TV Review: Arrow Season 3 Episode 5 “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak”

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Join us each week as we review the latest episode of ARROW. Warning: the following review contains major spoilers for the newest episode of the show.

Episode 5: "The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak"

Synopsis: When a cyber attack brings Starling City to its knees, Oliver and Felicity are pushed to their limits to contain the destruction. Life gets even more complicated for Felicity when her mother, Donna, stops by for a surprise visit. Meanwhile, Ted Grant questions Laurel’s motives, and Thea buys an apartment with Malcolm’s "estate" money, which infuriates Oliver

In Starling City: In all of the episodes to date, we have seen origins and background stories on Oliver Queen, most of his family, John Diggle, and even Malcolm Merlyn.  Thea's sabbatical in Corto Maltese even got an entire episode, but now it is time for fan favorite character Felicity Smoak to get her due in an episode that sheds a lot of light on the IT genius and how she got to where she is.  We get to meet not only her mother, Donna, but a background on how she ended up as The Arrow's girl Friday.

Oliver meets Thea at her new apartment, which is clearly out of her price range, and learns of her access to Malcolm Merlyn's estate.  While Thea knows Malcolm is alive and Oliver knows he is alive, Oliver doesn't know that Thea knows he is alive while she does know he knows.  The convoluted relationship between the siblings is bound to come to a head sooner rather than later but the question is how and when.  But, that is not the focus this week.

Ray Palmer visits Felicity at her home and mentions a plan to harness Queen Consolidated's excess electricity to give back to the people.  A little later, the entirety of Starling City goes dark as a hacker group using a symbol eerily similar to the Eye of Sauron claim this is a taste of what they have planned.  As another message is broadcast, Felicity tracks it as they threaten to take down the bank.  Oliver and Roy disperse the crowd and Felicity continues to track the virus and realizes it is the same virus she wrote back in college (see flashback section below).

Laurel is given the responsibility as acting DA and called in the riot squad at the bank.  Her father says she is responsible for the escalated events that night and questions what has gotten into her.  He questions whether she is using/drinking again and she says no.  The fate of her sister is still a secret and is forging another rift between Laurel and her father which may not end well for either of them.

Oliver catches Thea trying to open the door to his secret lair and makes up a story about the sublevel being flooded.  He and Thea discuss her monetary situation again and make no progress, but Felicity does alert Oliver that she found Myron, her college boyfriend's roommate who would have had access to the supervirus.  Myron ends up being a dead end which leaves Cooper as a possible suspect, but Felicity reveals he died in prison, hanging himself before being sentenced.

Nothing seems to go Felicity's way this weak as she continues to deal with her mother's unexpected visit.  Their fight comes to a head when Felicity calls her out for being a judgemental pain and we get the cliche "you left me alone, like your father did" moment which forces Felicity to realize her attitude was uncalled for.  Coming back to work, Oliver tells Felicity to go talk to her mother because family is important.  Her mother reveals that she got excited because of the free trip she won via email which immediately triggers Felicity to realize someone planned her mother being in Starling City.  At that moment, the door to her apartment is kicked in and the Smoaks are taken hostage.  When we next see them, they are in a base full of monitors displaying the hacker's eye symbol, revealing Cooper as the man behind the attacks.

Cooper reveals his death was faked because the NSA needed his skills.  After the NSA finished with him, he tried to find Felicity and found that she worked at Queen Consolidated and realized she had changed and become a corporate lapdog.  Cooper decided he needed to see her virus fully realized.  His plan is to steal armored cars full of money with Felicity's help. When she refuses, Cooper threatens her mother.

Using the WiFi on the smartwatch Ray Palmer gave Felicity's mother, she alerts Oliver to their location.  While held at gunpoint, Oliver arrives and is targeted by motion sensor weapons set by Cooper.  Oliver evades the gunfire, but Cooper takes Felicity and runs.  The armored trucks arrive and Roy and Diggle take down the henchmen.  Oliver prepares to save Felicity, but she instead disarms Cooper, kicks his ass, and knocks him out, much to her mother's surprise…and Oliver's.

At the gym, Laurel admits to Ted Grant she is having issues and reveals that Sara was murdered.  Ted now says he knows how to train her and offers her a red or black uniform and she chooses black.  At Thea's, Oliver arrives with a housewarming gift.  Thea offers Oliver the chance to move in with her and says when the club becomes profitable, she will donate Malcolm's money.  Oliver agrees and Merlyn watches from across the rooftop.  At QC, Donna arrives to bid farewell to her daughter.  Felicity admits she got her strength from her mother, which helps the two bond as Felicity takes a sick day to spend with her mother.

The episode closes with Roy haivng nightmares of throwing arrows into Sara,killing her.

Flashbacks: The focus being on Felicity this week, we go back five years before her current adventures with The Arrow.  We find Felicity in college, still her nerdy self, but with a boyfriend named Cooper.  The pair hack into the Department of Education with the aim to wipe out all student loans.  Felicity,unaware of the true motives of the hack, disconnects the Internet and her boyfriend chastises her for not wanting to be a hero but just a lowly hacker.

Walking through the quad, Felicity tells Cooper how he could have been tracked and as if on queue, the FBI arrives and arrests him for his crime.  While visiting him in prison, Felicity says she will admit she wrote the virus, but Cooper says he already claimed responsibility to protect her and that he loves her.  Later,in her room, Myron arrives to find Felicity with her hair blonde, proper attire,and glasses, proclaiming that this is her now.

Episode Grade: 6/10

As much as I have enjoyed ARROW over the last three seasons, this has got to be one of the weakest entries.  Yeah, Felicity getting the focus in the story is interesting, but the "twist" is telegraphed so early and the threat feels toothless as this ends up being a filler episode with minute development for all characters.  In each of the prior episodes this season, progress with every subplot makes the episode feel warranted, but you could watch only the final five minutes of this week's episode to get the gist of what happened in the prior thirty-seven minutes.  The action scenes with Oliver taking down the motion-activated guns is a cool moment as is Felicity kicking Cooper's ass, but the rest just feels very blah.  Here's hoping we get a more solid effort next week as the potential reveal of Sara's murderer is must see viewing.

Next on ARROW: "Guilty" – After a body is found strung up in the Wildcat gym, Ted Grant becomes the main suspect. Oliver and Laurel argue over Ted’s innocence. Meanwhile, in flashbacks, when Maseo needs Oliver to remember where an informant for China White stashed key information, he asks Tatsu to help jog Oliver’s memory. Roy shares a secret with Felicity