Arrow Arrow Season 3, Episode 5 "The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak" General Discussion

[Boy Scout]

The Good:

- Charlotte Ross. She was wonderful from beginning to end.

- EBR. She seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the emotions she had to display, but I thought she did an admirable job overall.

- Diggle finally - FINALLY - wearing a mask out in the field. It shouldn't have taken this long.

- Team Arrow meeting Donna and debating whether or not baby Sara should be allowed in The Foundry. That was great.

- Oliver moving in with Thea. It's nice that he finally has a place to live.

The Bad:

- I think we all saw that "twist" with Felicity's ex-boyfriend coming. Said ex-boyfriend wasn't portrayed by the best actor, either.

- I don't think the writers did that great of a job mixing Felicity's family drama in with the required "villain of the week" plot. If it were up to me, I would've focused on one or the other, not both.

- I'm not going to say they weren't fun (or important), but I could've done without the flashbacks.

- I really don't buy Thea and Malcolm's relationship. It didn't make sense last season and it makes even less sense now.

- The writers, God bless them, are still prolonging the "whodunnit?" plot line. I'm not interested anymore.

The Possibly Stupid:

- Even suggesting that Roy killed Sara. If he did, I'm going to be pissed. Really pissed. If he didn't...what's the point? That said, I'll wait for the episode to air before commenting further.

TL;DR: it was okay. I'll probably never watch it again.

 

[Boy Scout]

Oh, yeah, and Thea's apartment looks really nice.

 

[Loki882]

So did she in that outfit, and that hair, giggity.

 

[Boy Scout]

So did she in that outfit, and that hair, giggity.

Amen.

 

[Human Torch]

Well,I have to say,I didn't see that ending coming.Roy's sleeplessness has been a couple simple throw-away lines,so-if true-they did hide it well.Who caused this from him will be interesting.

I loved the training montage.We haven't seen Roy and Ollie train enough.

The Laurel stuff again. There wasn't much,but between the Ted/Roy ending,it could become interesting now.

I found it hard to believe Felicity used to act that way.I mean,the original appeal of the character was her being a "lovable,genius, scatter-brain",but now she's kinda just the "genius".If she acted like she originally did (and did recently on Flash) it wouldn't seem so contrived that she had "nothing" in common with her mom.I wasn't a huge fan of this episode,but I felt they didn't lean on the "olicity" butten,at least.

I liked the gal who played her mom.She didn't over-play the part.The villain (such as he was) wasn't bad,but nothing special.I guess he could return as a recurring villain.

I kinda felt something was up with Digg letting the baby go with Argus agents.Isn't this the same Argus led by Amanda Waller?I wouldn't let my kid anywhere near them.

Digg finally got a mask! I guess he's like Kato.He has no "hero" name,but wears a mask to help out.

Emily looks better with black hair.I wouldn't mind them giving an excuse to have her go back to her "natural color" (as it was in the comics).

Palmer,once again,has gotten pushed to the back burner.

The whole thing with Thea grates on me.This is the same character that hates being lied to and held a grudge against Ollie,yet she's lying through her teeth to him now.She hated her mom for "killing" 503 people,but now she's "daddy's girl",despite his being an outright hardened killer.I'm sure they want this to seem like some kinda dramatic irony,but it comes across as bad characterization.At least they've had her still somewhat likable.

Still waiting for this show to kick it into gear.Maybe it will now.When the showrunners said this season would have a "different" feel,they weren't kidding,but it's not exactly been a change for the best.

 

[Human Torch]

I liked the classic Robin Hood poster in Felicity's apartment.

 

[OnTheAir]

Like that training montage in the beginning.

I liked that too. Got things off to a nice start.

A lot of people who don't like melodrama will probably dislike this episode, but I thought it's pretty good. Lots of nice character moments for Felicity. Action scene at the end is fairly standard for the show, but the show sets a high standard.

Agreed...I enjoyed getting to know more about Felicity's background. Strong episode for Emily Bett Rickards, and Charlotte Ross was awesome as "Mama Smoak."

I don't think its gonna be true.....

I'm not sure I'm buying it either, but if they really are going that route, it's pretty bold.

 

[SpideyVille]

I agree Human Torch, this season still doesn't feel like it's kicked off yet and the changes so far haven't been much of an improvement. I truly feel like its because there's so many characters to focus on.

Personally, I've grown to become a big fan of Roy before the season started and I'm still waiting for him to get some time to shine and some lines outside of nodding with Diggle in the background. But then again, I can imagine that this was how Diggle fans felt for the majority of last season.

I hope once the Sara stuff is cleared up and Ra's makes his introduction, things start to speed up like they did last season once Slade in present day was shown.

 

[Arrowshieldfan]

did Cap lance and the SC mayor interact in this episode? I know they did according to producer

 

[Human Torch]

The usual rule of thumb is (and they still paid tribute to the concept as recently as the "spirit of the goat" episode of Gotham) that you can't hypnotize someone to kill,if they aren't a hardened killer.

It could be someone is just messing with Roy to cover their tracks,but if not,it'll be interesting to see how they dance around the idea to make it work.

 

[Prison Mike]

Did Oliver agree to move in with Thea? I didn't get that from the end of the episode. It would seem out of character for him to agree to that...

 

[Primal Slayer]

While I enjoyed the episode, by the end it was really forgettable and really cliched.

Of course the actual ending was a surprise and hopefully this can soothe all the people who hated Saras death. There was a reason why she didn't fight back and taken by surprise.

Roy is most likely brainwashed which will wipe his hands clean since I can't see them getting rid of him.

Laurels scenes were really disjointed from the rest of the episode but hey it was filler inside of filler so say what you will about it.

But I feel like Brother Eye shouldn't just be a throw away episode (and may it isnt), it has the potential to be a big arc for the show and hopefully they didn't just use it just to use it as the occasional easter egg.

 

[antsman41]

Holy Thea is hotter than ever...

This episode was 'different', not bad or anything but felt off. Felicity stuff wasn't too enlightening but neat to see, the ex-boyfriend hacker was a terrible actor though.

I loved seeing Diggle/Team Arrow address the baby stuff, that was funny. Plus, all Palmer scenes were great...

That twist though, ugh. I'm really feeling off about it.

 

[Primal Slayer]

It seems weird that they would try to make Felicity as this kind of "edgy" rule breaker during her college years who then becomes a pretty wall flower all because her boyfriend got hauled off to jail and "died".

 

[Human Torch]

Yeah,I like the "Who is she going to tell?" exchange.t:


I didn't really have a problem with the "Brother Eye" guy.He was just a punk kid,and he played it accordingly.He was no better or worse than average.

 

[Prison Mike]

Is Brother Eye an actual villain in the comics?

 

[Human Torch]

Did Oliver agree to move in with Thea? I didn't get that from the end of the episode. It would seem out of character for him to agree to that...

I didn't get that from the scene either.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Is Brother Eye an actual villain in the comics?

Sure is.

 

[Sterling Archer]

I assumed it's a resurgence of the Mirakuru that made Roy kill Sara and not someone manipulating him. He would have to be pretty strong to throw those arrows like that.

I enjoyed this episode. The villain was pretty standard fare but this episode felt the most like Arrow so far this season.

 

[regnak]

Yeah,I like the "Who is she going to tell?" exchange.t:


I didn't really have a problem with the "Brother Eye" guy.He was just a punk kid,and he played it accordingly.He was no better or worse than average.

The thing is that Brother Eye is a major threat comic villain that they turned into a punk kid. Seems like a waste.

 

[luis4u]

Is Brother Eye an actual villain in the comics?

 

[Human Torch]

The thing is that Brother Eye is a major threat comic villain that they turned into a punk kid. Seems like a waste.

I didn't know that.


I did get a little deja vu from the episode. Didn't Skye go through this last year on AOS?

 

[Sterling Archer]

I wouldn't get offended at Brother Eye just being a kid. It's highly likely they could pull a Count Vertigo and have someone else more accurate to the comics take over using Felicity's virus, or even have the virus start acting by itself if they wanted to go that way.

 

[Human Torch]

If comic related shows taught us anything, "hacktivists" make the worst boyfriends.t:

 

[Primal Slayer]

They could, but right now it is annoying if they dont do a follow up.