Heartaches, Bromances, True Love and Team Arrow: the Relationships Thread

[quarks]

Way back in the pilot episode, Diggle said that his friends called him Dig. Since then Arrow has saved the "John" moments for particularly intimate/emotional things between Oliver and Diggle, and for Felicity who does call him John. Team Flash seems to stick with Mr. Diggle, which is hilarious. I think Amanda Waller's headname for him is Pond Scum number 27 - that is, exactly the way Amanda Waller thinks of everyone not named Amanda Waller in her head.

 

Anyway, for the record, I have no problems with a Laurel and Diggle friendship. They've been working together for six months, and they have quite a lot in common - they've both lost siblings to violence, they've both worked on the legal side of things - Diggle with the army, Laurel with the DA's office, as opposed to Thea who's only had the internship at CRNI and the nightclub (aside; what's up with Verdant? I know it was mostly abandoned last season, but is that a permanent decision?) or Felicity who started off as a hacker.  Felicity, Oliver and Thea were all pretty rebellious in one way or another when they were younger. Laurel seems to have been hard working and straight laced right from the start, and if Diggle had any pre-Army hijinks, we really haven't heard about them. So that's ok.

 

What has seemed off to me is Diggle not really acknowledging Felicity. I realize she's now attached to Oliver, and I have no idea if Felicity reached out to the team or vice versa, but she has been helping them all summer, and she and Diggle were friends before this. Hoping this is something that gets addressed soon.

[kismet]

I think the name usage thing only rings true for OQ & JD's relationship. They both have consistently used certain names for certain times with each other. So the fact that OQ might not be calling him Dig or Diggle to me indicates that there is still a separation there.

 

But Dig's secret keeping for 2 years about HIVE, I'm gonna call bullsh!t on that. He should have talked about it with OQ or FS earlier. And its a family thing is not an excuse, when Dig by his own admission called OQ his brother in s3. Lyla referred to them as brothers. Heck, we even changed his character thread title to reflect their brother relationship. If Dig is still holding a grudge from s1 and OQ's lack of cooperation of Deadshot/Andy situation then that is a new character reveal for me, because I never would have pegged him as someone who holds a grudge against a close friend. Him not trusting after the Lyla situation, totally believable & grudge worthy.

 

But he had 1.5 seasons to talk to O&F about it, I blame propping LL for the reason he revealed he never told O&F. Which in all honesty ruined the scene for me. I don't mind JD & LL getting closer & having a heart to heart. I mind when it undermines what we have been told about the friendships of J/O/F for 4 years. If they had just left out that part about not telling them I would have possibly not disliked the scene so much. It's plot exposition, but its done in a horrible way. And its character propping, which I hate regardless of who is getting propped.

Edited October 16, 2015 by kismet

[AyChihuahua]

I adore them :) And to clarify, I did last year, too. It's just that, by the time the finale rolled, I had had enough of the bad writing for the season, and I was ready to side-eye the writers for everything, ahah. But, as far as this season is going,I have nothing to complain about wrt O/F and each of them individually. Actually, they're surprising me in a positive way! I hope it'll come a day when I'll be able to watch S3 and appreciate it. The only scenes I've managed/wanted to rewatch are from the crossovers,  316 and 319. I just have to muster up the courage for the rest! :)

Don't do it!

[Delphi]

He's Diggle. From what he's said. His friends call him Digg. And you know Malcolm shouldn't even speak to him.

I don't mind the bonding with him and Laurel. But I think her calling him by his first name is more telling that they don't really have a close friendship outside of the team not that they are super close. Ymmv, of course.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Delphi

[apinknightmare]

This is the weirdest debate to me, haha. Oliver and Felicity both call Diggle "John" and have for a while now. It's not the names they use with each other or the friendship between D&L that rings false to me, it's the fact that he's giving Laurel information that he has kept from Oliver & Felicity for two years. Information about his brother, who Laurel DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HAD BEEN MURDERED.

ETA: Wait, did she know he had been murdered or just that he was dead? Was her "I didn't know" about the Andy reveal that she didn't know he had been murdered or that she didn't know it was HIVE? I can't remember, and I don't feel like looking to find out. It doesn't really matter. Show, your terrible dialogue. Gah.

Edited October 16, 2015 by apinknightmare

[Starfish35]

The "John" from Laurel caught me off guard, but after I thought about it, I felt like it was the best choice. Her calling him just "Diggle" wouldn't have seemed right to me (because it feels like only Oliver calls him that), and I definitely don't think they're at the level where she could call him "Dig." And "Mr. Diggle" would be way too formal. So John it is.

Now I'm wondering what Thea calls him these days, since it used to be "Mr. Diggle" for her.

[dtissagirl]

This is the weirdest debate to me, haha. Oliver and Felicity both call Diggle "John" and have for a while now. It's not the names they use with each other or the friendship between D&L that rings false to me, it's the fact that he's giving Laurel information that he has kept from Oliver & Felicity for two years. Information about his brother, who Laurel DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HAD BEEN MURDERED. 

 

THIS. I really don't care which name Laurel uses for Dig, that scene stinks for me BECAUSE THEY'RE AGREEING THIS IS A SECRET THAT MUST BE KEPT.

 

AND IT IS NOT.

 

And really, That's So Laurel, but WHAT THE SHIT, JOHN DIGGLE.

[apinknightmare]

THIS. I really don't care which name Laurel uses for Dig, that scene stinks for me BECAUSE THEY'RE AGREEING THIS IS A SECRET THAT MUST BE KEPT.

 

AND IT IS NOT.

 

And really, That's So Laurel, but WHAT THE SHIT, JOHN DIGGLE.

 

But they don't keep secrets, remember?!

 

LMAO

Edited October 16, 2015 by apinknightmare

[dtissagirl]

...That's So Laurel.

 

Like. I get that Diggle saying this is a "family" thing is supposed to tell me that OH NOES, he doesn't think of Oliver as "family" anymore. But then, I don't know, writers, come up with a secret that isn't mission-related. Because this just makes Diggle look supremely incompetent at superheroing.

[looptab]

I suggest changing the title of the Laurel topic to 'That'so Laurel' now, ahaha.

Aychihuahua, don't worry, it'd take a looong time for me to even consider it :D

[statsgirl]

I really, really hope that Diggle being cold to Felicity is a deliberate writing choice and not because the writers have forgotten about their friendship.  I hope someone who has tumblr asks MG.

 

IMO, Felicity calling Diggle "John" over the comms in the last episode is sooooo setting up that Diggle gets  his own codename.  Will they just decide to do it? Or will the motivation be to protect his identity from DD?

 

I don't mind Digg telling Laurel about  Andy & HIVE because they're saving each other from getting killed, and I don't mind that he didn't tell Oliver and Felicity about HIVE in the past two years but the minute Oliver told him that DD had a HIVE, he should have come clean to him.

As for talking down to her, she was totally loopy and that explained the tone to me 100% 

 

I am very much looking forward to next week because Dig is going to be forced to interact with Felicity.  He has been acting standoffish but part of that is that he hasn't been his normal warm, approachable self since they've been back.  Only with Baby Sara and Lyla, all the rest of the times he's been Mr. Grumpy Gus.  Even in the van scene with Laurel, he looked pissed in general. 

 

I couldn't remember the word at the time but I should have written "patronizing" rather than "looking down on" because I thought Oliver was very patronizing to Felicity in ToD from his reaction to her trying to learn self-defense to his behaviour when she couldn't get Tockman Right. Now. to the "you'll always be my girl" just before he went straight to Sara's arms.  But maybe I can fanwank it that he wanted to make Felicity feel better after Diggle told him she was upset, because hey, all he noticed about Felicity that episode was that she wasn't being a good little drone.

 

PDAs are a cultural thing and they were rare in my family. But I always looked at Oliver's s2 relationship with Sara as a FWB thing, at least on his part, and there's no need to be kissing her in front of everyone else in that case.  (I know, it was so that we could see how Felicity reacted.)

 

Yup. I've always fanwanked they used that money to pimp out the Arrow cave during the five months Oliver was manpaining in Lian Yu.

I think they said (in the comic?) that Felicity used her money to fix up the Arrow cave. I assume Diggle just banked his for the rainy days.

[Primal Slayer]

I didn't see a problem with Diggle opening up to Laurel after some push. He is at odds with his bff at the moment and his other bff is practically "guilty" by association. It's been something he's been keeping to himself for a while and it has probably been weighing on him so he opened up to someone who was in a similar situation and who he has grown to trust over the past 8 Months.

Right now him keeping the secret isn't hurting anyone since it is pure research. Laurel isn't going to betray his trust since she is his friend.

Oliver has kept multiple secrets for various reasons that others have kept and has kept secrets for other people. All of them have done it.

[apinknightmare]

All of them have done it, but none have done it immediately after having a conversation about NOT keeping secrets while also being mad at someone for...keeping secrets.

I'd also argue that we don't know how harmful this secret is because we don't know what he knows about HIVE.

Edited October 16, 2015 by apinknightmare

[Primal Slayer]

Diggle being mad at Oliver stems past just him keeping a secret. He trusted a known enemy and put everyones lives in danger most notably his daughters. They aren't quite on the same level yet.

[tarotx]

On the surface I don't have a problem with Diggle and Laurel having a nice bonding scene. They have worked together since mid season s3. The atmosphere just felt odd. There was a lot of Laurel having this vibe of interacting with a stranger with dialogue of a teammate. Imo there was too much Laurel has to listen to Diggle so Katie had to sit and look like she was listening. She isn't an actress who can handle observing scenes. She has to be engaged to look engaged,  

[apinknightmare]

Diggle being mad at Oliver stems past just him keeping a secret. He trusted a known enemy and put everyones lives in danger most notably his daughters. They aren't quite on the same level yet.

 

I never said that the secrets and actions were on the same level. He's endangering the team and the city by keeping information to himself that could be helpful to the mission - one of the things he's angry at Oliver for - which makes him a hypocrite. 

[SonofaBiscuit]

I'm fine with Diggle getting stuck in Laurel Land because I'm hoping it will keep her away from my other faves.  I love you, Diggle, but someone has to draw the short straw!  Sorry, man.  It's unfortunate that the show is bonding these two with this stupid secret, though, and I'm sure that it'll probably blow up in Diggle's face somehow.  Not talking to each other seemed to cause an awful lot of problems last season, but I guess Team Arrow is trying to forget season 3 just as much as I am.  

Edited October 16, 2015 by SonofaBiscuit

[kismet]

The whole scene could have been better if they had just kept out the part about O/F not knowing. It's not the interaction that bothers me, its the fact that it makes JD seem like he has never trusted or considered OQ & FS family for over 3 years. Yes, they are in a hard spot right now. But they were family before that, so really he should have told them sometime after Russia. We the audience didn't need to see him telling them, but the writers didn't need to reference not telling them. It cheapened the O/D/F family relationship that is already on the skids right now.

 

Its the same way FS didn't need to throw SL under the bus to explain that LL had a light in her in s3. She could have just talked about LL's inner light & kept the comparison to SL out or at the bare minimum.

 

For some reason, the writers feel the need to throw one relationship under the bus to elevate another relationship. Its just not necessary and its damaging to the characters. It was bad enough when we just had to deal with LL & OQ secret keepers for reasons. Now its an epidemic on the show, with everyone keeping secrets because the writers can't find a better way to write the relationships or plots.

 

The show is going to develop new things, themes & arcs. Things are going to get lost, forgotten or never mentioned, especially with a flashback format heavily present on the show. Every time something plotty comes up that references the past it doesn't need to be presented as this great secret that people have been holding onto. I get it OQ knew about magic, but when you wrote s1-3 you didn't know that fact. JD knew about HIVE, but there was no organic way to drop it into a JD/OQ/FS convo in s2&3. Its a TV show, I understand fluidity of plot. Introduce new information by presenting it to new characters or relationships. JD telling LL was a perfect way to remind the audience about HIVE & Andy. What we didn't need was another dig or below the belt hit to a shaky relationship that was not shaky when the information was first learned by JD.

[Primal Slayer]

Nothing was thrown under the bus though. Laurel was surprised he didn't tell this to those two, that says more about how close Laurel thought F/O were to Diggle.

[apinknightmare]

Nothing was thrown under the bus though. Laurel was surprised he didn't tell this to those two, that says more about how close Laurel thought F/O were to Diggle.

 

Do you not think it's strange that Diggle wouldn't have shared that information with Oliver and Felicity - people with whom he's had no problem sharing similar information with over the past three years? People who know about Andy and went to great lengths to help him with other family business? 

 

They had Diggle keep an illogical secret in order to bond with Laurel. Now, I don't care that he bonds with Laurel, but I do care that they make him OOC to do it.

Edited October 16, 2015 by apinknightmare

[bijoux]

I think they said (in the comic?) that Felicity used her money to fix up the Arrow cave. I assume Diggle just banked his for the rainy days.

Wow. I had no idea about that. So Felicity was the sugar mama of the whole operation way back when. Now I'm really impressed with the faith she had Oliver would come back to not only the city (which made sense since his family was there and this was before the 'I chose to come back' revelation), but to the mission as well.

[kismet]

The O/D/F (OTA) relationship was thrown under the bus, IMO. Up until it was needed to happen for plot reasons this season, O/D/F were very close and like family. That is why OQ betrayal druing the end of s3 was so hurtful. He betrayed his family in a way to side with MM. Yes, OQ did it with good intention to protect them, but it still was a betrayal.This secret about HIVE is not something JD has been keeping secret for 3 years. It's something the writers needed to get back onto the script & plot. So they took their opportunity to make LL & JD seem closer and make the tension between OTA seem more longstanding & melodramatic. It's throwing a relationship under the bus 101.

[apinknightmare]

Wow. I had no idea about that. So Felicity was the sugar mama of the whole operation way back when. Now I'm really impressed with the faith she had Oliver would come back to not only the city (which made sense since his family was there and this was before the 'I chose to come back' revelation), but to the mission as well.

 

I think she was just the sugar mama of the lair redo - I imagine she would've probably wanted to reinvest money that Oliver gave her back into their mission. Since Oliver was still a billionaire then, I'm pretty sure he was still funding everything else. 

[bijoux]

Oh, I'm sure he did, I just never thought about where the money for the redo came from.

[Morrigan2575]

I think they said (in the comic?) that Felicity used her money to fix up the Arrow cave. I assume Diggle just banked his for the rainy days.

I don't think it's ever been said that Felicity used her money to rebuild the lair but I could be wrong.  IIRC the S1 comics ends with Oliver leaving for the airport after the Undertaking.  All we know (from the S1 comics) is that Oliver tells Diggle before running back to Lian Yu that he left Felicity and Diggle 1 Million as severance.  I think the common fanwank is that Felicity used the money on the lair but it's never been stated (that I'm aware of)

[Starfish35]

I think the common fanwank is that Felicity used the money on the lair but it's never been stated (that I'm aware of).

Yeah, same here. I mean, it makes sense. But I don't know that it's ever been specifically stated.

My personal headcanon has always been that she used it to upgrade her wardrobe as well as redoing the lair, since her clothes changed so much between seasons one and two. :)

[apinknightmare]

I thought MG posted it on Tumblr? 

[Morrigan2575]

I thought MG posted it on Tumblr? 

That's possible. i don't really pay attention to his tumblr stuff.  I was pretty sure it wasn't in the comics.  

[kismet]

I'm pretty sure she upgraded her wardrobe :) I think she bought the custom Arrow as a Thank You present regardless.

 

I feel like she probably did initially foot the bill for some of renovations, but OQ probably reimbursed her. Let's be honest FS can do magical things with bank accounts. OTA probably had money earning money in the bank. Just because OQ skipped town, doesn't mean her access to TA funds disappeared. Or that OQ would shut down the funds. He seemed pretty unconcerned about money while on the island.

[Primal Slayer]

Do you not think it's strange that Diggle wouldn't have shared that information with Oliver and Felicity - people with whom he's had no problem sharing similar information with over the past three years? People who know about Andy and went to great lengths to help him with other family business?

They had Diggle keep an illogical secret in order to bond with Laurel. Now, I don't care that he bonds with Laurel, but I do care that they make him OOC to do it.

It's hard to judge since we don't know the extent of what he has done. If he's been researching it, i dont think it is that weird that he kept it to himself. he could be gathering a list of people to kill, which i could see him keeping it from O/F for obvious reasons. But we know next to nothing thus far.

[kismet]

It's hard to judge since we don't know the extent of what he has done. If he's been researching it, i dont think it is that weird that he kept it to himself. he could be gathering a list of people to kill, which i could see him keeping it from O/F for obvious reasons. But we know next to nothing thus far.

It might not be weird or odd that he kept it to himself. A logical argument could be made for both sides. We don't really know to what extent he's worked on it. And there does come a point in a friendship where its too late to reveal a secret without hurt feelings - which is why he shouldn't have kept it in the first place. The JD they described & portrayed for over 3 years, I would not have believed had kept a secret. But perhaps none of us really knew JD. It is reasonable that he kept a secret. It is not believable that he told LL so easily.

 

It was a convenient and odd time for the writers to drop the fact that he kept it from them into the script. That was just a writing plot device they used. And that was definitely odd, that if JD was so hell bent on keeping a secret from 2 of his closest friends he would not reveal it casually to his newest friend. I have kept a secret from 2 of my closest friends, and I have met new friends since that time. I don't go blabbing my secret to the new people. That secret is stuck deep in me and it's a heavy weight to carry. I can't imagine that JD is weaker than I am and would just reveal a secret like that if it wasn't to move the plot along. So for me it was an OOC or a JohnPod moment because there is no way JD's timing of the secret reveal is not odd, but rather its just convenient for plot &/or prop.

[Primal Slayer]

Oliver has shown some of his secrets to people he didn't even know that long. It happens time time.

[apinknightmare]

It might not be weird or odd that he kept it to himself. A logical argument could be made for both sides. We don't really know to what extent he's worked on it. And there does come a point in a friendship where its too late to reveal a secret without hurt feelings - which is why he shouldn't have kept it in the first place. The JD they described & portrayed for over 3 years, I would not have believed had kept a secret. But perhaps none of us really knew JD. It is reasonable that he kept a secret. It is not believable that he told LL so easily.

 

Yeah, I don't believe that he would've kept it, especially because of the reasoning he gave for keeping it. It's a family thing? Dude, you were just referring to Oliver as your brother last year. You let him use his Bratva connections to help you rescue your ex wife from prison. He was your best man at your wedding. Come on. It's also an ill-advised secret since Diggle said that all of his research led to dead ends, but what he managed to dig up matches with the "ghost" MO. He knows they're HIVE. IF that's all he knows and he's not lying to Laurel, it's stupid, and was revealed specifically so Digg and Laurel could have a moment and/or whatever it is he does know will come back to bite him in the ass later. 

 

It's ridiculous information for him to keep to himself, especially knowing that THESE ARE THE PEOPLE THEY ARE ALL FIGHTING. Hypocrite.

Edited October 16, 2015 by apinknightmare

[dtissagirl]

Keeping it from Oliver is actually less dumb than keeping it from Felicity, who has been established as someone who's INSANELY GOOD at solving puzzles IN THIS SAME EPISODE. She could have taken whatever research Diggle has and turned it into search parameters for the past six months of Ghosts activity, trying to find a link. If only Diggle hadn't lied to their faces that he had never heard of HIVE.

 

And Laurel is also dumb for agreeing with Diggle that this is a secret that must be kept.

Edited October 16, 2015 by dtissagirl

[tarotx]

I guess it's a family thing might mean that Diggle feared Andy was into something illegal or evil? Maybe that's why he didn't share. Diggle wants to know what happened to Andy but he doesn't really want others to think Andy might have been a bad guy.

[apinknightmare]

 

Keeping it from Oliver is actually less dumb than keeping it from Felicity, who has been established as someone who's INSANELY GOOD at solving puzzles IN THIS SAME EPISODE.

 

Yeah, it also makes him look like he doesn't really care all that much about finding his brother's killer since he can't find viable information about HIVE on his own (if he's telling the truth about that), and yet won't tell one of the very few people he can trust to help him. 

Edited October 16, 2015 by apinknightmare

[kismet]

Oliver has shown some of his secrets to people he didn't even know that long. It happens time time.

Oliver Queen is not John Diggle. OQ is very nebulous when it comes to secret telling and secret keeping. He is strategical in when he reveals/keeps them.

JD has always been shown to be the moral center of the team, against keeping secrets and having a strict code of ethics. It is not within the character they have presented as JD to expect that he would willing keep and casually reveal secrets. It is well within OQ's character that pre & post island his relationship with the truth and secrets was very flexible. So one secret keeper is not like the other. OQ is a secret keeper. JD is a man that happened to keep a secret. There is a difference.

[dtissagirl]

Ultimately, what bums me out is that the way they set it up makes me want it all to go horribly wrong for Dig in a very IN YOUR FACE, DUMBASS way. And I don't like feeling like that.

Edited October 16, 2015 by dtissagirl

[Primal Slayer]

And Laurel is also dumb for agreeing with Diggle that this is a secret that must be kept.

Except she didn't, she did the opposite.

[apinknightmare]

Except she didn't, she did the opposite.

 

I'm sure she went right to the team and let them know that they're dealing with a group called HIVE. 

[Primal Slayer]

OQ is a secret keeper. JD is a man that happened to keep a secret. There is a difference.

They are different people but i more or less brought him up to show that people do open up to people that they have known for certain periods of time with secrets. Which is why i dont find it weird that Digg ended up telling Laurel about it. She is a safer option since he knows she won't try to interfere (at least for the time being)

I'm sure she went right to the team and let them know that they're dealing with a group called HIVE.

She didn't tell Diggle that it was good to keep the secret though which is what was stated. She told him that it gets dirty keeping secrets and n doesn't end pretty.

[apinknightmare]

They are different people but i more or less brought him up to show that people do open up to people that they have known for certain periods of time with secrets. Which is why i dont find it weird that Digg ended up telling Laurel about it. She is a safer option since he knows she won't try to interfere (at least for the time being)

She didn't tell Diggle that it was good to keep the secret though which is what was stated. She told him that it gets dirty keeping secrets and n doesn't end pretty.

 

But...why wouldn't he want people interfering? That's why this secret is stupid. He can't find information on the group that killed his brother, whose death he allegedly wants to avenge. And yet he doesn't tell at least Felicity, who can help him find the information he can't find himself. He gives Laurel what information he does have, that he knows these ghosts that are taking over the city are members of a group called HIVE - valuable information for the team to have. Laurel recognizes this enough to know that John is being an idiot for keeping this information to himself, and yet, even though she just reminded John that they don't keep secrets, she's probably not going to tell the team this very valuable information that John gave to her. 

 

It's completely nonsensical. 

Edited October 16, 2015 by apinknightmare

[dtissagirl]

Laurel agreed to keep the secret by only giving Diggle a warning that secrets like this one end badly. After she affirmed she understands keeping family secrets. She should have gone FUCK NO on his ass that very moment.

[Primal Slayer]

We would have to know what Diggle plans on doing to really judge him not wanting anyone else involved. He brought up Sara to shut her down and it could even be looked at as him saying "i kept your secret so now it's time to keep mine"

[dtissagirl]

I'm out.

[Primal Slayer]

Laurel agreed to keep the secret by only giving Diggle a warning that secrets like this one end badly. After she affirmed she understands keeping family secrets. She should have gone FUCK NO on his ass that very moment.

If there is one thing they keep consistent is that everyone has no problem keeping each other secrets. Oliver/Lance kept Saras secret about being alive even though it could've brought hope to the family. F/D kept Olivers secret even though Laurel kept on being targeted. Everyone kept Laurels secret about Sara being dead. Everyone kept Olivers secret from Laurel about Thea being on the brink of death.

[statsgirl]

People should be allowed their secrets.

 

BUT -- Sara asked Oliver not to tell her family that she was still alive in order to protect them.  Diggle not telling about HIVE puts everyone in more danger.  I think everyone was wrong to let Laurel tell them not to tell Quentin.  Laurel did know that Thea was on the brink of death, she just didn't know how she got better. When was Laurel targeted?

 

I don't have a problem with Diggle telling Laurel about his brother's murder and the connection to HIVE.  My problem is that he didn't tell Oliver as soon as Oliver connected HIVE to DD.  Thea even said episode 4x01 that they don't have anything on the ghosts.  Letting the Team know about HIVE and getting Felicity on researching them could have given them an advantage they didn't have before.

 

If Diggle is not telling because he's still pissed off at Oliver and in connection with Felicity, well then Laurel wasn't the only one who made bad decisions in that episode.

 

Yeah, it also makes him look like he doesn't really care all that much about finding his brother's killer since he can't find viable information about HIVE on his own (if he's telling the truth about that), and yet won't tell one of the very few people he can trust to help him. 

THIS.

 

I can understand why Diggle didn't tell Oliver or Felicity if it was something on the backburner. and he was waiting till he knew more to do something. But if he did want to find the person who put the hit on his brother and why, Felicity would really have helped.  She's the Queen of Research and hacking.

 

 

Wow. I had no idea about that. So Felicity was the sugar mama of the whole operation way back when. Now I'm really impressed with the faith she had Oliver would come back to not only the city (which made sense since his family was there and this was before the 'I chose to come back' revelation), but to the mission as well.

As apinknightmare said, I think he posted it on tumblr that Felicity did the revamp of the lair, and Felicity and Diggle went to get him when the company needed him.  (I think she said in 2x01 that it took 3 months to find him but I could be wrong.) 

 

You're right, it does show a lot of faith in Oliver both in terms of being a vigilante and being someone who does the right thing, the hard thing, when he should.  It may be a coincidence but it's part of the pattern of how much Felicity believes in Oliver.  More than Diggle, and more than Thea or Laurel.

 

My personal headcanon has always been that she used it to upgrade her wardrobe as well as redoing the lair, since her clothes changed so much between seasons one and two. :)

I think that was her new salary as Oliver's EA, and the need for new clothes to sit at a desk surrounded by all those glass walls.

Edited October 16, 2015 by statsgirl

[Angel12d]

Diggle talked to Laurel for plot and not Oliver or Felicity because plot and then he'll get into trouble for plot plot plot. It's all so dumb and pretty OOC if you ask me.

 

Felicity was actually the one who helped investigate things to do with his brother in s1. Remember Diggle kept it from Oliver because he didn't trust him when he was all fixated on Laurel? So to say that he hasn't told her especially about HIVE all this time is absolutely ridiculous. I call BULL.

[apinknightmare]

Laurel seems to know that Digg's judgment isn't so sound right now based on the fact that she and Thea had to go behind his back to get Oliver to help out with the ghosts, so my favorite resolution to this would be for her to be all Laurel about it and tell Oliver, Felicity, and Thea that the ghosts are HIVE. But she just did a little grave robbing, so I'm guessing it's not going to happen like that because plot for plot and plot. 

[Angel12d]

That plot is a tricky bitch, always getting in the way.