Felicity hasn’t showered in a week, Sara woke up from her soul coma, and Ray returns in this week’s Arrow, “Lost Souls.” As we’ve discussed before, most of this season of Arrow (and somewhat The Flash) has been set up for Legends of Tomorrow. I don’t have a problem with this because it’s been moving our characters forward all season (as we see especially this week with Olicity), but I wondered today what would happen to the season when they don’t have Legends to work towards. But that’s a question for another day. Let’s base jump into this thing like Curtis and Felicity!

In Which Felicity Needs to Take A Break

Ever since Felicity heard Ray’s distress signal, she’s been locked into her chair at Palmer Tech trying to find him and get him out. So much so that everyone around her slowly trying to push her towards the shower/bathroom she probably has in her office somewhere. She’s not taking kindly to everyone not letting her just find Ray RIGHT NOW (wait for it, Felicity. Just wait for it. I know you don’t hesitate. You take and you take, but Damien doesn’t discriminate, between the sinners and the saints… “I have waiting and seeing, I have to do something.” Okay, I’ll stop).  She hasn’t slept, she’s a bit cranky, and she feels like this is all her fault. If she hadn’t left with Oliver six months ago, she might have gotten Ray’s distress call. Stupid boys! Also, Oliver calls her mother! Ugh!

(It’s kinda cute that Oliver and Donna text. Oliver hasn’t had a nagging mother in his life in two years and he misses it. It probably brings him as much joy as Felicity does. In ways that work best at a distance. LOL)

Round of applause for Felicity’s snark this week!

Felicity is FULL of snark in this episode. Dang. #Arrow #DemBows

— The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) November 12, 2015

• “Have you magically learned to code in the last 72 hours?”
• “I’ll come with you.” “Why are you gonna build the thing?”
• “The Green Arrow’s gonna be kicking some ass tonight!” “If I don’t kick his first!”
• “You’ve faced down Mirakuru soilders and the League of Assassins. Are you honestly telling me you couldn’t say no to my mom?”
• “Chatty Cathy, you’re up. Your new codename. The only one I could think of to use in polite company.”
• “This is the same level of delusion that would make you think that my mother coming to town would make me feel better.”

Not snarky but:

• “I’m not sure our company health plan covers supernatural dismemberment.”

The honeymoon haze begins to lift from Felicity’s eyes and she realizes that she’s been so lost in Oliver, that she’s dropped the ball on other aspects of her life. This doesn’t feel that true, especially since they’ve been back to town. I think it’s mostly just delayed guilt over Ray’s death that she hadn’t processed and is finally coming to the forefront. She isn’t in — Ivytown, was it? — anymore. She’s running a company, helping Team Arrow as a whole, and helping a man become elected Mayor. That’s a lot and some of it connected to Oliver because he’s her boyfriend, but some she would have been doing even before that.

But Felicity gets over her guilt and her annoyance at Oliver and they, as Felicity’s MOTHER suggest, have what is presumably fantastic make up sex. Upside down Spider-Man kisses and all.

What we’re all wondering now is: how long until Felicity is kidnapped by Darhk and what will Oliver do to get her back?

Also, did they blow the Felicity/Damien connection by having him not lay any claim to having heard of her before? (And she’s seen him around town, with no recognition.) Obviously, he could be lying. And if he IS her dad, why would he want to be close to her after all this time? Is kidnapping her a ruse to get to “know” her? Or is he really not connected to her at all? I can’t help but think that with Donna Smoak in town, mentioning Felicity’s paternal abandonment, and sticking around, it seems, Felicity’s father reveal must be around the corner. Otherwise, it’s all a redherring. If it is, the real twist better be more delicious than Damien Darhk kidnapping his own daughter and getting the Green Arrow to come after him. OR, even BETTER: Felicity getting herself out of that situation. In the words of Spartan:

“Felicity Smoak is one of the smartest, most badass women on the planet.”

I’m a General, Wheee!

Curtis gets his first true introduction to Team Arrow this week and it is awesome! But first, he meets Oliver Queen and immediately tries to figure out if he’s The Green Arrow.

http://aaronslivesy.tumblr.com/post/133042988144

That mask must have a perception filter on it (thanks, Cisco?), because Curtis says “Jaw’s not right.” So OF COURSE the next logical step is to get Curtis on the Team. When they need to break into Kord Industries (we ever gonna see the CEO tho?), Curtis offers to help get Felicity in, while Oliver gets knocked out on purpose and Diggle gets the rest of the team in. I’m really glad to see Curtis in the field, using his skills slowly to help save the day. Also, his excitement was so fun to watch. That whooo as they jumped! Curtis is totally an adrenaline junkie. He’s only gonna want more after this. Can’t wait for more Terrific Smoak adventures!

That’s That Little Guy Who Spoke to Me

So Ray fell into a construction site and then… what? How did he end up with Damien? Did Damien feed him? I gave Ray a lot of crap last season, and it was all because the writers didn’t appropriately handle  — or acknowledge — that his advances towards Felicity were more on the creepy than romantic side. Without that angle, Ray is much better, even if he’d rather talk about bugs than people. Though, I must say that it was hilarious to think about the fact that Ray has been tiny and talking to bugs all this time, so once he’s around people. he can’t stop talking in his excitement. What’s next for you Ray? How do we get from here to Legends? I have no doubt the next few episodes will tell us.

I Got My Right Hand Man Back

Diggle and Ollie’s bro scenes are a sight for sore eyes! I love that Diggle is once again the voice of reason, both for Felicity when she’s freaking out about hating stagnation, and for Oliver when he needs a friend to help guide him through Olicity troubles. And once again Oliver proves that he’s growing as a person (GASP) and he listens to Diggle’s advice?! What?! Is this secretly emotionally mature Earth 3 Ollie? (Earth-2 Ollie is “dead” according to this week’s The Flash.)

Diggle and Oliver share a drink (we’ve upgraded from vodka, to whiskey) and Oliver remains grounded. More scenes like this please!

(That Diggle/Oliver point. Warms my heart.)

“You good?” “Better. Thank you.”

And Oliver learned to say thank you?! BLESS.

Teach ‘Em How to Say Goodbye

Sara’s been home for about a day — I don’t count her post re-ensoulment nap time — and she already is ready to leave home. At least she tells her mom, River Song. Anyone, especially those in her family, who expected Sara to stick around, really don’t know her very well. Sara’s been running her whole life. She left with Ollie on the boat, she ran away from the League of Assassins, ran away from home to go BACK to the League, and here she is again, needing to find herself now that she’s alive again. It’s a wonder anyone ever misses her when she dies, she’s hardly ever around. (Was that too harsh? I dunno. I like Sara, but Laurel put in a lot of effort and stupid points to get her back and then she just bolts. If Legends of Tomorrow weren’t a thing, I’d totally have more side eye at Sara. But we know she’s got places to be.)

So Sara decides she’s kicking it to the curb and heading to Central City. Hopefully she doesn’t kill any more people there.

(WAIT. WAS DINAH LANCE THE FORMER IN CENTRAL WHEN THE WAVE HIT? Could she have metapowers?! Powers to travel in time, for instance?! Maybe make things bigger on the inside?! Either way, there should be a webseries of Alex Kingston and Caity Lotz in Central where she teaches and they encounter metas on the side.)

Ray decides he wants to bounce too. We don’t quite know where he’s going, but he’s decided he’s not returning from the dead just yet. He probably wants to experiment with shrinking and growing. Also, as Roy Harper, Malcolm Merlyn, and Sara Lance both know, there are advantages to everyone thinking you’re dead.

Flechettes:

• I’ve been enjoying how much Thea has been helping Oliver with his campaign.
• Now that I think about it, how did Palmer Tech not completely collapse with that explosion Ray caused.

• Curtis Holt meets Oliver Queen, everyone.
• I’m not really sure what happened in the flashbacks, but you probably don’t care either so…
• Curtis’ reaction to Mama Smoak was amazing.

• “Oliver told me you’ve been working non-stop…” HOW DO YOU CODE LIKE YOU’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME? CODE AND NIGHT LIKE YOU NEED IT TO SURVIVE? — and done.
• Olicity arguing over the comms was great. All I ever wanted. Loved the team’s reactions — rather than being properly annoyed, they were all so amused. “She sent me one of those emojis with the single tear.”
• Also, LOOK AT THIS LARGE TEAM. A TEAM THIS LARGE IS TOO BIG FOR STARLING CITY. IT’S TIME FOR THEM TO SAVE THE WORLD. And I believe whatever Damien’s plans are, they’re much bigger than Star City. “The new life I breathe in this world.”

• Also, the line from last week’s flashback tells us that Star City could be a place like Lian Yu, a place that draws in baddies… Is there a Hellmouth in Star City? Perhaps opened by Malcolm’s earthquake in season one?
• That shot of Felicity alone in the lair with the chair sliding to the center of their very well lit floor was very nice.
• Diggle doing the tennis head back and forth between Oliver and Felicity was delightful, especially because OT3 FEELS! Love that he got to help Oliver, but I would have loved a moment between him and Felicity as well. Perhaps next Olicity fight.
• Damien got so offended that Lance called magic “mumbo jumbo.” SO offended!
• Also, DAMIEN HAS MAGIC. How in the world will Team Arrow defe– OH WAIT. THE MAGICIAN. Malcolm Merlyn will, once again, be the answer to their Darhk problems. While creating several more, I’m sure.

• GUYS THAT PROMO. If you’ve seen it, I’m mad they spoiled that thing. If you haven’t, don’t watch it. It feels like a better reveal if the promo department didn’t blatantly spoil what’s coming. Especially because it was a random thought we had a couple of weeks ago and that they didn’t harp on it, therefore leaving it under the radar (unlike the potential Felicity Darhk twist). So, UGH. I’m upset they spoiled it and hopefully future promos this week don’t. We’ll chat in the comments or on Twitter if you don’t already know what I’m talking about.
• Oliver writes in a journal, guys. What’s he writing about? His day? His hopes and dreams? Hmm.
• When Felicity says, “I think we should…” Oliver’s head snapped up so fast, he should have a sprain.
• Everyone gets booed up in this episode! Olicity patches things up. Thea and Alex the Campaign Manager decide to go out. Even Lance gets flirty with Mama Smoak (I’ve been waiting for that for sooo long!).

• Only the Lance sisters remain single by episodes end…
• What’s Damien’s jig-saw puzzle…?

Another thing:

I think sometimes those of us in the fandom (people who write and read recaps for instance, or people who go on Twitter) forget that we’re not the only parts of the fandom. There are people who watch this show a little (or a lot) more casually than we do. They don’t really know Legends of Tomorrow is coming. There have been TV spots I think and it’s been in the news, but it hasn’t really come into casual viewers’ faces full steam like it has those of us who follow the creators and the Hollywood trades on Twitter.

So it’s easy to forget that to a lot of the general public, Sara really is leaving again to be off screen somewhere. They don’t know that Sara is gonna be hanging out with Ray and Captain Cold and Rip Hunter and the rest in a matter of weeks. If they saw a trailer or teaser, they might have forgotten who exactly was in it. So all of this feels obvious to all of us, but to many, it’s gonna be an awesome shock when all these stories come together during the Flarrow hiatus. Just want to throw that out there because it’s important to remember that the writers don’t just write for the hardcore fans, they have to appease general viewers too. (This is something I think a lot about with Supergirl, which has to cater to the uberfan superhero audience, but also young kids who are watching this show with their parents.)

Lastly: Everyone is alive and happy. What’s the Whedon-plan to tear everything apart?