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'The Arrow' Season 3, Episode 5, "The Secret Origin Of Felicity Smoak"

Cristian Pagan |
November 6, 2014 | 3:04 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

Felicity with Cooper during college (The CW)
Felicity with Cooper during college (The CW)
This episode is one of the best episodes of the show's history. It had a lot of drama and revelations that audiences have been waiting for. The episode starts out with a lot of fight training. It starts with Roy vs. Oliver, Laurel vs her boxing trainer, and Thea vs Malcolm. Oliver tells Roy that he is not being really himself and Roy explains that this is due to his lack of sleep.

Well, while everyone is out training and fighting, we cut to how Felicity stays in shape for the action....by doing crunches and home workout videos. This is why we love Felicity. She gets a visit from Ray who tries to talk to her about work. He doesn't even let her get coffee! But anyways, they hear another knock at the door, and we meet Felicity's mom, Donna, for the first time. 

READ MORE: 'The Arrow Season 3, Episode 3: 'Corto Maltese

She is the complete opposite of Felicity. She is dressed in a very provocative, tight, short, colorful dress. She doesn't even know how to send a text, which is ironic considering Felicity is a technological genius. She meets Ray who she is very familiar with since she is wearing a watch he designed. Ray ends up giving her his latest watch that he is wearing which is basically like a mini-computer. The story then goes into the first flashback we ever see of Felicity. It goes back five years to when Felicity was in college. She is completely different. She has her natural color of black; she is being very flirty, sensual, and gothic.

She starts making out with Cooper, who used to be her boyfriend. Felicity created a super virus that they utilize to hack into the government database. Once in, they have 30 seconds before the firewall kicks back up and Cooper tries to use the time to wipe out all student loans in the system. Felicity and their other friend, Myron, freak out because that is not what they planned and such a big hack will result in them being arrested. Felicity ends up pulling the plug before Cooper can delete all of the records. 

Back in the present, Oliver meets Thea at her newly bought loft. It is a huge and beautiful apartment that looks very expensive. When Oliver asks how she is affording it, Thea tells him that she is using the money that Malcolm left to her. Oliver gets very irritated and defensive at the idea that she is using dirty money from the murderer who killed 503 people, including her brother. Thea shows that she made her choice and he needs to deal with it and welcome her into her new home or just not show up.

After their argument, Oliver notices that all the electricity in the buildings across from the loft start going off. It is happening all over the city. Electricity is shutting off everywhere ranging from buildings to streetlamps. Then a message is displayed on all the tv screens stating that they are an organization called Rubber mind and they now have control of all the networks and connections in Starling City. The lights turn off and the team gets to work to solve the issue. 

At the club where the cave is located, Felicity's mom, Donna, meets Oliver and John and they notice how completely different she is from Felicity. John brings his baby but Oliver doesn't feel comfortable bringing her into the cave so he gives her to Donna to take care off. Felicity tries to track the virus but it is a very complicated software that deleted itself before it could be detected. She sets up systems to nail down the software, unfortunately, this requires the hackers to strike again in order to do anything. 

In the next flashback, we see Felicity freacking out about the hack (while her mom is trying to get her to get a fake ID). Felicity tells Cooper that he messed with the system so much that traces of the virus were left behind and can result in a backtrace. Sure enough, the FBI show up and end up taking Cooper captive, leaving Felicity hysteric. 

In the next message by the hackers, they threaten to eliminate the money from the bank databases. As a result, a riot breaks out at the banks as people are trying to get their money out before the bank accounts are wipped. Laurel makes situations worse since she is acting as Distric Attorney since the actual one is not in town, and she sends a group of the city militia to hold down the bank. The tension escalates until Oliver and Roy use tear gas to separate the crowd, but that can only hold them off for so long.

Felicity realizes she can't stop the virus (The CW)
Felicity realizes she can't stop the virus (The CW)
Felicity manages to trace back the virus but only to realize that she cannot stop it, for it is her own super virus that she created five years ago. Felicity has a mini breakdown trying to explain to Oliver about the history of the virus. The virus was created to hack into any infected system and the plan was to use it for good and expose fraud, corruption, etc. The only other person who has access to the virus is Myron. Into a flashback, we see Felicity visit Cooper in prison.

Felicity wanted to confess and tell the guards that she was the one who created the virus but Cooper already confessed to it in order to protect Felicity. Back in Starling City, Laurel's dad has a serious talk with her after her irrational decision with the bank. He's noticed that she is not acting like herself and she is being wreckless. He suggests to find someone to confide the truth, since she doesn't want to tell him. Thea and Oliver are trying to patch up their drama with using Malcom's money. Thea says she is willing to meet Oliver half way, but he has to contribute to the cause as well. 

READ MORE: 'The Arrpow' Season 3, Episode 2: 'Sara' Recap

Felicity finds Myron and Roy and Oliver pay him a visit. However, he tells them that he had no part in the hacking. His prints are on the system because he had a hand in it years back with Felicity but that was it. He might have shown the system to a few people after college but he was not really sure. He tells them the only other person that would have it is Cooper. However, Felicity tells the team that he hanged himself right before sentencing.

This revelation cut deep into a lot of painful memories for Felicity. She ends up going to her office at work to collect her thoughts because she did not want to go home where her mom was. Ray finds her and tries to comfort her, but then Felicity's mom shows up very frustrated that Felicity keeps blowing her off when she wants to spend time and talk to her. Felicity becomes very flustered and emotional and lets it all out on her mom.

She tells her that she is sorry that she is such a disappointment to her because she actually has a job and is not worried about her nonexistent love life or the amount of cleavage she isn't showing. Sorry that she is not dressing like a pornstart which she's realized is probably a compliment to her mom (pretty low blow). Her mom is obviously hurt by her words. She responds by saying that she knows that she has not never been the mother that Felicity has always hoped for.

Felicity arguing with her mom (The CW)
Felicity arguing with her mom (The CW)

She knowes that she is not as smart or talented as Felicity and her father, but atleast she tried even when Felicity's father left them. She says everytime she looks at Felicity, all she sees is what her father gave her; she sees nothing from her in Felicity. She said that she has been so persistent because she always feared that Felicity was going to leave her too. However, she says that now she realizes that she already has. That was a very intense and emotional conversation between them and Felicity tries to go back to cave to solve this super hacker issue.

However, Oliver doesn't want her to work on anything until she clears her mind and talks to her mom. He gives her an hour and Felicity goes home and finds her mom packing. While their talking, Donna admits it is all her fault for coming unannounced just because she won a free flight to Starling City. The drama and music instantly pitch up as Felicity realizes that the winning prize details (which was sent by email) was just a scam. Then, two men break into the house and pin both of them down and put bags over their heads. 

The find themselves in the headquarters where the hackers operate, and (surprise, surprise) the mastermind hacker is none other than Cooper. Felicity is shocked to see him and Cooper explains that he was picked up by the NSA to work for them, but they had to stage his death so that way it would remain confidential. After he spent his required time with them, he went in search for Felicity but he says he found that she was turned into a corporate lapdog. 

The reason Cooper kidnapped Felicity is so that she can redirect that trucks filled with money sent by the treasury to help out the Starling City banks, and have them come to their current location instead. Felicity politely refuses at first, but then Cooper points a gun at Donna which forces Felicity to complete the task. When the men all leave, and they left Felicity tied to the computer, however, all the connections are disconnected so she cannot really do anything.

However, a beeper goes off reminding Felicity that Donna still has Ray's watch on that has its own built in wi-fi sensor that allows Felicity to access the internet. We assume that she manages to get some sort of message out, but we don't actually get to see it done. Back in the cave, though, Oliver is already suspicious because Felicity is past the one hour time and she is not answering her phone. Cooper is about to kill Felicity until Donna speaks out and says that she is not about to kill her.

That she worked too hard working 60 hours a week wearing heels, push-up bras, and dealing with drunks to see some douche touch her like that. Cooper laughs and is about to pull the trigger until Oliver shows up just in time. Outside, Roy and John take down the men before the can kill the truck drivers who bring the trucks filled with cash. Before Oliver can actually do anything, he has to bypass the motion detecting guns, but Cooper already unstrapped Felicity and is holding her at gunpoint by the time Oliver is done.

READ MORE: 'The Arrow' Season 3, Episode 1: 'The Calm' Recap

He is about to pull the trigger when Felicity grabs the gun, elbows him in the stomach, and smacks the gun across his face. Again, this is why we all love Felicity! Back at the cave, Oliver is very proud of Felicity and they both go and try to settle their family drama. Speaking of family drama, Laurel confides in her boxing teacher that Sara was murdered and that is why she has so much anger. He tells her the reason why she has not been doing well at boxing was because she was trying to hit a target who she doesn't know. Now he knows how to teach her.

Oliver goes to Thea's apartment (with popcorn) and tells her that he is by her side and will accept her decisions. Thea offers to have Oliver move in with her so that they may live like a family again. He accepts. They sit and try to connect the tv when we see a glimpse outside where Malcom Merlin is staring at them through the window from another building. 

Donna goes and visits Felicity at work in the morning of her flight to say goodbye. Felicity gives her a huge warm embrace and tells her that everything Donna said before was wrong. The biggest part of who Felicity is that revolves around her toughness and inner strength, that she has slowly realized the past two years that she has, comes from her mom. She is more like Donna than either of them can every imagine. Felicity ends up "calling sick" (even though she tells Ray in person) so that she can go and spend time with her mom.

In the final flashback, we see Felicity in college after Cooper got arrested where she threw away all her old clothes, dyed her hair, and become the Felicity Smoak we all know and love. Now onto the biggest revelation of the night. We finally find out why Roy has not been able to sleep. We find Roy having a dream, where we learn that he is the one that killed Sara. 

Reach Staff Reporter Cristian Pagan here



 

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