I'd love to read the off the record history. Even if Lorentzen is only halfway there, what he did put to paper was beautifully elegiac. Great write up.

So, up until now, I had assumed there wasn't an episode because of Thursday night football, but it would seem only my time zone got shafted?

I assumed they were the clothes from Bond's luggage. But I definitely see your point. It wasn't clear at all.

I'd normally agree with you, but I thought Spectre went relatively out of its way to show him carrying an overnight bag or luggage. There's even that scene where he hands a garment bag to a porter and asks to have his suit pressed.

I admired that the Bautista train fight was operating on like 4 levels of homage: FRWL Red Grant fight; FRWL boat chase barrels; Bautista as Jaws the villain — and then Bautista as Jaws the shark, with the strung-together buoyancy barrels, which must have been their nod to Robert Shaw, right?

This show was real? Wasn't it also a 30 Rock punchline? (I suppose it's all the funnier for being a real thing.)

I thought it charmingly close to an "Airplane!"-type joke, but yes, kinda tired.

The Skinner's Mom/Skinner the Box Kite was actually a reference to the Comic Book Guy wedding episode, which itself was a reference to Spirited Away/Moving Castle et al, right?

I believe it was 'Zilla Nilla Wafers.

Fair enough, but still: point blank? In the face? Yikes.

I tried to convince myself "maybe it's only a stun gun," but then my spouse rightfully replied, "So then Diggle is shooting people in the face from two feet away with a stun gun."

That season would be amazing - you'd never know where you stood in time, and the producers' master plan of treating Arrow Season 5 as Arrested Development Season 4 would be revealed in all its terrifying majesty.

Oh god - I actually forgot about that one. My apologies.

Ollie: "Thea, you're going to put someone down permanently if you're not careful."

Maybe there's hope they'd do a "Zeppo" like episode — "A Day in the Life of Felicity Smoak"?

I also think that the lighter turn is playing to Amell's strengths - even though his appearance as carved from a block of wood would lead you to believe he's "stoic action dude," he seems like a bit of a gentle giant/goofball in real life, and it's nice he can tap into that.

Absolutely. It was a great reveal, added gravitas, and didn't come off as left-field.

I also think Schiff, as you mentioned, totally nailed the layers and ambiguities and, ultimately, the tragedy of the character, which helped bring this level of compelling nuance.

My first feeling was, in the moments before his murder, X-4 realized he'd been wrong and was essentially coaching Meeks out of some sort of denial. "How did he recruit you…[nudge wink]?" - especially how he outlined what he meant after Meeks clearly had no idea what he was talking about.

That's my thinking - it becomes clear that it can't move forward without Frank, so they begrudgingly bring him back, but then he goes off on a tirade or something and gets ousted once the project is all but done.