See, I thought the opposite. Andy being afraid of John despite knowing he wouldn't pull the trigger would have felt wrong, regardless of that John actually *did* pull the trigger.

An improvement on the last few episodes.
Positives:
-Felicity doing some lampshade hanging on bad guys after world domination.
-The Thea plot, while not unique in terms of the whole panic-oh it's just him making breakfast-panic again arc, is the most inventive thing the show's done in a while. Is he in on it?
-Andy had to…

A season from now we'll be comparing him to Felicity, as he goes from "clever fan favorite" to "forced nerd joke deliverer"

The thing with Mystery Mask Guy is that I really don't care anymore and it's hard to see it having an organic effect on the season's resolution.

They offered money, so Samuel L Jackson accepted

As bad as the guy comes off, Schumer comes off pretty arrogant and entitled too. Not taking pictures with anybody because of one guy? (Her words, not mine) Seems extreme

Hey, hey, everyone has a lot when Ubuntu is involved

Yep, and the baby too

That's a good point, and could have been a cool angle to dive into had everything this season been handled better.

And they had also built up Slade back when the flashbacks were compelling. When he came into the present day narrative, it was meaningful because he was more than just your typical Big Bad.

Right, to clarify, I didn't mean to suggest the learning arcs were filler, just that the benefit of having that as a storytelling device can mask the inability to tell a network season's worth of story.

I'm still waiting for an actual plot in the City of Light itself, maybe with someone breaking free after taking the Key.

I think this was always a problem, it was just masked in different ways.
Arrow S1: Oliver's learning how to be a vigilante, people thought it started slow
Flash S1: Those monster of the week episodes were not good, but since they were frontloaded, people forgot about them by the time they evaluated the season.
The one…

They're also writing it in the same way I described the foreshadowing of Kane+Abby a while back: They're the only people who understand what each other is going through, and that makes it easier to lead them together.

What are the freaking odds that one day later The 100 would do a callback to this exact part of the pilot, complete with a cover of Radioactive? Crazy.

It's too bad the show made Pike's position so extreme that it made him so unlikable, because he was pretty great in that opening scene with Jaha. (Just starting the ep now)

But then it comes back around. A show like New Girl or Arrow goes back to earning A-'s on a regular basis because the reviewer grades on a curve (comeback season, etc) and it skews the grades in comparison to how legitimately good the show was in its prime.

The most striking part of Lance tonight though was overdoing it on his Season 1 hair. He was up to his eyeballs in follicles!

Was thinking of that as I typed. The two scenes are intertwined forever.

I have my criticisms of JLU, but that show nailed how to do skeptical street level Ollie without making him wallow in misery. And Amell is totally capable of it. He nails his wittier Flash appearances.