What That Huge Arrow Cliffhanger May Mean For Oliver And Felicity

arrow dangerous liaisons oliver felicity

Warning: spoilers ahead for Episode 19 of Arrow Season 5, "Dangerous Liaisons."

There are only a few episodes left in Season 5 of Arrow, and we're getting closer and closer to the final confrontation between Team Arrow and Prometheus. While the majority of "Dangerous Liaisons" followed the conflict between Felicity's alliance with Helix and Team Arrow's ties to ARGUS, the episode ended on a cliffhanger that saw Prometheus pay a visit to the Arrow bunker. He didn't even need to show his face to wreak havoc on Oliver and Felicity, who were the only two members of Team Arrow still inside. The episode ended on an explosion in the bunker, and the promo for next week's episode reveals that the cause was an EMP, and that means that Oliver and Felicity are in big trouble.

The use of an electromagnetic pulse - or EMP - to knock out all the technology in the Arrow bunker is arguably the biggest blow that Prometheus could have dealt to Oliver and Felicity without blowing the bunker up with them still inside. The promo shows that the EMP will affect everything, ranging from the computers to the elevator to the chip that has allowed Felicity to walk ever since her spine was damaged in Season 4. Felicity will be out of her element without any tech and quite possibly out of commission without the chip working; Oliver will undoubtedly have to get dangerously creative if both of them are going to survive.

Given that the promo also shows Oliver distinctly worse for the wear and unconscious, we can be sure that whatever he does won't work the first time around. The only way for them to make it out of the bunker alive may be for them to come to terms with each other and work as a unit. They haven't been entirely open and synchronized ever since they broke up in Season 4, and they've both made some questionable decisions because of the imbalance. Even the Team Arrow version of Yoda that is the legendary John Diggle hasn't been able to mend the rift for them. Being trapped together in very dire circumstances may be what it takes for them to work as a team once more.

Arrow executive producer Wendy Mericle teased some of what is going to happen in next week's bottle episode, saying this about Oliver and Felicity in a chat with EW:

They're stuck in a bunker together, and they're not in a good place. They've taken their individual paths, which is was exactly what they wanted at the top of the season. They've gone down these different roads. Oliver's tries to pull her back from this brink and has failed. All that fallout is going to happen right there in the bunker where they have nowhere to run and there's no escaping that conflict.

There's no saying if or when Oliver and Felicity will get back together as a couple, and fans have been divided all along about whether their romance was good for the series. Based on the first four seasons of the show, however, I'd argue that Oliver and Felicity are at their best when they're on good terms with each other. The original Team Arrow worked so well because they could complement and support each other, even if they couldn't always directly help each other. If Oliver and Felicity can find a middle ground and begin to work harmoniously in the remaining episodes of Season 5, Prometheus will be in big trouble. Check out the promo for next week's episode for yourself!

We'll have to wait and see. Some of the good guys may be dying in the finale, and Deathstroke's return may mean pain for Team Arrow. New episodes of Arrow air on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news, and don't forget to check out our midseason TV premiere guide and our summer TV premiere schedule to discover all your viewing options now and in the coming weeks. Be sure to drop by our rundowns for cable/streaming and broadcast TV renewals and cancellations as well.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).