Yeah, I was surprised that it was this sloppy episode that got AV Club's first good review of the series. Then I saw her repeatedly mention the gender of the off-screen talent, and it suddenly made sense.

YES. It's bizarre that the reviewer just brushes all this under the rug because…Rosario Dawson was in the episode I guess? The worst part is in the episodes before this, all their interactions were forced and awkward. How is this sudden intrusion in any way cute and funny?

Yeah, it's a HUGE leap to go from popping prescription pills to deciding to slam the illicit bag of mystery heroin your nemesis left on your desk earlier.

But Arrow (and Batman, etc.) DO show the hero's time away in those eastern lands. I was actually kind of relieved to see them not retread the same ground here, as the one thing these shows love doing, it's repackaging the same cliches over and over…

"…better-suited…

I dropped it after the mid-season break. Reading these reviews and comments tells me it was the best decision I've made all year.

You can literally set your debit card PIN to begin with a 0. No joke. The computer accepts it and everything. It doesn't just sit there and wait for an extra number because you typed a 0 at the beginning.

Showing Gypsy in the "previously on" segment at the beginning really ruined any surprise her appearance should have had.

She can't pronounce T's in the middle of words. It's infuriating. "Richard Burden." "Marden Scorsese." "Close the curdens." "She was high-maindenance."

What to heck does any of that have to do with not a single character mentioning they just met someone with the power to stop a speedster, the very problem that is driving the current season?

But it was never even mentioned again.

Don't worry, based on the way this show introduces and subsequently disappears "Powers Barry Has That Could Be Really Useful In A Number of Other Situations," train-phasing will never be mentioned again.

the story beats are not repetitive.

It also doesn't help that the writers don't seem to understand journalism. They treat it like blogging (Iris literally started as a blogger, in fact), so when they do the voice-overs of the supposed articles she's written, they're cringe-worthy in their opinionated banality.

I don't know, I thought Ronnie was as big a charisma vacuum as Jay. He's the kind of guy who's face you forget the instant he leaves the screen, he's so generically bland. Glad they recast the part for Legends.

It made no sense, but luckily now that we know he has this power, it will never be used again ever.

What? They've made jokes like this a bunch of times.

[Flash writers room]

Something I haven't seen talked about:

He was very clearly looking up.