apinknightmare

Oh, I'm not worried about it at all.

Everything steamed! Ugh, I just grossed myself out.

Felicity and Oliver were friends before anything, so who cares if she's dating some other guy? Things have been rough between them, and he's spent the last couple of months doing dumb shit that would get him killed, and he finally took his head out of his ass and decided to stick around. Can she not tell him that she's glad? And Felicity reiterated that they weren't together because of a decision Oliver made (a comment he did not refute). If he hates her telling him she's glad he's in her life while she's casually dating some other dude, all he has to do is tell her he wants the job - she kind of told him as much last night. And he wouldn't even have to do all that terrible working for it that would emasculate him or whatever.

I think there's something to be said, too, for the pressure being off. Felicity's with Ray, so as disappointing as that seems to be for Oliver, he's no longer on the hook there. He doesn't have to feel like he let her down, he doesn't have to feel the weight of disappointment or feel like she might be lonely and it's all his fault. She's moving on, he doesn't have to feel responsible for her emotional well being in the same way that he probably did before, so that's got to be very freeing. And Felicity's found something outside of the Arrow that gives her purpose. She seems to really enjoy her job because she's being challenged, and she's probably happy enough with Ray, doing whatever. So the air's a bit clearer between them and they can get back to being the way they were. I hope they keep it up. Also, I love the fact that Oliver told Felicity that he had been an assassin last night, and it was just kind of like...okay. I love them. I hate myself.

According to Felicity, they're "a thing." So, dating, not exclusive. Maybe they haven't even discussed it.

I think Oliver is definitely looking at Felicity. You can see her hair in the shot. I'm not entirely sure she's looking at him.

i think the end was vaguely flirty but definitely emotionally intimate in a way that would make me uncomfortable if she was committed to another dude.

I think it's okay because it definitely seemed like she and Ray were dating but not exclusive. She referred to them as "a thing," which suggests it's not serious yet.

I'm not surprised - it's been trending forever on Twitter. The gifs I've seen on Tumblr make me want to watch it. This does too, haha. To keep it on subject - hopefully Arrow's ratings aren't down too much, although if they are I suspect this might be the beginning of an upward trend if the communication and plot-needed stupidity are finally coming to an end.

So, the EW review posted in the review thread brings me back to a thought I had while I was watching last night, but I forgot about in my giddiness. Ra's told Oliver that the LP wasn't working so hot on him anymore, but then it managed to heal the wound on his hand from grabbing Nyssa's sword. Is Ra's playing Oliver, or does it still work on relatively superficial wounds and they just wanted to show us what it did? Like, is Ra's using Oliver to get to Nyssa and never had any intention of allowing him to take the title? He seems like the same kind of sick bastard who would appreciate being taken down by his own daughter like Malcolm. But there would have to be some larger reason for getting Oliver involved in a storyline that was basically about Nyssa, right? So that can't be it...I don't know.

Yeah, I wasn't surprised by most of what happened, I was just surprised at the manner in which those things happened and most of all that the show I love is not dead. I also wasn't expecting Ra's to come to town masquerading as the Arrow, because I figured the fake Arrow development would happen in 3x18, so it seems like we'll have some copy cats wreaking havoc on the city for a while. It also makes more sense as to why Palmer would go after the Arrow (although only marginally more sense since the Arrow has been a good guy 'til now. I'm guessing one of the Fake!Arrows goes after Felicity. And I'm also guessing that Oliver must reveal himself to Ray in order to show him that he's not a threat - that the other Arrows aren't him?

Both. It surprised me because I thought for sure Oliver was going to brood and angst and be secretive, but he was open and told both Felicity and Diggle what he was thinking and feeling and listened to them and weighed their opinions when making his decision. I thought for sure he was going to be swayed into accepting Ra's offer. I didn't think that Ra's was going to put a plan into motion so soon, and I was really surprised that Oliver seems to be getting his head out of his ass now rather than with three episodes to go. That could change next ep of course, but it was just kind of a delightful return to most of the things that made me love this show in the first place and I absolutely was not expecting that.

So, the female League member that Ra's was giving assassin pointers to - any chance that's Shado/Shado's sister/Shado's clone? Just spitballing since Maseo gave Oliver that look, even though that look was probably a) don't do anything stupid and b) see this dude ain't all bad.

I wasn't even talking about criminals or law enforcement or physical evidence necessarily, although the arrow thing is a good point. It just seems to me that Ra's coming to town and killing people is an effort to get law enforcement and the general population to turn against Arrow. Wouldn't common sense and, oh, two years of generally not murdering people indicate that the guy(s) running around and doing just that are copy cats? So it seems like that approach should fail on two accounts. Is one of the "Arrows" going to go after Felicity and that's what sets Ray on his rampage against the dude he's been trying to emulate? Or is that big brain going to figure out that the bad guys are dressing up as the good guy? I guess I'm going to have to wait and see how it plays out.

It's the next ep.

He's a distant relative of Starling's window guy.

I'm going to wait and see how this pans out but is everyone in Starling an idiot? Will anyone question why, after at least a year and a half of doing legit, noticeable good, the Arrow has gone bad? Will they not realize there are copy cats/imposters?I'm guessing they won't, but how could they not?

I was so certain he was going to take the offer right off the bat - I'm still so surprised that he turned it down and gained a little bit of ground with his identity issues. So I think maybe he takes Ra's up on his offer to stop the onslaught and by that time he will have formed some kind of alliance with Nyssa. I'M FULLY INVESTED IN THEM TRICKING HIM NOW.

I want to keep her and I really, really, REALLY need her to slap Laurel in the face with the reality that her fighting at this point isn't shit and teach her how to do it if she's going to be buckling up week after week. I get that she's the "reckless" one, but she is way too cocky for her skill level with the "when are you going to stop telling me I need training," and the "why do I get the idea that was your version of a compliment." Please learn. Then talk. Or don't talk, preferably.

I also forgot that Oliver doesn't dance, Sorry, when I initially posted this I forgot that this was spoilery. I'll keep it out of this topic next time!

Also, seems like Felicity really doesn't know that Ray's suit works. What a turd.

Wouldn't they be expecting that though? And do ratings for individual eps really matter that much? Like, if the previous episode was poo and no one tuned into this one, would they really consider this episode at fault for the drop?

Sara didn't say Dinah either, and look what happened to her. :(

He shot it INTO THE MOON Same, haha. Before the ep started I was all filled with dread and thought, "Oh lord, here we go." BUT THEN WE WENT THERE Ra's gave Oliver the ol' Nanda Parbat time share spiel! They tricked us with ten minutes of Oliver being his usual broody, secretive self. BUT THEN HE AND DIGGLE TALKED AND THE DREADED RAY/FELICITY AND OLIVER SCENE WASN'T SO BAD AND THEN OLIVER ACTUALLY SOUGHT OUT FELICITY TO TALK TO HER AND THERE WERE FEELINGS AND LANCE AND LAUREL ARE STILL ON THE OUTS BUT HE DID GOOD BY HER AND NYSSA GAVE ME FEELINGS AND OLIVER FIGURED OUT WHAT HE WAS DOING AND DECIDED TO FIGHT FOR HIMSELF FINALLY AND THERE WAS SO MUCH TALKING AND NO MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND WHAT DO I DOOOOOOOOOOOOO

At first I thought we were up for the same old same old Oliver not telling anyone anything and brooding and then he opened up and all that Oliver and Felicity? They communicated and sorted through some stuff and she actually went a long way towards telling him how she felt about him? And Ray didn't annoy (although seriously at talking about Arrow shit with Ray on the other side of the wall, guys!)? And Oliver actually gave a definitive no and was confident about his choice? And Malcolm with that demented smile when he heard Thea say she thought about slitting his throat? EVEN HE DIDN'T ANNOY ME I WANT TO CRY WITH HAPPINESS