S05.E15: Fighting Fire With Fire

[immortalfrieza]

On 3/4/2017 at 6:11 PM, legaleagle53 said:

Are you talking about Thea or Felicity?  I didn't watch the earlier seasons of Arrow.  But either way, those ladies should have torn him a new one and told him to take his judgmental, hypocritical, condescending, holier-than-thou attitude and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. They should also have told him not to run crying to them when Susan nukes his entire world by outing him as the Green Arrow.

I was spending the whole episode hoping against reality that Thea would say something akin to "Get over yourself and stop thinking with your dick already Oliver!" then point out how if Susan had been some random reporter chick Oliver didn't know from Adam it would have been OLIVER, not Thea that had Felicity discredit her without even giving a damn. Oliver was killing people to keep his identity secret not long ago, he only cared that Felicity and Thea took such comparatively minor measures in order to do the same thing because he was slamming the victim this time.

On 3/6/2017 at 9:16 PM, BkWurm1 said:

Threatening to expose the truth about him covering up his wife's suicide is rough, but the thing that keeps it from being too too far is that Thea wouldn't HAVE to follow through on exposing him if he refused her blackmail.  She could be running a bluff.  It's dirty politics but in a city like Star City, I wouldn't expect anything less.  

It's just like how Oliver routinely threatens people to get them to talk but never follows through, at least not anymore and Thea and Felicity are doing the same thing. Thea was simply using a bit of leverage as a bluff to get the councilman to let Oliver actually be able to defend himself from his own accusations, not blackmailing him into making his vote in favor of Oliver or anything like that. If anything, the councilman is quite the dick if not harboring his own shady agenda for not giving Oliver a fair chance and Thea would have merely been repaying in kind. Also, like with Susan it's extremely out of character and hypocritical of Oliver to put down Thea and Felicity for doing something that's barely even a darker shade of white compared to what he would have done without a second thought not too long ago.

Welp, I officially hate Paul. Calling Curtis out to dinner just so he could build up his expectations and knock them down by serving divorce papers was one hell of a dick move. The fact that Paul delivered that ridiculous ultimatum "be a superhero or be with me, no alternatives" then broke up with him over Curtis being altruistic enough to put his relationship with him second to SAVING PEOPLE'S LIVES already made Paul an utterly selfish dick but that takes the cake and it's clear to me that Curtis is better off. I just hope that Curtis doesn't spend more than an episode wangsting over losing someone who doesn't deserve him anyway and that they keep it toned down anyway.

[BkWurm1]

34 minutes ago, immortalfrieza said:

Welp, I officially hate Paul. Calling Curtis out to dinner just so he could build up his expectations and knock them down by serving divorce papers was one hell of a dick move. The fact that Paul delivered that ridiculous ultimatum "be a superhero or be with me, no alternatives" then broke up with him over Curtis being altruistic enough to put his relationship with him second to SAVING PEOPLE'S LIVES already made Paul an utterly selfish dick but that takes the cake and it's clear to me that Curtis is better off. I just hope that Curtis doesn't spend more than an episode wangsting over losing someone who doesn't deserve him anyway and that they keep it toned down anyway.

I can't be too mad if Paul doesn't want to be married to a vigilante, especially one that lied to him about it for so long so since Curtis was set on continuing with that life, so be it, ok, get your divorce.  But yeah, how he did it was brutal.

 Still, just to play devil's advocate, maybe Paul picked a nice restaurant without thinking about the romantic atmosphere.  The difference in ambiance at a place between lunch and dinner can be huge.  Maybe he picked a restaurant just because it was a public venue.  Someplace neutral. 

It ended up being all wrong and sent a totally wrong vibe but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his intentions.  It really wasn't Paul's fault that Curtis built up a meeting over food into them getting back together when it seems that Curtis had no reason to think anything had changed for Paul.  

Still, big ouch.  

[tv echo]

515 (Fighting Fire With Fire) - Oliver Queen’s voiceover intro:
Oliver (voiceover): "My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I returned home with only one goal - to save my city. Today I fight that war on two fronts: By day, I lead Star City as its mayor. But by night, I am someone else. I am something else. I am the Green Arrow."

515 (Fighting Fire With Fire) – Oliver asks for Felicity's help to fix his love-life problem with Susan Williams:
Female News Anchor (on computer): "News of the cover-up sent shock waves through City Hall, forcing council members into enacting a rarely used impeachment clause. Mayor Oliver Queen's administration might be over -"
Felicity (turning off news): "That woman never reports good news."
Oliver (entering): "Yeah. It'll work out. Just waiting for my opening."
Felicity: "There's that optimism again."
Oliver: "Chase is representing me, so I'm going to beat this. How are we doing with the data pull from Prometheus' mother's house?"
Felicity: "The sniffer pulled about a petabyte of data. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but I am working on it."
Oliver: "Good. Uh, there's something else that I could use your help with."
Felicity: "Okay."
Oliver: "Susan Williams."
Felicity: "Oh."
Oliver: "She's not returning my calls."
Felicity: "Am I really the best person to come to for love-life advice?"
Oliver: "Well, she's not returning my calls since you and Thea got her fired."
Felicity: "Well, in my defense, I didn't know that was going to be Thea's play."
Oliver: "I know. But I still need your help because Thea is not budging."
Felicity (slowly): "Look, I know how severely problematic what I'm about to say is - Susan is your girlfriend, so if anyone is going to fix it, I think it has to be you."
Oliver: "I'm trying, but like I said, she's not returning my calls and you may have noticed, I'm sorta facing an impeachment this week."
Felicity (reluctantly): "Okay. I'll do my best."
Oliver: "Thank you very much."
Felicity: "Um-hmm."
(Oliver starts to leave, but Felicity stops him by touching his arm.)
Felicity: "Um, for what it's worth - eh, everything I know about politics, I got from Keepin' It 1600 - but I do know that you're going to beat this thing."
Oliver: "What makes you so sure?"
Felicity: "To Star City, Mayor Oliver Queen is a hero."
(Oliver smiles and leaves.)

515 (Fighting Fire With Fire) – Felicity tells Diggle about the 'Pandora' data cache: 
(Diggle, Curtis and Felicity are watching live coverage of Oliver's impeachment hearing.)
Curtis: "Hell to the no!"
Felicity: "What he said."
Curtis (answering his phone): "It's Paul! Should I take it? I'm not going to take it. Maybe I should take it. No - no - okay, I'll take it!  Hey -" (Leaves)
Felicity: "This is so completely unfair."
Diggle: "Yeah, that seems to be going around lately. So you got Oliver's girlfriend fired?"
Felicity: "He told you? Of course he told you. Well, did he also tell you that it was a mistake? I mean, on my part at least."
Diggle: "Felicity."
Felicity: "I'm putting the toothpaste back in the tube, okay?"
Diggle: "How's that going?"
Felicity: "Well -"
Diggle: "Felicity, what's going on with you?"
Felicity: "What do you mean?"
Diggle: "This week it was Oliver's girlfriend. Last month he tells me you're getting involved with some stuff you shouldn't be involved with."
Felicity: "Well, that is a matter of perspective, considering that 'that stuff' helped get you out of prison and General Walker's gun sights."
Diggle: "What are you talking about?"
(Felicity sighs and opens up some computer files.)
Diggle: "Pandora?"
Felicity: "It's a data cache compiled by a group of hacktivists called Helix. They collected electronic dirt on literally billions of people, including General Walker. So when I asked for it to get you off - bad choice of words - they gave me the whole package."
Diggle: "And you're still in bed with these people?"
Felicity: "What? You make it sound like it's a bad thing. Pandora's just a tool."
Diggle: "Sounds to me like this could be a weapon."
Felicity: "Okay. And is there a problem if it is?"
Diggle: "It depends, Felicity."
Felicity: "On what?"
Diggle: "On how you use it."

515 (Fighting Fire With Fire) – Thea asks for Felicity's help in blackmailing Councilman Kullens:
Thea (entering): "Oliver's on his way to Starling General, but don't worry, he'll be fine."
Diggle: "I heard shots were fired at the motorcade."
Thea: "Yeah. Flipped our limo in the air."
Rene: "Cool."
Thea: "Not cool. More like 'ow' and Oliver might be concussed. But in the meantime, there's still the Vigilante out there.
Diggle: "Okay, Rene and I are going to hit the streets to see if we can muscle the Vigilante's whereabouts out of some people." (Leaves with Rene)
Felicity: "Curtis, let's check the keyhole satellite and CC thermo cams."
(Curtis nods and goes over to computer.)
Thea (grabbing Felicity's arm): "There's one other thing. I need a favor."
Felicity: "If this is about Susan Williams, I'm already on it."
Thea: "No, it's about the impeachment. You said that Pandora has dirt on a lot of people, right?"
Felicity: "Yeah, if by a lot of people, you mean everybody, yeah."
Thea: "What about Councilman Kullens?"
Felicity: "Last time I checked, he's part of 'everybody.' Why?"
Thea: "You know why."
Felicity: "Oh. Oh! You want to blackmail him?"
Thea: "Oh, that's not blackmail, that's politics."

515 (Fighting Fire With Fire) – Dinah tells the team about finding the piece of the Vigilante's visor:
Felicity: "Anything?"
Rene: "Nada. Peeps on the street are more afraid of the Vigilante than us."
Diggle: "What about your?"
Felicity: "Vigilante changes his artilleries to fire every week. Every lead goes cold. I could really use a break right about now."
Dinah (over computer comms): "I think I got something."
Felicity: "Yes, I totally manifested that. What do you got?"
Dinah (over computer comms): "When my sonic cry hit Vigilante, it knocked off a small piece of his visor. It looks like it's lined with some kind of circuitry."
Felicity: "Well, that means it's manufactured. Maybe I can link it back to where he bought it from."
Curtis: "I think I can do you one better. My T-spheres can actually track the tech to the individual user."
Rene: "'Cept it won't be ready until the iPhone 16 is released."
Curtis: "Ye of little faith."
DInah (over computer comms): "What's a T-sphere?"
Rene: "Curtis' balls."
Curtis: "They're something really fascinating of my own personal invention. I realize that quantum computation can be used -"
Dinah (over computer comms): "Alright, forget I asked. I'll bring you guys the visor, okay?"
Felicity: "Copy that. We're here. Curtis, this is on you now."
Curtis: "Challenge accepted."

515 (Fighting Fire With Fire) – Diggle has a heart-to-heart talk with Felicity and tells her that her superpower is empathy:
Diggle (entering): "Oliver's out of the hospital and headed to City Hall. Any word from Dinah?"
Felicity: "Um, she's at the precinct trying to recover that piece of the Vigilante's visor."
Diggle: "What about you, Felicity? And don't tell me that it's traffic cams. We both know they're on auto-pilot."
Felicity: "I sent Thea something to sway Councilman Kullens. Apparently, he's the swing vote on Oliver's impeachment."
Diggle: "Pandora."
Felicity: "Officially, his wife died in a car crash. Unofficially, she crashed the car on purpose."
Diggle: "Suicide."
Felicity: "He used his clout to cover it up, so I'm guessing he's not going to want it uncovered."
Diggle: "And you are okay with this, right?"
Felicity: "I think the city needs Oliver to keep being the Mayor."
Diggle: "Felicity, Kullens is not a criminal. He's a human being."
Felicity: "He's a politician. Sorry, that's the same thing."
Diggle: "A human being that went through a very tragic accident. A very private one. C'mon, this isn't you."
Felicity: "Well, it pretty much is."
Diggle: "Okay. Do you know what your superpower is?"
Felicity: "Computers?"
Diggle: "Empathy. Big, reflexive, pure empathy."
Felicity: "Well, maybe I'm fresh out."
Diggle: "Because of Billy."
Felicity: "It's a dark world. And for the past four years, I have watched you and Oliver and Laurel (Glances at the Black Canary costume case) and Thea and Roy - I've watched all of you use a little darkness to fight it."
Diggle: "That's true. Sometimes we do fight fire with fire. But every time we do, Felicity, every single time, we risk being burned." (Puts hand on her shoulder in comforting gesture and then leaves)

515 (Fighting Fire With Fire) – Curtis uses his T-spheres to connect with the visor tech and track down the Vigilante:
Curtis: "Magic hands. The magnetic resonance frequencies within the Vigilante's tech are now communicating with my T-spheres."
Diggle: "Great. So what does it mean? Can we catch the Vigilante or not?"
Curtis (sighing): "Well, cross your fingers and your toes."
(Curtis and Rene hold up T-sphere and visor piece, respectively, and blue light signal connects the two objects.)
Felicity: "Perfect. The T-sphere is picking up the signal from the piece of visor."
Rene: Yeah, but the other one's still wonky."
Curtis: "No, no, it - it's not. It's actually tracking the rest of the visor."
Dinah: "Let's take down this S.O.B."
Curtis: "Without Oliver?"
Felicity: "If the Vigilante gets to him, we'll be doing this without Oliver... permanently."
Diggle: "Good. Let's suit up."
Curtis (simultaneously): "Suit up. (To Diggle) Oh, sorry, I thought - since Oliver's gone, I would probably - makes more sense probably for you - I'll make sure I work on the timing of that!"

515 (Fighting Fire With Fire) – Oliver thanks the team for saving his life:
Oliver (entering): "The council isn't impeaching."
Felicity: "Yes! Yeah!"
Oliver: "I'm still the Mayor.
Curtis: "Woo!"
Rene: "Yet the Green Arrow's Public Enemy No. 1."
Diggle: "We've dealt with the police on our backs before."
Dinah: "Not like this. One of their own is dead."
Oliver: "Dinah's right. And now we know just how much the police can interfere with our work here."
Curtis: "Um, can I go? I'm kinda getting back together with Paul. It's a big deal. Can I leave? Can I -?"
Oliver (smiling): "Yes. Yes, of course, go. Have fun. Everyone should have fun tonight. Just quickly, though. I've buried the headline here. (Pauses) You all saved my life. And five months ago, I never would've thought that was possible. Thank you for working hard. Thank you for banding together. Thank you for -"
Curtis: "Sorry. I mean, thank you for saying 'thank you' - wow, man to man, that means a lot - but I'm really late to see Paul, so -"
Oliver: "Give Paul my best." (Extends his hand)
Curtis (shakes hand): "Thank you!" (Leaves)
Felicity: "Good luck!"

515 (Fighting Fire With Fire) – Felicity decides to join Helix and meets with Alena AKA Kojo Sledgehammer:
(Felicity is nervously waiting next to a building at night.)
Alena (whispering): "Felicity."
Felicity (startled): "Oh! Hi. Hi!"
Alena: "I am so glad you got in touch. Though I am a little surprised."
Felicity: "Yeah, me too. Well, 'surprised' isn't actually the right word to describe how I am feeling."
Alena: "What's the right word?"
Felicity: "Ready. A good friend of mine told me that, if you're going to try to fight fire with fire, you're going to get burned. But then another friend of mine came through something pretty scary tonight because he had backup. A team."
Alena (smiling): "You're accepting the invitation to join Helix."
Felicity: "Yes. Full-throttle."
(Alena shakes hands with Felicity.)