apinknightmare

No offense, but I think the answer is yes, haha. I think the thumb drive has something to do with some programs she's been working on that she wants to develop for some kind of greater good - I don't think it's anything nefarious.

I don't think I've ever seen this level of excitement over an auto show gig. Happy for the both of you!

Unlike SA, EBR doesn't appear to be a fan of multiples of three. I will laugh at that forever.

Yep!

I'll do like I did with the shirt I bought from one of SA's Represent campaigns: buy it for support and then give it away.

I don't think he manipulated her at all. I think that since they had the venue booked, it's likely that they had also selected an officiant for the ceremony, who had already met them, knew they were planning on writing their own vows, and was willing to perform the ceremony earlier than agreed, and went on as they planned. She didn't know it was fake, so she asked about the vows. Felicity, knowing it was fake, probably hadn't thought about the fact that someone would expect her to read them. I think he definitely used the fact that he had her as a captive audience to his advantage to tell her how he was feeling, though.

Yeah, maybe he's been staying in the lair while she gets packed? There was a menorah in one of the boxes, so it is her stuff. I just thought it was a strange line from her at the end.

She did throw out some general snark, but she was nasty to Oliver in particular a couple of times. Like when she made that comment to him about tracking Cupid's victims' GPS.

Maybe he's been staying in the lair while she gets moved out? Why no one would've noticed that is interesting, since they were all surprised at the news of the breakup. That's the only reason why I can think for Felicity saying "I thought you'd be asleep by now," since otherwise she'd say she was surprised he was there, or something along those lines.

We joke about anvils, but I think this is a situation where they maybe could've been a little more heavy handed. Since Felicity's default when angry with Oliver has been to snap at him, this could've been interpreted as that, or, like you said, her inability to hide the hurt while working with him on the team. It probably would've been better if they'd given her a line about it when she told Oliver why she was leaving the team - maybe a mention that she was having difficulty interacting with him, and that at the moment, it was affecting the dynamic - which it was - Diggle (or was it Thea?) commented on it.

I was kind of confused last night about who was moving out of the apartment. Felicity was doing the packing, but Oliver hired the movers. Felicity told Oliver about how the movers should pack the boxes in the truck (like he'd be there to instruct them), and then he mentioned that they'd come by whenever she wanted, and to give them a call (indicating that the stuff that was being moved was hers). But then at the very end when she was down in the lair with him, she told him she thought he'd be asleep by now, and he said he couldn't sleep - which indicates that he's living in the lair, since otherwise she would've said "I thought you'd be home by now?" So it seems like Oliver's living in the lair with Quentin, I guess? Is this a fair assumption? WHO IS LIVING WHERE

You didn't really imply it, but I thought that might be what you meant, haha. Thank you for clarifying!

I'm okay with it, too! But like many of Oliver's character flaws, it's something she could stand to work on. I wish that it was something that was addressed (to her) when she's doing it. Last night would've been a prime time for that, I think, but Digg only mentioned it to Oliver. Pointing it out doesn't mean I dislike her, haha.

Felicity's snark is something I get a great deal of satisfaction out of watching when she's using it to take Oliver down a few pegs when he's behaving like an asshole. It's something that I get zero satisfaction out of watching when he just sits there and takes it, especially when she's already handed down the consequence of the action that she's angry at him for. There have been times I though he deserved it, and enjoyed watching him get it, but last night wasn't one of them (except for after the fake wedding suggestion, maybe, but at that point she'd already stopped). At this point, I think she's snarked at him in anger to the point where it's not even very effective anymore - it's just something he grits his teeth through until they deal with the issue.

Oh, definitely. When they told him that he needed to tell her he wanted to be with her, he saw the fake wedding as his chance to make a grand statement (although I do think he would've had he fake wedding idea even if he hadn't been given that advice by Digg and Thea). I don't think that it was orchestrated for that purpose or anything.

Right! And that speaks to the initial point of what led to this conversation in the first place - I don't think Felicity has any reason to feel heartbroken and abandoned by them, because they repeatedly kept treating her exactly the way she wanted them to.

I wasn't thinking that he'd be working undercover specifically to help them, but that he'd be working toward some personal Merlyn goal (taking over HIVE, or some other type of underhanded thing) and then will use them to help him accomplish that goal, by feeding whatever information he's learned in is double-agenting to get them to do his bidding. Kind of similar to what happened in S3, where Malcolm was willing to work with Oliver to defeat Ra's - It helped Oliver get rid of his LoA problem, but also got Malcolm something that he wanted. Only this time Oliver wouldn't actually be an active participant in any kind of agreement like that, just the facilitator of getting Malcolm whatever he wanted by using his info to defeat HIVE or something. I don't necessarily *want* that, but this show seems to love both Malcolm and retreads, so it's something I've been thinking about.

Ah, see, I guess I'm just not seeing this whole thing the same way because I didn't get discomfort from her at all wrt the team stuff, just anger. John or Thea even commented on it. I know she was doing that to hide her hurt, but Felicity specifically asked them not to talk about it and she seemed to want to keep things normal and not address it so, it makes sense to me that no one would've brought up that the wedding could've been emotionally bad for her since she pretty much asked them all not to address the breakup with her. They were treating it as business as usual, which was what it seemed like she wanted.

He may actually think that Felicity will come around, though. He's not privy to the real reasons why Felicity broke up with him, because it wasn't about the kid, so any counsel he's giving isn't coming from a place of real knowledge since Oliver didn't share with him that Felicity broke it off for hiding things from her, not about the kid lie. Still, though, why should John's private thoughts on the matter that he only seems to share with Oliver have any effect on Felicity feeling abandoned? Seemed like he treated her the way he always would have, and respected her desire to not talk about it like she asked him to. I'm not going to attribute that to anything other than a need to bring Felicity up in conversation, since chronologically John's trip to Central City took place before Felicity found out Barry was in on the secret, and we've been given no indication that the episodes were out of order. Respectfully disagree about her being bullied into it. But I have kind of a different take on it in that when I was watching, it never once occurred to me that it would be difficult for her, since she called off the wedding and the relationship, and Oliver was still the one very much wanting to marry her. So the fake-y ness of it seemed like it'd be more difficult for him, since it was something he still wanted to happen, where she didn't.

It doesn't matter how Digg feels about it though, because Felicity is not privy to that information since he only has those conversations with Oliver, and she told John and team in no uncertain terms that she didn't want to talk about it. It didn't seem to me that they treated her any differently than they normally would, so why would she feel heartbroken and abandoned over it? And I'm guessing if Felicity had expressed discomfort with the idea of a fake wedding for emotional purposes, they would've shown her support in that. Her only objection to it was that she didn't want to get killed, where Thea reassured her that she and John would have her back.

I understand, but these are conversations that only *we* see. Felicity isn't there for them, and has no idea what's being said. And she made it pretty clear to all of them that she absolutely didn't want to talk about it, so how would she know that anyone was taking Oliver's side, or whatever? True, but I have difficulty counting this as the team being unfeeling toward her specifically, since her main objection to the ruse was that she might get killed, not that she didn't want to fake marry the guy she just broke up with (who still wanted to legit marry her).

Where was it shown that they can't see her side of it? Did I miss that? I might have, but I really don't recall it. I think it's unfortunate that the show takes the time to show Diggle comforting Oliver, but not Felicity, but just because he's reassuring Oliver doesn't mean he doesn't support Felicity. Since most of their relationship takes place offscreensville at this point, for all we know Diggle could be off sympathizing with Felicity over what a closed-off idiot Oliver is. I'm just not seeing proof in-show that she would feel heartbroken and alone and abandoned by her friends.

I'm not sure whether to hang my hopes on a long con, because that means more pretzel-twisting to fit Malcolm into plot, but leaves the chance that he might be around less, or hope for full-on villain, which definitely means more, but hopefully less pretzel-twisting. I'll take either possibility if it ultimately results in his death, haha.

I've been thinking - is there any possibility at all that Malcolm is kind of a double agent with HIVE? Like, that he's working independently unbeknownst to the team, and he'll show up at some pivotal point with information that will be helpful to the team if they're willing to trust him (which they probably won't be, considering he's a shit stain, and also had a hand—pun intended—in William's kidnapping)? Maybe the "him" they're talking about in the limo really is DD? Or, maybe it's Malcolm and it's the setup for his second turn as a full-on villain next year.

I could not disagree with this more. Felicity told Oliver last year that when he died they all had to figure out why they were doing what they were doing. She decided that the mission was hers, too, not just Oliver's. Oliver broke her trust personally, but nothing that happened between them should've shaken her belief in what they were doing, because she made it clear last year it's not about him.