Spoilers ahead for the seventh episode of Arrow Season 7, called "The Slabside Redemption."
"The Slabside Redemption" was an intense hour of television almost entirely devoted to Oliver's bloody final day within Slabside Prison on Arrow. The action was some of the best ever produced by any show of the Arrow-verse, and the game has been effectively changed in many ways. Fortunately for Oliver and Felicity, the episode ended with the two finally reunited. Her tireless efforts to see him freed could cease, and he no longer had to helplessly wait to find out if she'd been targeted again.
Now that the Olicity reunion has happened, the next question is how their relationship will be different following Oliver's stint in prison. Between Oliver's suffering behind bars and the transformation Felicity had to go through on the outside, they're different people than they were before Oliver went behind bars. Stephen Amell chatted the future of Olicity with CinemaBlend and other outlets on a recent set visit, and he said this:
We have some really fantastic scenes in [Episode] 8. I mean obviously we see each other for the first time at the end of 7, but then pretty quickly I learn that a lot of the stuff that Diaz was saying about Felicity is true. And I thought the way that we worked it out, and we do work it out pretty quickly, we come to an understanding that nothing's ever going to be perfect. One of the other things that we talked about a lot is Oliver can't live in a normal apartment building anymore. Actually, I thought that they should militarize the Queen mansion. I got shot down. I don't think we could afford to do that! But nothing's ever going to be perfect or normal about our relationship, and I think that the sooner that the two of them accept that, the sooner that they can move on with their lives.
Felicity went to some dark places in the first chunk of Season 7, to the point that even semi-reformed villain Black Siren and Bratva boss Anatoly were shocked at what she was willing to do. She didn't cross any lines that other characters haven't crossed, but Oliver is bound to notice that what Diaz taunted him with about Felicity isn't actually false.
Now, if this situation went down a few years ago, we could probably expect a lack of communication and bad decision-making. Based on Stephen Amell's comments, however, it sounds like we can expect him to have undergone a fair amount of growth after his time in prison, and the time has passed when miscommunication ruins their romance. The two characters just need to come to the conclusion that their lives together will never be perfect or normal.
Will they have the kind of happily-ever-after that their deserve after the past seven (or twelve, in Oliver's case) years? Probably not, and certainly not if those flash-forwards represent a future that cannot be changed. But if they can adapt to their circumstances, they can build a good life together for as long as possible before everything goes south again. This is Star City, after all.
Fans who have wondered why Oliver has ever lived in exposed places may be in luck, if Stephen Amell's tease about his next living situation means that Oliver and Felicity won't live in the loft anymore! As great of a location as the loft has been -- for the holding of parties, the exchanging of information, and the occasional assault by villains -- the time has really come for Oliver and Felicity to live somewhere less accessible to bad guys.
Only time will tell what's in store for Olicity next. The upcoming "Elseworlds" crossover will apparently feature Oliver canoodling with another woman, although not intentionally. In fact, he's being more canoodled than doing any canoodling, which is really for the best. For new episodes of Arrow, tune in to The CW on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
