‘Arrow’ episode 14 review: [Spoiler] learns all about Oliver’s secret

When you have 22 episodes in a season, you are inevitably going to have some episodes that feel like they could have been something much more than what they ended up being. For us, this week’s edition of “Arrow” encapsulated this perfectly. There were some pretty good moments, but at the same time it still felt that we had a big reveal, but then an enormous amount of filler story that was not as interesting to us as seeing the development of the Dark Archer, or watching the storyline with Laurel or Thea progress.

The biggest shocker this week is rather simple to identify: Felicity Smoak (who will be a series regular for season 2) is now in on Oliver Queen’s secret as she found his body with a gunshot wound. Much of the episode was then spent with her and Dig taking care of Oliver in the Arrow Lair, with him explaining to her some of what was going on.

What we really enjoyed about this episode was seeing Felicity play her deck and admit that she figured, thanks by and large to all of Oliver’s visits to her, that he was the Hood all along. In addition to that, it was also nice to see that was only interested in this long enough to give justice to the people who needed it … and not because she really wanted to be anything other than a person living a normal life.

As for the island portion of the story, not so fantastic. We’ve never really loved the flashback portions of the show so much since we already know the ending to it, and much of the story here seemed to exist solely so that we could see Oliver caring for someone other than himself for a change. This was a nice moment for the evolution of the character, but there are so many characters in that world that are mysterious that it’s a little tough to connect to.

Overall, did you like this episode despite it being flashback-heavy? If you want to read more on the season 2 renewal, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: The CW