Training Day: Arrow 715 Review

            Training Day will be one  of the best ever  episodes for all Olicity fans.  This  episode  gave  us everything the  viewers  have  loved about this show all in  one  episode.  We  had  awesome fighting with our Team Arrow, we  had OTA returned, we returned to the bunker from  the  SCPD room, we had tender Oliver and  Felicity moments, and we had  Felicity's rambling back,  and oh,  don't forget  Oliver's winks!  Let's get started:

           Oliver and Felicity.  Oliver wants to enjoy this  pregnancy with Felicity.  We missed  out on all of this  with William, and he wants to savor every moment with Felicity.   Oliver says to Felicity, "I  want everything to be  right for our baby. I never had that with William. He wants to  make  her sauteed  broccolini and tartine! He is indeed a Master Chef, and  I'm seriously thinking of  writing an Oliver Queen Cookbook, would anyone  be interested?  Okay  I digress.

What Oliver and Felicity want is to  raise their  baby in a safe Star  City,  Oliver  says, "That's something I never had."  That says  a  lot.   Oliver never  felt as if  grew up in a  safe city, so imagine then  when he found out that his own Father contributed to the city being unsafe.  I  often wonder if  Oliver felt personally  unsafe?  If children  are  in a home where  there is a  lot of disagreements, they often  feel unsafe. He had wealth,  he  had everything he  ever wanted except for the sense of feeling safe.  I found that interesting.   Felicity wants whatever Oliver wants  because they  are  a  team.  One  reviewer I read they are a team  within a team.  However,  I think they are the core of the team. They  are the center, the heartbeat, from which  the team  generates it's life.  Look  how  both Oliver and Felicity have grown.  They have been to the other  side and back again and  now they  are  stronger for it.

Felicity's  ramblings were  hilarious and we all know her hormones are  in overdrive, so all her  reactions are as  well, and when  she has  analyzed the the substance and she said something about the Wicked witch of the west, Oliver has this look, because he knows she  will go on with  it, and he gently stops her.  That  moment was priceless.

My favorite  scene occurs when Felicity's in bed, and wondering  if she's showing and Oliver tells her, "You look just the same."  Then Oliver sits down on the bed and asks if she' okay.  He would  go to the moon for her, if she asked  him too.  Then she tells him she's thinking of baby names.  If it's a boy she wanted  Lucas.  I swear, if  she had  said Slade, he would have gone along with it.  Then he tells  her that he's thought of a name for a girl.  He looks down, he hesitates, because he  knows the name  he wants  to suggest may be  a hard  for Felicity to take.  He says very shyly, "Mia".  Felicity knows and  understands that it's a form for Moira.  Felicity's relationship with Moira was rocky at best, but then so was Oliver's.  Felicity so loves this man that she  smiles and says, "Sweet and Fiery, I like it."  The viewer  of course knows that the name  fits.  It fit Moira.  She had  her sweet moments  with her children.  She  also was fiery and would let nothing stop her to help  her children.  It fits  what we know so  far of Mia  herself.  She certainly is  fiery and we  saw  the  sweetness with William,  more on that later.  This scene shows the oneness  of  Oliver and Felicity.  They have one heart and that heart beats for their family.

          The Team.  The parallel between  the SCPD and  Team  Arrow ran flawless.  Oliver flipping the SCPD officer so quickly and Oliver's look caused  this  reviewer to  chuckle.  We  had Rene putting  the gun  together  faster than  the SCPD officer telling about it.  Who didn't love Felicity looking light she might cry over the computer system that the SCPD has.  It's difficult  to work with the SCPD because team Arrow knows now to be a team.  They  think as one, and  they listen to each other.

Oliver and  Felicity thought they had a plan, but it backfired, because Oliver held that guy over the barrel of dangerous chemicals (sorry, I forgot the name), and of course Midas got out of it.  This show that the Mayor, who took money from Midas  for her campaign, is  probably as  corrupt as  most viewers assume.

             John  Diggle:  John will be someone Oliver confides in because he's been there from the beginning.  He's seen every  side of Oliver and knows him almost as well as Felicity does.  When he comes to the bunker to talk to Oliver and  Felicity, he knows something is up.  Why are they  in such a hurry to clean up the city.  Earlier Oliver and Felicity agreed  not to tell anyone, as Felicity put it, "...about what's  going on  in  here," as she holds  her stomach, but it's John, and  they trust him, so they tell him about the baby, and  he's over the moon about it.  It's something he has hoped for his  Oliver and  even for Felicity.  They are  John's family and he's a proud Uncle.  He also reminds them that they can't do it the way they had in the past.  Does Oliver want to be in Slabside  again? No, they have to do it a different  way, they  have to be "Something Else".  Has anyone heard John  say that before?  So they will work with as Team Arrow, dressed and  equipped  the  way  Team Arrow needs to be, yet with the  SCPD and they way  SCPD functions.  It works.  They are able to  get Midas in sync with SCPD, and they can now function out of their bunker.  I can't forget that John gives Felicity ginger candy for her nausea.  It was the only thing that helped Lyla.  If  anyone ever feels ill, ginger works!

     William and  Mia:  Who doesn't love this brother and sister!  They are  so darn cute together.  William totally takes after Felicity.  Mia recognized his  genius is like  their  Mother's.  Mia totally takes after Oliver.  William sees  that right away, and he says  to her, "I  expected you to  say, Felix, you have failed this city."  "Well, that's dumb," says Mia, and then William tells  her their Father said it all the  time.  William  didn't listen to Mia  when  she told him to stay put.  I could see Felicity doing  exactly what William did.  It was sweet how both  of them were afraid to  listen to the tape, but I think it was more difficult  for William,  because he  hadn't heard her voice in 20 years.  Mia gently puts  her hand on his, and  says that their  parents  wanted them to find this and wanted them to do this together.  Mia fumbles with the tape.  (Didn't they have  these in the 90's?  Small but annoying point)  Felicity give's them coordinates, and  tells  them to give those to the team, and leave Star City and  don't look for her. Mia says, "We're going  to ignore that, right?"  Mia knows where  it is, It's in  the Glades.  The Glades is surrounded  by a wall.  A wall  that they  will climb over to help their Mother.  Did  anyone  catch the North star comment? She is the  compass point from which  she and William  will find their parents.

        Trailer for 2040 and what we learned:  Everyone's talking about the sneak peak at the next episode.  We  see Oliver and Felicity in a cabin. (Felicity was born in Nevada, could  this be the same  place?) we hear Felicity screaming, and then we see Felicity gripping  Oliver's hand.  Mia's  birth.  Seeing the  smile on  Oliver's face  and the joy in  seeing  his  child born brought back so many memories for me and  seeing  my own husband's joy at the birth of  our children.  At least Oliver gets to see that.  Looking forward to Monday's episode.

      Black Siren and Ben Turner:  Ben Turner, AKA Bronze Tiger, knows who murdered  Diaz.  He contacts Laurel, who apparently has tried to  work on getting  him out of prison as Oliver promised  he would.  Ben Turner wants to see  his  son in the prison cell or he won't tell Laurel who murdered  Diaz.  Laurel is just glad he's  gone, but she arranges for Ben to see his son, a cute little boy named, Connor, and  he says to the boy, "My little Hawk".  When he tell her that it was a  person dressed as the Green Arrow, but it wasn't Oliver, BS knows right away it's Emiko.  She makes a fatal, for Ben anyway, mistake, and  brings in Emiko and confronts her with the information, but then Emiko reveals that she knows who Laurel really is when she says, "Black  Siren, " and the shocked look on  her face revealed a lot. Now I wonder will Oliver believe Laurel or will he believe Emiko?  Felicity has not met Emiko, but she's  confided  a lot in Laurel.  I'm thinking Felicity will believe Laurel.  Oliver may want to believe Emiko because family always comes first for him, but he I do  think he will listen  to Felicity.  What do  you think?

Final Thoughts:

• This episode ranks so high for me, it was  one of the best.  It makes it even harder  to say farewell to this  series.
• How appropriate that John knows about the baby and no one else.  I'm glad about that..
• Dinah lost her Canary Cry because of  the Star City Slayer. It was good  she  realized that it wasn't the cry that made  her the  Canary, however,  didn't  the original Laurel Lance have a  simulated  cry?  Couldn't they bring that back?  Just  sayin'.  
• Laurel will inadvertently cause the death of Ben Turner.  Oliver will feel guilty as only Oliver can  do, and John and Lyla will adopt him, but my question is what happens to JJ?
• Emiko is evil? Will Emikio change?  If BS goes to Oliver will he even believe her  if  she  tells him about Emiko killing Diaz?  
• If the SCPD now works with Team Arrow, what do you think happens to make it all go to pieces?  Does the Mayor do  something?
• I'm liking this Laurel, should I be worried about that?
• My heart broke when Mia and William  heard  Felicity's voice
• When do Oliver and Felicity go into hiding and why? Trouble is ahead.
• There is no way that Oliver and Felicity will not get their happy ending.  Their children will save them, and together they will save the city!