I don’t even know what to say. Tonight’s ARROW has completely shattered my heart. Obliterated it into nothingness. When I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse from Felicity returning her engagement ring and literally walking out of Oliver’s life, they go and parade a fake wedding in front of our faces just to toy with our feelings.
After a month-long hiatus, the show returned with a very appropriately titled episode. “Broken Hearts” reintroduced Cupid, that crazy lady, who was obsessed with the Green Arrow once upon a time and that, supposedly, was in ARGUS’ custody. Somehow she got back to Star City and decided to reinforce her crazy notion of “love is death” by killing celebrity newlyweds. And of course – of course – she just had to have the most amazing timing in the world, because she decided to strike exactly when the whole William secret hit the fan and Felicity called off the wedding.
The angst and hurt and the overwhelming urge to punch Oliver in his pretty face for causing this permeated the entire episode. Even though we could see Oliver was devastated, it was Felicity’s reactions that really cut deep. From her wanting to keep everything as it had always been, backing the team on missions to her even serving as bait for the crazy psychopath, the journey they took her character on in this episode was as beautiful as it was completely – and I mean completely – heartbreaking. Throughout this episode, we saw her carefully constructed façade that everything was fine start to crack, and eventually, completely shatter.
She has finally come to the conclusion that we all had when this whole baby mama drama stupidity started. Oliver cannot change. No matter what happens, no matter who he loves, he will always revert to the man he was during those five years – and that man protects only himself and thinks only of himself first. It might even be involuntary, but the fact of the matter is, he lied to Felicity out of fear; and fear has been his driving force for the past nine years. He has gotten good at hiding it and sometimes even at confronting it, especially if it’s something he can deal with physically. But when it comes to emotional obstacles, he reverts back into that shell of a man he once was and just shuts down.
And this time, he nuked the very best thing that had ever happened in his life. When Felicity says she loves him, with everything she has, but she cannot be with him anymore because she knows this will inevitably happen again… that was such a strong punch to the stomach. We all knew it, we had been expecting it, but hearing her say it was like a bullet to the heart. It was like Oliver said, once he cancels it, it’s truly over. Now that Felicity has told him she basically can’t trust him ever again, it really is over. And it hurts. Because they have been through so much to get here.
Meanwhile, Damien Dahrk is trying to get released from prison, following William’s kidnapping, but Laurel managed to nail him, after Captain Lance testified. It effectively axed his career, but it served to keep Dahrk in prison and buy Laurel and Team Arrow some time to produce some evidence against the villain.
Oh yeah, Felicity also quit the team. She didn’t just break up with Oliver; she broke up with the entire team Arrow.
Mission accomplished, “Broken Hearts”. My heart is in pieces.
A new episode of ARROW airs on March 30 at 8/7c on The CW.