Arrow - Inheritance

So many questions within just the first couple of minutes of the episode.  First, where were Emiko and her mother living at this point in their life?  It kind of looks like a mansion, but certainly Robert Queen wasn't throwing that much money at his mistress and secret love child.  Yet he's kicking them out of wherever they are.  And there appear to be number plates on the doors; so they're either living in a hotel, which is plausible, or a really nice apartment complex.
But wait, Emiko's mom just said that Robert used to be part their "home" - so was Robert Queen an outright bigamist; treating Emiko's mom not like just another side-piece, but a genuine partner?  I mean Emiko identifies him as her dad. And she's kind of looks like she's dressed for coming home from boarding school.  I mean, I guess I have to give props to ole Bobby Queen for actually going the extra effort.  Most billionaires would have just had their lawyer cut them a check for $130,000 and called it a day, but he didn't want to half-ass it.  

You know, I know people age and all, but do you know who definitely doesn't look like he did at least 7 years ago?  Jamey Sheridan (Robert Queen).  They could have at least thrown a blonde wig on him and smeared some Vaseline on the camera lens like they do on the soaps.

"Thea always wanted a sister..." but sadly she died.  Wait, no, Thea's still alive?  Well shit, call her up and let's have an awkward family dinner.
Oh, yeah, I forgot, she's technically not Thea's sister, because Thea isn't Robert's biological daughter; so fuck Thea....

Hey look, it's Felicity checking in on the server of Skynet... I mean, Brother Eye... I mean, "Archer".
Wait does that mean Felicity created a computer system that gets drunk and makes lots of sexual innuendos? 

What do you mean how did Felicity collect your DNA?  Obviously she just swabbed the inside of her own cheek used the scan to look for a second hit...

Okay, fuck this show and the path not taken. I'm not a huge fan of Katie Cassidy, I never personally wished the actress ill or anything, though I also was sort of happy when they killed off Laurel (though I would have preferred Felicity), but God damn, the scene dynamic between her and Stephen is off the charts compared to anything between Stephen and Emil.  Half the time Oliver doesn't even seem to look at Felicity when he's talking to her - or arguing with her or telling her how much he loves her.
I don't know I'd go so far as to call whatever this when Oliver and Laurel have it out "screen chemistry" - I personally feel the only woman he's had that with to date was Caity Lotz - but it feels like a scene with actual fucking substance between two adults.  And I'm pissed we haven't just had scenes like this coming out our ass the last 7 years; and have had Olicity forced on us instead.

So what, Emiko has been training since she was 11?  And she's.... how old now....?  Not even the internet knows, because I can't find Sea Shimooka's age, but at least 23, since it's been 12 years since Robert and Oliver left on the Queen's Gambit.  I guess the gentlemanly thing to do would be to leave it, estimating Emiko/Sea as around 23....
Oh, but she became a thief first.  As you do when you grow up for over ten years under the financial care of a billionaire, before ending up on the streets.  These advanced skills these main characters have are super easy to pick up; and by that right, everyone should be a superhero.

Even with a more conservative age for Emiko, that still puts her in bed with the 9th Circle for over a decade. At that point she's not just some kid that recently got mixed up in something over her head, she'd be a full blown indoctrinated member of the organization; especially if that's where her training comes from. So it'd be no simple thing extricating her from that organization, if she even wanted to leave it. But also, if she'd been a member of the 9th Circle all this time, with all these skills for years and year; why the hell did she just recently decide to don the green hood and prance around as the new Green Arrow?? Her mother's murder wouldn't be a catalyst for that; hell, now that I think about it, that shouldn't have been much of a reason in the first place, if she was looking for answers/clues leading to who did it, since by all account the NGA seemed to be proactively helping the Glades or whatever, rather than focusing on a single focus mission. Even Oliver took at least part of the first season to deviate from his mission to actually help people that had nothing to do with his list. It seems like Emiko went at this backwards. Or rather, the writers are pulling things out of their ass...

Can we replace Felicity with a computer?  I mean, does she really do much more than a mildly advanced Alexa?

So what, are they trying to push a Renee/Emiko hook-up?

God dammit, are they saying she was fully grown before Robert died?  Are when they say she's training with the bow to impress her father, they're speaking metaphorically, impressing his memory; or are they literally saying she wants to impress him, as in he was alive at that time?  Because if it's the latter, then she's a lot older than 23; and she's training with the bow a lot longer than Oliver.  Plus, the longer she's had ties with the 9th Circle, the less credible it is that she wasn't dyed in the wool and only trying to work as a force for good on the inside.

But you know, double crossing the team makes all of that clear, I guess.

What, does Oliver have super speed again, that he was able to cross the room and grab the arrow before it left?

You know, the whole "smoke bomb" thing may be a tried and true ninja trope, but she's not a fucking wizard who can just go "poof" and apparate out of thin air. She's not on top of a building, outdoors, where she can take a swan dive off the ledge and shoot a line out to another building and swing away like she's Spider-man or Batman.  She's in a fucking bunker, under ground.  There is shit no straight line out of where she was; there is shit in her way, at best she has to take the elevator and at worse she takes the tunnel of doom that nearly killed Oliver and Felicity last year.  She is not just in the wind because Oliver lost sight of her for a couple of seconds.
But hey, security in these places has been a joke; anyone can and has just walked into the Bunker and into Star Labs whenever they wanted, so why not go both ways and make it just as easy to get out without anyone noticing?  There's probably some rear entrance to feeds outside through a screen door into an alley somewhere that everyone except Team Arrow knows about.

Pick a lane with Laurel already, are they redeeming her? Are they going to push her back over the edge?  Christ, Xena reformed within an episode after a peptalk from Hercules....

Jesus tap dancing Christ, so she was fully grown while Robert was still alive!  So when he shows up when she was only 11, it was a lot more than 7 years ago; and he looked way too fucking old.  They should have recast with a younger Robert.  Now it's who knows how many years after that, that she's making this business pitch to him, after she's already been training with 9th Circle for years, and he's just now leaving with Oliver on the boat trip; putting her in the game a long time before Oliver. Instead of taking up the bow and arrow because Oliver was her brother, she just happened to learn it first and he learns it later....


And good God, Robert, don't be a dick; maybe you can't do something with Queen Consolidated for Emiko, but if you think it's a good enough idea and would support your fucking daughter, let alone her mother, find some way of floating the start up money to do it separately; or do it as a silent investor or something.

Oh, and "Queen Consolidated is for Oliver to inherity," because fuck Thea.  Yeah, she's technically not his daughter and he probably knew it, but I thought they made a big deal about that not being an actual issue for him; and that he was still her dad in all the ways that count.

What the hell is this beef they're trying to force Emiko to have against Laurel?

So what, the reason the future turns out like it does is because "the 9th circle" took it over?  Oh well, I guess.  If that's the case, then they already written that in stone; unless they really do intend to use time travel to seriously rewrite things.

What was the point of Emiko burning the...what, diagram(?) of the Queen's Gambit?  Are they suggesting she set the bomb?  Because I'm pretty sure they established it was Malcolm that blew up the boat....

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but yesterday's Supergirl was so much better than this, it just makes how much this episode sucked even more disappointing....