- Title: Arrow – The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak
- wiki: link
The past comes back to haunt Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) in an episode that reveals a bit about Miss Smoak’s past and introduces the group to Felicity’s estranged mother (Charlotte Ross). Putting the show’s own spin on Brother Eye, Arrow chooses to use the concept as the brand of an unknown hacker (Nolan Gerard Funk) who has appropriated Felicity’s super-virus (which she created during her hacktavist college days) to take control of the city… and rob armored cars (you know, like super-villains do).
As the main story features flashbacks of Felicity’s college days, in the present the discomfort of her mother’s arrival and the fact that her code is being used to harm the city which she’s come to protect nearly sends her over the edge. Eventually the man behind Brother Eye steps out from behind the curtain (no, sadly it isn’t Maxwell Lord – how cool would that have been?!) and offers Felicity a chance to show just how much she’s learned the past couple of years and help take down the bad guy saving both herself and her mother in the process.
In other stories Oliver (Stephen Amell) attempts to convince Thea (Willa Holland) not to take Malcolm Merlyn‘s (John Barrowman) money to pay for her new apartment and club (unaware of his sister’s relationship to her father) and Laurel‘s (Katie Cassidy) questionable decision-making during the crisis created by Brother Eye forces her to rededicate to the training with Ted Grant (J.R. Ramirez) continuing to move her along on her journey (in an episode that features multiple other series characters training for the life she wants to embrace).
Honestly, I’d have preferred Felicity’s mother to be less of a bimbette, but her appearance and personality do help sell Felicity’s mortification at having her mother meet her friends and her new boss Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh). Setting up next week, “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak” ends with a tease about the possible identity of Sara’s killer who may be closer to home than any member of Team Arrow is comfortable with or just as easily could be a red herring (it is his color after all).
