Good news, Arrowheads -- Felicity may finally put away the Kleenex box.
One of the main criticisms of Arrow Season 3 was that Emily Bett Rickard's character, Felicity Smoak, spent most of the season crying over whatever stupid thing Oliver Queen was doing instead of being the strong, funny, adorkable Felicity we loved in Seasons 1 and 2. Rickards wasn't happy about Felicity crying all the time, and it became so prevalent, someone actually devoted a Tumblr to it.
Well, TVLine spoke with Arrow co-showrunner Marc Guggenheim at the CBS/Showtime/The CW TCA press tour party, who promised the return of Classic Felicity in Season 4. "The show got really, really dark last year, and I think she reacted accordingly," admitted Guggenheim. "Certainly no one was more tired of the crying than Emily [Bett Rickards], but right behind Emily was the rest of us." With the show picking up five months after the events of the Season 3 finale, Guggenheim added that viewers can expect the return of the "strong, capable, funny Felicity…we know and love."
As for the "Olicity" romance between Felicity and Oliver, Guggenheim used the word "organic" to describe the impact on Season 4. "The show is still the show," he remarked, adding that "body language" will be the indication of how their relationship has changed. "Like, when Oliver and Felicity are together at her workstation, now he’s got his hand on her shoulder. It’s a difference of degrees. Basically, we’re treating them like two coworkers who started dating."
And hey, what about the show's flashbacks that have grown extremely tiresome and pointless to a lot of fans? "I’ll be honest -- The episodic connection, week to week…that cart started to drag the horse for me a bit," admitted Guggenheim. "So toward the end of last year, I said to the writers, ‘What we really need to do is not worry so much about the connection between present and past and just tell a really amazing story in the past.'" According to the article, the Season 4 flashbacks, which begin in Coast City before leading to somewhere currently under wraps, have Guggenheim "really happy." "I feel like we have our best flashback story ever," he added.
Arrow returns to The CW for Season 4 (hopefully with less crying, as promised) on Wednesday, October 7th.