I like Shado, but I hope she's dead for good. They've already brought Merlyn and Sara back from the dead - pretty soon, the emotional impact from deaths won't matter anymore because we'll just assume they'll show up alive later.

The scene was played pretty ambiguously, but I'm leaning towards he chose to save Sara. He's known her longer and he'd already been blaming himself for her death so it would make sense that given another chance to not be culpable in her death again, he would choose differently. Plus Laurel-related feelings.

I was thinking the exact same thing, that Slade would make Oliver choose between Laurel and Felicity and sentencing one of them to the same death Shado got. The writers do love their parallels and as far as hurting Oliver goes, that's pretty much as high up on the list as you can get.

I'm mostly okay with it because the fridging isn't exclusive to female characters. Tommy is still the biggest fridging of the show.

What reaaaalllllyyyyyy gets my goat about SHIELD is that it seems the showrunners won't even admit there's anything wrong. Lots of shows have been shitty in their first seasons and taken a while to find their feet. But the difference is a recognition and an acknowledgement in the writers' room that there is something…

He's way less cut than he was last season. Not saying he needs to join Weight Watchers any time soon but last season, he was so ridiculously built he was walking funny.

The second Lance's partner mentioned shopping with his wife, I was like 'ooh, you know he dead'.

I think he gets better with every episode. I liked the hints of meek, timid Island!Oliver that came out in his present day hallucination fight with Slade.

I thought about that too. The show seemed to imply Oliver was just nuts and going full Tyler Durden and just whacking himself in the face over and over but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out he wasn't actually hallucinating.

Ivo Sophie's Choice-ing Oliver was ICE COLD, but also kind of random. Like…why? Unless he just wanted to mess with Ollie's head which, JOB WELL DONE, but it seemed a little out of the blue. Also did Slade end up killing Ivo at the end or did he manage to escape?

I still don't know which is which. Oops.

This would be a pretty good episode if I gave a shit about any of the characters.

Yeah, Amell's accent borders on Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables territory sometimes, it's actually kind of cute.

Just watch the whole thing. Even the shitty episodes have necessary character development and interactions.

It probably won't happen because you know, the CW, but I hope they end it when it feels right and the story's come to a natural end instead of dragging it out ten increasingly frustrating seasons like Smallville.

Seriously.

I really think you're projecting a lot of weird fandom shit onto the show and the writing where it doesn't actually exist at all…

Right? The score was so twinkly and whimsical and fun. It was just so superhero-y. We never got that when Arrow started because Ollie is so depressing and grumpy 99% of the time. < — said with love

Probably how they did it on Smalville with a little 'whoosh'

I loved this episode. It did feel a little stuffed and a lot of characters are getting underserved (seriously, how many more examples do we need of Laurel being completely and totally UNNECESSARY to this show?), but I loved their reincarnation of Flash and Grant Gustin did a great job making him so endearing in such a…