Arrow: 6 Things That "Left Behind" Did Right (And 4 It Didn't)

4. Team Arrow Reacts

Left Behind certainly gave Oliver's death its due. Roy's longstanding worship of both the Arrow and Oliver left his insistence on the likelihood of no return feeling both defensive and protective. Arsenal was not ready to take on the criminal underworld without Arrow, and Roy was not ready to face his new reality without Oliver. He was left with broken promise and a hug goodbye. Knowing him longest and perhaps best, Diggle's determined pragmatism about Oliver's survival carried him through the majority of the episode. The scene with Laurel in which he finally acknowledged the grief of losing the only brother that he had left was a genuine tearjerker. He'd always felt like Oliver's bodyguard, and the fact that Oliver would never be recovered was nearly too much for the strongest of them to bear. The star of Left Behind, however, was Felicity. Emily Bett Rickards managed to take audiences through the five stages of grief in 42 minutes of television. Whether she was cheerfully denying the possibility of Oliver's death, arguing that Oliver could have survived, or projecting her inability to save the love of her life onto Ray's crusade to honor his, every single one of her appearances tugged at the heartstrings to a degree so amazingly effective that you almost wanted to look away and allow the character her privacy. She didn't wail or gnash her teeth or rend her garments, but Felicity Smoak experienced a desolate depth of quiet grief that will linger even after Oliver's return to her.