to go public on The Undertaking; Diggle sacrified getting hurt for Oliver and to stop the Undertaking; Quentin sacrificed safety to try to defuse the earthquake machine; Felicity risked herself to stay and help him; Thea sacrificed to try to get Roy out of the Glades;even Laurel sacrificed (in the EPs eyes) her safety to gather together the files so she could prosecute the criminals. Could there be multiple 'Unthinkable's in this season's finale? BkWurm (I think) has suggested that Felicity does the unthinkable for someone who has always been against killing and kills someone. Maybe Sara does the unthinkable and promises to go back to the LoA in order to get their help to saving Starling City. Diggle could do something against his moral code when he takes on ARGUS.

Slade had told him one more person had to die before it would all be over and Oliver thought that person was himself. My guess is that he was thinking that Slade would call off the army once once he had killed Oliver because that would take care of The Promise and there would be no point to the army any more. Slade's real plan seems to have been to force Oliver to choose between mother and sister, to watch his mother being killed, then his city destroyed, and finally then to have the last person to die. It was probably more twisted to have it be someone Oliver cared about, as he cared about his mother, and then have to live with the knowledge that he was responsible for the death of this individual, as Slade had to live with the knowledge that Shado was taken from him. Frankly, neither Slade nor Oliver seemed to be thinking straight at that point. I thought that it was interesting that Oliver was looking away from Felicity when he gave his confession/apology to her. It's often easier not to look at the other person when you say something like that, maybe because you don't want to see how disappointed they are in you. Since Oliver got back from the island, it's been a journey of letting other people in. Diggle forced his way in by giving Oliver good advice, so Oliver knew he was a person to turn to. Thea also forced her way in by yelling at him for being a douche and pushing away his family. With Moira, it was when they were worried about Thea being kidnapped. I think Tommy truly got in only at the end as he was dying. Sara was in part-way but with both of them so damaged, I think he still guarded some of himself from her. In spite of what the EPs say, I don't think Laurel got in at all; he may have wanted to tell her his secret every night but he didn't. I think Felicity's "You're not alone... I believe in you" hug pushed through some more barricades but how much, we'll have to find out.

I'm pretty sure Moira wasn't in it because she's already been corrupted. I don't remember if Thea was there or not but I know Laurel wasI guess the CW promo department just loves her.. Since Felicity had been getting less and less airtime, it freaked me out because I thought Laurel was going to be replacing Felicity in terms of who touches/is touched by Oliver.

I just re-watched the "Don't do it, Oliver" scenes from 2x11, (flashing to Wayne & Shuster "I told him, Julie, don't go, don't go, I told him.") After he killed Moira, Slade told Oliver that one more person has to die. Looking at the scene with Diggle and Felicity, I realized that I'd missed that at that point, Oliver really believes that he himself is the one person who must die for it to stop. He's sitting there in the alternate Arrow Cave, trying to get up his courage to go to Slade, essentially committing suicide because that is what he thinks Slade is talking about. The definition of heroism, one man giving himself up so that others may live, is not Oliver giving up but Oliver fighting Slade the only way he thinks he can get Slade to stop killing other people. When Laurel tries to stop him from going (a scene which wasn't so bad now that I know Felicity gets another shot in 2x22), the information that Blood is working for Slade and that there is an army coming is what gets him to realize that he was wrong and he wasn't the person Slade is referring to after all. I still think that Kreisburg's "Laurel comes to Oliver in his darkest hour and persuades him to continue fighting' (or whatever he said) is overkill because it was the information that turned him around, not Laurel's plea, but it makes a bit more sense now.

raises hand... pick me, pick me! Low self-esteem is a possibility but at this point, I'm leaning to narcissistic. Everything revolves around her, every action is referenced from her point of view. And why not? Look at how Quentin behaved after Laurel bugged Blood's office, compared to how he was after Sara saved a child from a burning building. He was glad Sara was alive but could he at least have given her some validation for the act? For example, when the nameless cop said 'that woman is a hero', Quentin could have added "She really is". If Laurel grew up with that, with her parents praising her every move and pushing her to law school or academia while they've just happy for Sara not to get kicked out of school, and adding on Laurel's looks and brains, no wonder she thinks the world revolves around her and no one has suffered like she has.

So that's where the card-counting comes from, Felicity was from Vegas. Maybe they do think long-term on this show after all. The soft sheets works for me but not the comforter. It gets pretty hot in Monte Carlo this time of year. (The broke/Monte Carlo/cards reminds me of when I was in school and watching General Hospital (what? Everyone in college did) and billionaire Jax had lost all his money and was counting on V to help him win a high stakes chemin de fer game to win it back.)

What about the baby? I can't believe Oliver and Felicity spend 5 years alone on the island and there isn't even one baby.

Oooh, I like it. I thought that Slade let Blood take the case as a test of loyalty, but to use it to abduct his target is lovely and sneaky. Good point. Sometimes the show goes so fast, it's hard to connect all the dots. (That, and that I don't really trust them anymore.) (Sorry, couldn't help it, it wouldn't leave my brain.) If you're not looking through Olicity glasses, the actual interactions between Oliver and Felicity have been pretty platonic. He's slept with every other available woman on the show, and the last time she hugged him, when he got back in Three Ghosts, he was talking to Diggle and hugged her back as if his mind was elsewhere. If, and it's a big if, there is something significant between Oliver and Felicity in terms of Blood's "the one you love the most", it's going to come out of nowhere if it's not set up beforehand. I thought the directing in the clock tower scenes was clunky, but it's not as if you can stop the tape and say "look, see, here he's responding back to her." She hugged him, and slowly, walls breaking down, he's hand drew close and he hugged her back. Shot of Oliver's face. At this point, I'm going to assume say it's foreshadowing. Pandering is usually taken to mean pimping. On this show, my vote would go to "I know you as well as I know my own name... I know you in my bones." And the arrow, it's not that Laurel shot the arrow, but that the show put her into the position to shoot it. Why was she following Oliver around anyway? I think Lauriver was the pandering in Streets of Blood, and there was a lot of it. ETA: I just watched the 'Felicity bucks up Oliver in the clock tower' scene and noticed 3 things I'd missed before: 1: Oliver is apologizing to her when he says that he didn't see this coming 5 years ago. Not just explaining but it sounds like an apology maybe for failing her too. 2. As she gives her speech, the music rises. Real epic music through the hug and Oliver's determination to keep fighting. 3. As Oliver leaves with Diggle to get the cure, he's a lot more open to Felicity. He was friendly but always a bit closed off, now that it's the endgame, his walls are down. (Also noted that when Oliver tells Felicity to stay, she stays, unlike Laurel.) I love that Blood's mask is the physical representation of his fear of his father. And as a fan of The Daily Show, I smiled at his American flag lapel pin as well as his red, white and blue tie.

If Sara felt inferior all her life to Laurel, as she well might given that family scene when she comes back from college, then having Laurel accept her and respect her might mean more than having it come from Quentin or Dinah, both of whom greeted her back with joy. So on that level, it worked for me, and I was glad to finally get closure between the sisters after 7 years, because friends come and go but family, if you're lucky enough to get a good one, stays.. I understand the sentiment, but wow, that would have been taken as a huge anvil of Sara dying. Laurel doesn't have the faintest clue what Sara went through so really, what can she say? If Sara really does feel inferior to the gorgeous and popular (on screen) Laurel, being compared to a beautiful bird is a sweet thing to feel. That, I think is the big problem, as well as her lack of chemistry with SA. Laurel is being written as if she were on another show. It reminds me of Pleasantville,where all the characters were black and white and suddenly one of them was in colour. Or in Laurel's case, black and white in a colour TV show. She interacts with the other characters but she stands out and usually I'm aware that she's different.

I think if the EPS would come right out and say 1) Sara is not going to be killed off so that Laurel can become the BC; 2) Laurel is not going to be Oliver's love interest any more; 3) Laurel will have a place on the show but it will not be as a leader of Team Arrow 4) Laurel will still have story lines but they will not cut into the time of other characters' I think a lot of viewers would let themselves like Laurel more. Of course, the Lauriver shippers would probably storm the internet. I spent so much time worrying that Laurel is going to take over the show to the detriment of the characters I care about (Felicity, Diggle, Sara, Thea) that it's hard to look at her objectively I thought the use of Laurel in this episode was perfect -- she had a bit to do with Oliver but not so much that she looked like a superhero, then she left him in the hands of Diggle and Felicity who had lots of screen and storytime, and went off to do stuff with her family. LOL That's Laurel. There's self-interest, and then there's narcissism. Although neither is right for a future hero. I thought guys didn't talk to other guys about stuff like that? Diggle has given Oliver pep talks before but they've been short and with lots of things left unspoken. This episode needed a big pep talk, so it was left to Felicity. On the other hand, I'm getting tired of Oliver needing a pep talk every 30 minutes. As Felicity said, fighting back is the way to handle these defeats (paraphrasing).

Yes, that's my one worry. If Felicity is Shado to Oliver's Slade, well we all know that Shado died so the other girl could live. But it would be a stupid move for the show to do, given Felicity's popularity.

It would be nice if the cure took away the crazy and the recovery from a death blow. At this point, I'd be okay with Roy having extra strength. Awesome thought. And it does pull in what seems to be a relatively disconnected Line of Import. Not necessarily her death though. Even the willingness to do it would help her get closer to Oliver and Sara's 'hero' status.

Slade looks totally crazy. I can't wait. Just when I'd accepted all the arguments, and resigned myself to it not being Felicity.... man, what a surprise that is.

It's a tease. I hope it won't turn out badly for us. If Oliver knew he had a son, I'd vote for that because parents often love their children with a fierceness no partner can match. Look at Moira. But even if Slade knew about the son, Oliver doesn't. Right now, there is no stand-out candidate for "the one Oliver loves the most". He loves Thea, Laurel and Sara in different ways. He probably knows that he cares for Felicity in 'a good friend' kind of way, as he does Diggle. I think it would be really stupid for the show to say at this point "this is the person Oliver loves the most" unless it's his sister although I personally wouldn't mind some hint of romantic feelings for Felicity. You know, maybe Slade does tell Oliver that he has a son, and then tries to kill him. (Doesn't succeed though because that would be cutting off a lot of good storylines.)

It's actually "While Oliver has fought all year to be more than the killer he once was, when Slade kidnaps someone close to Oliver’s heart, Oliver is pushed to the edge and realizes sometimes it takes doing the unthinkable to stop the monster." By that wording, it could end up being Diggle. It could also be Thea, since she is his sister, or Sara or Laurel. But the biggest payoff would be for it to be someone who is close to Oliver's heart but Oliver doesn't know it yet so it's a shock when he realizes it. And he does know about Thea/Sara/Laurel. (With Malcolm back,I'm hoping he's keeping Thea safe.) With the lighting and carrying Felicity, there was a lot of Olicity in this episode. When Felicity said "I believe in you", that really made me think it would be Felicity. The dialogue for the scene writes itself: Oliver: I brought Felicity in, I was the one who put her into danger. Diggle: Oliver, it was her choice to stay with us. Her choice to fight against Slade. Oliver: She told me she believed in me. I have to prove to her that she's not wrong. [Oliver grabs his bow and goes off to do the Unthinkable.]

The extended promo. Sara looks good. Laurel throws a punch. Lots of bodies lying around http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/05/arrow-episode-223-unthinkable-season_6100.html

So many scenes to choose from ...... I like shows that give you something to talk about after the episode is over. At first, I was thinking that it was ever since Felicity knocked on the door in the Russian hotel after their tryst but Felicity was already complaining about her earlier in the episode when they arrived at the airport and she had to take a cab with Isabel. Now I'm thinking that it was when Felicity interrupted her meeting with Oliver to tell him that he was needed elsewhere because Roy had left a message arrow for him, and Oliver told her she needed to work on her excuses. (I can't remember when episode that was.) Isabel looked really pissed off when they left the room. On the other hand, it could have been in the season's premier when Felicity brought Walter in to save the day.

LOL, she was actually a normally functioning rational person. Am I expected to love her for that? Between some of the episodes since Christmas and this one, it seems like the show has multiple personality disorder.

Okay, now that I've seen the episode, I take back a lot of what I was thinking. I enjoyed it, and I'll be back for next week. After the 'Laurel saves Oliver' scene and return to Diggle & Felicity, they pretty much kept Laurel with Sara and Quentin, which is just the way I can take her, while Oliver was with Felicity and Diggle, especially Felicity. They should have had more for Diggle to do but much of the episode was a gift to Felicity fans. Oliver's support in his almost-darkest hour was from Felicity,and thank you to whoever wrote the show that it ended on "I believe in you" rather than I love you. Yay for Malcolm's return, in all his dubious glory. I can't believe I didn't see before how much Willa Holland looks like John Barrowman. I can totally believe Thea is his daughter. Nice stuff between Laurel and Sara, and long overdue. ARGUS -- badass and while effective, really not one of the good guys.

I don't think Cassidy is a good enough actress to fake being excited about the show when she was about to lose her job. I think the best I can hope for is that they give her a role other than BC, and that they drop the idea of making her Oliver's True Love. I'm not sanguine about the odds for the latter though.

The Thea/Malcolm clip is great. That's what I want to watch for. The Diggle/Felicity/Oliver clip they gave us last week was also great, and then Laurel spoiled much of the episode for me. I doubt it too. But could the EPs even do it? The Laurel/Lauriver fans have got their noses twitching with the scent now. Once Laurel is on the team, I don't think they would be content with waiting to have her realistically learn the skills, or even to let Oliver have another relationship because they see her as the real BC and Oliver's one true love. With Laurel out in the field and fighting by his side, I think the floodgates have been opened.