Best. Episode. Ever of Arrow and of course it would feature my favourite, and probably others too, character Felicity Smoak. This was also the episode of Arrow that I really wanted to see after hearing about it during the show’s SDCC 2014 panel.

What made me really love this episode was the fact that I have never laughed so hard in the first few minutes of an episode. It was all because of the great mother-daughter dynamic that Emily Bett Rickards had with Charlotte Ross, who plays Donna Smoak aka Mama Smoak. Ross was so amazing in this episode that I really hope we see her again. And I remember Ross during her time as Eve Donovan on Days of our Lives so it was great to see her just be awesome.

But let’s start the recap.

We open with a trio of training shots. We have Roy and Oliver battling via night sticks where Oliver notices that Roy is not on his game, which he blames on lack of sleep. We also see Laurel training with Ted Grant who notices that she isn’t really attacking him but is channeling her energy wrong. And we then get Thea and Malcolm having a sword fight when Thea asks if this is how people spend their mornings.

We then see Felicity in her cool looking apartment watching a fitness video trying to do sit ups. While the video was completing 10 sit ups, Felicity was only on 5 reps. When Felicity goes to brush her teeth, there is knock on her door. Felicity thinks it is a neighbour asking about if she’s seen her cat but it is Ray Palmer and she is mortified that he is in her apartment while she is in her PJs and brushing her teeth.

Ray wanted to talk to Felicity about something called Co-Generation. It is about green tech that will allow Ray to sell the excess electricity that Queen Consolidated generates back to the city to help realize his Starling City to Star City dream become reality. Before they can discuss anymore there is another knock and on the other side is Mama Smoak who has paid her daughter a surprise visit but Donna said that she did send her daughter a text. Problem is Donna didn’t press send but we see her do and then we hear Felicity get the text.

Donna is surprise to see Ray there but Felicity immediately squashes any thoughts that Donna may have about them saying that he is her boss. Donna realizes that Ray is Ray Palmer and shows off wearable tech watch that she is wearing. Ray then gives Donna a prototype watch that he was wearing and leaves.

After he is gone and Donna makes herself at home, Felicity falls to the floor utterly mortified at what happened. And this was all in just the first 5 minutes of the show.

Elsewhere, Oliver is visiting Thea at her new loft apartment. Oliver is not happy that Thea is using Malcolm’s “estate” money to pay for it and also using the money to start Verdant again. Oliver is trying to get Thea to see that Malcolm is dangerous and a serial killer who killed 503 people in the Undertaking including her other brother. Thea doesn’t want to hear anymore and tells Oliver to leave but if he wants to come back, he should bring popcorn next time.

All of sudden, the lights around Starling City goes out and electric poles starts to spark. Oliver leaves to investigate and when he comes across an electronics store, the TVs light up with a message from Brother Eye saying that after the Undertaking and the Siege they are what comes next.

When Team Arrow convenes at Verdant, Donna is also there and Felicity has to introduce Diggle and Oliver to her. Donna wonders how many millionaires does her daughter know. Felicity tells her mom that the three of them have work to do but before that, she does ask her mom to take care of Sara Diggle as Diggle had to bring her because the sitter was sick. Plus Oliver doesn’t want Sara in the Arrow Cave.

In the Arrow Cave, I believe another message comes in this time saying the team will attack the banks next draining the bank accounts of all in Starling City.

At Starling City Police Station, Lance has call in his daughter as acting DA to help out and he also calls Felicity as he knows that she is the only one that can figure this out.

When it looks like a riot is going to break out at Starling City National Bank, Laurel exerts her power to send in the riot police but it just made the situation worse but luckily Arrow and Arsenal are there to calm the situation.

Lance isn’t too happy that Laurel sent in the riot police as it was a rash decision. Lance things Laurel is drinking again but she says she is not. Lance is worried about his daughter and wants her to tell him what is wrong. Laurel says that she can’t.

At the Arrow Cave, Felicity is working hard to try and stop the super virus that is plaguing Starling City but realizes that it can’t be stop as she was the one that wrote it.

Felicity Flashback

We are 5 years back at a time where Felicity was at MIT, looking all goth and in her boyfriend Cooper’s (Nolan Funke) dorm room activating this super virus. They hack into the Department of Education’s system. Cooper wants to erase people’s student loans but Felicity says that this is too drastic and will lead the feds to them and his roommate, Myron, agrees. Before anything can happen, Felicity pulls the plug.

While out and about (Vancouver filming fun fact: Felicity and Cooper where walking around in Library Square – the downtown location of our public library) when Felicity notes that what they did could be trace and that is when the Feds show up breaking up a PDA moment between the two to take Cooper away.

Felicity visits Cooper in prison and she wants to confess that she wrote the virus but Cooper has already told them that he wrote it. They profess their love but later we see that Felicity is affected by what happened to Cooper that the next time we see her in the flashback she has transformed herself fro Goth Girl to the Felicity Smoak we all know and love. Myron even asked what happened to her, which Felicity says that this is who she is now.

Back to the present portion of the episode, Felicity explains why she wrote the super virus and says the only possible person that could be behind this is Myron as he was in the room when she and Cooper developed the super virus. Oliver wonders why it can’t be Cooper; Felicity insists that he can’t be. Not wanting to press, Oliver tasks Felicity to get Myron’s current address while he takes care of Thea who arrived at Verdant and heading towards the secret entrance to the Arrow Cave.

Oliver comes upon Thea trying to open the door to the Arrow Cave but it is locked. Oliver claims that the keypad is broken and had never been able to open that door. Oliver also mentions that the basement of the club is flooded. The crux of this conversation is the importance of family. Thea agrees and is ready to meet Oliver in the middle, if he is willing to do so to despite his feelings towards Malcolm.

Felicity texts Oliver Myron’s address. We Myron looking at screen that suspiciously look like the super virus but we all know it is a red herring. Arrow and Arsenal confront him and Myron tells him he isn’t behind it but points the finger to finger to Felicity Smoak but the Arrow says that she is innocent. Myron says that he doesn’t know then who is behind it but that he may have shown the code behind the virus to some people but he doesn’t remember who.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity is trying to find out who Myron possibly talked to but is coming up empty. Oliver then presses about Copper where Felicity finally fesses up that Copper couldn’t done it because he killed himself shortly before sentencing.

Felicity leaves upset and flees to her office at Queen Consolidated. Ray shows up wanting to talk more about Co-Generation and how his dream is being railroaded because of the cyber threat. Ray sees an upset Felicity and goes to make her a drink when Donna arrives to find her daughter. Donna is upset of being stood up by Felicity. Ray leaves and mother-daughter have an honest talk.

Donna understands that she will never be like Felicity or her father. Donna mentions how she could never keep up with the both of them and after he left, Felicity was all she had. But now she realizes two things: 1) there is nothing of her in Felicity (despite her saying they are blondes, Donna points out she colours her hair) and that Felicity has also left her.

Felicity returns to the Arrow Cave ready to find who Brother Eye is but Oliver senses that she isn’t in the game and tells her to take an hour to patch things up with her mom as family is important.

Felicity goes back home and finds her mother packing. Oh in case you were wondering, Donna handed over baby Sara to a sitter from a company called ARGUS, something Donna never heard of.

Felicity tries to offer an olive branch but Donna is being a bit stubborn. Something does goes off in Felicity’s head when Donna mentions that she only came to visit Felicity because she won a first-class trip to Starling City. Felicity realizes that someone wanted her mom to come to town and we see two men in black break into the apartment and kidnap the pair.

The two are taken to some warehouse with a bank of computers featuring the Brother Eye logo. A man appears with his voice being disguised saying that he has been waiting for Felicity and when he turns off the voice modulator and comes out of the shadows, it is of course Cooper. Cooped faked is death so he could work for the NSA. Cooper is disgusted that Felicity is now one of the corporate suits that they fought against.

What Cooper wants is Felicity to hack into the Treasury Department’s GPS system to re-direct its armoured trucks filled with cash to replenish Starling City’s banks to their location. Cooper threatens Mama Smoak and I feared they were going to kill her just when I have already fallen in love with her.

Felicity complies and Cooper takes his men out and gives instructions as to what to do when the trucks arrive. While he is doing that. Felicity hears the watch that Ray gave Donna go off and realizes that she can use its Wi-Fi to send a message out to presumably Team Arrow nd while he goes and waits for the trucks to come, Donna tells her daughter that the only thing she ever wanted was for her to be happy. Cooper breaks up their moment and starts to threaten Felicity. Donna gets all ups and arms and says that she will go down fighting to protect Felicity as she worked 60 hour weeks and in 6-inch heels so she can provide for her.

Before Cooper can pull the trigger and kill Felicity, Arrow comes on the scene but also triggers motion detected machine guns to go off. Arrow manages to take them out while I was worried that Donna would get caught in the crossfire. But Arrow wasn’t really needed as Felicity manages to take Cooper down on her own.

Outside, Cooper’s men do open fire on the armoured trucks but Arsenal and Diggle take the men out.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity and Oliver share a sweet moment about Oliver loving the Felicity that he knows and we weep as what could Olicity could have been.

Laurel visits Grant and confesses that she is angry that they haven’t caught her sister’s killer and she can’t tell anyone that she is dead. Grant says that Laurel will never be effective hitting him if she is imaging her sister’s killer but the power has to come from her. The two start to train again and of course Laurel chooses the black training gear.

At Queen Consolidated, Donna has come to say goodbye. Felicity says that her mom is wrong about one thing that she said. Felicity says that her fighting spirit is what she got from her. It was a nice tender moment that they shared that gets interruped by Ray who does allow Felicity to call in “sick” and he hopes that she “feels better”. As mother-daughter leave, Donna does notice the chemistry between the two and wonders if something could happen.

I am all for Team Oliver for Felicity but I really love Brandon Routh and totally want Ray and Felicity to get together. Go Team Ray (at least for season 3).

Oliver does meet Thea halfway and brings popcorn to her loft. Thea offers Oliver to live with her and he accepts. As brother-sister watches a Joan Crawford movie called Possessed. Is there a significance to that movie for the show? Let me know in the comments.

Watching on the rooftop across the street is Malcolm Merlyn.

Meanwhile, at night, we see Roy sleeping and having nightmares that he was the one that killed Sara. We are lead to believe that he did but I don’t think so. For some reason I thought it was Ra’s Al Ghul or at least a fellow league member.

Before I end this rather lengthy recap, I implore the powers that be of Arrow is BRING BACK CHARLOTTE ROSS AS MAMA SMOAK!