Arrow’s Emily Bett Rickards Posts Heartbreaking Goodbye Photo

Tonight marks the end of an era for The CW’s Arrow, as the show’s Season 7 finale is expected to be the final episode for series star Emily Bett Rickards. While it will be a few more hours until the episode airs, Rickards has already given fans a pretty big dose of the feels on social media.

Rickards, who plays Felicity Smoak on the long-running series, recently took to Instagram to share a photo of herself alongside co-stars Stephen Amell and David Ramsey. The photo is captioned with “OTA” – a reference to Felicity, Amell’s Oliver Queen, and Ramsey’s John Diggle being the “Original Team Arrow” – along with a message hoping that fans enjoy the season finale.

Rickards’ exit from the show was announced via social media last month, with it being confirmed that her storyline would wrap up in the Season 7 finale.

“We’ve had the pleasure of working with Emily since season one and in those past seven years she has brought one of TV’s most beloved characters to life.” the show’s creative team said in a statement earlier this year. “And although we’re heartbroken to see both Emily and Felicity leave the show, we’re completely supportive of Emily and her future endeavors. She will always have a family at Arrow.”

With Felicity being alive in the show’s dystopian flash-forward sequences, it’s unclear at this point exactly what her exit will be like in the Season 7 finale. As last week’s episode teased, Felicity might be considering going off the grid to protect herself and the baby she’s pregnant with, so it will be interesting to see if that ends up being the case. Either way, it’s safe to say that Felicity’s departure will have an interesting effect on the season finale, which is called “You Have Saved This City”.

“We actually did approach it that way in terms of, ‘This might be the last time we see this,’” showrunner Beth Schwartz told ComicBook.com leading up to the finale. “So we definitely had that in mind when we were breaking the episode, because Emily’s leaving and, yeah, next season is a little different, so we definitely did approach it in that way.”

What do you think of Rickards’ sentimental social media post? Is it giving you a dose of the feels before tonight’s Arrow season finale? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Arrow airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.