Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "Home Invasion?"

[bellrevue]

Turn of phrase bothers me. While Oliver might be angry at Roy for coming up with this idea, Roy has no authority to allow or disallow anything that Thea does. Period. That just bugs me. But I guess Ollie might not see things that clearly.

Superheroes always think they have the ability to protect the girl by saying no or pushing her away, i.e.: Tommy and Oliver pushing Laurel away. The problem occurs when the girl gets too curious or worries to much about the boy i.e.: Lois Lane following Superman around and getting in trouble. The guys don't realize that saying no gets the girls more curious then just being honest with them. i.e.: Every single hero with every single girlfriend since the dawn of penny dreadfuls. So the idea that Oliver would think Roy is "allowing" Thea to get in trouble and has the "power" to prevent her from getting in trouble is just a trope that has been playing out forever in comics. I could see Oliver not happy with Roy taking Thea around with him when he is going after the vigilante putting her in unwarranted danger. I would think there would be a scene where Roy says no I am not allowing you to go after him with me it is too dangerous she says no I am coming with you, he leaves she follows, she is in danger. Hood saves her she tells him it was because Roy and her were tracking him and Oliver yells at Roy for encouraging Thea to get in trouble. Again just a random idea, but from the descriptions of the finale might just happen.

[indy1jones2]

It was a good ep 8/10.

[snookie16]

Home Invasion

This was a very emotional episode which leads to a lot of character building:

-First, Laurel path to Black Canary continues with the gun was just another side of her that lead to what her father taught her. Also Laurel looking at the picture of when Oliver and her together, in the past, she has the blond hair another side to her path. This makes me like the idea of season two being the start of her path to becoming Black Canary.
-Second, we get more insight into the past relationship of Laurel and Oliver especially with the comment Moira made, “I liked who he was when he was with you.” So it shows what influence Laurel him because she has noticed the change in Oliver he has been back from the island. In a way she feels safe when Oliver is around maybe it leads her more to figure out his secret.
-Third, Laurel is being affected by the shift of relationship between Tommy and Oliver. The comment she made when Oliver mentions the work he has at the club since Tommy left, “I still can’t believe he is working with Malcolm.” Then she is shocked by the sudden change in Tommy when he leaves, “maybe I have not change,” makes her think that Tommy is heading down a dark path.

-First, Oliver path to being more than the vigilante the Hood, but to the vigilante Arrow continues with Shado showing him how to become the archer he is today. He shows his measure of restraint more often than killing.
-Second, we see Oliver’s attraction to Shado but he still has lingering feelings for Laurel. Also he can see that Shado knows that he is holding back and also her mission to save her father comes first. Even when Oliver kissed Shado he knows she understands that love. Another point is that she does believe that Oliver can do the bow and arrow with focus that she has more faith than Slade.
-Third, Oliver and Laurel relationship as friends is getting back on track. He knows he can’t be with her because of what he does but hopes for more. Oliver eyes got more opened with Tommy comment, “when she find out that she will choose you,” that is true he can see it because she always believes in the hood.

-Diggle’s mission for justice against death-shot drives Oliver and him farther apart.
-Tommy’s motives since finding about Oliver drive them to something they can’t fix.

I give this episode 9/10 because the character development was good growth, but the two action sequences were great but I felt it could have been more balanced.

[Halberdier17]

I loved this episode.

[Liriel]

-Third, Laurel is being affected by the shift of relationship between Tommy and Oliver. The comment she made when Oliver mentions the work he has at the club since Tommy left, “I still can’t believe he is working with Malcolm.” Then she is shocked by the sudden change in Tommy when he leaves, “maybe I have not change,” makes her think that Tommy is heading down a dark path.

I don't get that. Firstly, I don't see the dark path Tommy is on (he seems to be keeping Oliver's secret, taking the blame for the breakup, and not doing anything bad), though I do see jealousy and feelings of inadequacy potentially leading to problems later. But I certainly don't think Laurel sees Tommy heading down a dark path because he's working for Malcolm. She doesn't know Malcolm is the bad guy. And the "not changing" would be that Tommy is still a selfish playboy (as he and Oliver both seem to have been in the past), not that he's going anywhere new and dark, but rather that he's reverting to form.

[Who]

Tommy was awesome in this episode. Liked the Speedies trying to track down the Arrow. Liked their interaction with Laurel's dad. Bad assassin guy was pretty good villain. Liked the fight between him and Ollie at the end.
Wondering why Yao Fei has seemingly turned again.

[evaba]

Very perceptive, snookie16 ! Thanks for the insights and the analysis!

[snookie16]

I don't get that. Firstly, I don't see the dark path Tommy is on (he seems to be keeping Oliver's secret, taking the blame for the breakup, and not doing anything bad), though I do see jealousy and feelings of inadequacy potentially leading to problems later. But I certainly don't think Laurel sees Tommy heading down a dark path because he's working for Malcolm. She doesn't know Malcolm is the bad guy. And the "not changing" would be that Tommy is still a selfish playboy (as he and Oliver both seem to have been in the past), not that he's going anywhere new and dark, but rather that he's reverting to form.

I am not saying that Tommy will tell his secret I think he will keep it and the dark path may have not been the right way to describe it is more like not living up to the change that she believed in for him to be. Tommy did take the high road with it because he felt he never live up to what Oliver was to her. Furthermore, Tommy sees that it is still apparent there is a connection between the two he can never touch. Maybe Tommy being the selfish playboy will play into what he becomes later. Tommy seems to be taking a path similar to what Lex Luthor did in Smallville.

[WatchersPet]

I really enjoyed this episode. 10/10.
I am really looking forward to seeing what is going to happen next on the island!! Also, as a big Angel fan, I was glad to see J. August Richards as Mr. Blank. He was a great villain.

[evaba]

Tommy is being mostly mature and decent. He's is making all the unselfish decisions here. He's the one that looks like an insensitive clod, and he does it. For Laurel's sake and for Oliver's (who he is having issues with) and yes, for himself, too, for his own sense of worth and respect. He's like the anti-Lex -Lex always said how he wanted to be good but when it came to decision time, he typically made the decision that got him what he wanted, even when he knew it was wrong. Tommy is declining what he wants for the sake of a greater good. Yes, for his own self-respect, too. But he made the suggestion to go to Oliver's, despite the fallout and knowing Laurel's feelings about the vigilante. Her safety was more important. And then he cast himself as the bad guy instead of setting up a scenario to villify Ollie/the vigilante. I don't know if it'll hold, but he's being awesome, IMO. I am not seeing imminent villain-hood for him. To me, he seems to have his priorities in all the right places for the time being.

I totally agree that Tommy was the real Stand Up Guy in this episode. I admit that I found him somewhat bland in the early episodes, but I have now realized that he was probably *written* that way, and after the last few episodes he has really gained my respect. He made some diffcult decisions, and most of them were for the good of others-the one thing I couldn't understand was why he would cast himself up as the bad guy when he left Laurel, that was a bit melodramatic IMHO. On the other hand, I guess this was his only choice, since he couldn't reveal his real reasons for leaving, i.e. that Oliver is The Vigilante. As for an imminent villain-hood, I don't see that either.....that would be so out of character, at least at this stage of the plot.

I wasn't feeling altogether comfortable with the "love triangle" aspect in this episode. The CW network writers/producers are obviously "in love" with love triangles (not that writers on other networks don't use them!), maybe because their core demographic goes for this kind of stuff? Most of their shows seem to have at least one compulsory love triangle, if not several!

I personally don't have anything against these kinds of "best friends loving the same woman" relationships ....for example, I found the Gannicus/Melitta/Oenomaus love triangle in "Spartacus" very moving, especially since Gannicus, despite all his faults, is my favourite gladiator. I just felt that the whole thing was a bit rushed in the "Home Invasion" episode-it was as if the writers discovered that they had to do something about the Oliver/Laurel/Tommy situation when the season was getting near the end, so they decided to create all this drama and get Tommy out of Laurel's life "in a flash". There has been a lot of foreshadowing, of course, but only a few episodes ago Tommy and Oliver were quite comfortable to double-date with their respective girl friends, for example at Tommy's birthday party. Given this, I think they could have stretched out the actual Tommy/Oliver conflict, as well as the Laurel/Tommy break up for a few more episodes.

BTW, I loved your comment about Moira's sugar free regimen!

[evaba]

In general I liked this episode, but I have a few complaints about some instances of IMHO sloppy writing (I'm a nitpicker, can't help it!). In this ep, both Oliver and Diggle seem to have forgotten that there are such things as cell phones! Couldn't Oliver have called Diggle and told him that he couldn't make it to the Deadshot "sting"? Instead we have Diggle in a sweat, not knowing if Oliver would turn up or not. I know the purpose of Oliver not turning up was to create tension between Diggle and Oliver, but I think the writers could have solved this plot problem in a more convincing manner.

If the Casa Queen has "White House security", how come Mr. Blank could so easily enter the premises??? How the heck did he pass the security men that presumably surrounded the mansion, especially if you consider that he was carrying a loaded gun?

I guess we're supposed to let these things slide, but I still find them kind of annoying, especially in an otherwise quite well-made show....

[Kiarasa]

The only thing that really bothered me was the cracking-your-knuckles-death-technique. It sort of reminds me of the random vulcan-nerve-pinch-of-pretend-death they did a while back.

Besides that, I thought it was great. I love Speedy and Red Arrow (sorry, Thea and Roy. You know.) deciding to track down the Hood. I'm excited to see where that goes.

Poor Tommy. I know they're setting him up to be Oliver's nemesis, but he's honestly just a good guy with good intentions. It's making it hard for me to take Oli's side.

[Elicia]

I loved the episode. It was nicely paced and well acted.

Casa Queen doesn't have White House security, that was just a poor excuse. What Tommy meant but couldn't say out loud was that Oliver being the Hood wouldn't let anything happen to Laurel and the kid and quite capable of handling that situation. The proof is that when Ollie is about to leave, he goes to him to explicitly say they came to the house for his protection.

What surprised me in the episode was that Tommy apparently hadn't realized that Ollie was still in love with Laurel. For me that was the reason for the breakup. He had noticed the lingering feelings on Laurel's part but strangely not seen that his best friend was playing along by saying he was cool with them dating. I have to watch those scenes again but I hadn't expected that. I always thought Tommy's jealousy was based on Oliver's actions and not that he doubted Laurel... I guess I'll have to watch the whole season again... what a sacrifice

[evaba]

Casa Queen doesn't have White House security, that was just a poor excuse. What Tommy meant but couldn't say out loud was that Oliver being the Hood wouldn't let anything happen to Laurel and the kid and quite capable of handling that situation. The proof is that when Ollie is about to leave, he goes to him to explicitly say they came to the house for his protection.

You're right, of course, but I still think that given the information concerning the Casa Queen security that we got from Diggle (?), it was still *way* too easy for Mr. Blank to enter the house. I mean, even if they didn't have "White House security", there would surely be at least a few guards outside the house and on the general premises.

[evaba]

This episode had some great dialogue, but it also had the cheesiest line I've ever heard on the show so far (and there have been a few cheesy ones!). When Mr. Blank enters the Casa Queen, he utters the following unforgettable line:

"Hmm. Such a pain here. A sense of loss and regret. You can feel it right down to the wood paneling."

I presume that this was supposed to sound cryptic and deep, but, honestly, it had me ROTFL!

I can't fathom how any screen writer could come up with lines like these, or for that matter how any self-respecting actor would agree to say them....

And when Mr. Blank suddenly remembers that Oliver spent five years on an island, in the middle of an epic man-to-man fight....wasn't that kind of odd? The exchange led to a badass fight scene, so I don't mind, it just seemed a bit out of place.