In the final moments of “Crisis on Earth-X,” Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak made fans of the “Olicity” couple very, very happy: after more than five years, the pair got married. While audience reaction has ranged from excitement to disappointment as to just how the couple tied the knot, fans have generally been happy that the “will they or won’t they” dynamic has finally been resolved.
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However, while fans may be celebrating the couple it’s possible that Oliver and Felicity may not have the happily ever after they’re hoping for, and we don’t mean because of the challenges Oliver is facing as Green Arrow (and the pesky indictment situation.) We’re talking about how, historically, superhero marriages and romantic relationships in general don’t have the greatest track record. How bad a track record? Well, there’s a rather unfortunate term for it: women in refrigerators.
The term “Women in Refrigerators” is a reference to 1994’s Green Lantern #54 in which Green Lantern Kyle Rayner comes home and finds that his girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt, has been murdered by a villain and literally stuffed into the refrigerator. The term, coined by writer Gail Simone, doesn’t exclusively apply to wives or love interests of superheroes — any female character could find themselves “fridged” — but as the death or grave injury is usually done by a villain to get at the male hero, love interests are prime targets. It’s actually something Arrow viewers have somewhat already seen regarding Felicity.
Back in Arrow‘s fourth season, Damien Darhk first locks Felicity (along with Diggle and Thea) in a gas chamber to kill them, thus crippling Oliver. That attempt fails, though, when Laurel (the good, Earth-1 variety) uses her Canary cry to break them out. But Darhk still must find a way to get Oliver out of his way of his next plan? Just shoot people. Darhk’s henchmen shoot up Oliver’s limo, leaving Felicity paralyzed. While it could be argued that Darhk really just wanted to Oliver out of the way and shooting up the limo could have killed him outright as well, the fact that his first attempt to deal with Oliver was to kill women he loves tips things towards Felicity suffering simply because of her importance to the hero.
Now that Felicity is Oliver’s wife, not just his girlfriend, that importance rises and many times in comics, marriage isn’t the end of the beginning, but the beginning of the end. So, could marriage be putting Felicity in danger on Arrow? It’s very likely. As we’ve mentioned in our explanation of why the “Olicity” marriage is good for Arrow, it’s not likely that Oliver and Felicity would divorce which means splitting up the couple isn’t going to be much of a threat. Killing or otherwise harming Felicity, however, would be an effective way to get at Oliver and considering the personal nature of the villains this season, should someone really want to come after Arrow, Felicity’s shiny new wedding ring serves as a bullseye.
That’s not to say that Felicity isn’t the only newly-minted Arrowverse bride who may just find that happily ever after is a myth. Over on The Flash, Iris may well be finding herself and her marriage equally as endangered all because she happens to be married to the hero.
Arrow airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.
