5x20 Underneath

I really liked this episode. There was a lot going on, it was intense and I found myself on the edge of my seat more than once. Oliver and Felicity trapped in the bunker felt appropriately claustrophobic and they had some nice emotional moments. I'm also glad that John and Lyla were able to work through their issues. Dinah, Curtis and Rene provided a bit of levity to the whole situation. Especially Dinah shipping Curtis and Rene was hilarious. I could actually... see it happen? I don't know. And the final scene with Chase and William was a good cliffhanger. I just want to punch that smug bastard in the face so badly.

And now, here comes an unpopular opinion, even though I'm a little afraid that some people might come after me with pitchforks and torches:

I love Felicity.

Yup, there it is. No going back now.

When I first started watching this show, Felicity was the reason I decided to stick with it. It may or may not have had something to do with the fact that she was cute and bubbly, and I was a 16-year-old awkward baby gay. Of course I developed a massive crush on her, with her dimples and rambling and bright pink lipstick and colorful wardrobe. I discovered Arrow when it was at its finest, in the middle of season 2, and I slowly grew to love it for its storylines, action and characters. It was definitely on my list of favorites for a while.

And then, for the following two years, I watched it crumble to the ground and I had the distinct displeasure of witnessing the wave of Felicity hate spread over the fandom.

Now, I'm not one of those fangirls who blindly defend their faves even when they obviously have their problems. But whenever someone says that they started hating Felicity in season 4, I feel the need to step in and say my piece. And if others don't agree with me, that's totally fine. De gustibus non est disputandum and all that. But the fact is, season 4 was a shitshow. I think that's the one thing we can all agree on. It was so bad on so many levels, from weak storylines, laughable inconsistencies and cringe factor reaching critical levels to horrible treatment of the characters. I mean, they chose to straight-up murder Laurel for shock value. They spent months showing us that motherfucking tombstone and they didn't even decide whose grave it was until the last possible second. Personally, I like to pretend that season 4 was some drug-induced group hallucination and I didn't actually waste 23 hours of my life watching it. Anyway, what I'm trying to say (in my usual convoluted fashion) is: Felicity was badly written in season 4, just like everything else. And if I didn't drop the show and gave it another chance after last year's atrocity, then I'm sure as hell not going to turn my back on my girl. Sure, she's made mistakes. So has everyone else on the show. She's annoying sometimes. So is Oliver and Curtis, and Rene, and Thea. But she's learned and grown and apologized for walking out on Oliver, and that should count for something. People screw up. It's what we do. It's part of being human. Once again, to each their own. But I feel like those "I HOPE CHASE KILLS FELICITY I HATE HER!!!!!!!!11111" posts are a little excessive. Like, if we're going to whack people for being annoying, then I should totally be dead by now.

After knowing this would be another Felicity/Olicity episode I was angry. I was thinking, why Guggenheim? Why do you give us an Olicity episode? Because you wanted to and you liked it! Anyways, I needed a Chase episode but all things considered and letting the cheesy rom-com bad drama parts aside it wasn't what I expected. For the drama filled bottle episode it wasn't that bad. And Felicity apologized? Oh, it might be Christmas! I loved her since the beginning but seriously, when Oliver said goodbye to his son and she confronted him and then walked away, that was the end of my caring about her. And finally she apologized. I think the problem with Felicity is not her acting (except her crying scenes, which don't look credible at all) but with her storyline. The writers ruined it in ways that go beyond my comprehension. And now it looks like they're actually drawing a redemption arc. The relationship drama was coming and we all knew it. Lyla and Dig's fight made no sense to me. Yeah, Lyla crossed the line when she said she was not to but Dig has been doing the same and Lyla was there to get his back. I loved that they finally stayed together. I'm not a big fan of their couple but I just want Dig to be happy and after Barry erased Baby Sara from the timeline I have to admit it, I was angry (don't ask me why, but I was).

I had a weird feeling during the episode. I really thought Felicity would die,or that at least she will before the end of the season. All the late focus on her character seemed out of place. Don't get me wrong, the writers will never do that, but it certainly looked like. When she suggested Ollie to let her go, I could hear the fantom shouting "Just do it!", lol.

One thing that I've learntthis episode is that I need Dig's arms. Who knows when you're gonna be in a situation like this?

"William?"
"My name is Matthew"
"But it used to be William, right, before your mom left Central City?"
"You know my mom?"
"Actually, I knew your father, and he knew mine"
RUN, WILLIAM... RUN

I loved that final scene. I've actually had Adrian Chase starvation from a couple of weeks now and I loved seeing him again, although it was scary and reedy as hell, but he always has, hasn't it? So I don't care. The scarier, the better. But he's evil incarnate. Not only did he torture Oliver psychologically but he also locked Oliver and Felicity in the bunker making us relive all the Olicity pain. He's the evilest evil that ever eviled. Torturing Oliver wasn't enough, now Chase tortures the fans with Olicity, lol. I certainly looked like there's a possibility of them getting together in the future and I wouldn't mind it if it's well-written. Personal relationships and out-of-the-office life is ok Superheros also have a personal life to juggle with and that's half of the fun of it. The writers screwed it all up with Olicity but there could be done right. Don't get me wrong, I prefer things as they are right now but if it's structured and it makes sense, I wouldn't mind. The salmon ladder scene showed how much chemistry they have together.

I'm certainly gonna miss Josh Segarra when the season is over. He can be your best friend one moment and pull out the world's scarier and creepy villain the next, and doing it smoothly so that you don't even see it coming. That's definitely the kind of villain I love and the one I want to see. I can't believe that those last 20 seconds we saw Chase were probably more enjoyable than the rest.

I wanted an episode based on Prometheus origin story. That would be so sick. Instead of having Curtis talking so much, they should give us more Chase and just stop writing bad drama. I love Rene. He's the best. "I'm sensing a lot of marital drama" was downright funny.