apinknightmare

Considering these people continually put their lives in Felicity's hands by trusting her to use her brain to guide them out of life-threatening situations, they seem startlingly nonchalant about her repeatedly losing consciousness.

Roy Harper, concierge.

Granted, the EPs are full of shit, but they said that this arc brings Oliver and Laurel closer together, so I can't imagine that would happen if she decided to go on a path of full-on vengeance. Oliver's already been there, done that, and he would definitely not approve, so if Laurel did decide to go that way, wouldn't that decision push them apart? Unless they decide to do a full-on 180 with Oliver's heroic no-kill policy for the purpose of this part of the story.

I continue to be really bothered by the scene in the next promo with Oliver, Roy, Felicity, Laurel and Digg burying Sara in a wooden box in secret under the cloak of night. Are they seriously not going to tell Lance that she died? I know he has that heart issue (which, yeah, I'm guessing they set that up so that would be the reason no one tells him), but...ugh, that leaves the most rotten taste in my mouth. What exactly is he going to think when she never shows up again? Is someone going to hack her email and send him messages? Will he not find that suspicious (I know, I know, he doesn't find a lot of things suspicious that he probably should)? I mean, I know these writers gave us the dumpster symbolism, so they obviously don't think much of the character, but jesus, she's had such a shitty life, she deserves to be properly and finally mourned. I've been trying to think of reasons for that kind of burial, because Komodo comes to town skewering people, it's not as if they couldn't set it up to look like he'd killed her too to get everything above the board so she could have a real funeral. So, it's either to keep it from Lance, to keep her "unofficially officially dead" so that she can come back via Lazarus Pit, or because it looks gritty. I'm guessing it's a combo of the first and last reason, but ugh, this storyline sucks.

If the EPs really do want to do a BOP spin-off, wouldn't that be a difficult sell with a character as polarizing as Laurel?

Yeah, he already had a bed down there, and it was an actual proper bed, not some kind of weird-ass pallet contraption like he seems to have now. And the suit thing was weird for me as well. If he stashed his duffel bag somewhere in the restaurant pre-date, it must've had his suit in it, and if it did, then why was he already wearing his shirt and tie? (And also for the reasons you mentioned).

I'm glad she decided not to go with the broken back and head wound and dumpster background.

We were wondering if Oliver tells Felicity about Barry's powers. Looks like he does.

Not because I've watched this scene an embarrassing number of times or anything. She says, "She's scrumptious. Mazel tov, guys. Seriously."

Isn't that the truth. Especially after he kissed her and gave her the face cupping, spit stringy, face smelling, breathe you in "don't Felicity" kiss and an I-won't-say-I-don't-love-you I love you. Bless her, she's my idol.

Oooh, I've got to disagree with you on that. She was shady as hell and loved her family and would do anything for them. That storyline could've gone on into eternity. RIP you sassy, devil woman.

I honestly don't see them killing Felicity. Maybe she'll leave for a new life in another city if they want to get her out of the way, but how many more people can Oliver lose without going batshit insane? It's LITERALLY overkill at this point. If they're going to move him forward, they need to stop killing off the people he loves. Not that I trust them to do that, but I think Felicity's life is safe. Her life in Starling City? Maybe not so much. Also, this is probably wishful/hopeful thinking on my part, but I wonder if they decided to have Laurel become BC (in what seems to be an accelerated fashion) this season so they could get an audience reaction to her transition before her contract is up for renewal?

Yep

I think whichever EP said it was referring to KC being a team player with regards to the Sara character and KC kind of sitting back while someone else came in as BC, if I had to guess, not about lack of screentime or storylines. And honestly? She probably doesn't care - like I wrote, I think she's tone-deaf fandom-wise. And she probably got tons of tweets from her fans who were excited she was becoming BC, so she's catering to them.

I don't think she was asking him to lie to her so much as she was asking him to make a decision and stop giving her hope. Ever since he didn't take the out she gave him on Lian Yu, the door's been open for a romantic relationship. That's five months it's been open - just a crack at first, but they were pushing it open with every wall they broke down between them. Oliver led her to that door when he asked her out, led her to believe he was ready and willing to finally step into that other room when he told her maybe he had been wrong about being able to be with someone he could care about. Then the explosion happened, and he backed away. She's just asking him to shut the door if they're never going in that room. Shut the door, and let her go find someone else to go in there with her. Because she loves him, and she needs that literal closure. Then he stands there and tells her that he's not going to go in that room with her, but he's not going to shut the door, either. If Oliver is truly committed to being the Arrow and he knows in this moment he can't have that life, he can't go in that room, then telling her they're not ever going to go in there isn't a lie - he believes it in that moment. But he left it open, because he still has hope, even though he's telling her he doesn't think he'll ever be able to go in that room with her. I think ultimately Felicity was looking for him to tell her he didn't love her, but I don't think she would've believed him, especially after that date and the story about how she made him feel human again (I mean, come on). So he could've just told her he would never be in a relationship with her - which would've been the truth, since he'd already decided he was going to be the Arrow. Maybe that will be the topic of the sequel to that conversation in the next ep, and maybe that's why I get why they did it from a storytelling perspective, I just think it was a shitty thing to do character-wise.

Yeah, they said that about Willa, but I thought they mentioned that Katie was as well. And it is tacky, I don't deny that. That's why I mentioned that I think she's tone-deaf where fandom is concerned. I think she might be under the impression that the people who don't like Laurel just don't like her, so she might just have a screw 'em kind of attitude (this is purely speculation on my part).

I don't think that's an Arrow trailer - the shelf below Arrow looks like it might have Flash written on it.

I mean, I get it. She's excited, she's waited for two years. She doesn't write the show, and if TPTB had a problem with her they would've gone a different route. So, for her this is payoff for...how did the EPs put it, being a team sport? She's getting the part she signed up for. She does seem to be tone-deaf as far as fandom goes, so it would've been a better idea to post this in a few weeks, IMO. I love it when actors are enthusiastic about their work; I wish I could be enthusiastic about it too, haha.

She told him to tell her that things would never work out between them, too. He could've shut the door on them in any number of ways that wouldn't have involved him denying that he loved her or denying that he never had any feelings for her. But he said the one thing that in his mind would keep the door open even though she was begging him to shut it.

YEAH Also, we should probably call her Digglette. ;)

I think Felicity knew it was over after their date. Shortly after, he told her about being scared of being Oliver Queen, then she heard him explain his mindframe to Diggle. I think that's when it finally sunk in that the result of that talk was going to be the same no matter how long she put it off, and that's why she let herself shed a few tears over it. I wrote this previously in another post, but I appreciate the fact that Oliver didn't want to lie to her and make her believe that he doesn't love her when he does, but given the fact that he's standing there telling her that they can't pursue a relationship, it was an utterly selfish thing to do to tell her how he felt in that one moment when she was asking him to let her go. I'm glad she walked away.

Diggle better not be going anywhere. I don't want to be left with Oliver and Laurel bonding as the centre of the next set of episodes. I will take Sara still being alive -- whether through a decoy or a fake dummy -- any way I can get. But what about his hair? Did Amanda Waller leave him with a wig, or did she refuse to let him cut his hair for three years? More importantly, what about that Dumbledore-esque beard? It must've been difficult to keep that thing glued on with the island humidity and all that. Maybe Waller owns the patent on some kind of beardy super glue.

They might've thought that the audience's love for Sara would translate into us rooting for whoever it was that was trying to avenge her death?

It's a moot argument though, Felicity's in the actual episode description. :)I don't know what's up with Thea. Doesn't Oliver go to get her from Corto Maltese in ep 3, or was she just tracked there? Whether she comes back willingly or gets found, I want to know if she just used Merlyn for training of if they're in cahoots as part of a bigger plan.