Spoiler Discussion Thread

[finnaire]

They gave Dinah a new job relevant to Oliver, a new apartment and the team offered her a new family. She isn't being set up as a character who just comes and goes, stopping in to say hi when she hits town.  They also aren't going to kill off another Black Canary, especially if she was a DC mandated reiteration. In my opinion, she's here to stay and will be a full member of the cast next season.

Wild Dong is another story. The writers love him but the reviewers and critics resoundingly reviled him. Amazingly, even a lot of the comic bros disliked him. If this had continued through the end of the season, he would have been a goner for sure. But, they must have paid attention to the backlash and started a course correct for him in the second half. They've toned him down and paired him up with Curtis which has helped repair both of those characters' issues.  They gave him a job and spiked in the promise of getting his kid back. He's at 50/50 now for me. If they give him his kid though,I can't see him continuing as a vigilante.

Curtis is interesting. They seem to have reduced his mansplaining time with Felicity and replaced her with WD. And, it sounds like he gets to bond with Dinah. I think giving him sidekick status with her gives him a higher chance of staying on than WD, especially if she replaces WD in that partnering.  On the other hand, there's speculation that Paul is Vigilante. If that turns out to be true, I can see dark things happening for Curtis. 

Edited March 3, 2017 by finnaire

[dtissagirl]

33 minutes ago, tv echo said:

I mean, if you're planning something, and the other person doesn't know you're planning it, it doesn't make the person who's the victim of the scheme stupid. It means they're in the dark.

HAHAHAHAHA LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, Steve. You're so funny.

[Belinea]

This season is just so confusing to me. And SA also confuses me. I mean, I get that everyone is allowed to like what they like but in my opinion this season only feels fresh because they forgot that after season 1, they had 3 others.

11 minutes ago, Cleanqueen said:

 he said Thea and Felicity are hiding things from him as well.

Well, he could ask them. I always feel as though they should get a pass because he hid more or less everything for 4 seasons but they do it once and he points the finger...

Edited March 3, 2017 by Belinea

[apinknightmare]

23 minutes ago, tangerine95 said:

About SA talking about Oliver defending Susan and going against Thea and Felicity, that was such a lame response imo. He didn't even give one. What he fails to see for me at least is that Oliver went against 2 characters we've known and in my case liked for years and he did it for the benefit of a new character that has been mostly antagonistic and shady. So even if Thea and Felicity were totally wrong which I don't think they were, imo people would have still been more likely to side with them simply because them as characters and their relationships to Oliver are well established.

I mean, he's right in that Oliver has done way shittier stuff that would warrant people hating him. What he doesn't seem to get is that it isn't the act of siding with Susan that's necessarily the problem, it's that he's doing it with this weird blind trust that hasn't been explained or even shown through their relationship at all. So he's standing by this woman who he just found out had been investigating his past without his knowledge, and told him twice that she would report on it and he hasn't even blinked a critical eye at any of those things. He just keeps insisting that she wouldn't do what she told him she would've done, haha. 

So it's not that he's choosing Susan necessarily, it's that he's choosing Susan while ignoring the protests of people who he knows he can trust and who care about him and want to protect him in the face of mounting evidence that he's being super stupid about it. But since the show isn't selling that this is a dumb choice, I guess SA just doesn't see it as one. 

Edited March 3, 2017 by apinknightmare

[Belinea]

2 minutes ago, apinknightmare said:

But since the show isn't selling that this is a dumb choice, I guess SA just doesn't see it as one. 

Well, he thought the BM storyline was great, so I guess he has a different take on storylines.

[dtissagirl]

7 minutes ago, apinknightmare said:

So it's not that he's choosing Susan necessarily, it's that he's choosing Susan while ignoring the protests of people who he knows he can trust and who care about him and want to protect him in the face of mounting evidence that he's being super stupid about it. But since the show isn't selling that this is a dumb choice, I guess SA just doesn't see it as one.

I think it's also because even last year when it looked like Oliver was hiding the demon spawn to protect his own ass, the story was selling it as him ~protecting the kid~ from whatever. They failed to execute, but the intent was there. Oliver siding with Susan looks insanely self-serving. The single outcome of his actions is she keeps dating him.

[Midnight Lullaby]

It's not like people didn't hate what Oliver did in the past..last year with the BMD it was a mess and he very well knows it. He got defensive about that as well. I understand he wants to defend his character but I would have tried to find a more believable excuse. Also it's obvious people get less forgiving when it's his 10000 strike and not his first.

If they wanted us to believe Susan didn't want to expose him they should have had her say so, instead they made her say that now that she was discredited she couldn't publish her story anymore. Do the writers realize what they are writing or..?

And Thea and Felicity were protecting the whole team and their families so Oliver not caring that Susan was a danger to them all was also frustrating to me because he didn't consider that others could have been in danger as well. If he was gambling only with his life it would have been a bit different. And finally Susan should have been fired for sleeping with Oliver so Thea and Felicity made something that should have happened in the first place happen. If they got her arrested we could have talked about going too far.

[apinknightmare]

Like seriously, if Oliver wasn't going to question that Susan had been investigating him and was sad she couldn't do anything to expose his secrets because she had no credibility, her going from "You deserve today," to promising to keep his secret because she thinks he's good for the city just because she got her job back should make him nervous as hell. 

But I guess that's the point. I hope Chase manipulates the shit out of her. 

Edited March 3, 2017 by apinknightmare

[Chaser]

Felicity gets a new set. You run the world girl. 

[insomniadreams88]

So, Oliver's leaving Star City again? Is it just me, or has he left the city - which is supposed to be his great love this year - more times this season when he's mayor than any other season? 

Kinda love that we have more photos of Felicity than Oliver for 516. 

[Chaser]

Well if Reporter is supposed to be the city....

[Belinea]

Is Oliver back in Nanda Parbat? Also Felicity's set looks similar to the old lair...

[Morrigan2575]

Oliver went to find and talk to Talia . Probably not NP but another middle eastern mysterious location 

Edited March 3, 2017 by Morrigan2575

[Chaser]

I really hope the spec of Reporter being kidnapped for 2 episodes is wrong cause I do not want to see Oliver going across the world to save her. 

[apinknightmare]

7 minutes ago, Chaser said:

I really hope the spec of Reporter being kidnapped for 2 episodes is wrong cause I do not want to see Oliver going across the world to save her. 

SA said in his chat last night that Oliver finds out Chase is Prometheus pretty much at the beginning of next ep. Plus, in the preview it seems as if Chase tells Oliver she's been kidnapped in a sinister way that indicates Oliver already knows who he's dealing with. Since the preview also shows her telling her that he goes by Adrian Chase, seems like this might happen at the beginning of the ep?

Edited March 3, 2017 by apinknightmare

[Cleanqueen]

I think he finally found where Talia is because he's been clearly looking since 5x10...lol. I am guessing him going to Talia is at the end of the episode.

[Morrigan2575]

9 minutes ago, Chaser said:

I really hope the spec of Reporter being kidnapped for 2 episodes is wrong cause I do not want to see Oliver going across the world to save her. 

 

7 minutes ago, apinknightmare said:

SA said in his chat last night that Oliver finds out Chase is Prometheus pretty much at the beginning of next ep. Plus, in the preview it seems as if Chase tells Oliver she's been kidnapped in a sinister way that indicates Oliver already knows who he's dealing with. Since the preview also shows her telling her that he goes by Adrian Chase, seems like this might happen at the beginning of the ep?

Plus I'm not really sure they'd leave her kidnapped for 3 episodes (technically). Since 517 is the mostly flashback episode so the kidnapping wouldn't get resolved until 518.

[statsgirl]

I think they fell into the black hole of Death By Plot again this season, no lessons learned from BMD.  They needed a love interest for Oliver that he cared enough about to go crazy if she was kidnapped but not so strong that Prometheus can't turn her against  him .  The character of Oliver took the biggest hit, along with the audience.

Lots of Felicity pictures for the next episode and none of Susan  Yay.

[Midnight Lullaby]

Felicity looks so happy with her new friend..they need to find a way to convey how bad what she is doing is because at the moment I'm all for it, LOL. 

[leopardprint]

The Susan/Oliver relationship doesn't hold up under the least scrutiny.

Oliver knows about Susan:

• investigated him
• took advantage of Thea

Susan knows about Oliver:

•  inexperienced/incompetent/corrupt politician
•  Russian mafia member
• GA who has killed this season
• accidentally killed Cop and used political power to cover it up

I hope the spec that the relationship ends after being rescued is true though it seems like she's staying until the end of the season. 

Edited March 3, 2017 by leopardprint
formatting/posted too soon

[Trisha]

1 hour ago, Belinea said:

What does that mean? That they are close?

In sports talk, having a deep bench means they have a lot of really good players. So I think he's just referring to a large cast they can draw from.

1 hour ago, insomniadreams88 said:

The problem with Susan is that no one from the show is addressing the fact that she said she was going to do a story on Oliver to Oliver.

That's what I don't get. How come Oliver didn't ask her about it when asking where their relationship status stood? At some point, he's got to question whether or not she was using him, or if what they had was real. Right??

Quote

If Chase is Prometheus, then who is under that Vigilante mask on Arrow? — Maggie
Alas, we won’t find out soon. “We know the answer to that,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim says. “You probably will not get the answer to that in season 5.”

Oh, COME ON!

[statsgirl]

Isn't one season with a mysterious masked person who wants to kill Oliver enough?

1 hour ago, apinknightmare said:

I mean, he's right in that Oliver has done way shittier stuff that would warrant people hating him. What he doesn't seem to get is that it isn't the act of siding with Susan that's necessarily the problem, it's that he's doing it with this weird blind trust that hasn't been explained or even shown through their relationship at all. So he's standing by this woman who he just found out had been investigating his past without his knowledge, and told him twice that she would report on it and he hasn't even blinked a critical eye at any of those things. He just keeps insisting that she wouldn't do what she told him she would've done, haha. 

So it's not that he's choosing Susan necessarily, it's that he's choosing Susan while ignoring the protests of people who he knows he can trust and who care about him and want to protect him in the face of mounting evidence that he's being super stupid about it. But since the show isn't selling that this is a dumb choice, I guess SA just doesn't see it as one. 

Standing by a woman who doesn't deserve his trust is SOP for Oliver. See Rochev, Isabel and Samantha. But by season 5, it's making him look really stupid.  Especially since Thea, who stood by his lie about William, is now the person he's climbing over in his need to get into Susan's bed.

I wonder if SA really doesn't get it or if this is the best defense he can come up with.

[Belinea]

3 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

I wonder if SA really doesn't get it or if this is the best defense he can come up with.

Probably a mixture of both. I read a response to his explanation where someone explained in a super long post what the actual problem is for many. It was really well written and quite polite. At least I thought so.

[Cleanqueen]

When Chase says to Dinah "I hope everything is OK with your family?" what family was he talking about? Her real family or her team arrow family?

[way2interested]

Just now, Cleanqueen said:

When Chase says to Dinah "I hope everything is OK with your family?" what family was he talking about? Her real family or her team arrow family?

When she called Felicity/the team about finding the piece of the Vigilante visor, she told Chase that it was a family emergency/issue on the other line as cover-up, so he followed up with that line (which I guess could be taken in a more malicious way against Team Arrow).

[finnaire]

Dinah said she used the Tina Borland name when she was undercover to protect her family. I assumed the writers tucked that line in there to give themselves opportunities for storylines down the road. Maybe it comes up sooner rather than later.

ETA: Or what @way2interested said! Much better answer.

Edited March 3, 2017 by finnaire

[LeighAn]

4 hours ago, wonderwall said:

IDK. Dinah has been such a non-entity and her and Oliver have had zero moments that could be construed as romantic. She even calls Oliver, "boss" which is the most unromantic thing ever. 

I will eat my shoe if they get together. That's how confident I am in this. And not the lame ass cookie version of it like @LeighAn posted in the ratings thread. A legit ugly ass shoe. 

X0X0

[Belinea]

I looked at that new set picture again, could that be the Helix place? Or is it truly supposed to be an elevator shaft?

[bijoux]

The Helix lair is featured in 516, and this was a set built for a later episode (520?), so I don't think so.

[lemotomato]

The tweet says the set is being built for director Wendy Stanzler. According to this tweet by MG, she's directing episode 20.

[Cleanqueen]

They do look the same to me, maybe it's an extension to that set? Or the new maximum security prison felicity will go in to that Oliver frees her out of...lol

[insomniadreams88]

All I know is that if Felicity ever ends up in prison, I expect them to allow her computer access like they did Brie Larvan last year. 

[Belinea]

21 minutes ago, Cleanqueen said:

new maximum security prison felicity will go in to

Is it a different than the one Diggle had to stay in? Because you can apparently break out of that one easily... Or just hang out there for a few days/couple of episodes if you want Oliver to learn how to hang with other people.

Also this quote by MG from an old interview makes me wonder if his definition of 'cool and awesome' will differ from mine: 

"There’s going to be a very cool and awesome payoff to Susan’s investigation of Oliver. That payoff is going to come sooner than you think. In other words, it’s going to come sooner than the season finale."

Edited March 3, 2017 by Belinea

[weathered1]

First, not finding out who Vigilante is this season? Boy, they're good at follow through and just telling stories in general. In a world where down is up and left is right.

re: SA . . . I just . . .  wow. He so totally missed the point (probably deliberately) on why people are finding Oliver so unlikable now when he committed (admittedly) terrible acts in the past. At least when he did those things - well, other than the BMD crap - he was still varying (and arguable) degrees of sympathetic, and even if people didn't like or agree with what he did, he was still recognizable as the character of Oliver Queen. This season? Not so much. 

I think he understands full well that the show has, from her first episode, painted the reporter as being shady, sneaky, and underhanded, even if they haven't had her be those things directly to Oliver. The developing "relationship" has been laughable in how bare bones it is - no clear emotional connection, no chemistry, no hot sex, nothing. They've told us that it's "serious" and "all in" but they have never, ever shown that to us.

So that leaves us with pod!Oliver who placed that nothing relationship with someone the audience does not like over his relationship with his own sister; his sister who, by the way, has justifiable hatred for said reporter. Then there's the fact that reporter was digging up info on him behind his back even after they slept together and had enough to expose him. Even that wasn't enough to give him pause, but again, for absolutely no reason! We haven't seen a single scene that would explain why he has this unending trust in her and finds her to be such a "good person." 

Then he doubles down on the stupid, selfish, hurtful behavior by pushing his ex-fiancee to help him win his current girlfriend back, without a single thought as to how that may make Felicity feel, the less than pleasant position that put her in, etc. 

Oliver behaves in such a totally inexplicable, self-centered, purely assy way, and SA acts as though he's aghast that people are reacting so strongly and negatively about it. Okay. Sure, Stephen. Next time you try to talk your way out of the show sucking and destroying your character, you may want to try to come up with a defense that makes sense and doesn't ignore the reality that the show has shoved in the viewers' faces. 

Oh, and the bit about other people keeping things from him? Nothing has stopped him from showing interest in their lives. When he can't be bothered to do that, he can't then turn around and use the fact that they're not going out of their way to confide in someone who has his head firmly implanted up his ass as justification for his own behavior. 

 

re: the cast going forward: I think Dinah is here to stay. I'd be surprised if Curtis wasn't back, though in all honesty, he's become very meh (or worse) for me. Given the awful reception WD has gotten - to the extent that WM even had to acknowledge it - I'd think he'd only be back (or a regular) if it was another mandate from on high that they couldn't get rid of him. FWIW, I'd dearly love to see WD hit the bricks, but given this show's penchant for doubling down on stories and characters people don't like, well . . .

[LadyChaos]

I'm seeing a lot of people crapping on SA over his comments in the Q&A he did, and I just want to say:

1) SA is paid by CW and so it would be really in bad taste for him to speak his real thoughts and opinions about the storylines and/or direction of the show. Especially since this is the show that made him famous. He has even said this.  So like the storylines or not, he will never (unless its 10 years from now in a BTS book or documentary) admit publicly how he really feels about storylines.

2) He knows things we do not about future eps.  He also is running off the script version, or at best the directors cut version of eps.  He has stated several times that he almost never gets to view the final cut before airing, and he rarely watches the show on TV.  Since he is in the show, and is the lead, I do not fault him for not wanting to watch it on Weds night.

3) If you have been really paying attention to his word choices, his mannerisms, and his attitude; then by now you should be able to figure out when he is not saying what he really thinks about the show. 

Here's a hint, he always says he is proud of the show, and the current season playing is always his favorite regardless of what is going on....however if you really pay attention, he admits that his favorite times on set were filming foundry Fridays when it was just the OTA...which haven't happened since s2A. 

He was excited for the BMD SL bc he pitched the idea of teasing it over several seasons and TPTB used that,  he also said that he was excited to play being a dad on TV because he loves being a dad.  He also said that he was excited to show Oliver being in a happy healthy relationship, he wanted that for Olicity.....which directly contradicts the route that TPTB took it, so I would venture to guess that SA was not happy with the way that the BMD played out.

4) He also has admitted a few times for getting in trouble for spoiling things so he is becoming a lot more vague about what he says in regards to spoilers.

So, just keep in mind.....he is trying to walk a fine line and he doesn't want to outright speak against the people that sign his paychecks.

[wonderwall]

I didn't mind his Q&A at all. I was expecting everything he said. The fact that he said "he's done worse before" shows me he realized what Oliver did was shitty and couldn't even excuse it. 

What I hated was him being a brat on Wednesday lol - he just got into his feelings because his facebook wall was just a huge dumpster fire that night. He just should've let it go. 

[weathered1]

Personally, I'm not taking issue with him toeing the company line - he's always done that, and that's what a person in his position should do. I'm only taking issue with the way he defended the storyline and addressed the way so many people view Oliver now, in that that defense (imho) didn't jibe with what's been shown onscreen since this story began and willfully ignored how we have seen things play out.

[Midnight Lullaby]

No one made him go to Facebook and answer those questions. He chooses to say things and I choose to point out if those things make no sense whatsoever. Then after five minutes I'm going to focus on something else, it's not that deep. I'm not mad at him and he can say what he wants for whatever reason but if you say something you open yourself up for criticism, that goes for each one of us.

[theOAfc]

6 hours ago, LadyChaos said:

If you have been really paying attention to his word choices, his mannerisms, and his attitude; then by now you should be able to figure out when he is not saying what he really thinks about the show. 

So its basically about perception. Why are people trying to make others feel bad for having a different perception over things an actor or an EPs says and does regarding a show?

I often see people say that people hate on Stephen, just because they criticize on a board his words over a show. But when Katie or others would say stuff about the show this board would be filled with extreme opinions ,most of the times negative regarding her as an actor and even as a person. Yet almost noone would try to make people feel bad for having them. 

So its hate when it happens to Stephen but its logical and justified reaction when its done to KC? 

Like someone else said,Stephen decides what to put out there and apart from the standard PR he is also having a certain attitude on his media(who he replies to,what he says regarding the show). People will react to it cause he has opened himself up to criticism. He even encouraged it last season so i dont get why he is so defensive this season. 

And whether people think he is pro Olicity or pro Reddit or neither or that his opinion regarding "X" is honest whether his opinion regarding "Y" is just PR,is up to interpretation. None of us knows these people anyway. 

[LeighAn]

I don't know how bad the negativity got on Stephens wall or if he's just being overally sensitive to constructive feedback which I've seen in the past. It could be both.

I think Stephen is a grown ass man who shouldn't require people protecting him from other people's opinions and being a grown ass man he should be able to manage his social media pages better and use block or mute buttons because as entitled as everyone is to their opinions he's also entitled to chose not to listen to it if doesn't want to. He's not a president or politician who is required to listen to his constituents needs and people's feelings on his fictional character isn't impacting their or his own real life. 

We are five seasons in and the Arrow fandom has felt pretty consistent so this shouldn't be brand new information for him. He should develop a thicker skin by now surely.

But I also think people who post of his wall or tweet at him need to realise they also grown ass adults and learn not to be dicks simply because they feel it's their right to say whatever they want because he's viewed as a two dimensional figure head celebrity and people are brave behind their keyboards. If they wouldn't say it to his face maybe think before sending it directly to him. And maybe think about whether they'd like a barrage of insults tweeted directly to them or posted on their Facebook walls by total strangers who don't know them but act like they do or that they have the right to make assumptions about them while they are trying to enjoy their online experiences.

[Bort]

Hey all, as the discussion of Stephen's interview is only about his disposition and nothing about spoiler speculation, it needs to move along to a more appropriate thread, please.

[dtissagirl]

14 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Hey all, as the discussion of Stephen's interview is only about his disposition and nothing about spoiler speculation, it needs to move along to a more appropriate thread, please.

Honest question: in the very recent past, @MuuMuuChainsmoker would give us in this thread A LOT of leeway in discussion that wasn't about spoilers, which is why this thread is so insanely long anyway. If that changed, we need to know what are the new rules, because nobody told us.

[Bort]

1 minute ago, dtissagirl said:

Honest question: in the very recent past, @MuuMuuChainsmoker would give us in this thread A LOT of leeway in discussion that wasn't about spoilers, which is why this thread is so insanely long anyway. If that changed, we need to know what are the new rules, because nobody told us.

You have the leeway because most of the time, you all find your way back. But if we have to go back a page to see where the offtopicness starts, it's gone on too long and the discussion has legs to go somewhere else.

[tv echo]

If you look at past EP/SA comments about Susan Williams, it really does look like they believe Susan is being presented as a good reporter and a good person (just like they believed last season that Samantha Clayton was being presented as a good mother and a good person). The EPs apparently also believe that they are presenting Oliver and Susan in a genuine, believable relationship - and WM even used the word "chemistry"(!) to describe them...

Summary of the Susan spoilers to date (in chronological order) - some have come to pass, and some are yet to come:

-- S5 will introduce the recurring role of Susan Williams, a journalist from nearby Coast City who comes to Star City “looking to make a name for herself” by targeting Oliver Queen for a big story. She will be played by Carly Pope. In the DC comics, Williams is married to Jim Jordan, the little brother of Coast City's resident Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. 
(Jun. 29, 2016 TVGuide/TVInsider tweet & article, and Jul. 1, 2016 TVLine article, page 39 of Spoilers thread)

-- MG: "Susan Williams is actually a character we’ve been wanting to do since season 1. We’ve always wanted — and every year we talk about it, and every year, for whatever reason, we don’t get a chance to do it — there to be a reporter that would basically represent the city, but also clash with Oliver. We felt, with Oliver as mayor, this is the perfect year to finally do this, to finally introduce the dynamic of the press in Star City. Bethany Snow’s (Keri Adams) not going anywhere, but Susan very much looms very large for Oliver and his administration. She’s not a pushover, and she’s someone who Oliver’s going to have to work very, very hard to win over." 
(Oct. 4, 2016 Entertainment Weekly article, page 45 of Spoilers thread)

-- WM: "One of the fun parts of the show is that you can put these characters in and the Easter eggs and the fans that know this universe so well respond to it on varying levels of excitement and whatnot, but the thing about her character that’s so intriguing is that it operates on that level. It also operates because she’s someone who’s very intrigued by Oliver, who’s going to uncover some secrets that Oliver has, which is going to be really fun, and is a fun nod to the Green Lantern, who obviously we could never bring on the show." 
(Oct. 28, 2016 CRB article, page 47 of Spoilers thread and page 215 of Mind Your Surroundings thread)

-- SA: “Susan appears to be up to no good, but in reality, she’s just following a very interesting story. I mean, the Mayor of the town where she is a news reporter was clearly not on an island for five consecutive years, which, by the way, I feel like it’s about time we did that. I mean, I always think back to the first Nolan Batman where I think it’s Ra’s al Ghul says ‘the world is too small a place for someone like Bruce Wayne to disappear.’ Theoretically, Oliver Queen… even if he wasn’t as famous, and he wasn’t, he did ‘perish’ in a very famous incident within our story, so I always thought when he was in Hong Kong that someone would stop him and be like ‘you look like Oliver Queen!’ But no. So I’m glad that it’s happening.”  Also SA: "Hopefully it’s building to something that we’ve talked about doing on the show for a while... We’ve had, in separate instances, with the first person being Slade, who discover Oliver’s secret or a secret that he is keeping if not the secret, and they threaten him with it... I think that it would be interesting, if we go back to that storyline of her having information, that maybe she threatens him with it, but maybe his counter is different than what we’ve seen before. I also think that it would be most interesting if Susan Williams wasn’t just necessarily a spy in the weeds, in the way that there was no redeeming quality in Isabel Rochev. She was there to play Oliver from the beginning. So, maybe Susan Williams is learning something, but concurrently, maybe her relationship with Oliver will become dynamic and she won’t want to do what she did to Thea in the earlier part of the season. ... I've had a couple of scenes with Carly, who's doing a great job as Susan Williams, and I do think that it's - that there'll be some exploration of a certain element of romance between the two of them and I hope that - I hope that it's - I hope that people enjoy it because I've found it to be really dynamic so far." 
(Nov. 3, 2016 Seat42F video of SA interview and Den of Geek and TVLine articles, page 48 of Spoilers thread, and Nov. 7, 2016 GATV article, page 48 of Spoilers thread)

-- On reporter Susan Williams, DR: "You know she's up to no good, you know that." 
(CCXP-Sao Paolo Expo, Dec. 3, 2016): Video clip in alwaysbett tweet, page 1242 of Spoiler Discussion thread)

-- The conspicuous “vodka shot” in 509 was not a clue to any agenda Susan might have, but it was more a nod to her ongoing investigation of Mayor Queen’s past. WM: "Were we too obvious with that? ... I would call that foreshadowing more than anything else... Susan is certainly on that [Oliver-in-Russia] train, for sure.” 
(Dec. 13, 2016 TVLine article, page 50 of Spoilers thread)

-- WM: "[Oliver and Susan are] going to go ‘all in’ [on the relationship] at some point, for sure. But one of the things that’s interesting about [Susan] is that they do have a genuine relationship — she really does care about Oliver, and vice versa — and yet she has been on this track of trying to find out who he is and what he’s up to. And not just as the mayor, but beyond that.” Per WM, in exploring the man behind Mayor Handsome (including his apparent side trip to Russia while “stranded” for five years on Lian Yu), Susan “is going to be asking some hard questions... and that’s going to put both of them into physically and emotionally dangerous territory.” 
(Dec. 30, 2016 TVLine article, page 50 of Spoilers thread)

-- MG: "There’s going to be a very cool and awesome payoff to Susan’s investigation of Oliver. That payoff is going to come sooner than you think. In other words, it’s going to come sooner than the season finale." 
(Jan. 24, 2017 Entertainment Weekly article, page 51 of Spoilers thread)

-- MG: "Oliver's trying to make things work with Susan, as we saw in the big midseason finale." On whether Susan's secret investigation into Oliver's ties to Bratva could lead to further revelations that could cost Oliver his double life with Susan, MG: "[The question] will inevitably come up, is it possible for Oliver to continue with Susan while he leads this double life. To which I say, stay tuned." 
(Jan. 25, 2017 ComicBook article, page 181 of Relationships thread)

-- On whether we find out what Susan's after sooner rather than later, WM: "Yeah, Susan definitely has a very specific drive. I think what’s cool about where we’re taking her is, yes, we’re going to find out what she’s up to and how much she knows in the back half of the season, but — starting in [season] 5 [episode] 7 — they have a really genuine connection. I think she is, for all of her journalistic ulterior motives, also a really good person and they have a genuine chemistry. So, it’s going to get complicated for her and for him as well. It’s not going to be as straightforward as a reporter exposing some truth about the mayor. It’s going to be complicated by the fact they genuinely care about each other." 
(Jan. 25, 2017 CBR article, page 52 of Spoilers thread)

-- Per WM, Oliver's "burgeoning relationship" with Susan Williams will be a bright spot for him. WM: "I think there are, for him, places of light and hope."
(Jan. 25, 2017 ScreenerTV article, page 52 of Spoilers thread)

-- WM: "[Oliver's] got hope! He’s got hope in the form of the mayor’s office and this burgeoning relationship with Susan Williams." 
(Jan. 25, 2017 CBR article, page 52 of Spoilers thread)

-- In response to fan who questioned Oliver's intelligence in dating/sleeping with a reporter who's investigating him, SA replied: "Based off this season so far and what we know, Oliver has been wrong to trust Evelyn. And that's it so far." 
(Feb. 8, 2017 LuluLemonLime83 tweet, page 53 of Spoilers thread)

-- On how Oliver's ignorance of what his girlfriend Susan's doing will play into their future, MG: "I'll just say, based upon what little—I try to avoid online, but it's online, so it's impossible to completely avoid stuff—but it seems like the general prevailing theories about how we're going to play that subplot off are wrong. That's kind of my impression. Everyone's expecting something we're not doing, for better or for worse." 
(Feb. 15, 2017 TVGuide and IGN articles, page 53 of Spoilers thread)

-- On Chase kidnapping Susan, WM: "We really wanted to build him up as someone who is extremely good at being ten steps ahead of Oliver and really being psychological, in the way that he manipulates him. One of the ways he does that is by going after the people that Oliver cares about. We’ve seen villains do that in the past, but Adrian does it in a way that’s a little bit more specific. Not to take any wind out of the sails of the story, but his goal is very clear. He really has no drive to kill Oliver. It’s purely based on torture. So, in taking Susan, that is where we’re headed. For how long, I can’t tell you, but he’s definitely headed toward that. And it’s all part and parcel of this drive to break Oliver down, psychologically, as opposed to physically. We’ve seen Slade and Merlyn take him on, hand to hand. This is much more of a mental game." 
(Mar. 1, 2017 Collider article, page 54 of Spoilers thread)

-- SA: “When he initially finds out [that Chase kidnapped Susan], it’s just very simple — ‘The first chance that I get, I’m going to kill you’ — and to this Adrian basically laughs, because Adrian has a full checkmate over his head — he has someone that Oliver cares about and if Oliver kills Chase, then that person dies.” 
(Mar. 1, 2017 Entertainment Weekly article, page 54 of Spoilers thread)

-- JS: "I think that there is a means to an end for each move that he makes. That’s not part of Prometheus, but that’s part of Chase, for me. When I look at Prometheus, I look at the skill set. He’s out on the streets. That’s one aspect of this. The part that Chase is doing is the mental game. It’s the chess match. That’s what Chase has been playing, this whole time. He’s been moving pieces that he knows Oliver is not going to be able to keep up with. I think that Susan is a very, very important piece of that puzzle, and Chase knows that. There are other very important pieces on that chess board that he’s going to move. Susan is a very, very important piece and a very good move, in the big chess game that’s going on. You get to see how that relationship develops between the two. Susan may feel betrayed by Oliver, so it’s interesting to see how Chase will try to navigate those waters and get to his next move." 
(Mar. 1, 2017 Collider and IGN articles, an Mar. 2, 2017 Den of Geek article, page 54 of Spoilers thread)

-- On why Chase kidnapped Susan instead of someone like Felicity or Thea, WM: "We really wanted to build him up as someone who is extremely good at being ten steps ahead of Oliver, really being psychological in the way that he manipulates him and one of the ways he does that is by going after the people that Oliver cares about. We’ve seen villains do that in the past, but this year Adrian does it in a way that’s a little bit more specific." 
(Mar. 2, 2017 Den of Geek article, page 54 of Spoilers thread)

-- SA: "Um, I think that Oliver was right for the way that he handled that situation in - I guess it would've been episode 514 and 515, for no other reason than he didn't that Susan Williams would've exposed him as the Green Arrow. And she hasn't." 
(Mar. 2, 2017 SA facebook video, page 54 of Spoilers thread)

-- JS: "Susan may feel betrayed by Oliver so it's interesting to see how Chase will try to let's say navigate those waters, how he can get to his next move." 
(Mar. 2, 2017 Den of Geek article, page 54 of Spoilers thread)

-- Rumor: Susan Williams will be held by Chase for more than one episode. 
(Mar. 2, 2017 Oliverdant tumblr blog post, page 3 of 515 episode thread)

Edited March 4, 2017 by tv echo

[dtissagirl]

8 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

You have the leeway because most of the time, you all find your way back. But if we have to go back a page to see where the offtopicness starts, it's gone on too long and the discussion has legs to go somewhere else.

Okay, so that IS a new rule, because we have gone a whole lot longer than one page on offtopicness before course-correcting once a new set of spoilers arrived. Thank you

[Belinea]

14 minutes ago, tv echo said:

If you look at past EP/SA comments about Susan Williams, it really does look like they believe Susan is being presented as a good reporter and a good person

I truly want to understand what they are thinking. Are they really surprised? I mean, even if she is a good person, is the romance really written in a way that gets people on board? Because at this point I'd say that most people, who usually cannot agree on anything, can agree on the fact that she is not really all that and she needs to go. Also I feel like people like her even less after Oliver decided to go 'against' Thea and Felicity.

Edited March 4, 2017 by Belinea

[ComicFan777]

You know, I just realized that Oliver might not be listening to Thea about Susan because he listened to her last season and lost Felicity.  He wants to make this new relationship to work so badly by correcting everything he did wrong the last time, so now he won't listen to her because she was wrong the last time.

Edited March 4, 2017 by ComicFan777

[insomniadreams88]

I really wish everyone involved with the show would read the list of unethical things this "good reporter" has done I know is floating around online. If only they had and Thea had gotten her fired for one of those things ... Then there would have been no way Oliver could have defended her. What would he have said, "how dare you get her fired for something she did she should have been fired for anyway?"? 

I don't get why she has to be this "good person" at the expense of the characters/relationships that have been around since S1.

[Belinea]

16 minutes ago, insomniadreams88 said:

I don't get why she has to be this "good person" at the expense of the characters/relationships that have been around since S1.

Because of all the chemistry and excitement her character brings to the show. 

In all honesty, I get that there are people who enjoy the show this season way more than last season. I enjoy the fact that there is no magic and Adrian Chase is actually quite creepy. I like him. And I feel as though the fighting got better.

Other than that the show doesn't really connect with me. Sometimes I wonder if people just say that they love this season because they hate Oliver with Felicity and this season there is really nothing. Instead they got the 'romance' that you never have to see with a character you don't have to care about.

I might not be the best person to judge this either but other than Prometheus reveal, I haven't seen a lot of buzz lately. Maybe that is just me not being so immerged in many fandom things but it feels as though there are no real exciting spoilers/outlooks. If the only thing is that you have to wait til season 6 for Vigilante and you have to wait to find out if Oliver manages to stop being dumb, I guess excitement runs low. Maybe though it is just me not looking in the right places.

[statsgirl]

I hate so much that Oliver is ready to kill Chase because he took Evelyn when he wouldn't do that for anyone else in previous season.  She's trash that they need to take out.. Ahem.

It's interesting to see how the different people associated with the show respond to people asking about spoilers. WM is the worst, she will deliberately say something that has only a nugget of truth in it to set up a scenario that she wants viewers to think so that they can get their Gotcha moment. For example:

Quote

-- WM: "[Oliver and Susan are] going to go ‘all in’ [on the relationship] at some point, for sure. But one of the things that’s interesting about [Susan] is that they do have a genuine relationship — she really does care about Oliver, and vice versa — and yet she has been on this track of trying to find out who he is and what he’s up to. And not just as the mayor, but beyond that.” Per WM, in exploring the man behind Mayor Handsome (including his apparent side trip to Russia while “stranded” for five years on Lian Yu), Susan “is going to be asking some hard questions... and that’s going to put both of them into physically and emotionally dangerous territory.” 
(Dec. 30, 2016 TVLine article

If I try really hard, I can fanwank that Oliver has feelings for her even though he'd have to be an idiot to have them. But her behavivour in 5x15 is the direct opposite of someone who has genuine feelings for him.  Her "hard questions" have nothing to do with her current situation with Chase, although it's possible it has to do with the Bratva down the line.

MG doesn't precisely lie but

47 minutes ago, tv echo said:

On how Oliver's ignorance of what his girlfriend Susan's doing will play into their future, MG: "I'll just say, based upon what little—I try to avoid online, but it's online, so it's impossible to completely avoid stuff—but it seems like the general prevailing theories about how we're going to play that subplot off are wrong. That's kind of my impression. Everyone's expecting something we're not doing, for better or for worse." 
(Feb. 15, 2017 TVGuide and IGN articles,

Technically this is true, we did think that she would out Oliver as the Green Arrow.  We didn't know how much of an idiot they would make Oliver to want to get back with her and be so totally blind to her.  So I'd say "for worse".

SA toes the party line when promoting something and tries to make sense of it:

42 minutes ago, tv echo said:

- SA: “Susan appears to be up to no good, but in reality, she’s just following a very interesting story. I mean, the Mayor of the town where she is a news reporter was clearly not on an island for five consecutive years, which, by the way, I feel like it’s about time we did that.   [snip]I... I think that it would be interesting, if we go back to that storyline of her having information, that maybe she threatens him with it, but maybe his counter is different than what we’ve seen before. I also think that it would be most interesting if Susan Williams wasn’t just necessarily a spy in the weeds, in the way that there was no redeeming quality in Isabel Rochev. She was there to play Oliver from the beginning. So, maybe Susan Williams is learning something, but concurrently, maybe her relationship with Oliver will become dynamic and she won’t want to do what she did to Thea in the earlier part of the season.

He spends a lot of time trying to logically justify what Oliver is doing:

51 minutes ago, tv echo said:

-- SA: "Um, I think that Oliver was right for the way that he handled that situation in - I guess it would've been episode 514 and 515, for no other reason than he didn't that Susan Williams would've exposed him as the Green Arrow. And she hasn't." 
(Mar. 2, 2017 SA facebook video, page 54 of Spoilers thread)

-- In response to fan who questioned Oliver's intelligence in dating/sleeping with a reporter who's investigating him, SA replied: "Based off this season so far and what we know, Oliver has been wrong to trust Evelyn. And that's it so far." 

Yeah, just because the snake hasn't turned on you yet doesn't mean you're right to trust her.

DR is the best but he rarely has inside info.  He's more like the voice of the audience

Quote

-- SA: "Um, I think that Oliver was right for the way that he handled that situation in - I guess it would've been episode 514 and 515, for no other reason than he didn't that Susan Williams would've exposed him as the Green Arrow. And she hasn't." 
(Mar. 2, 2017 SA facebook video, page 54 of Spoilers thread)

-- In response to fan who questioned Oliver's intelligence in dating/sleeping with a reporter who's investigating him, SA replied: "Based off this season so far and what we know, Oliver has been wrong to trust Evelyn. And that's it so far." 

I just realized, after collating those quotes, how much I hate Susan Williams and this stupid storyline. Like I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns. It's making every single character look bad except for Thea and even she's not looking too great since she accepted Oliver's judgement and quit.

5 hours ago, theOAfc said:

So its basically about perception. Why are people trying to make others feel bad for having a different perception over things an actor or an EPs says and does regarding a show?

I don't think it's about perception so much as trying to piece together the clues.  Remember the show Lie To Me (based on the work of psychologist Paul Ekman)?  Microexpressions don't lie.  SA's job is to sell the show and the official party line but because he's not one of the writers like MG and WM, he has his own opinion of their storylines and we're trying to use that to figure out clues as to what's coming up.

So, given that SA talked about dark circles under Oliver's eyes being deliberate, is Oliver's disengagement an acting choice?  Is that how they're going to get out of this mess, Oliver is suffering from a major depression and that's why he's so stupid?