Spoiler Discussion Thread

[Chaser]

1 hour ago, dtissagirl said:

I honestly don't believe showrunners answering direct questions to a journo are thinking about fandom as much as fandom think they are.

 I don't think showrunners think about fandom as much as fandom thinks about fandom in general.

 They can't win with the fandom right now. Fandom is seeing messages everywhere.

[apinknightmare]

12 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

510 being a bit Flashpoint related could mean BS or possibly another version of BC.

I don't see how this group of writers in particular could resist the cheesy and cliche moment of having people who have been mourning the loss of a friend see another earth's doppelgänger of said friend who also happens to be evil. Oh, the dramatics of having to accept the fact that she's a villain, to accept that she's not "their" Laurel. 

So, my money's on BS.

[Morrigan2575]

3 minutes ago, apinknightmare said:

I don't see how this group of writers in particular could resist the cheesy and cliche moment of having people who have been mourning the loss of a friend see another earth's doppelgänger of said friend who also happens to be evil. Oh, the dramatics of having to accept the fact that she's a villain, to accept that she's not "their" Laurel. 

So, my money's on BS.

LOL well i guess it's either one or the other. Either they go with Saint Laurel personified by the bestest version of Black Canary Eva! Or they go with Evil AU version which reminds them why their version's legacy is sooooo important. 

In either case 510 has made the skip list, along with 503.

Edited October 2, 2016 by Morrigan2575

[Guest]

Black Siren will probably see BC's statue and there'll be talk of her legacy again and how saintly she was. I'm sure one of them will even be like "There's good in you, Laurel. Deep down. In every universe." LOL let's take bets.

Edited October 2, 2016 by Guest

[Trini]

1 hour ago, Lidach said:

Catching up the spoilers... wow, so.much.is.happening. And not good stuff. Dead are alive again, such a SURPRISE! *not*. I hate when show uses reset button and I think we have reset with Flashpoint. They can do what ever they want now. Including re-make/remodel some emotional stuff with certain characters. 

And the crossover is introducing aliens to the Arrow-verse, so make way for Supergirl to be fully merged sometime in 2017!

[Guest]

Just now, Trini said:

And the crossover is introducing aliens to the Arrow-verse, so make way for Supergirl to be fully merged sometime in 2017!

Isn't that what the crossover is doing though? Merging Supergirl to the same earth as the others?

[Trini]

Comments from Berlanti seem to indicate that Supergirl is only 'visiting'. They could, but I haven't seen any spoilers that say they are merging Supergirl -- yet.

[Chaser]

7 minutes ago, Angel12d said:

Black Siren will probably see BC's statue and there'll be talk of her legacy again and how saintly she was. I'm sure one of them will even be like "There's good in you, Laurel. Deep down. In every universe." LOL let's take bets.

BS looks at the statue pensively and then...Laurel Lance, always trying to save the world. 

Edited October 2, 2016 by Chaser

[Guest]

Ah, I see. I just assumed they'd merge everything this year. 

[dtissagirl]

4 minutes ago, Chaser said:

BS looks at the statue pensively and then...Laurel Lance, always trying to save the world. 

Does she drop dead immediately after saying the curse?

[Chaser]

No. The giant bird flying above her does and kills her on impact. 

It was quite tragic. Made all the history books. 

[catrox14]

I swear killing off Laurel made her more relevant than she ever was when she was alive. I KNEW it would happen. Sigh

[kes0704]

1 hour ago, dtissagirl said:

Does she drop dead immediately after saying the curse?

We can always hope. 

[SmallScreenDiva]

Oliver sounds rather flirty in that new video when he finds Curtis and Felicity still at the lair. And now I'm wondering if he doesn't know about the BF. Hope the show doesn't make Felicity hide the BF from Oliver. I won't be mad at Felicity, but I'll put probably add more pins to my doll of the Arrow writers :P

[tarotx]

If Flashpoint changes things on Arrow to a large degree like Laurel returning would be, I'll be out then. I can barely watch Flash and having it have a huge impact on Arrow? I'm just not interested in that. I like the shows affecting each other but just little things or like with Laurel dying impacting her sister Sara. Barry is never going to be one who stops doing the asshat stuff with his powers and I rather that just affect Flash. 

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, SmallScreenDiva said:

Oliver sounds rather flirty in that new video when he finds Curtis and Felicity still at the lair. And now I'm wondering if he doesn't know about the BF. Hope the show doesn't make Felicity hide the BF from Oliver. I won't be mad at Felicity, but I'll put probably add more pins to my doll of the Arrow writers :P

I'm pretty sure he doesn't know. It seems like Oliver will be skyping with Diggle and maybe saying he's hopeful about them and then they'll cut to Felicity with her bland bf. That's why they're described as ambiguous and the 'clarity' will happen in 505. :/

Edited October 3, 2016 by Guest

[calliope1975]

I feel like this first half is going to be quite a struggle for me. My fervent hope is that it's not like S3 was since I skipped a good chunk of that season. I'll be looking forward to the East Coasters' reviews. 

[apinknightmare]

5 minutes ago, Angel12d said:

I'm pretty sure he doesn't know. It seems like Oliver will be skyping with Diggle and maybe saying he's hopeful about them and then they'll cut to Felicity with her bland bf.

Yep. And we'll have to read MG's commentary about being surprised at people's strong reactions to the situation or some other such nonsense. 

[Guest]

Just now, apinknightmare said:

Yep. And we'll have to read MG's commentary about being surprised at people's strong reactions to the situation or some other such nonsense. 

Oh, I can't wait! *glares*

The annoying thing is he knows exactly what he's doing and he doesn't care. 

[apinknightmare]

10 minutes ago, Angel12d said:

Oh, I can't wait! *glares*

The annoying thing is he knows exactly what he's doing and he doesn't care. 

I don't know - it's possible he's that clueless and stupid.

Also - in that promo - is she wearing the dress she's wearing in the back rub/tiny hands screenshot? 

*Please don't have Curtis duck out of the lair early and have Oliver and Felicity share a *moment* that gives him some kind of hope that he expresses to Diggle via Skype after Felicity leaves to go home and get tiny hand massages from her boyfriend that Oliver doesn't know about.

 

*my worst case scenario

Edited October 3, 2016 by apinknightmare

[Guest]

Just now, apinknightmare said:

I don't know - it's possible he's that clueless and stupid.

That's true. He does seem to be completely out of touch with his audience most of the time. Remember how shocked he was when everyone was disgusted that Laurel used Sara's voice? Or with the baby mama crap? How clueless can a person be?! Ugh. 

[Guest]

35 minutes ago, apinknightmare said:

*Please don't have Curtis duck out of the lair early and have Oliver and Felicity share a *moment* that gives him some kind of hope that he expresses to Diggle via Skype after Felicity leaves to go home and get tiny hand massages from her boyfriend that Oliver doesn't know about.

*my worst case scenario

Tiny hand massages. I'M DEAD. Haha. 

Also yes, please don't let this scenario happen. Do not want. 

[BkWurm1]

8 hours ago, Belinea said:

The way she is phrasing it sounds like they will bring their Laurel back. God knows why....

Wonder how the tax payer will feel about that after the city spend money on that legacy statue. All for nothing, or what...

Maybe they will find another magic idol that makes her statue come to life.  ;)

8 hours ago, tv echo said:

My new conspiracy theory: The Green Arrow Rebirth comics (with their resurrected GA/BC soap opera romance) have been well-received enough that DC Comics wants the TV show to become closer aligned with the current comics. So Arrow is slowly weaning viewers off of Olicity and introducing a 'new and improved' saint-like version of Laurel/BC, who will have none of the sister-swapping baggage due to Flashpoint.

I really don't get that vibe.  The positioning of Oliver and Felicity with other love interests at the beginning of the season is pretty classic treatment of a couple after they've been broken up.  So far Arrow has been pretty true to all the classic writing conventions.  Just because we're stuck with the icky part right now doesn't at all mean they've abandoned Olicity.   They (TPTB) never make promises because it's their habit to sell the current storyline and hey, they probably would be willing to try something else if some how they magically cast a love interest that suddenly launched thousands of fanfics but these are the people that picked Laurel and Poppy for Oliver's love interests in the past.  I have no fear of lightning striking again. 

Edited October 3, 2016 by BkWurm1

[SmallScreenDiva]

49 minutes ago, apinknightmare said:

*Please don't have Curtis duck out of the lair early and have Oliver and Felicity share a *moment* that gives him some kind of hope that he expresses to Diggle via Skype after Felicity leaves to go home and get tiny hand massages from her boyfriend that Oliver doesn't know about.

*my worst case scenario

Sorry, but I think this is exactly or at least very close to what's gonna happen.

[apinknightmare]

1 minute ago, SmallScreenDiva said:

Sorry, but I think this is exactly or at least very close to what's gonna happen.

::whispers:: i know

[Guest]

Is Oliver still living in the bunker?

[thegirlsleuth]

8 hours ago, tv echo said:

My new conspiracy theory: The Green Arrow Rebirth comics (with their resurrected GA/BC soap opera romance) have been well-received enough that DC Comics wants the TV show to become closer aligned with the current comics. So Arrow is slowly weaning viewers off of Olicity and introducing a 'new and improved' saint-like version of Laurel/BC, who will have none of the sister-swapping baggage due to Flashpoint.

I know when I read that Geoff Johns was going to be overseeing all DCTV and movie properties that I had this fear that they were going to make the Arrow align with the comics properties on the important stuff, which Johns had stated includes the GA/BC romance.  I see them adding all these comic characters and wonder if it is the first step of that strategy.  The next step would be to make the Oliver/Felicity relationship completely unpalatable.  The third step would be the GA/BC reboot.  That said, Johns has much bigger problems to solve in the movie verse, so I'm not super-panicked because he's going to be busy trying to rescue the DC movie intellectual property from the swamp it's currently mired in, and the man has only so many hours in the day.

I totally think that in the first epsiode they are going to show super-adorable Oliver/Felicity flirting, followed by Oliver being hopeful and Felicity getting a tiny hand massage. I keep reminding myself that I am going to stick it out for five episodes, but its hard.

[Chaser]

It depends on the moment for me. If she's flirty, then it would bug me because she has mayo. If it's a shared joke or smile, that I'm fine with that. 

I would like it to be the opposite of S3. Where he just walked away and gives up. She breaks up with BF or he dies. Oliver is there for her with Havenrock. They get clarity in 5x05. Felicity realizing she hasn't moved on and Oliver realizes he has to fight for her. They make big moves in 5x09 and get back together mid season.  

[Guest]

It could be the opposite of s3 where he walks away, gives up on Felicity and finds someone new. That would be different. LOL. Sorry, I'm Negative Nancy today. *Bitter*

Ugh. It's really hard to stomach this storyline, not just because they were almost married and that has passed the point of no return, IMO. But because Oliver has never really fought for Felicity. She's walked away, yes, (and she needs to work on that, too) but he always just accepts it. Plus we never saw him really apologize for his lies and they never had any discussion about their relationship. It just ended and that was it. How are we supposed to accept Felicity moving while Oliver still has hope? It doesn't add up, especially to what they said about relationship discussions happening in those 5 months off screen.

At least have some consistency.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Guest

[catrox14]

I am profoundly disappointed with this news :(

Edited October 3, 2016 by catrox14
grammar : *with not in

[statsgirl]

12 hours ago, tv echo said:

S5 Theme of Legacy

 

-- MG: “Essentially the theme that we’re dealing with this year is legacy... The idea [is] Oliver honoring Black Canary’s [Katie Cassidy] legacy after Laurel’s death last year. As the season progresses, you’ll see that there are a lot of callbacks to season 1. What we’re doing is we’re dramatizing Oliver’s desire to grow, move forward, and evolve, but this concept of legacy keeps threatening to pull him back to the early days.” (Sep. 13, 2016 Entertainment Weekly article, page 43 of Spoilers thread)
-- WM: "And [Oliver] was also dealing with the legacy left by his father, his goal being to try to right those wrongs that Robert Queen had committed in Starling City...

What I'm getting from this is that Oliver is trying to grow and mature but the legacres of Robert and Black Canary are holding him back into the killer vigilante mode  I hope that's not what they had in mind..

10 hours ago, Primal Slayer said:

Reading the interview, I wonder if the writers will remember Evelyn be a smart tech girl or forget about it since they have Felicity/Curtis

Nope, they will have forgotten.  Because mask&costume >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> smart tech.

“I can’t hit pause. I need to get on with my life — even if that life isn’t what I want it to be.”  As much as I'd like that to be Felicity, I"m afraid it's going to be Oliver to Thea after Felicity convinces him to get a new Team.

“What’s a guy got to do to get a little love?”  That really does sound like The Count.  I miss him.  Maybe it's Tobias Church.

Edited October 3, 2016 by statsgirl

[BkWurm1]

20 minutes ago, thegirlsleuth said:

I know when I read that Geoff Johns was going to be overseeing all DCTV and movie properties that I had this fear that they were going to make the Arrow align with the comics properties on the important stuff, which Johns had stated includes the GA/BC romance.  I see them adding all these comic characters and wonder if it is the first step of that strategy.  The next step would be to make the Oliver/Felicity relationship completely unpalatable.  The third step would be the GA/BC reboot.  That said, Johns has much bigger problems to solve in the movie verse, so I'm not super-panicked because he's going to be busy trying to rescue the DC movie intellectual property from the swamp it's currently mired in, and the man has only so many hours in the day.

I totally think that in the first epsiode they are going to show super-adorable Oliver/Felicity flirting, followed by Oliver being hopeful and Felicity getting a tiny hand massage. I keep reminding myself that I am going to stick it out for five episodes, but its hard.

I comfort myself with how Geoff Johns wrote for Chloe on Smallville, another basically original character for a comic book show.  He respected her place and relationships on the show, more than that even, I'd say favored her in his scripts and even played with character stuff that embraced fan theories.  He came across to me as the kind of fanboy I could get behind, loves the classic stuff but also loves whatever is new and exciting.  As long as it works.  He never struck me as a past canon elitist. 

[Sunshine]

I was originally hoping 5.05 Human Target would be a catalyst for Felicity because since she walked she'll probably have to make the first move in his direction.  Feeling more realistic than optimistic anymore.  I have a vague memory of reading something Mericle said about the two of them having to decide what their relationship means to them and how far were they willing to go to fight for it.  I guess temporary LI's is the easiest/laziest way to get there. I don't want to sit through S1's O/L story with O/F! (Stomps feet) For a twist we could watch Felicity (the villain) go through multiple bland partners.

The love interests could be around for a while even without "proof."  SM presence about Arrow seems to be on lock down except for the 100th episode.  Detective Malone is tied to the "A" story if he causes conflict for Oliver as Mayor and Green Arrow if they start another anti-vigilante task force. It also causes conflict for Felicity as girlfriend, vigilante and former fiancee of Oliver Queen.

       

Unpopular opinion:  Unless a lot of drama is created by Oliver discovering the boyfriend's existence, media - comic book or main stream entertainment - are probably not going to be critical of the story line.  They have already made Felicity the villain in the break-up narrative. I don't think a little more criticism of Felicity would matter to the EPs because people would be watching the show the "right way".  In their minds Felicity is directly responsible for killing thousands. (eyeroll).  They have already heard from twitter. Even if ratings decline, they were breaking 5.12 a week or two ago.   

[catrox14]

7 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

- MG: “Essentially the theme that we’re dealing with this year is legacy... The idea [is] Oliver honoring Black Canary’s [Katie Cassidy] legacy after Laurel’s death last year. As the season progresses, you’ll see that there are a lot of callbacks to season 1. What we’re doing is we’re dramatizing Oliver’s desire to grow, move forward, and evolve, but this concept of legacy keeps threatening to pull him back to the early days.

Arghhhh. This pisses me off so fucking much.  Laurel's legacy? Laurel had no legacy. 

[Chaser]

If the BF is a stall to explain why they didn't get back together over the summer, I'm glad they seem to be getting rid of him early. I can't help but think if they were setting up Oliver and Felicity to move on and date other people for longer, the BF would have been on the set past 3x01/3x02. 

Idk. I wondered into the pro LL/KC Twitter and now I need this to happen sooner because reading a bunch of She's Alive! They are bring her back! They are using her to promote the premiere, the 100th and the mid season! They heard us! .... All this is super depressing. 

[Sunshine]

11 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

 

“What’s a guy got to do to get a little love?”  That really does sound like The Count.  I miss him.  Maybe it's Tobias Church.

Love this answer but I'm thinking Paul to Curtis.

[Sunshine]

1 minute ago, Chaser said:

If the BF is a stall to explain why they didn't get back together over the summer, I'm glad they seem to be getting rid of him early. I can't help but think if they were setting up Oliver and Felicity to move on and date other people for longer, the BF would have been on the set past 3x01/3x02. 

Idk. I wondered into the pro LL/KC Twitter and now I need this to happen sooner because reading a bunch of She's Alive! They are bring her back! They are using her to promote the premiere, the 100th and the mid season! They heard us! .... All this is super depressing. 

How do we know he hasn't been on set since 5.01/5.02?  I keep reading this but no one says why they are so sure of this- here or elsewhere.  

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

How do we know he hasn't been on set since 5.01/5.02?  I keep reading this but no one says why they are so sure of this- here or elsewhere.  

We don't. Everyone assumes but there's no proof. And also, Felicity could easily have an off screen boyfriend. Just because he's not in the episodes doesn't mean they're broken up.

[statsgirl]

I'm clinging to the hope that when Barry reverses Flashpoint, Felicity being in a relationship with another guy will also disappear.

[Chaser]

I would only accept that if they make it clear the BF was because Felicity was avoiding. Otherwise it was just for a Screencap and I don't like that. 

I wonder what sends Felicity to SC. The break up? It would be in character. 

[Sunshine]

"What's a guy got to do to get a little love?"  Another possibility-Detective Malone to Felicity maybe?

In the clip Oliver says something about Curtis and Felicity being there late.  The response about something techie actually made me wonder if Felicity was trying to avoid going home.  Maybe she's trying to avoid the boyfriend who really is/was a distraction for her?  (This war between hope and my more realistic nature is tiring!)

It also contributes to the ambiguous nature of Oliver & Felicity's relationship.  

Edited October 3, 2016 by Sunshine

[way2interested]

Just now, Sunshine said:

In the clip Oliver says something about Curtis and Felicity being there late.  The response about something techie actually made me wonder if Felicity was trying to avoid going home.  Maybe she's trying to avoid the boyfriend who really is/was a distraction for her?  (This war between hope and my more realistic nature is tiring!)  

I was wondering this too. Maybe not necessarily related to the bf, but I feel like it could come up with that whole "focused on the team/mission" aspect for Felicity that WM was mentioning. Like, maybe Felicity is avoiding real life a la Oliver s3? Just going through the motions of living an outside life, dating, etc., but not really having the heart in it. 

[Chaser]

I can only be so negative before I have to be positive. Lol

They morning I felt super negative. Now I'm trying to find the best case scenarios. 

I have to remind myself that we haven't seen the season yet and regardless of that interview, I do see some positives in Olicity and Felicitys story arcs this season.  

[Sunshine]

20 minutes ago, way2interested said:

I was wondering this too. Maybe not necessarily related to the bf, but I feel like it could come up with that whole "focused on the team/mission" aspect for Felicity that WM was mentioning. Like, maybe Felicity is avoiding real life a la Oliver s3? Just going through the motions of living an outside life, dating, etc., but not really having the heart in it. 

I so want this to be true.  This makes the most sense of anything I have read this hiatus.   Felicity is in denial and has just suppressed everything.  Her default is to just move on like everything's okay.  This is Felicity's crisis mode only her guilt over Havenrock probably exceeds anything she has ever dealt with before so cracking in 5.03-5.05 makes sense. 

[Belinea]

Even though Oliver got rightfully dumped in my opinion, I'd really prefer it if there were no kicked puppy scene in which he finds out about Felicity's new relationship. I have no interest in seeing him hurt over and over again, I mean he is paying the price already. No need to put insult to injury (even though he brought it on himself) It is so emotionally confusing for me...

Edited October 3, 2016 by Belinea

[SleepDeprived]

I'm finally almost all caught-up with the S5 spoilers (thanks so much, tv echo!). I've mostly been skimming threads lightly the past couple of months and pretty much avoiding fandom so I could feel a little bit of happy anticipation for the premiere. Alas, with Wednesday fast approaching, my curiosity won out and boy, so many fail promos and interviews. Apart from the spoiler about Susanna Thompson (Moira!!!), almost every spoiler released, so far, has little to no appeal to me. Me, while reading:

On the bright side, since I have zero expectations and negative excitement levels for the premiere, maybe I'll end up being surprised by something and mildly entertained come Wednesday night.

6 hours ago, thegirlsleuth said:

I know when I read that Geoff Johns was going to be overseeing all DCTV and movie properties that I had this fear that they were going to make the Arrow align with the comics properties on the important stuff, which Johns had stated includes the GA/BC romance.  I see them adding all these comic characters and wonder if it is the first step of that strategy.  The next step would be to make the Oliver/Felicity relationship completely unpalatable.  The third step would be the GA/BC reboot.

How are they going to solve the anti-chemistry between SA and KC, though? They were exes, lovers, fighting on opposite sides, fighting on the same side, friends, teammates--4 years and not a single damn thing could be done about it. Laurel was on her death bed and Oliver still looked like he wanted to jump out of his skin at being left alone with her in her hospital room. I would be worried about Geoff Johns making Arrow align with the comics and following this strategy, ONLY if they suddenly announce a recast of a rebooted BC. Otherwise, nah. KC and SA just don't mesh well together, and I think everyone BTS knows it.

6 hours ago, statsgirl said:

What I'm getting from this is that Oliver is trying to grow and mature but the legacres of Robert and Black Canary are holding him back into the killer vigilante mode.

Same. From that MG quote, it kinda seems like he's implying that BC's legacy (whatever Oliver thinks it is) is not a real good one since it is making Oliver revert to killing mode again a lot more than he should? So, much like the curse of "Laurel Lance, always trying to save the world," does this mean following BC's legacy leads to death? And with Oliver trying to live up to Robert's legacy in S1 being, apparently, the reason why Prometheus will cause destruction in SC, maybe this season will lead Oliver to realize that he needs not be weighed down by both Robert's and Laurel's "legacies" and that he should just make his own (starting with the new team the show's shoving at us).

Also, I have come to really, really appreciate so much that the alter egos of Laurel's different Earth personas' initials are BC and BS. My mind just automatically defines it each time I read it and how it transforms the meaning of whatever I read amuses me so. Because I'm petty.

[looptab]

I don't know, maybe he'll think he has to go back to killing at first, then Thea reminds* him that that's not what she would have wanted, then he'll flash back to her last inspiring words. Probably it'll be his struggle this season. 

*invents.

[bijoux]

10 hours ago, apinknightmare said:

Also - in that promo - is she wearing the dress she's wearing in the back rub/tiny hands screenshot? 

She's not. The dress in the screenshot is cut a lot lower. 

[tv echo]

11 hours ago, Angel12d said:

I'm pretty sure he doesn't know. It seems like Oliver will be skyping with Diggle and maybe saying he's hopeful about them and then they'll cut to Felicity with her bland bf. That's why they're described as ambiguous and the 'clarity' will happen in 505. :/

Worse - they'll do it as a "gotcha" moment that's cruel to unspoiled Olicity fans. Imagine, throughout 501, we'll get little O/F moments that hint at their attraction and then we'll get Oliver's skype confession to Diggle that he thinks they're getting back together.  Then at or near the end of the episode, we'll see Felicity at home in the loft, sitting on the sofa, and we'll see male hands coming into the shot to massage her shoulders. So unspoiled viewers think - oh, O&F are back together! Great!  Then - shocker! - the camera pulls back and it's NOT Oliver - it's the cop guy that we met earlier in the episode.  Betcha this is how the boyfriend reveal happens.

What does give me some hope that they won't jettison the O&F romance completely is this quote from Greg Berlanti (from his Variety podcast) where he talked about walking the line between giving the fans something new and paying respect to comics storylines that fans want and know: "Right, uh, it's nerve-wracking, you know, because we always are - again, we're always trying to do our version of it, and sometimes we do it successfully and sometimes we don't as much... And I think, you know, we obviously have a very active and very passionate fanbase for these shows because the comic books, you know, and it's - we sort of say this all the time - they preceded us and they'll come after us, and the characters are bigger than us, and they have a special personal importance to a lot of the fans. So I think everyone - you know, you hope everybody knows that we're trying our best to keep it interesting and exciting but still a lot of times make stuff fresh and make it fit into the world that we're already kind of playing with and creating."

But even if O&F is still the endgame, I keep thinking of Castle, when it seemed like, either Castle was interested but Beckett was not, then Beckett was interested but Castle was not, and so on back and forth for years, before they finally got on the same page. So if Felicity's boyfriend lasts the season, and Oliver has moved on to other love interests this season, I can see Felicity's boyfriend (who's described as a good guy that WM hopes the audience will root for) getting killed in the back half of the season as part of the police corruption storyline. Then there'll be the ghost of this decent guy that would stand in the way of an Olicity relationship for awhile.

In any event, we get the boyfriend reveal in 501.  Then before 502 airs, we know that Felicity visits Barry in The Flash 302, that she'll carry something over into Arrow, and that it'll be Flashpoint-related. So let's say Barry tells her about Flashpoint and what really happened in the real timeline - one in which there might be differences with regard to her love life and Havenrock.  And Felicity carries this knowledge back with her. But even after Barry reverses Flashpoint and we go back to the original timeline, we know that there'll still be some permanent effects.  Well, we know she'll be dealing with Havenrock. But will she still have lingering feelings about the boyfriend and 505 is when she makes her decision?  I haven't a clue.

Edited October 3, 2016 by tv echo

[apinknightmare]

16 minutes ago, tv echo said:

Worse - they'll do it as a "gotcha" moment that's cruel to unspoiled Olicity fans. Imagine, throughout 501, we'll get little O/F moments that hint at their attraction and then we'll get Oliver's skype confession to Diggle that he thinks they're getting back together.  Then at or near the end of the episode, we'll see Felicity at home in the loft, sitting on the sofa, and we'll see male hands coming into the shot to massage her shoulders. So unspoiled viewers think - oh, O&F are back together! Great!  Then - shocker! - the camera pulls back and it's NOT Oliver - it's the cop guy that we met earlier in the episode.  Betcha this is how the boyfriend reveal happens.

Any shipper worth their salt would know those tiny hands don't belong to Oliver! 

And yeah, that sounds about like how it'll happen.