I hope it is misdirection or *something*, because I'm a little sick of having to suffer through the over-corrected, generic flatness of these "American" accents (in TV and movies in general, not on this show). They had the perfect in-world excuse to make her character British and they went out of their way to make her…

"Is this because I'm a lesbian?"

"Cannon."

It's a bit of a workaround in that what draws us is precisely the non-procedural stuff—but yeah, this is probably the most hooked I've been to something that is still a procedural.

Exactly—it was non-romantic; she's his minder, for lack of a better word, the same way that, merely incidentally (having little to do with recreational sex or raising kids together or even attending social events as a unit), wives often are of their husbands ("Watch your salt intake," etc.).

Worst possibility is that Barrowman is Oliver's biological father. A good one IMO would be that Barrowman feels he "created" Green Arrow / "the vigilante" by killing his father and causing Oliver to be marooned on that island… But that's kinda obvious and does not explain the "Oh no," not really. I honestly have no…

I loved that Oliver was limping and busted up for the rest of the episode—it was a note not required by the plot.

I agree. I would hate to see Cochran go, but it makes the most sense for everyone else.

EARWORRRRM!!!

Ah, so the super-length of the turns isn't really solved by making the game electronic…

Two separate people (who were really into it) have tried to teach me to play Diplomacy, and it did seem as though the setup and the turns took very, very long. (I'm sure a video-game version would solve this, but might ruin the feel of the whole thing?) The main attraction for me is that the game does not use dice. (I…

This might also explain some people's tendency in past seasons to run unnecessary schemes and share way too much information about what they're doing—it might just be to fill up the time and feel as though they're *doing something*.

"If we only had a wheelbarrow…"

One could tell because his arms were motionless :)

And poor Walter is now swimming upstream.

Dig is Method.

"You have failed this city! … in bed."

"Go back to your (Low) country, Speedy!"

Running dangerously low on sodium, too.

How would this game play with properly-fed people? Because Erik's confessional about having nothing to even talk about (in part, I am guessing, because of the low energy, but maybe they would have run out of topics regardless) seems dire for a TV show.