This week we got to see a little bit of Felicity’s past and a little bit of her dark side. As always, with my reviews, please be aware of spoilers. I am assuming you have seen this episode, and are wondering what I thought of it. If you are looking for a review without spoilers, please look somewhere else. I don’t want to ruin it for you. You have been warned.
The Good
We finally get a little depth to Felicity’s character. She has always been a nice addition to the show, but there was always a little something lacking. She was just there, no back story, no history, nothing. Now we know a little bit more about her, and frankly, it is a good thing she is on our side. She played the bad girl very well, and it was interesting to see the always straight arrow Felicity breaking rules and laws just for fun. I liked the back story, and it goes a long way to explain why she is so straight arrow now.
The very end was interesting as well. If you haven’t seen this episode, and you are planning on watching it, please stop reading this right now. I don’t normally offer an additional spoiler warning, but I am this time because the ending was a shock, at least for me. Just so you don’t accidentally see the spoiler, here is a picture of one of my favorite comic book covers of all time:
Now, if you have made it this far, it is by your own choice, so I can’t be held responsible for what you read next. What the heck?! Did Roy really kill Sara? Is that really how it went down? As he was having that dream, I couldn’t believe it, but he was seeing it just like it happened and it showed him as the one who threw the arrows. That was quite the twist and the cliff hanger. I can’t wait for the next episode to see if we start getting any answers. This twist at the end was the best part of the episode.
The Bad
This episode was painfully predictable. When Felicity’s mom showed up, I knew she had to be roped in with the hacker attacks on the city. In fact, when the hacker attacks started happening, I knew 2 things: 1. It was Felicity’s super virus, and 2. It was her college boyfriend. Even when she said he was dead, I still knew it was him. All the twists and turns were just so painfully obvious, it was almost silly. I really enjoy Arrow, and I know there is always a little bit of predictability in each episode, maybe more than some might enjoy, but I can usually look past it because I like the show so much. This episode was just over the top. I couldn’t ignore it. The only twist I didn’t see was the one at the very end with Roy. (Again, seriously?!)
The Final Verdict
This episode helps very little to move the story along, and it interrupts Ollie’s Hong Kong story and really, other than the final twist, it doesn’t do a lot to bring us into the next chapter. Really, all this episode did was provide Felicity with a little depth and back story. Other than that and Roy murdering Sara, this episode could be skipped, and I don’t think you would be terribly lost. I don’t think it will be one that I will watch over and over again. I saw it once, got the shock, now I am ready to move on to the next episode. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it is a little better.
