Tonight’s Arrow Will Address The Havenrock Situation

Late last season, Emily Bett Rickards’ character Felicity Smoak had no choice but to divert a nuclear bomb from the heavily populated Monument Point, to instead destroy the the smaller town of Havenrock. Tens of thousands still died, and the decision was hotly debated among the Arrow fan base, even though Felicity really had no choice. There was some criticism that we didn’t get to really see the fallout of Felicity’s feelings after what happened — some even nominated Felicity for “Best Villain” in this year’s GreenArrowTV Awards poll as a result of what transpired — but tonight’s episode of Arrow “A Matter of Trust” will address the situation head-on, and it shows that Felicity is full of guilt and regret over the fate of Havenrock.

When speaking with press yesterday at The CW’s headquarters in Burbank, Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim revealed that there was some surprise that some reacted so negatively.

“I will say, a lot of times you write something and you do a storyline and it has — not the opposite, but a very different reaction than the one you expected,” he recalled. “I think we were all taken aback — not in a bad way, but just surprised that there was so much outrage over Felicity’s actions in 421; that people were upset at Felicity somehow for saving Monument Point at the expense of Havenrock. So, it was fun to actually get a chance to articulate the anti-Felicity point of view and the pro-Felicity point of view. It made for a very interesting moral dilemma, and we had a chance to play with that,” he said.

Having seen “A Matter of Trust” already — the situation is handled very well, and Emily Bett Rickards does a fantastic job of showing Felicity’s feelings about it all. The addition of Rory Regan (Ragman) — whose family died in Havenrock — will bring things to the surface in a way that the situation can’t and won’t be avoided, and it will be very clear that if Felicity could have made it so no one had died, she would have done everything in her power.

The episode airs at 8PM ET tonight on The CW; see for yourself if you agree.