I missed from when Ollie refused to kill Chase in the temple thingie (about the 48-minute mark) right up through when Chase shot himself and the island went boom.

I'll have to catch what I missed tomorrow. Sheesh, weather.

Arrow: Well, that was the least cliffhangery cliffhanger I've seen in a while.

Also, it's good seeing Slade in full possession of his marbles, as it were.

As for Flash, I would be thoroughly disappointed if this is the last we see of Barry. Despite the repeated writer-induced stupidity, I really like Grant Gustin in the role.

ETA: In retrospect it's kind of lame they possibly killed Merlyn and Boomer with an off-screen explosion and then went back to the well with the whole freaking cast for the finale.

I don't have a problem with Grant Gustin, but maybe we could get a Barry from another Earth? A slightly smarter one?

I think with the current writers Barry is likely an idiot on infinite Earths.

I actually gave myself the giggles envisioning the first episode next season, where Wally is the Flash and everything in Central City is running super well and everything is peaceful. But no one wants to admit that things are better without Barry.

For a moment I was wondering if this was a thread titled "Infinite Idiots" ....

Okay, I watched the chunk of Arrow that I missed last night. LOVED the opening with Slade Wilson. Manu Bennett is a big part of why seasons 1 and 2 were so damn good.

I guess I didn't miss much in the present-day action, but last night I missed the part of the flashback where it looped all the way around to the opening scene of S1E1. And THAT was satisfying. (Awwww, the return of flashback!wig.)

I can't get too worked up about the ending, because some of the supporting cast are already confirmed for next season, and I just don't think the show will kill off Felicity and Diggle.

I think John Barrowman said he won't be back in the present-day Arrowverse (though he might return for time-travel shenanigans in Legends), but I pretty much never believe that Malcolm Merlyn is dead.

In related fun times, Stephen Amell is on American Ninja Warrior tonight.

Schrodinger's characters - as long as we don't see a body, they're neither dead nor alive.

But the smart money says they're all alive. Even Merlyn.

I loved one of the early scenes, where Slade and Captain Boomerang and Nyssa were all in the scene, meaning there were actually three Spartacus alums at the same time. I have a few other casting suggestions, if they're taking submissions.

Also very satisfying: Lance clubbing Black Siren, "for so many reasons."

Barry's stupidity is frustrating because we're supposed to believe he's an intelligent guy. He's a forensic scientist. Felicity Smoak (possibly the smartest person in the Arrowverse short of the various non-HR Wellses) talks of admiring Barry's brains. Yet we never see it. He just makes one bone-headed mistake after another.

And I realize part of it is that Barry's speed makes him difficult to challenge physically. But there's got to be a better way to handle it beyond Barry constantly scoring own goals. (It would also help if they were more consistent with their application of their time travel rules. It's difficult to tell sometimes when Barry is doing something stupid even though he should know better or he's doing something stupid because the rules aren't applying in the same way to that instance.)

The writers of the DCAU managed to write Superman for years without making him a dunce to compensate. (Then again, their Wally!Flash did a lot of dumb stuff, too.)

ETA: I still like Barry, I just wish the writers didn't saddle him with the idiot ball so often.