Tonight brings the seventh season finale of Arrow, and with it the last appearance of one of the show’s mainstays. Emily Bett Rickards revealed a few months’ back that she’d be bowing out of her role as Felicity Smoak at the end of this season, meaning she’ll be sitting out the series’ eighth and final batch of episodes later this year.
Felicity has gone from a fun supporting character who wasn’t meant to get much screentime to the female lead of the show, with her relationship with Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen arguably being the backbone of Arrow for much of its run. It’s going to be tough for fans to say goodbye to her, then, in episode 7×22 “You Have Saved This City.”
We don’t yet know the circumstances of Felicity leaving Star City, but showrunner Beth Schwartz teased to TV Guide that the season will end on a very emotional note.
“I can’t give away too much, but every time I watch the last 10 minutes of the finale, I cry every single time.”
Schwartz then went on to elaborate that her main aim with this episode was to “honor” the character and everything she’s meant to the show for the past seven years. The writer/producer also explained how much Felicity means to her personally.
“I just wanted to honor [Felicity]. She’s been a really important character to the show — besides just having a huge fan base — to me personally. She’s been one of my favorite characters, and I’ve been with her from the beginning. I wanted to make sure that we honored her both in her relationship with Oliver as well as her goals personally and the origin of Smoak Tech — her wanting to do something in addition to being on Team Arrow. That was her own, so that was really important to me.”
As sad as it is to see Felicity go, at least we know that she’s not going to die. The flash-forwards that’ve run through this season have thankfully shown the character alive in the future, though earlier episodes teased the idea that she was dead. We also know that Oliver and Felicity raise the baby she’s currently pregnant with and that the little girl becomes Mia/Blackstar (Katherine McNamara).
Be sure to catch the end of Arrow season 7 – and Felicity Smoak – tonight on The CW.
