So another episode, another triumph!! Star City 2040 was AMAZING!! The episode was almost all I had hoped for and so much more to boot! We got Mia Smoak’s origin story, and got brought somewhat up to date with the future storyline, whilst still leaving plenty of unanswered questions. The episode could easily be seen as a backdoor pilot episode for a next gen spin-off, that no doubt is in the works for when Arrow comes to a close. There is lots to deal with from this week’s offering, so without further ado….
Olicty and Mia
This will be short and sweet as we only got a minute-long flash of them as a family unit. But OMG THE BIRTH!! HDVKVHWDGRFJLBHSDNVSDLK!!!!!! My heart was so full, even in that short scene 😍 I had always had reservations about seeing a Felicity pregnancy storyline during the show run, but it seems like Beth has crafted the story so cleverly as for the pregnancy to not be so much of a focus-puller from the main story arcs for the season and for Felicity herself. This is what a talented and female-driven writing team does people!!! We will get the bulk of the pregnancy falling over hiatus, and the birth we have seen already here, and still get to keep some fluffy fanfic-y moments between her and Oliver in the present day. This is win-win as far as I’m concerned! But I digress…the birth!! We hear Felicity’s labour-screams (*shudders* 😬), whilst we get a tour of their new home, and Oliver is right there by her side!!!! Holding her hand, they exchange “I love you so much” and I diieeeeedddd!!!
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This was so adorable, and then Oliver’s little chuckle at Felicity’s joke? GAAAAHHHH!! Mia is handed back to them by Nurse Random, and the happiness on both of their faces, along with Felicity’s tiny “hi”, and the forehead kiss (I love a forehead kiss) just broke me!! Tears, all the tears! No drama, just a beautiful family moment.
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Continued under the cut
The “abandoned farmhouse” I thought we’d get, based on the trailer this time last week, in fact turned out to be a beautiful, warm, secluded family home, obviously lovingly furnished and lived in for a while by Oliver and Felicity. I guess this begs the question of when do they leave Star City for this new home, given that the team never knew about Felicity’s pregnancy? I think Olicity will leave by the end of the season for sure. And then that’s it for Olicity, and Oliver in this episode. Personally, I never expected to see Oliver in this episode. I don’t expect to see him in the future scenes before the end of the season, or even at all, as any future timeline reveals would scupper whatever tomfoolery they intend on cooking up in the next crossover *rolls eyes*.
Mia’s montage
Gosh I just love a montage! We immediately snap from new-born Mia to the most adorable toddler badass ninja Mia!!
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Look at that little face!! It was a stroke of genius casting James Bamford’s daughter here, as she already has some killer little fighting moves! I am in love 😍 She then transitions seamlessly into a slightly older version, before the teen/adult Mia that we already know. Can I just say that I adore the fact that she always has a little blonde ponytail just like Mama...my heart!!! Oh and who is her trainer?? Only Nyssa fracking Al Ghul!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS!!!
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What a fantastic surprise! I squealed! I stan one set of sister wives and their daughter! Much like finding Connor’s true identity last week, just this little twist was so exciting! I love spoiler-free season 7!!
Felicity/Mia
Agggghhhh these two! We finally got a little more insight as to why Mia seemingly hated Felicity so much. She seems to have been relatively well adjusted, if not feeling both isolated and suffocated in her small town (all this as well as having been trained to be a ninja by Auntie Nyssa), prior to leaving for Star City. Her relationship with her mother looked easy and loving, and I loved how her protective instincts kicked in when she returned home and Felicity didn’t reply.
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Let’s just take a moment to appreciate how chill Felicity is when Mia nearly attacks her! The way Emily has chosen to portray Future!Felicity with a new-found calm and poise is fabulous. She is such a boss (as if there was ever any doubt), with echoes of Moira but still all of ‘our’ Felicity’s heart. I loved her slipping back into her babbles over the comms over Mia’s ‘type’; Nana Donna would be so proud!!
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The turning point in their relationship comes when Mia stumbles upon Felicity’s secret bunker, compete with desktop pics of Oliver as GA and William pictures 😭😭 Two of the people that Felicity loves most and has seemingly lost? 😭😭This discovery leads Mia to realise that Felicity is still partaking in some vigilante side-action, which is the crux of their relationship breakdown. Vigilante’s have been outlawed, and painted as the ultimate big bads, something Felicity has obviously tried to make Mia see sense of. But Mia has clearly seen and heard all of the propaganda surrounding them, we don’t know where Oliver is, but we know he and Felicity have vowed to continue saving people, taking them away from Mia, and in turn, making her grow to resent the vigilantes irrespective of the heroic stories her mother has told her. Felicity keeping her own present vigilantism from Mia is the last straw for her. She is young, unworldly at this point, and clearly has strong feelings of abandonment from both parents, and the idea of Felicity being caught as a vigilante and taken away from her makes her snap. Cue Mia escaping to Star City to get her freedom, and to ‘find herself’ in cage fighting (the obvious career choice haha), and generally be a broody teenager. There she ‘learned’ even more about Vigilantes, only with the government spin on it, further driving that wedge and distance from Felicity and developing her hatred for them. This is where we see their relationship at as they reunite, a few years later, by the sounds of it.
Felicity being the empathetic angel that she is, has absorbed all of Mia’s hatred and disappointment, which I think is why she seemingly just ‘takes’ all of Mia’s attitude. Felicity also knows all too well the disappointment of being lied to by the person you love the most (looking at you S4 Oliver). She loves her so much and sees so much of Oliver in her, that it must be heartbreaking for her to know how she has disappointed her. That line where she tells William “I’m used to being a disappointment to her” is a gut punch. Yet she is so so proud of her! 😭😭
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Felicity realises that she should have told Mia the truth, and immediately apologises, but it takes the rest of the episode’s events to unfold before Mia really starts to understand the situation Felicity and Oliver were put in, why they made the choices that they did, and allows her to accept Felicity’s apology and start to mend fences. The final scene with them had me in tears for the 46232th time this episode, and you can really see how much they love each other, and their bond that still remains.
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I know she has been divisive so far, but I love Mia, and can understand where she is coming from in her attitude. This is a girl who is 20 years old, remember, and whereby in some ways she has had to grow up incredibly fast, she is still very naïve and emotionally unaware as well. I see so much of Oliver in her, as does Felicity.
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Her reaction to danger, physicality etc (hellooo handstand press-ups!) is down to training, yes. Her brooding, rash decision making and acting alone are character traits straight from Oliver. Her rage/anger reaction to the lies from Felicity and Connor scream S1 Oliver to me.
This is my take anyway haha, I know some will disagree, but I am officially a Mia Smoak stan!!!
William/Felicity/Mia
William didn’t take centre-stage this week, but he still had so many amazing moments. Ugh I love this boy so much!! His relationship with Mia continues to grow and be the cutest thing ever! Like I said last week, I love seeing William draw the light out in Mia, in the same way as Felicity always does with Oliver. All the little sibling moments that they share are so heart warming I could dieeeee! The “show off” line, “you’re just more useful to me not dead”, “oh good now there are two of you”, “now I got a sister to hate instead” the list goes on!! And then Will making Mia pose as his EA, and her distain at that are a hilarious call-back to their parents…Olicity S2 ftw!!
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I clearly have already spoken about her, but let’s just take a moment to appreciate that FELICITY IS ALIVE BITCHES!!!
We saw that Felicity had been looking out for William all along, investing in his start-up under the pseudonym City of Emeralds Capital, see my Wizard of Oz meta here. Then we finally got to see the reunion between her and both of her children, and it was epic. Her and William just murdered me.
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I love that he just went to her and embraced her straight away 😭💗😭 William had every reason to hate Felicity, something she acknowledges, but the love he still has for her after all these years, ad the profound effect she had on him in the short time they were together in our time just had me in tears so hard. Every time I scroll by a gif of this moment, I tear up (awkward when I’m ninja-tumblring at work 😬)! William, being that bit older than Mia, and having known Felicity and Oliver at an earlier point in time, allowed him to understand and forgive her pretty much immediately. I’m glad; we only have the energy for one broody Olicity baby! And once reunited, William and Felicity are a force to be reckoned with!
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I loved seeing them hack together at the Gala! And then in their last scene together, when Felicity thanks him for keeping faith in her and holding on to the Hozen for all this time ruined me yet again.
Mia/Connor
SmoaknHawke has arrived people!!
Connor following (following, not stalking) Mia and William all the way to Galaxy One to save their arses was so cute!! He is a good little Diggle and will always have his (girl)friend’s back, whether she is crazy pissed at him or not! Tiny Mia getting him up against the wall was a total mood haha! We discover that Connor is in fact Agent Hawke 🔥🔥, working for Nightwatch…a good version of ARGUS?? Is this where Dig is at? I want to see Dig! David Spoiler Ramsay already told us that he’d be in the FFs, so that was my only disappointment of the episode, that we didn’t see him.
But back to my newest OTP!! Mia was still so mad with Connor (and the world) for lying to her about his identity, then again for following her, and again for being a secret agent. He is so apologetic…that boy is GONE!! He just wants to keep her in his life! The “because I care about you”, “entire relationship is based on a lie” exchange was so charged!!!
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I loved Connor talking up the heroes to Mia, whilst still acknowledging her pain. Connor’s compassion is straight up John Diggle, adopted or no. This also led into the ultimate shade, with Mia’s iconic line:
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😂😂😂 Mia’s very existence as a child of Olicity already angers a certain comic-loving demographic, so this line was extra satisfying for me.
If a next gen series does happen, I will be so excited to see where these guys go…especially will the addition of William (and to a lesser extent, Zoe). The FTA scenes and lift/fight sequence was so so good!!
FF storyline
I suppose I should actually cover this haha! Lots of new stuff. We saw Rene interact with the Team…and reveal he thought Roy was dead!! Dinah’s line about Rene getting all the age but no wisdom was just 😂😂😂 There is mention of a terrorist organisation called Edencore, now going under the alias of Galaxy One, who Rene is directly working with in the Glades. They, along with Rene (hello new, crappy version of Malcolm), are planning on setting off a clusterfuck of bombs to level Star City so they can rebuild in their image. To cover their evil arses, they plan on placing the blame on vigilantes, namely Felicity. Anyway, once everyone is reunited (with a bit of an awkward hug between Felicity/Dinah…not sure if that was intended or not?) and introduced (“This is Mia, these are mine and Oliver’s impeccable genetics” gahhhh!) they deduce that the bombs are scheduled to detonate at an event that night, where everyone is in hoods and masks…how very convenient haha!
Felicity wearing a green mask is just 😭😍😭
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Her and William are an unstoppable hacking duo as they seek out the slimy bad guy (forgot his name) so Mia can go kick his arse!! I almost HAD ANOTHER LITTLE CRY WHEN Felicty say to Dinah “No-one’s called me overwatch in a very long time” waaaahhh!! Mia obviously runs in half-cocked and on her own (like father like daughter) to confront the slimeball, and just when it looks like she’s in trouble and massively outnumbered, she takes down the whole fracking room on her own! “Oh this will be fun” YAAAASSSS!!!
She is AMAZING in the field (a total badass, as Felicity later tells her). That cape move she did was 🔥🔥🔥 She loses Slimer in the kerfuffle, following him out into the crowd, that Rene has stirred up by announcing the vigilantes “show them what heroes look like” yaaaasss! Then, with no time to spare, Mia shoots the inch-square detonator out of his hands with an arrow in the most epic shot everrrrrr! I feel like if the new series does happen, this could be the opening title sequence shot!
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The fight stunts/effects this episode were amazeballs! I think this episode needed to be ‘big’, due to the absence of Oliver and the mixed reactions to the FFs so far, and it totally delivered!
Other folk
Roy! Future Roy continues to do things for me…so hot 🔥🔥 He seems to be enjoying being back with a team again, but we still have little-to-no idea of his past 20 years. He gets scary angry out of nowhere whilst interrogating one of Dinah’s contacts, and beats the crap out of him. I cut a whole Roy/Edencore/present/FF spec from this review and put it here if anyone feels like a laugh!
Rene continues to have terrible hair, unlike when Oliver was mayor….oh those were good hair days….*sighs dreamily*. He is complicit in the plan to level the city, but is talked around by Zoe, who he finally realises is one of the Canaries (well, duh). He ends the episode still playing the role of evil mayor, but is he really ‘good’ again now?
I’m not keen so far on adult Zoe, but maybe we just need to see more of her? Or maybe we can just forget her, like her Dad? She will surely form part of the next generation team if a spin-off happens, so I guess we will see her interacting with FTA soon.
Dinah doesn’t have much going on, other than fight scenes, and awkward hugs.
Legacy
The overarching theme of this season is legacy, and this episode is the most blatant about that I think. We see here, Oliver and Felicity’s literal biological legacies in William and Mia, and how being their children has affected their outcomes. Will is a flourishing CEO and tech wiz, thanks largely to his time with Felicity, and maybe the fact that he’s been able to succeed so well in a somewhat normal life is down to their absence from his life post-S7, but he missed out on growing up with his parents 😭 Mia on the other hand, grew up with Felicity (at least, if not Oliver for some of it), who had to have her trained in order to protect her, should the day ever come that her identity is revealed. So Mia had the parental love growing up, but was otherwise isolated from the world, no schooling, never left the town etc.
We also see Oliver’s legacy as a hero manifesting in his children. We see them finding their way on this journey, finding their own reasons and routes of being heroes. William didn’t need asking twice to join Felicity, and stand up to help. Mia was far more reluctant, with her fears of losing people, and (at the time) still in the belief that Vigilantes weren’t the heroes Felicity claimed them to be. Despite taking more convincing, the hero blood runs strong in her veins, and we went from the ‘I don’t want this life, heroes are bad’ mentality to “Let’s go save the City” in no time.
On the flip side, we see the future state of Star City, and way people have been affected in future shows Oliver to have left behind more than one type of legacy, not all good. Was he right in his choices to save the city/world? Of course! Or his way of going about doing it? Possibly not.
By the end of the episode we find ourselves with the ultimate OTA legacy. An FTA comprising of the same skillsets as OTA; Mia as leader (no doubt) and skilled fighter, William running the tech and the brains of the operation, and Connor with the tactical experience, government ties, and all the Diggle Yoda-wisdom.
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And that’s that, sorry this was another whopper….
Thank you to the beautiful gif-makers, as always! You guys put the sparkle in my ruby slippers 💗💗
Archie missing the straw so he goes to sip it and gets whipped cream on his mouth is the most adorable thing I mean seriously why you gotta show us that and then show us them covered in blood burning Jugheads beanie??? Do you have no concern at all for our hearts???
And now we need to talk about Future! Dark! Felicity (The “Calculator”)’s lair.
We need to talk about how literally everything about it proves that in the flash forward future,
Felicity is not dead
she is not “dark”
she is not alone
First off, can we all agree that if Felicity were really to go dark, she would never-in-a-million-years style herself “The Calculator?” Like, never. She has enough daddy issues. If she ever became a villain, she would NOT take a parallel path to his. I mean, even excusing everything else, she’s just more creative than that (and I think she has expressed some serious disdain for the name in the past).
Therefore, the only conclusion we can draw is that she chose that name because of its association. The Calculator (Noah Kuttler/her father) is certainly googleable, dark-internet-searchable, mythic in certain circles, and - most importantly - personally connected. So it’s a clue. It’s not seriously Felicity’s villain name.
Secondly, the tennis ball arrow passcode thingy. I DON’T NEED TO SAY ANYTHING, OBVIOUSLY.
Therefore, the only conclusion we can draw is that Oliver - who he is and who he was - is/was still very important to Felicity. She still loves him. Which means that if he is alive and able to be with her, he’s with her. (And he’s definitely alive. And if he can’t be with her physically for whatever reason, THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT THEY’RE AT LEAST NOT IN CONTACT.)
Also therefore, the tennis ball arrow passcode thingy existing in that lair proves that Oliver - what he stands for - is centrally important to whatever her mission she is on in that secret lair. In other words - her mission IS NOT EVIL.
THIRDLY AND MOST IMPORTANTLY. The fern.
Two things: The fern exists, and the fern is dead.
We know that the fern itself is symbolic of several things:
Oliver himself: the fact that he is dark but he “thrives on low light” - his light being Felicity
Felicity herself: she is the spot of brightness that can thrive in dark conditions
Overall, then, it represents Oliver and Felicity’s relationship - the symbiotic nature of their love for each other
JUST THE FACT that the fern is there, then, SHOWS US IN VERY OBVIOUS TERMS that (up until it died, which couldn’t have been that long ago and might have only happened since Felicity was “murdered”) what Oliver stands for is still very important to Felicity, that she was still lightness in dark conditions, and that she still loves Oliver.
AND THE FACT THAT IT IS DEAD is clearly an obvious attempt to suggest that everything it stands for has likewise died. That she has lost her light, that she has lost her love, that she has actually died.
