'Arrow' Finally Gets Around To The Secrets Of Felicity Smoak 

'Arrow' Finally Gets Around To The Secrets Of Felicity Smoak

is a show that deals heavily in flashbacks, and not just for Oliver Queen. Practically every other character has gotten a detailed look back at their past at one time or another, including John Diggle, Sara Lance, Moira Queen, Slade Wilson, Malcolm Merlyn and more. But there is one big exception to that rule, and one character whose past has been carefully held back except for a few one-liners -- at least until this week.

Despite not wearing a mask or being a conventional hero, Felicity Smoak is every bit the superhero that Oliver, Diggle and Roy Harper are. Yet ironically,

has kept a tighter lid on her past and private life than the average superhero in tights. That changes with the unveiling of

on Nov. 5, in the latest proof that this is the year of Felicity in the DC superhero universe on the CW -- no matter how difficult they and Oliver are making things for her.

Except for when Felicity brought herself to tell Oliver about Malcolm being Thea's father, and her failed attempt to talk Oliver out of sacrificing himself to Slade after Moira's death, Felicity and

have kept pretty quiet on her pre Team Arrow life. In fact,

was even more revealing when Harrison Wells listed her various academic achievements during her visit to Central City last week. But with a visit from her Vegas cocktail waitress mother played by Charlotte Ross, a flashback to what seems to be a goth phase, and present-day havoc caused by a computer program she apparently wrote five years ago, Felicity's past is finally about to haunt her.

Some of the excuses Oliver likely uses to keep himself from being with Felicity - and the excuses

uses to put Olicity shippers through the wringer -- is that she's too innocent and that his life would ruin her. But if this episode stands to prove anything, it's that Felicity wasn't always innocent and that she doesn't need to be in Oliver's world to be in the line of fire.

However, no matter what puts her in danger, the episode will hopefully also continue to prove that she can handle it and be all the braver for it, as she always is. And perhaps once Oliver learns or re-learns these lessons, it will be the first step towards correcting the fearful mistakes he's made -- and his mistake in thinking she doesn't have a say in what she herself can handle -- regarding her this season. Yet with Brandon Routh's Ray Palmer also meeting the elder Mrs. Smoak in this episode, and with Ray likely set on asking her daughter out any week now, they probably can't repair 'Olicity' too well this week.

And yet with Oliver pushing Felicity away, this has still been a season where Felicity has strided towards being independent of him -- albeit by stepping into Ray's suspicious orbit -- where she's gotten a bigger role at Queen Consolidated in Oliver's old office, and where she went out on her own to aid Barry Allen's new team even with her recent heartbreak. Yet while Felicity is finding her own light again, an Oliver without Felicity around wound up getting the League of Assassins and Ra's and Nyssa al Ghul to declare war on him.

While Oliver foolishly believes he can't be the Arrow if Oliver Queen is with Felicity, he really can't be the Arrow -- at least not the Arrow he wants to be -- without being happy with Felicity either. Likewise,

didn't really become the show it aimed to be until it fully brought Felicity and Emily Bett Rickards into the fold.

Felicity has given the show everything, and all she's been missing from the show in return is a detailed backstory like everyone else, and an Oliver Queen who's truly ready to give her everything she has earned and deserved. At the least, she's finally getting the former in this episode, whether it brings her closer to the latter or not.

is now dragging its feet with her Olicity wise, it's balancing it out by honoring her this year in ways that may matter even more, in the bigger picture that is Felicity Smoak. This long awaited origin episode is merely the latest milestone in her rise from small guest star to all but running this show, but it shouldn't be the last -- if only to help pacify otherwise increasingly nervous shippers.

Tags: Arrow, The Flash, Emily Bett Rickards, Charlotte Ross, Brandon Routh

Robert Dougherty is a longtime online freelance writer, who wrote reviews, articles & editorials on movies/TV for several years on the now defunct Yahoo Voices.

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