TV REVIEW: Arrow “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak”

By Justin Carter

Rather than the slow build-up to action that’s suited it for the past two years, Arrow kicks off its action with a three-duo training montage with Oliver and Roy, Laurel and Ted Grant, and Malcolm and Thea. The contrast between the three fight scenes is easy to spot–actual training between Oliver and Roy, Laurel using Grant as a means to let out her frustrations, and Malcolm hardening Thea up for whatever he has planned–but the true contrast comes with Felicity doing sit-ups while watching an instructional video in her rather nice looking apartment.

Felicity Smoak has been the most surprising character in the Arrow universe. Emily Bett Rickards’ performance as the blonde techie has been nothing short of a gift to the show since her appearance in season one, and she was wisely promoted to a series regular with season two. In this week’s episode, she gets the spotlight, both in the present day, with her mother showing up out of the blue and in flashbacks to a hacking program she created five years ago at college with her boyfriend Cooper and his roommate. Her opening scene where Ray Palmer shows up at her house out of the blue, followed shortly by her mother, is a good reminder that for all the superpowered mercenaries and sieges on Starling City, there are still moments in the Arrow universe that are human.

In the same way that five years on and off an island changed Oliver Queen, Felicity’s former days as a hacktivist changed her outlook on the world. The then Goth computer geek still had a conscience, but also hung around with the wrong crowd. Cooper was more than eager to wipe out all student loans, which sounds like a great idea for anyone currently in college, but not smart when the NSA comes to their campus and carts him off to prison. Cooper’s time in prison and subsequent hanging before his trial shook Felicity to her core, prompting her to dye her hair to the blonde we all know and love, remove her nose piercing, and take up a corporate job.

The flashbacks at first seem not entirely all that relevant to the present day madness–the city is going through cyberterrorist attacks courtesy of a hacker named Brother Eye. But over the course of the episode, as Team Arrow takes their time between stopping the city from falling into chaos caused by Eye, also hunting down Cooper’s former roommate and anyone he could have shown the program to. The action is broken up by moments with Felicity’s mother, which also at first seem to come out of nowhere. But it’s only within the last 10 minutes that the significance of the flashbacks–and Donna Smoak’s sudden appearance–become apparent.

Felicity’s mother has only been brought up once, last year, when she mentions that she doesn’t talk about her family because her father left their family and her mother was a cocktail waitress. Felicity clearly has some family issues, like most of the people on this show, and Charlotte Ross’ Donna does a great job of exasperating things further by becoming awestruck by the billionaires her daughter spends her time with and babysitting little baby Sara. The story between the two ladies hits familiar beats found in other shows– a meet up, daughter blows mother off, daughter blows up at mother (in a scene that Rickards just nails with the right amount of emotion) and subsequent make up. Rickards and Ross work so well together and the script does a great job of fleshing them both out that it’s easy to overlook this flaw. Even held at gunpoint by her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, Ross makes Donna into more than just a ditzy mom caught up in her daughter’s job. Donna is a woman who, even though she didn’t know it, helped make Felicity Smoak into the hero she is today.

There are other moments here in the episode–Thea gets a sweet new pad, and Laurel is learning to direct her anger in ways Grant can manage–but ultimately, this is Felicity’s episode. From Queen Consolidated IT member to a vital member of Oliver’s team, she’s proved her worth time and time again and has gotten the spotlight she’s deserved. “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak” is one of the top episodes in an exceptional season of Arrow.

Additional notes

• There’s another story thread here: Roy may have killed Sara. I say he may have because it feels like way too easy of a reveal, and is more than likely a red herring. But if not, what the hell, Roy?

• I can only imagine what an A.R.G.U.S. daycare for little Sara Diggle was like. It probably isn’t safe.

• “Can’t you just have sex under the covers quietly like normal college students?”