‘Arrow’ Reveals How Felicity Died

Tonight on Arrow, William Clayton and Roy Harper learned more about the life and death of William’s adoptive mother, Felicity Smoak — and looped the viewer in along the way.

During a recent episode, William and Roy met up with a pair of Black Canaries (Dinah Drake and Zoe Ramirez), who informed William that while he was away from Star City, Felicity had died.

Tonight, it was revealed that Felicity went rogue and, acting as the villainous Calculator, got herself in too deep with her criminal cohorts.

If all of this sounds pretty hard to swallow, you are not alone: pretty much nobody seems to believe Felicity is actually gone-gone, and even money with the fans seems to be that she never went evil at all.

“I actually really can’t answer that — like, I don’t know the answer,” Juliana Harkavy told reporters last week on set when asked if she believed Felicity was actually dead. “But, I think Felicity has set a path in just the work that she’s done, so that leaves a lot of room for us to explore where she’s gone on that path.”

Following that path is very literally what William and Roy have been doing, uncovering a series of clues attached to booby traps that are leading them on from one point to the next.

The story is somewhat reminiscent of “Acher’s Quest,” a story from the comics in which Oliver, after returning from the dead, has to gather up a number of artifacts from throughout his life.

In the future of Arrow, Star City is walled off from the rest of the world and seemingly ruled by criminals a la Gotham City during No Man’s Land. Some vigilantes still function, but they do so in a less flashy and more vicious way. This might describe why Roy Harper was driven away from the city following his (presumed) breakup with Thea Queen, and why he had pledged never to go back. Since Smoak Tech was ransacked when Team William arrived there, it seems likely Felicity’s dirty dealings led to a showdown within her own building.

Arrow airs on Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT, before episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on The CW.