apinknightmare

Oliver was too late to do posed photos. He and Diggle had a conversation about it in the ep.

I think Marc Guggenheim is going to be heavily involved since they brought a co-EP onto Arrow for next season to free up some of his time.

Yeah, I hadn't even thought of that. I love the shots of baby Sara looking like, "Who's this guy you're talking about?"

Me? Yeah, sorry. Belittling people who enjoy romance by referring to them as children is a really sore spot for me. Especially since most of what we talk about here (apart from Oliver and Felicity, because it's okay to watch for them and enjoy their story above all else) is how awful we think the storylines are this year and different we wish they could be, quality wise. And, I mean...the plot in this episode was a mess, you know? We all admit that much.

Oh, thank god. This thread had been strangely lacking in belittling comments toward people who enjoy the romance on the show. Thanks for taking one for the team! Yeah, even those of us in the 12-14 year-old girl demographic are pretty disappointed in the way things are going. At least we have the squee-worthy sex to sustain us! Not a percentage, but we were discussing up thread how awful it is that we haven't seen Oliver put too many bad guys away. And it's also pretty terrible that as of now it seems like the two big 'ol bad guy nasties who were responsible for most of the mayhem this season are probably totes gonna get away with all the bad stuff they've done this year!

Something out of a box that'll get the job done quickly.

:*(

EXCITEMENT LEVEL 100000

I put that one on Stephen, because how weird is it for him to anchor one leg but not the other? Seems like maybe that's what she was expecting and he decided against it at the last minute.

He said something nice about everyone he worked with, as I would expect him to.

That was in 3x19 - when she stood up to her father.

The discussion is about why Laurel seemed to be completely oblivious about what was going on when Felicity came to the office since the original sequence of events was that Laurel went to the airplane hangar, and was in the know that Thea was injured. So, based on the fact that there was originally a scene in the show where Laurel knew what was going on, it was odd that in the scene with Felicity she appeared to not know. Because what if they hadn't cut that scene? She would've looked clueless when we knew she wasn't. Unless they filmed two versions of that scene with Felicity, just in case they cut the part with Laurel at the airport.

Aw, I liked her hair this season, for the most part. I thought her hair was too long last year and pretty fried on the ends, especially when she had it in a ponytail.

Yep, that too.

No, it's from the episode before the finale, which airs the day before the Arrow finale (someone correct me if I'm wrong about this please). So that means that Oliver's an AU Oliver, Ra's is super invested in killing the Reverse Flash, or the timeline is f-ed again.

Ugh, that finale summary. Lord, beer me strength. That makes it seem like he's not brainwashed, if he's "deciding," not that wordplay means anything with these people, since they don't know the difference between site and sight.

The only reason why I figure Ra's would brainwash Oliver is because he's worried that Oliver's too distracted by the life he left behind, because even though he traded Thea's life for his own, he really didn't enter willingly (which begs the question WHY DOES RA'S WANT SOMEONE WHO ISN'T WILLING, but whatever). From Nyssa's story, Sara joined because she was hungry and didn't have anywhere else to go, Malcolm went willingly. Maseo might've too, after Akio died. I think that's probably why none of them were brainwashed. Normally I'd say that Ra's could keep Oliver in line by threatening the people he loves, but since MG said it's a position you hold until you die, I'm guessing Ra's isn't expecting to be around long enough to be able to keep such threats. Which, again, begs the question, WHY DO YOU WANT SOMEONE YOU HAVE TO BRAINWASH/THREATEN? Okay, I'm done.

I think maybe he is saying it about Diggle, but maybe there's some kind of distraction (Nyssa, maybe? Laurel with her sonic screech?) that gets Diggle out of it before Oliver has to fight him? At every turn this season Oliver's been saying that he doesn't have a plan, so I was hoping this would be the one time when he actually did. Or maybe it will be the team that gets him out, because of that lesson Oliver learned last week to let other people help him, I don't know. I'm just not sure what to think about the brainwashing thing, because Oliver's going to be in town with other League members who will surely be watching him, so of course he would act cold toward Diggle and Felicity and whoever just to play it safe, so...IDK.

We don't know what happens between him and Diggle. ETA: because I hit "submit" too soon. DR said that Diggle feels betrayed, so to me that seems like maybe whatever happens happens when Oliver is in his right mind, and isn't physical so much as strategic or emotional. Or, Oliver could very well run him through or cut off an appendage, I guess.

If there's brainwashing, hopefully Oliver's just pretending and for once he has a plan.

Felicity actually doesn't look like she's crying to me. She looks like she might be getting ready to smile there.

The title of the last ep gives every indication that it will be.

Yeah, I think Ra's talking to Felicity was completely in character for what we've been told about him so far. I think he'd admire her for coming to him and standing up for Oliver, that's why his advice to her to take her chance to say goodbye to Oliver doesn't seem like shippy fan service or anything to me, having seen how it played out. Nyssa told that story about how Sara laughed at him, so...it seems like the kind of thing he'd do, especially since he was fully aware that he was about to completely burn Oliver Queen to the ground. Go, tell him you love him, say goodbye, because I'm going to take everything you ever loved about him away, etc.

No, he wrapped both his arms around her back and she jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist.

The only thing that confuses me about the "marry Oliver and I'll let you dunk Sara into the LP" scenario is we're supposed to find out there are repercussions if someone uses the pit without permission, and who better to do that than Nyssa? Unless...IDK, unless maybe Oliver kills Diggle and they throw him in there without Ra's consent and he goes batshit. I guess Nyssa agreeing to marry Oliver to bring Sara back would go along with Ra's assertion that her love for Sara compromised her emotionally, so it seems like the kind of rash thing she'd do to back that up, but Sara's been dead for months and months now. Why on earth would she want to do that, knowing full well what the pit does to a person? Bleh.