Flash and Arrow and damn… I was surprised this week.

It’s always incredible when a 22/24 episode per season show can still pull the rug out from under you on the middle of the season. Be warned, they will be spoilers!

Lets start with The Flash and that amazing episode. The villain was intriguing, Cisco and Caitlin were hilarious and sweet and funny (as usual). But Wells, oh man, Harrison Wells!!! We had all figured it out a while back that he was the man on the yellow suit, but now he’s not only gazing at his suit, he’s speeding. Oh yeah people, Wells is running (Flash running) and leaving behind a red lighting. But something is wrong though, he’s not able to maintain the speed and in fact, for a moment there, he’s not even able to stand up. This beg the question, is he really the “Reverse Flash” we saw a couple of episodes ago? Or they are in fact the same person at different moments in time?!

Damn it, it looks like The Flash writers really know what they’re doing. Perfect moments come whenever Joe and Barry share the same space, their relationship is just magic – and Joe might just be my favourite character on this show. Even Iris was pretty OK this week.

Now lets move on to Arrow and Team Arrow shines one more. For me this episode really brought Roy and Laurel up.

It’s so amazing to see Roy be a man, something he’s not often allowed the chance to be, being the youngest of them all, but here he helps Laurel come to her own, he stands up for Thea and wow, his fight choreographies are just the best.

Laurel Lance, wow, and I never thought I would say this, but wow. They are doing it so right. They are showing how not like her sister she is, but how she deserves a chance to prove that she’s capable. I’m glad she gets her ass kicked and is almost shot, and falls when she tries to jump, and that suit, ugly as hell, but hey, by the end of the episode I couldn’t help but like her a bit more (which in all honesty, was not hard at all).

Felicity finally came around, realizing that the heroes fight for those they love who are still alive and goes to help not only Team Arrow, but Ray Palmer as well. I did not like that closeness between them when she was patching his wounds, though I admit, Ray Palmer is really growing on me (and I would totally watch his would be spin-off).

Oliver is standing! Oh yeah! Did Tatsu really just treated him with traditional medicine and penicillin? And could have happen that as made Maseo leave his wife? Was he somewhat responsible for their child’s death? Just trying to guess here.

Well done Thea, though I do not approve of her relationship with her father, I did like to see her standing her ground and lecturing him, it was nice for a change to see how grown up she’s gotten. And what about that last scene, hey?! So her DJ/Wannabe Boyfriend is a member of the League?! I did not see that one coming!

The fighting on this episode was insanely good. Between the Arsenal/Black Canary team up and the flashbacks to Hong Kong with Maseo and Tatsu and Oliver fighting, and Tatsu and Maseo killing those League members like it was nothing… brutal! Amazing!

Arrow: Left Behind

Arrow is back and let me take a moment to wipe all the tears away (and now my headache just got bigger). Left behind is an incredible well chosen title… Oliver is gone and everyone is feeling a little left behind… Caution, there will be spoilers.

With Oliver gone for 3 days, Team Arrow does its best to keep the baddies of the streets, with Diggle wearing the Arrow’s costume and being a rather bad bowman. Still, Roy and Diggle raise to the challenge and do their best, while Felicity commands the troops from the Arrow cave, all the while maintaining that Ollie will be back, he has always came back before. The boys though, are not so sure and John tries to warn her that she should ready herself, that maybe this time things did not went Oliver’s way, but she’s having none of it.

It’s not until Malcolm gets there (for the second time) with the sword that killed Ollie, with his blood all over it, that she crumbles and admits that he is gone. Then, unable to process her grief, she tells off Ray on his plans for the ATOM suit, saying that she can’t lose another friend, and allows the bad guys to run off with a bunch of evidences, which will allow most of the people they had put away for the last 8 months go free, because she was afraid to lose Diggle and Roy too. This leads her to conclude that there is no “it” without Oliver, she’s DONE.

Roy is broken by the lost of his friend and mentor, and Diggle is as lost as Felicity, not knowing where to go from there. Meanwhile Laurel deals the only way she can, she puts on her sister’s Canary costume and off to the street she goes, after the bad guys that were released for lack of evidences.

Meanwhile, in the flashbacks to Hong Kong, we learn that Oliver went against Waller’s orders and helped Maseo in getting Tatsu back. And this is the reason he’s alive, Maseo takes him to Tatsu in order for her to save him (as to how, I assume we are going to learn next week). So, take a deep breath people, Oliver Queen is ALIVE!

• This was probably the first episode (ever) that I did not find Laurel insufferable. The fact that she consoled Diggle and stayed strong, made me like her a bit.

• David Ramsey and Emily Bett Rickards owed this episode!

• I loved that Thea is worried about her brother (finally), but poor girl, she can put together that her ex boyfriend is Arsenal, but can’t get to the conclusion that her brother, that is always with Roy, is in fact the Arrow?!

• Where is the hallowed ground where they fight their battles? Because they can get there in next to no time, but the weather is totally different.

• So, are Malcolm and Thea going on the run? Or is she putting her foot down?!

Arrow: The Climb

This Arrow winter finale was heartbreaking and totally unexpected… there will be a lot of spoilers…

Ra’s al Ghul and The League of Assassins give Oliver 48 hours to deliver Sara’s killer to them, otherwise they will kill 50 people a day. This puts a rush on team Arrow to find the killer, which they do. The DNA from the arrow matches Oliver’s and this leads him to think that Malcom Merlin set him put. They’re able to find out that Malcom was indeed in town when Sara was killed, but more, he wasn’t alone, Thea was with him. So Oliver asks her about Merlin and she plain out lies to him. So he returns as the Arrow to ask some questions and she fights him and gets away (while defending Merlin). Soon after Merlin seeks out Oliver and shows him a video of Thea murdering Sara, while under the influence of a powerful drug that made her susceptible to suggestion and then she forgot everything. Knowing that the League will hold her guilty (even with the knowledge that Malcolm drugged her), Oliver has no other choice than to take his sister place and reveal himself as Sara’s killer to Ra’s al Ghul, Nyssa and the others and demand a trial by combat, which leaves him with 13 hours to set his affairs in order.

Oliver then says his goodbyes, warning Thea that Malcolm is not to be trusted (which she ignores completely), saying goodbye to Roy and urging him to protect Thea, declining John’s offer to accompanying him and saying goodbye to Felicity, where she asks him to kill Ra’s al Ghul and he tells her that he loves her. He then proceeds to the CLIMB, ultimately arriving to the neutral ground that Ra’s has set for their match… obviously he loses, ending up with a blade through his chest and falling from the top of the mountain…

Everywhere else, Dinah Lance arrives to town and notices right away that something isn’t right, Laurel crumbles and tell her that Sara is dead, promising to make whoever did it pay, to which Dinah is all for. Meanwhile, Ray shows Felicity his plans for the ATOM suit and asks her help to protect the people in the city.

• How could Thea defend Malcolm? No, seriously, she knows what he is and still, when Oliver is warning her she tells him not to make her choose?! WTF Thea?! Between a brother who would die for her or a father that uses her, she would have a problem choosing?!

• Thea is bad for Ollie, right? I mean, here is this guy literally dying for his sister and she, who complained so much about all the lies last year, is lying to his face? This dynamic needs to change.

• Nice tie-in with The Flash.

• Did Ra’s al Ghul just said that no one has challenged him in 67 years? How fu**ing old is he?

• How could Nyssa believe Oliver? Nissa knows him and she knew Sara, how could she ever, for a moment, believe that he would kill her… I wouldn’t find weird that she would ask, he would never do it.

• Laurel is just plain weird, so she keeps secret from dad for months, then in a matter of two days blabs about it to Thea (ironic much) and then to her mother, whom she hardly sees?!

• Oliver and Roy’s hug drove me to tears. This guy is the true Speedy!

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• However, that simple and curt handshake with John Diggle said more than hours of words would.

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• My heart literally broke when Oliver said his last “I love you” to Felicity. It was all calm and certainty and heartbreak… damn you!

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• Why is everyone so convinced that Oliver can win in his match with Ra’s is beyond me, first Malcolm Merlyn and then Felicity seem sure that he can win… fools! To Malcolm is good either way, still, it would have been better for Oliver to win.

• Maseo is in the League because something bad happened, right? He would never have join if his wife and son were not dead, so will we be seeing them murdered during the rest of the season? Tatsu can have a swordfight in every episode from now on… I approve!

• Ray is cute and all, but this episode should have been all about Oliver, Felicity and Ray just took up to much time 😦 …

• This… 😥

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• What I think will happen next: Maseo will find Oliver still alive and lie to Ra’s al Ghul, saying that he is in fact dead (because let’s not forget that Maseo clearly told him that he wanted him alive and all); the fall wasn’t as high as I originally though (as seen in the preview for the next episode), so this will mean that Ollie is alive (duh!) and he’ll probably be out of commission for a bit, but alive. No I’m gonna go and cry in the corner… January can’t come fast enough…

Now I’m up to date on Arrow!

I’m finally up to date with Arrow. Season 3 has been strong so far, here are some thoughts on the episodes until now:

• It’s great to see them as a team – a real team!

• Serious Oliver?! You have a problem with baby Sara being in the secret lair? Diggle is right: “who is she gonna tell?”??? Are you really uncomfortable around babies?

• BTW, Ollie, I like you better with a bow and arrow, though I must admit that you DO know how to use a gun 😉

• I like kickass Thea a lot, but for one who game her brother and mother such backlash because they were keeping secrets from her, shouldn’t she be behaviouring kind of different? I know Malcom is her dad n’all, but flat out lying like that? That’s not good!

• Can someone take Laurel away ASAP?! What’s she doing in the show anyway? She’s angry all the time and does nothing more than mess up all the time. She’s lying to her dad!!!! She’s just not a good character… Can we trade her for grown-up Sara?

• Felicity, I love you girl, but you have to stop crying. Since the season begun, I think you cried in every single episode… come on…

• Still on you Felicity: so, Ollie basically tells you (AGAIN) that he loves you, and you go “oh, look at the time… better dash!” ?!?!?!?! Seriously?! No talk or anything? The boy was trying…

• By the way, I want an apartment just like Felicity’s… or Thea’s, I would be OK either way…

• Ray Palmer… I wasn’t expecting to like him, but I do, a lot. A lot a lot. To the point where I wouldn’t mind if he and Felicity got together… but not for long, ok?! Ollie is still number one in her (and mine) heart!

• No way Roy is involved in Sara’s death, right? He can’t be. Not now, that he’s so in sync with the Arrow and everything – seriously, how many hours a day does the guy trains, because he’s kicking ass!

• How cute is Diggle with that baby, right?!