Arrow Season 4: 6 Ups And 5 Downs From 'Genesis'

1. ​ Felicity Being Key To Oliver’s Magic

Arrow Genesis
The CW

Urgh.

As I said in an earlier entry, one of the worst parts of Genesis was the insta-great relationship between Oliver and Felicity, and Felicity has been one of the biggest cruxes of the second half of this season. Adding more fuel to that fire was the final moments of this latest Arrow episode.

After being told that he wouldn’t be able to control magic due to the darkness within him, it just felt far too cheesy and a bit of a slap in the face for Ollie to conveniently be able to keep the magic in check all because he was thinking of Felicity. Yep, pass me the sick bucket when you’re done with it.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the will they/won’t they of Ollicity, I even liked when they were engaged, but lately anything between Oliver and Felicity has just felt massively off. And having Felicity’s voice be the thing that helped Oliver get enough control over his darkness to be able to use magic to nullify Damien Darhk? That was just another badly-judged misstep on Arrow’s part.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.