ARROW: “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak” {Roundtable}

In honor of having an episode centered around Starling City’s most responsible Executive at Queen Consolidated, Lexie and I are going to roundtable recap tonight’s episode “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak”. Featuring questions about all the women we love on this show (and very little love for you Oliver!)

When a figure out of Felicity’s past returned to try and destroy all of Starling City, Felicity has to come to terms with what she did in college and where she is now compared to them. In a crisis. With only a few times to freak out.

1. How much did we need Felicity’s backstory to understand the baddie of the week? If not, are you glad we finally found out more about her life before Starling City?

Lexie: We need all the Felicity backstory, all the time. In fact, I am 100% okay with dumping the island and Hong Kong plots in favor of, say, fifteen minutes each week of Felicity going to Starbucks and babbling at the barista on accident. Or Felicity interviewing at Queen Consolidated. Possibly Felicity getting into an internet flame war with some troll. Or Felicity’s morning routine, where she’s incredibly proud of herself for doing five push-ups. I have never wanted to high-five her as much as I did during that scene.

Louise: It’s sad that it took two plus seasons for us to find out this much about her, but it was good to get the ins and outs of why her life has found her here. I might have done without the part where she really dislikes her mother (probably because I have a strong and positive relationship with mine), but it was still important to understand her. Right now, knowing what we know now, I wish there had been more interactions with Felicity, Oliver and Moira or anyone else’s strong family ties from one generation to another. Shouldn’t Felicity see the Lances hanging out now? That’d help her figure out her own family issues.

2. Thea’s got her secrets from Oliver now. Do think you that her secrets are worth the price of her life with Merlyn’s money?

Lexie: Absolutely not. I like that Oliver pointed out that Malcolm Merlyn killed 503 people, including Tommy. Because I DO NOT THINK WE REMEMBER THIS ENOUGH. MALCOLM MERLYN IS A MURDERER. Malcolm Merlyn killed 503 people and knocked a bunch of people out of business and is the reason that Starling City’s property values are in the gutter. Read: I do not want to watch a show where Malcolm Merlyn gets considerable screentime and Sara Lance is dead.

Louise: I’m not sold on how much Merlyn wants from Thea later for his training and his financial support, so it’s not worth it for me now. She’s been lied to by so many people and she still is – even if Merlyn wants to pretend he’s a good guy for her. Right now Merlyn’s still too much the ultimate bad guy in this world for me to want him anywhere near someone malleable as Thea.

3. Aside from her slip-up with the crowd, do you think Laurel’s ready to take on more responsibilities – both at work and with dealing with Sara’s death? Are her coping mechanisms “good ones”?

Lexie: Laurel’s always been good at taking on responsibilities—until she, of course, snaps and goes into a drug-induced spiral. I mean, after finding out that her sister and her boyfriend died almost in each other’s arms, she kept her father alive when he was determined to drown himself in the bottom of a bottle, while putting herself through law school. She’s been through so much. I wish she had confided in her parents that Sara is dead. That’s not a weight she should be carrying alone, and I feel so bad for her that she is. But I’m also a little tired of her being the show’s whipping boy and regularly being told her grief-driven actions are wrong or terrible. She needs supportive people around her. I’m just spit-balling here, but a SISTER would be a great person to fill that role.

Oh wait, you stuffed her in a fridge.

Louise: Laurel has never been my favorite character on the show and what she did tonight doesn’t help me like her more. I know she’s got to react in a knee-jerk sort of way, but because she wants to do so much good, it turns out bad. That mentality and raison d’etre are fine and good if you haven’t been saddled by so much previous bad news/luck. I’d rather she didn’t get to have as much power as she does on a day to day because of how she can mismanage situations now. Current coping mechanism – the boxing and fighting – is better than the alcohol and pills, but I don’t see them doing her the good she wants them to either way; it’s one form of destruction for another.

4. In the end, Felicity showed off that she’s strong and can work on her own. Do you want her to use this in future episodes?

Lexie: Oh, for sure, but I think that Felicity’s been strong the entire time. We mistake physical strength for overall strength, and Felicity proved her strength, to me, in the car when Oliver showed up with a gaping hole in his chest. She proved it again by standing up to Oliver and not letting him intimidate her time and again, and by allowing herself to appear helpless and weak to get underneath Slade Wilson’s skin. Do I love the fact that she can take out a creepy white dude computer hacker? More than life itself. Felicity Smoak will save herself, and it’s 100% that core that Mama Smoak gave her that lets her do this.

Louise: Felicity’s power and strength tonight somehow felt different this week than before. Maybe it was just because she was fighting against her ex-boyfriend who’s back from the dead (how many times will that happen to everyone in TV? Don’t answer that), or because she had a real concrete reason to work out the problem (her mother), but it was great to see her lead the charge against the baddie rather than be in the Foundry behind her computer.

5. Which woman on the show kicked the most ass this week?

Lexie: Damn, but how I would love to answer Sara for this question, but oh, hey, you killed her, show. Good job. In lieu of her, I would say that Mama Smoak kicked the most ass (with Felicity as a close runner-up). I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to connect to Felicity, who was probably intimidating as hell for Donna to raise. She’s a genius and that can’t be easy, but Donna just hopping excitedly on a plane to try and repair things with her daughter must’ve taken a lot of courage. And then to deliver that speech to Cooper and not even to be fazed by the fact that she and Felicity are tied up? Love live Mama Smoak and her ass-kicking genius of a daughter.

I’m gonna need lots more adventures with them, writers.

Louise: I give it to Felicity, ignoring how her old life came to bite her in the here and now. In some mysterious spare time, she’s learned and perfected more of her fighting skills (tell me how, show!) and that helped to save the day. I’ll give a little credit to Mama Smoak for getting Ray’s newer model watch to give Felicity the wifi she needed to get things done.

Arrow airs on Wednesdays at 8PM Eastern/7PM Central on the CW.