Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) may have fallen in love, out of love, back in love, become co-parents and gotten married, but Arrow's latest episode has somehow proven that there's still a lot of story to tell for these two characters and their relationship.
After realizing that Diaz (Kirk Acevedo) had the same Achilles heel as all supervillains -- backing all your crimes up on one zip drive? Come on, buddy, you're better than that -- the race was on to steal the information from that drive and use it to free Star City from under his thumb. Unfortunately, the only way to get it was to use Felicity's sniffer to remotely download the drive's contents, which required her to go into the field. Or at least, close to the field.
She promised Oliver she wouldn't do anything stupid, but still, he was nervous for her.
"It's just where he is right now," Stephen Amell told TV Guide of Oliver's overprotectiveness. "He was trying to go about his business alone, but I think that William (Jack Moore) is a real game-changer. Making sure that he has at least one parent, and essentially that's what [Felicity] has become, changes the stakes for him."
Predictably, when things went sideways, Felicity rushed into danger to retrieve the stolen data, proving Oliver's concerns all too right. For a minute there, it looked like she was actually going to get picked off by Diaz! Thank goodness Oliver managed to take him down, or our girl Felicity would have come down with a bad case of bullet in brain. Let's all take a minute to breathe a sigh of relief that she's safe and sound.
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Obviously, Oliver wasn't pleased that she broke her promise and put herself at risk, and for a while he couldn't stop raging about how seeing her put herself in danger split his focus endangering the whole team. Um, double standard much? How can he possibly be so irritating and yet so cute at the same time? The struggle is so real. Split focus or not, Diggle (David Ramsey) -- a.k.a. captain of the U.S.S. Olicity -- was there to sort things out. He helped Oliver realize that he needed to trust Felicity's ability to keep herself safe and trust his own abilities to help her do that.
Fans might not love to see Oliver and Felicity at odds with one another, but this episode actually proves that Arrow has a lot more story to tell for a couple that's already run the gauntlet. They've only just begun to explore who they are as parents (Felicity is the fun one, and Oliver's the grumpy one, obviously), let alone what their new family does to their romantic relationship. The ins and outs of a mother and father dynamic are very different than that of a husband and wife or a vigilante and hacker. The fact that they're still able to have these little spats and come out of them changed (and stronger) bodes well for the future of this ship and the show as a whole.
Whether next week's finale sees them driving off into the sunset again or dangling off the edge of another cliff, it's safe to say there's still a huge amount of story left for fans to fret and flail over in the seasons to come.
Arrow airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.
(Full Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS, The CW's parent company.)
Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards, Arrow" data-image-credit="Diyah Pera, DIYAH PERA/THE CW" data-image-alt-text="Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards, Arrow" data-image-credit-url="" data-image-target-url="" data-image-title="Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards, Arrow" data-image-filename="180510-stephen-amell-emily-bett-rickards-arrow.jpg" data-image-date-created="2018/05/11" data-image-crop="" data-image-crop-gravity="" data-image-aspect-ratio="" data-image-height="1380" data-image-width="2070" data-image-do-not-crop="" data-image-do-not-resize="" data-image-watermark="" data-lightbox="">Other Links From TVGuide.com ArrowStephen AmellEmily Bett Rickards