Yesterday’s episode was about Arrows shows that as many shows in the superhero genre are at the same time just another CW program. CW has a way of talking to a teen and young adult audience that other mainstream markets do not seem to understand or even care about. They understood that by placing nice-looking guys in a life or death plot line while sprinkling in some clichéd dialogue, their viewers and more importantly their advertisers would be delighted. Usually Arrows, and to extend Lightning, have been able to make network archetypes something to the side and focus on the characters and the threats they pose. This is what makes them so successful not only with a core audience who tune in to the station consistently but also for superhero fanatics. “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak” does have a superhero character connected to it, but at its heart it is a story about family, perseverance, and proving Felicity’s worth.
“The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak” begins like any other episode with a collection of main cast fight sketches. You have Roy and Oliver, Thea and Malcolm and obviously do not forget (I would not be surprised if you did) Laurel and the man who trained her. I presume he coached it? Honestly, what does Laurel do besides fill 5 minutes of an episode’s running time and make bad decisions? I digress. Normal cold opening Arrows, until we turn to Felicity trying to finish sitting 5 in the morning. Emily Bett Rickards has done a lot Arrows and he at all times gave a calculated and reliable appearance. He’s a security valve, hacker plot device, and comedic relief. This scene showcases all of those traits as she is interrupted by her new boss (give us more Ray Palmer please) and mother within seconds of one another.
Felicity’s undisclosed origins revolve primarily round her formative college years where she spent time in a hacktivist collective with her boyfriend at the time. They will break into government organizations, post their moments of euphoria on message boards and try to stir up civil disobedience through their efforts. That is until Felicity, clichéd and still working her way through her black hair, wrote a super-virus could grant root access to any exploitable server. Basically he writes god viruses for any system in the world, how good of a person he’s. She spread the virus and was able to hack into several servers where student loan accounts were stored while her boyfriend, Cooper Seldon, decided it would be a good idea to nullify many of those accounts. As luck would have it, he gets picked up by the FBI and goes to jail. So when a hacker takes over Starling City, you have a pretty solid idea of what is going on. This seems a bit on the nose for Arrows, a show that succeeds by holding their cards to their chest until the time is right. The show also stalled a bit because of the absence of villains stopping the show. Never have I felt that the eye man has a full leg up on Team Dart and it cheats the stakes a bit.
We’re doomed to go off course when Felicity tells Oliver, who had a comparatively light week where his biggest moment was bringing Thea a bag of popcorn, that Seldon killed himself right before being sentenced. Unfortunately, it’s revealed that Felicity’s first love has been working with the NSA for the last five years, faked her death and is really the person behind the hack. This is where the show’s emotional jolt begins in a rush. It turns out that Seldon had flown Felicity’s mother, playing with sparks and twinkle which earned her an instant liking for Charlotte Ross, as a way of forcing Felicity to reroute the armored truck. This allows the mother daughter tandem to put down their differences and tell one another the reality in one of the episode’s more affecting moments. It’s full of family drama and over the top of the clichés the CW is known for but does it while staying grounded. This shows Felicity’s true secret origin, a daughter who inherited her mother’s fortitude and toughness and used it to do good in the world. When she finally brought Seldon down, Felicity finally became the hero we have at all times known her to be.
This review can be summed up on that last line but I must mention the last scene in the episode. We finally see why Roy hasn’t been sleeping well lately. It was because of the dreams he kept having, dreams that indicated something he might or might not do. This is quite surprising and the main reason why this episode is B+, not B.
Grade: B+
