If you could cast your mind back towards the end of Season Three of Arrow (stop complaining, it wasn’t that long ago), Oliver Queen nearly became Ra’s Al Ghul. Now there is absolutely no doubt that this would’ve been the best thing in the history of television, but the writers would’ve jammed themselves into a corner and not emerged with any kind of credibility, so they opted to make Malcolm Merlyn the leader of the League of Assassins instead. A wonderful move because John Barrowman is perfection incarnate (if you don’t believe me, find his panel at San Diego Comic-Con this year on YouTube), but more importantly it allowed writers Marc Guggenheim and co. to escape their bases loaded, no-outs situation whilst giving up just one run. However it’s that run that needs discussing (the baseball metaphors end here. Maybe).
In episode 20, Oliver and Felicity made whoopee. The thing that most fans had wanted since the pilot episode way back in 2012 had finally happened. On top of that, the latter declared her love for the titular hero. Three episodes later and they were driving off into the sunset to start their lives together away from Star City. One question is itching to be asked though: WHY? Just… why?
In fact, that’s two questions: why is the relationship happening, and why did Arrow just jump the shark?
There is no discernible reason for this relationship to be a thing. The show was progressing along smoothly at a comfortable rate of knots, with considerably more ups than downs, with each episode proving to be bigger and better than the last. Yet in the Season Four premiere, the writers chose to progress their relationship in real time and now they have a cushy suburban life away from the perils of Star City - and from Ollie’s vigilante double-life. The Arrow is no more with Queen trading spears for soufflés and Smoak opting for cushiness over computers, but the rest of their team are still taking down crime in the city they love and grew up in. Cheap, yet funny, dialogue ensued, with Felicity showing her lack of culinary prowess by continually burning food before being told by her partner “you have failed this omelette.”
Credit where credit is due, the writers could not have transformed this couple into a classic suburban couple, complete with dinner parties and romantic evenings at home. In fact, it is one of those lights-dimmed candlelit dinners that nearly saw Ollie take the relationship forward as it emerged he was going to propose to Felicity. Unfortunately he was interrupted by his old team, pleading with him to don the green hood once again to take down a new enemy in Star City. It is then revealed that Felicity has been helping Diggle, Laurel and Thea fight crime with her amazing computer nous, much to Ollie’s despair. Fast-forward to the end of the episode and Olicity now live in Thea’s old apartment, you know the one she was nearly murdered in, where Ollie still has plans to wife her up.
The problem here is that this threatens to cause tension in the team, and it undoubtedly will in future episodes. Domestics could spill over whilst Ollie is about to maim someone, or Felicity could make some passive aggressive remark about the cleanliness of the apartment and cause friction amongst our heroes. Equally, they could get all lovey-dovey and get distracted.
That’s probably a little petty, but this is a shark jump and it’s come way too early in the series. That being said, it will definitely be interesting to see how this dynamic grows and the direction it takes.