During last week’s episode of Arrow , viewer’s saw the aftermath of the midseason finale when Oliver Queen’s (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak’s ( Emily Bett Rickards ) limousine was shot to pieces, leaving Felicity to appear dead.
It was learned very quickly in the second half of Season 4 that Felicity isn’t dead but in “another” surgery. Smoak spends most of the episode in the hospital, going in and out of surgery. But when she emerges from the surgeries, she’s got some news for Oliver Queen: she is paralyzed.
“We haven’t exchanged vows,” Smoak tells Oliver in regards to his marriage proposal, “so the whole for better or worse thing doesn’t apply.”
But Oliver didn’t take the opportunity to back out of the marriage that is now more than what he initially signed up for, saying, “For better or for worse,” then he slips the engagement ring onto Felicity’s finger. All seems right again for the couple while they share a moment together at the hospital.
However, four months from now, which will be right around the time of the season finale, we see that Oliver is back at the grave site seen in the flash-forward from the season premiere. All season fans speculated that the grave belonged to Felicity, except this time Oliver heads back to a limo where Felicity is waiting with some surprising words for Oliver.
“You have to kill him,” a teary-eyed Felicity, who is dressed in all black but alive and well, tells Oliver.
Meanwhile, one thing that perhaps fans missed in the preview, but was noticed by Zap2It , was what wasn’t on Felicity’s finger during her cold words to Oliver – her engagement ring.
And while there are a number of explanations for the ring’s disappearance, perhaps the most logical is the repercussions from when Arrow crossed over with The Flash .
During the crossover episodes, Oliver is reunited with Samantha Clayton, who had a son with Oliver but never told him. During the episode, Oliver promised Samantha that he wouldn’t tell anyone that he is, in fact, Williams father.
“It’s definitely going to come to a head in the middle of the season,” showrunner Wendy Mericle stated to reporters during a viewing of the crossover episodes. “I can’t tell you exactly how that’s going to happen. But… obviously for the arc of Oliver and Felicity’s relationship this season, the fact that he’s keeping this from her—true to what we’ve done on the show, if there’s a secret somewhere, it’s going to to come out and it’s going to have some serious consequences.”
Mericle went on to say, “We’re really excited about how that’s going to change things, and it’s really going to raise the stakes and throw some wrenches into the works of their relationship—which so far this season has been pretty smooth sailing. True to form, we’re going to really mine that. There’ll be some fallout for both of them.”
And while the show cleverly used the sudden “death” of Felicity in the midseason finale to distract viewers from all this fallout and consequences talk, the glimpse into the future rested the minds of fans about the fate of Felicity but also brought up the ringless finger she was sporting.
Could the engagement and wedding being called off over Oliver’s secret he kept from her? Is this the fallout and the consequences Mericle was talking about?
During an interview with ComicBook , she was asked about it, saying that it is definitely something that could be read into.
Nevertheless, the future of Oliver and Felicity was always up for a major change, especially in the clip for the next all-new episode. In the preview, Felicity is back to work with the Arrow team, but it seems she may not be there for long. Check it out below.
Arrow airs on Wednesday’s on The CW.
Tell us! What do you think will cause the split between Oliver and Felicity? Will they get back together before the end of Season 4 of Arrow ? Let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzEqoRUEBJ0
[Image via The CW]