First Impressions - Arrow: 'The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak'

This is by no means a deeply intense dissection of the episode.

It's just my quick comments and notes after seeing the episode only once (a la AoS).
Spoilers after the jump.

You've been warned...


Season 3 Episode 5: 'The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak'

The Good: Felicity gets a backstory? About damn time...

...even though the look's a bit misleading.

* Most of the time, Oliver's scenes in action look a bit...not silly, but just sort of there. He's running/jumping/whatever in the suit and shoots the arrow(s). Having said that, the scene here where he's taking out the automatic guns was awesome! It showed him thinking on his feet - using his smarts in addition to all the running/jumping/whatever. I was impressed.
*

Ted Grant

I've always had a problem with this character in the books. I didn't (and still don't) know much about him other than the fact that he plays a big part in the training of other heroes, but...he's a boxer. Why is he even wearing a costume? On Arrow, he's played by J. R. Ramirez, and after seeing him figure out what Laurel's deal is - and how knowing that affects his training her - I get it. I get his role as hero in the books. He's a "Golden Age" hero, like Nite-Owl from Watchmen. He's a guy who literally fights the good fight.
* Laurel's training. Not just her training in the ring, but her training as a hero and possible leader. When she told the officer to sent the riot squad, she thought she was using her authority to do what she thought was the right thing. Turns out it wasn't, and made things worse, but that mistake helped her realize her anger and allowed Ted to start training her right. To become the Black Canary we all know.

The Bad: The very idea that Roy killed Sara. You can say he was under some kind of control by Ra's al Ghul or whatever, but that's just...

The WTF?: Felicity's boyfriend. When she said he died in prison, I pressed the button. What makes this a WTF? is his complete lack of sympathy for keeping her in the dark. He did what he did to get out of jail. By doing so, the world needed to believe the lie. If he loved Felicity, the guilt over keeping up the lie would have hurt. I didn't see that. At all. It even looked like he blamed her for his choice. Are we meant to wonder if he ever loved her?

Adorkification Moment: Brother Eye. That all came about after I stopped reading, so having Felicity responsible for creating him/her/it had little effect on me. But I acknowledge that Brother Eye came from the books and will come back to bite more ass on the show at some point.