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Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "Dangerous Liaisons?"

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  • Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "Dangerous Liaisons?"

    What did you think?
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  • #2
    This was a really solid episode as long as you forget that Team Arrow knows Team Flash has a prison in their basement where criminals are routinely locked away without due process.

    Other than that, I kind of loved it. Stephen Amell brought his game and the writing was solid. Really enjoying Arrow this season.

    Comment


    • #3
      Yeah, Team Arrow won't delve into Barry and friends' dirty little secret beneath Starlabs aka the place where habeas corpus goes to die.

      And I found it surprising Diggle is suddenly shocked that ARGUS does shadowy things -- as he actually worked in the field with them and his wife is the director. Lyla's work as director never came up during Diggle family dinners? "Could you pass the pot roast, dear, and by the way, that drone strike that killed a dozen civilians in Yemen was my call. More yams?"

      And let's not forget all the times ARGUS had Oliver and the team's back over the years. A bit hard to swallow the team's moral high ground on it, which is about as solid as a floor made of Jello.

      Oliver was probably the last person to call Felicity out on it -- I would have preferred Diggle to play bad cop here -- and as expected it's not being portrayed as divided loyalties, with Alena nearly sending Diggle home in a body bag brushed under the rug. Helix didn't kill him, but they tried to. Will there be any forthcoming mea culpas for that? I will say it was a bit gratifying to see that at least some Helix blood was spilled today, go Team ARGUS! ... and I loved Oliver's backhanded reminder that ARGUS people weren't hurt too badly after the raid -- not that anyone cares. And of course Helix breaks up with Felicity, so Alena and Co. don't feel any blowback from it.

      And it's Lyla being made out to be the heavy here, not Helix and obviously not Felicity. Maybe they are setting up for Audrey's exit, but as a Lyla fan I'm a bit queasy how they're painting her out to be, a kind of a variation of Thea becoming Moira going dark theme.

      Again, they might have sold it better had Lyla been doing increasingly nefarious deeds as director over the course of the season. To have it happen like this is not as believable, especially since Lyla has been shown as a principled patriot most of her run. If it's a pattern of Lyla shadiness, it happened in OffscreenVille. We could have a debate about who crossed what lines, who was right and who was wrong -- they all smell bad, but the unfortunate truth is ARGUS is the only player in the field who'd have the "legal" mandate to do the things they do. Not saying it means they're right, only that they at least have the veneer of legality in keeping that "worse than Snowden" Helix hacker in a dark prison.

      I guess the show borrowed from Bourne this time -- anyone notice the 'shaky cam' in the beginning? I guess they decided not to do it after that, they must have flipped a coin: shaky cam, or using a 'worse than Snowden' line.

      And Diggle comes off as advocating for Felicity... over his own wife? Someone's sleeping on the couch tonight.

      I'm also a bit miffed at Oliver and Diggle in the sense that they were enablers in not perhaps being more forceful in pulling Felicity away from a path they knew could corrupt her. Oliver recognized this, too late, but at least he acknowledged it now. Diggle should have seen it earlier too, but he was in full Felicity cheerleader mode this ep. The only things Diggle was missing this ep. were pom poms, hot pants and some two minute intermission dance routine, with Akon blaring over the speakers, dedicated to Olicity.

      Felicity shouldn't get kid gloves treatment over Helix, but this is exactly how the lot of them dealt with it for weeks. Felicity's got to own her own crap over this, no doubt, and Oliver and Diggle's lackadaisical handling of Felicity's behaviour might explain why it got to this point. But it doesn't excuse her deeds either. It was a group snafu, no one gets absolution here.

      Yeah, they got tech that could track Prometheus. Congrats. But thanks to collective "OTA" boneheadedness, they also set loose a hacker who is a national security threat so severe that the feds had to bend the Constitution to lock him up in a dark prison. From Lyla's perspective, Team Arrow will save their city ... but at the cost of weakening the safety and security of a nation. Great work, guys.

      And wouldn't you know it, Prometheus still played them. Chase is likely laughing, trying to keep from choking on his Dr. Pepper while seeing them blunder about.

      We can't forget the bromance arc with Quentin and Rene. He got Wild Dog and his daughter reunited. They'll be two peas in a pod next season.

      Let's just say Alena won herself a slot on the must-pay-the-price list. Trying to kill Diggle? Not cool. Helix throwing a wrench in the Diggle marriage and potentially throwing mud at Lyla's rep as a result? Unforgivable in my books. I'd settle for jail time, but a long spell in a ARGUS dark prison or Cold War-style assassination would also suit her crimes.

      Comment


      • #4
        Really great episode. Can't wait for next week for the stuff brought up in this episode to be addressed.

        I'm actually pretty sure that Chase didn't have anything to do with the Bunker blowing up. I could be wrong (and I've even put the question to MG on Tumblr cause people are coming down on both sides) but I think Cayden James (sp?) set Felicity up at the end. Per Alena he did some "on the fly coding" and left the flash drive for her. So I think the tracking of Chase was all faked and just a way to get Felicity to plug it into the Arrow Bunker so James and Helix couldn't be tracked by Team Arrow. I'm on the fence as to if Alena betrayed her or not.

        I get why Felicity was pushing the team to trust Helix. They'd come through for her all the other times. And this guy in Argus's lock up was called dangerous by Lyla but apart from him being able to hack her files (which Felicity can do too) we weren't told that he actually WAS a danger. Just that he was a threat. Now they could list his crimes later but if they wanted to make the choice black or white, then they needed to do more to make it clear ahead of time. And actually, I liked that they left it ambiguous as to who was right until the end.

        Comment


        • #5
          Well darn. MG answered my Tumblr question

          bkwurm1 asked:

          Dangerous Liaisons was fantastic, edge of your seat viewing. I've already watched it twice. Just need your help in understanding what exactly happened there at the end. I thought that James (Helix) tricked Felicity with the flashdrive and faked tracking Chase as a stall until it could send out that EMP to destroy the Arrow Bunker. Others think Chase really was there and set off the explosion. Which one was it? Thanks so much! Can't wait for next week!


          Chase was really there. Thanks for watching!
          So Felicity actually was right to trust Helix. Or at least not clearly wrong. They didn't betray her. They gave her what she needed to have to find Chase. He just was still a step ahead. Not sure HOW he knew they found him but apparently the tracker really did find him in the bunker.

          Comment


          • #6
            So the big payoff to Felicity's "dark" storyline was:
            (a) Throwing Lyla under the bus as the real character who's crossing the line.
            (b) Felicity is ultimately glorified in her decision to work with Helix (even though Alena murdered someone) because they helped out with Chase.
            (c) Felicity isn't arrested for working with an illegal group of hackers.
            (d) No one truly calls out Felicity on her actions and Oliver even ends up apologizing.

            Pathetic. And speaking of, Diggle is something else, isn't he? During the last episode, he roasted Oliver for getting in bed with the Bratva and here he lets Felicity off the hook for working with hackers who are threatening national security. And since when does Diggle care about ARGUS's black sites, anyway? He didn't seem to mind when they imprisoned Slade, Captain Boomerang and Black Siren in them.

            On the other hand, I have to be fair with this episode and commend it for its humor. Especially the parts where Felicity told Oliver that she loved him because he was willing to do the right thing no matter what (is that why she busted his chops about not killing?), where she accused him of lying (in an episode where she did the same) or where she accused him of not backing her play like she always does (except all the times she didn't!) had me in stitches. I love the air of hypocrisy in her scenes.

            2/10. Not because it was a badly directed episode. But because yet again, this show refuses to remove Felicity's halo, no matter how many characters are made to look bad just to prop her up. The only reason it doesn't get 1/10 is because I liked Rene's scenes with Quentin. I wish this episode is where this season fell off the cliff, but there's also next week...
            Last edited by costas22; 04-27-2017, 02:35 AM.

            Comment


            • #7
              Just by reading the reviews and opinions on various sites, it seems that this episode got very mixed reactions: some thought it was good, others thought it was decent and quite a few thought it sucked. A lot of fans seem to be mighty disapppointed that Felicity is again getting special treatment, despite her supposedly "dark" storyline and they can't understand why Diggle again has become the great Felicity cheerleader (or why OIiver is always the one to apologize to Felicity!). I guess I'll have to judge for myself, though I suspect I will agree with @President-Luthor concerning certain plot points.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by costas22
                So the big payoff to Felicity's "dark" storyline was:
                (a) Throwing Lyla under the bus as the real character who's crossing the line.
                (b) Felicity is ultimately glorified in her decision to work with Helix (even though Alena murdered someone) because they helped out with Chase.
                (c) Felicity isn't arrested for working with an illegal group of hackers.
                (d) No one truly calls out Felicity on her actions and Oliver even ends up apologizing.

                Pathetic. And speaking of, Diggle is something else, isn't he? During the last episode, he roasted Oliver for getting in bed with the Bratva and here he lets Felicity off the hook for working with hackers who are threatening national security. And since when does Diggle care about ARGUS's black sites, anyway? He didn't seem to mind when they imprisoned Slade, Captain Boomerang and Black Siren in them.

                On the other hand, I have to be fair with this episode and commend it for its humor. Especially the parts where Felicity told Oliver that she loved him because he was willing to do the right thing no matter what (is that why she busted his chops about not killing?), where she accused him of lying (in an episode where she did the same) or where she accused him of not backing her play like she always does (except all the times she didn't!) had me in stitches. I love the air of hypocrisy in her scenes.

                2/10. Not because it was a badly directed episode. But because yet again, this show refuses to remove Felicity's halo, no matter how many characters are made to look bad just to prop her up. The only reason it doesn't get 1/10 is because I liked Rene's scenes with Quentin. I wish this episode is where this season fell off the cliff, but there's also next week...
                So do you advice me to grab 42 minutes more of sleep before the convention I'm going for this weekend and catch up with the show after I return? I won't have time to write my review anyway...

                Based on what you've written I think that both Felicity and Oliver should go for a therapy to Doctor Pressnall to talk about lying issue and trust matters. This way Olicity fans would be pleased (more scenes with them) and I will be content (Doctor Pressnall's epic return!). Who want's to join my action of Making Season 6 about Doctor Pressnall (and Olicity)? I can make a post on Tumblr and get ready a plan of action.
                Last edited by Amarice; 04-27-2017, 03:20 AM.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Amarice
                  So do you advice me to grab 42 minutes more of sleep before the convention I'm going for this weekend and catch up with the show after I return? I won't have time to write my review anyway...
                  I'd say it's for the best if you watch it once you return. Mainly because you will want to comment (and vent ) on this episode straight away. On a more serious note, it's not a terrible episode to watch in terms of drama and intensity. It also has an interesting cliffhanger. Finally, Rene's scenes were all solid. I just hate what this episode represents, hence the low grade.

                  Originally posted by Amarice
                  Based on what you've written I think that both Felicity and Oliver should go for a therapy to Doctor Pressnall to talk about lying issue and trust matters. This way Olicity fans would be pleased (more scenes with them) and I will be content (Doctor Pressnall's epic return!). Who want's to join my action of Making Season 6 about Doctor Pressnall (and Olicity)? I can make a post on Tumblr and get ready a plan of action.
                  I think most Olicity fans are already pleased. Oliver apologizes for everything while Felicity is critical and isn't held accountable for anything. It's how they like it. I really wish the good Doctor was in next week's episode. It would have been great to have her and her sarcastic observations at the bunker with Oliver and Felicity..

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I just found this in a review of "Dangerous Liaisons, with the following captions:

                    Click image for larger version

Name:	Officer Billy.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	13.2 KB
ID:	6628601


                    Hi, I’m Officer Billy. I was Felicity’s new boyfriend until Chase tricked Oliver into killing me. Feels like that would have come up at least once in this episode about her doing anything it takes to catch Chase. Well, bye now.
                    I guess the writers were so intent on making this an Olicity episode that they forgot about the ship-stalling boyfriend whose death (supposedly) was Felicity's main incentive for going down her (supposedly) dark path.
                    Last edited by evaba; 04-27-2017, 05:09 AM.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by costas22
                      I'd say it's for the best if you watch it once you return. Mainly because you will want to comment (and vent ) on this episode straight away. On a more serious note, it's not a terrible episode to watch in terms of drama and intensity. It also has an interesting cliffhanger. Finally, Rene's scenes were all solid. I just hate what this episode represents, hence the low grade.
                      Good point. Might need to vent after an episode like that. But if in general it's enjoyable to watch maybe it won't be that bad.

                      Btw. going to wear an Arrow T-shirt (with a caption "You have failed this city"). Unfortunately not too much DC related stuff - Flarrow and DC are not too big fandoms here.

                      Originally posted by costas22
                      I think most Olicity fans are already pleased. Oliver apologizes for everything while Felicity is critical and isn't held accountable for anything. It's how they like it. I really wish the good Doctor was in next week's episode. It would have been great to have her and her sarcastic observations at the bunker with Oliver and Felicity..
                      Arrow circle:

                      Carrie worships the Arrow.
                      The Arrow and everyone else worships Felicity.
                      Those who doesn't worship Felicity are dead or very soon will be.

                      Actually if Doctor Pressnall would be all sarcastic about Oliver's and Felicity's issues it would make her a really bad therapist (not like I don't give her some really crappy things to say to a patient in my stories for Plot Demands and Every Story Needs a Conflict reasons).

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by evaba
                        I just found this in a review of "Dangerous Liaisons, with the following captions:

                        [ATTACH=CONFIG]16844[/ATTACH]

                        I guess the writers were so intent on making this an Olicity episode that they forgot the ship-stalling boyfriend whose death (supposedly) was Felicity's main incentive for going down her (supposedly) dark path.
                        Who is Billy? You meant that guy Oliver iced and who never even got a funeral?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I should say that the ep was entertaining and had good dramatic moments. I did like Quentin and Rene's scenes. The ep was fun to watch ... but there were some glitches that nag on me. Like a bad itch.

                          Yeah, they treated Felicity's actions here with kid gloves, but I think many fans were expecting this already. Diggle actually annoyed me more at various times and I am livid at how Lyla is being thrown under the bus here for prison-without-trial offences that Barry has done for years and Team Arrow itself has done (Andy? Nyssa?). It's kind of late for them to feel bad about it, when they are just as guilty. If S5 is going to be Lyla's exit, I don't like how they're staining her rep to do it. Diggle was a lunkhead in this whole situation. Maybe Lyla 'should' divorce him -- for irreconcilable stupidity.

                          And I believe it was Oliver who -- while he was apologizing of course -- reminded her that her grief over Billy may have helped spin her down this path. As a motive, this was largely tell v. show again. We are being told it's a significant factor, but over the season we haven't really seen it unfold like this.

                          It's like Chase reminding Oliver that he has a son out there, who Oliver didn't give a thought about post-breakup.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Ratings for 5X19:

                            While Arrow is no longer the CW show with the best ratings, the series continues to do well for the network. Could it possibly be cancelled or is it sure


                            I didn't find any GATV ratings' report, otherwise I would have posted that one. Ratings remain at a steady low, and the fact that this was a Felicity/Olicity-heavy episode doesn't seem to have had any impact at all on the ratings. The long hiatus probably had adverse effects, since casual viewers don't keep track of when new episodes appear, the way the more committed fans do.
                            Last edited by evaba; 04-27-2017, 09:48 AM.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by evaba
                              I just found this in a review of "Dangerous Liaisons, with the following captions:

                              [ATTACH=CONFIG]16844[/ATTACH]




                              I guess the writers were so intent on making this an Olicity episode that they forgot about the ship-stalling boyfriend whose death (supposedly) was Felicity's main incentive for going down her (supposedly) dark path.
                              I completely forgot about Billy until I saw your comment. In fairness though, we have to applaud Arrow for its consistency. The way Felicity was written while she and Billy were dating, you never got the impression that she was remotely interested in him. She didn't even know if it was "real", if you remember. And then hardly mourned for him. So in a way, I'm glad they didn't have her yell "For Billy!" while she was going down her supposed dark path. It would have been utterly fake on her part.

                              Originally posted by Amarice
                              Arrow circle:

                              Carrie worships the Arrow.
                              The Arrow and everyone else worships Felicity.
                              Those who doesn't worship Felicity are dead or very soon will be.

                              Actually if Doctor Pressnall would be all sarcastic about Oliver's and Felicity's issues it would make her a really bad therapist (not like I don't give her some really crappy things to say to a patient in my stories for Plot Demands and Every Story Needs a Conflict reasons).
                              That's what I loved about her when she met Oliver in 3.07. Imagine her trying to keep a straight face when she hears about the Olicity merry-go-round of the past 2 years?

                              Originally posted by evaba
                              Ratings for 5X19:

                              While Arrow is no longer the CW show with the best ratings, the series continues to do well for the network. Could it possibly be cancelled or is it sure


                              I didn't find any GATV ratings' report, otherwise I would have posted that one. Ratings remain at a steady low, and the fact that this was a Felicity/Olicity-heavy episode doesn't seem to have had any impact at all on the ratings. The long hiatus probably had adverse effects, since casual viewers don't keep track of when new episodes appear, the way the more committed fans do.
                              Yeah, pretty much on par with Arrow's ratings ever since the new BC was introduced. But it's tough to say if the hiatus played a role. Supergirl's ratings this week were terrible, but the Flash's actually rose significantly. I think this is Arrow's audience right now.

                              Comment

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