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Arrow Season 5 Episode 4 Review: “Penance” Chris King+ October 26, 2016 http://www.tvovermind.com/the-cw/arrow/arrow-season-5-episode-4-review-penance

Arrow Review: The Team Divides to Turn Up the Heat BY CRAIG WACK · OCTOBER 27, 2016 http://oohlo.com/2016/10/27/arrow-review-team-divides-to-turn-up-the-heat/

‘Arrow’ Recap: “Penance” — Prison Break BY KAYTI BURT October 26, 2016 http://collider.com/arrow-recap-penance/

Arrow S5: E4 – 'Penance' By Robert Dougherty October 27, 2016 09:05AM EDT http://www.themovienetwork.com/review/arrow-s5-e4-penance

After reading some media reviews, I'm actually feeling a little better about this episode - although I still think it has major flaws.

Arrow is done leaving people behind By Alasdair Wilkins Oct 26, 2016 http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/arrow-done-leaving-people-behind-244913

You're right, although MG did tease that 505 is "probably the most Olicity-centric episode we will have done in Season 5 so far." (Aug. 16, 2016 IGN article, page 42 of Spoilers thread) Considering what we've seen so far, I guess MG's quote is correct, though misleading.

Maybe I've just been in a bad mood lately, but I'm going to be harsh... I expected and wanted to love this episode, but instead I was disappointed and even a little angry. As usual, the storylines were rushed and recycled, the dialogue was stilted and at times laughable ("penance" 3x, "impossible choice" 1x, "impossible decision" 1x), and Felicity was thrown under the bus (again) to serve the plot and prop up Oliver. Oliver and Lyla want to break Diggle out of prison. Felicity objects because that would make Diggle a fugitive on the run and because it's Diggle's choice. Period. That's it. Felicity is made to look uncaring about Diggle's fate. Oliver gets to play the hero and save Diggle from himself. The show needed Felicity to stay behind for the B story with the newbies. The show needed to show how far Oliver will go to save his best friend. The show needed Diggle back with the team in one episode. They could've fixed this easily by adding one line of dialogue and have Felicity say something like, "We can figure out another way to get Diggle out by clearing his name." After all, between her hacking skills, Oliver's "interrogation" skills and Lyla's ARGUS resources, they should've easily been able to expose the military commander's corruption and framing of Diggle. So even if they still went ahead with the prison break, Felicity wouldn't have been thrown under the bus. But instead, Felicity is made to look like she's content to have Diggle rot in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The show also contradicted itself both within this episode and with past seasons. How many times in the past has Oliver been told to let other people make their own choices (How many characters on the show have said, "It's my life, my choice."). Yet in this episode, he comes across as justified in disregarding Diggle's choice about his own life. Even though Felicity is made to spout the company line about "it's his choice," she ends up looking in the wrong here. Also, despite his four-year journey toward change and evolving his character, Oliver is told by Diggle to not change and this episode justifies Oliver doing what he's been criticized for doing in the past. Also, within this same episode where Oliver disregards Diggle's choice, the recruits are allowed tmake their own choice to risk their lives on a field mission. And Rory's conflict is about making his own choice about his own life. Also, in this episode, Felicity complains expresses concern about Oliver committing multiple felonies. Yet she has never before been shown to care about breaking the law to help Oliver and Team Arrow (she's their hacker!). See? Confusing and contradictory. Sometimes it seems like the writers are intentionally trying to destroy Felicity's character and popularity. Oh - and then there was Oliver's cringe-inducing use of the words "impossible choice" to describe Felicity's Havenrock decision. Those were almost the same words used to justify Oliver's ridiculous decision last season to keep his son a secret from his fiance (to keep his promise to Samantha? to protect his son? whatever). (415 - Felicity: "I know the position Samantha put you in, I know it was an impossible decision.") It's almost like the writers are throwing shade at fans who complained about the BMD. As has been discussed to death in this forum, Oliver did not have an impossible choice when it came to lying to Felicity, whereas Felicity did have an impossible choice when it came to diverting the nuke. It's a false equivalency. As for recycled plots, Curtis' transformation into superhero is clearly following the Laurel/BC trajectory where he gets beat up for a few episodes before magically becoming this expert fighter who will be able to defeat lifelong trained assassins. Also, that airplane liftaway rescue of Oliver and Diggle was clearly copied from the Nolan Batman movie. Both the Diggle 'conflict' and the Rory 'conflict' were rushed. After initial token resistance, Diggle caves in to Oliver's brief lines of dialogue (when he didn't even listen to Lyla's pleas). Similarly, Rory quickly changes his mind after a few lines of dialogue from Felicity. To be clear, I understand and don't object that Diggle went along with the rescue to prevent Oliver from being imprisoned with him and that Rory decided to help the team for the greater good. But Diggle should've remained pissed at Oliver for at least a little while for disregarding his choice. Even if we disagree with Diggle and believe that he's operating from a dark place of guilt and that Oliver was right in saving him from himself, Diggle recovered really quickly. (So I guess Oliver has more influence with Diggle than his wife.) Similarly, Rory should've remained uncomfortable being around Felicity for at least a few episodes. Instead, by the end of this episode, it was like magic - everyone is all cozy and friendly again. I enjoyed the first three episodes of this season but this fourth episode exposed an increasing problem for me. Like last season's repetitive team-fighting-ghosts scenes, the fights this season are starting to bore me (slo-mo! flare!). By overcompensating on the stunts and action, Arrow is now under-developing the emotional beats and character/relationship developments. As a result, I am left cold by the end of the episode and feeling increasingly detached from the characters and the show.

So the big Olicity episode, 505, is going to be about... rescuing Wild Dog.

Brian Ford Sullivan's tweets on script writing and writing 504...

I got it now - the U.S. military has 5 branches: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, the Coast Guard and the Air Force. The Marines and the Navy are both overseen by the U.S. Dept of the Navy. From that latest GATV article, it sounds like we're supposed to believe that both Oliver & Felicity have both moved on and are totally fine with each other dating other people now... almost like the last two years never happened. I'm still not convinced it's just a ship stall and not the EPs' attempt to end Olicity.

Isn't the Marine Corp. part of the Navy?

Oh joy...

This was retweeted by Cody Rhodes (bless his heart, he's still promoting Arrow)...

FWIW, that Olicity-hating, reddit-quoting Forbes reviewer wrote a review for 501 that was quite positive, except for one "bad" thing - based on Laurel's dying words to Oliver, he's afraid that Felicity will become the new Black Canary. In other words, the reviewer criticized the show for something that hadn't happened, but that he feared would happen (he got a "sinking feeling").

SA facebook video chat from yesterday (no spoilers)... Stephen Amell || Our very first NP Partnership with Jared Padalecki Published on Oct 25, 2016, by Stephen-Amell™

Here's what Beth Schwartz retweeted... Here's another version of that trend request... ETA: Berlanti hasn't bothered to tweet any Arrow promotions this week (as yet), although he's tweeted promotions for Flash, LoT and Blindspot. No surprise - no promotion by Suzanne Gomez.

If anyone cares...

I can't laugh at that Whipclip clip because it makes me too angry. What a load of condescending, contradictory, hypocritical, misogynistic, agenda-driven crap. ETA: And if you want to talk about fashion, what about all the impractical, sex kitten costumes worn by female superheroes in the comics? But I guess the best thing to do is just ignore such trolls.

Fall TV: What's a hit, what's not Here's how all the new broadcast shows -- and their networks -- are doing BY JAMES HIBBERD • October 25 2016 — 3:42 PM EDT http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/25/fall-tv-ratings

Oh great... this'll just encourage Kirkman & Gimple to do another cliffhanger at the end of S7 and maybe bludgeon the rest of the original cast.

So Gregory Smith is directing 510. Remember these EP statements over the summer? Are they even trying any more, or have they retreated into their insular boys' club? Well, they'll soon be running out of episodes... Here are the S5 directors assigned so far: 501 - James Bamford 502 - James Bamford 503 - Gregory Smith 504 - Dermott Downs 505 - Laura Belsey 506 - John Behring 507 - Gordon Verheul 508 - James Bamford 509 - Antonio Negret 510 - Gregory Smith