PTSD and Speculations on What Lies Ahead for Felicity

  I never thought that the writers fully handled the PTSD side of Felicity's story line.  I am familiar with PTSD because someone close to me lives with it, and overcomes it,  and I have family members who work with people who suffer from it.  If you aren't familiar with it, some of the symptoms are emotional numbness and avoidance of places, people, and activities that are reminders of the trauma; Re-experiencing the trauma through recollections of the event, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping, feeling jumpy, exaggerated negative beliefs, such as "I am bad," "No one can be trusted," or "the world is  too dangerous." There is persistent guilt, diminished interest or participation in significant activities, problems concentrating, or exaggerated startle responses, there is are sleep problems.  Sounds like a lot of what Oliver experienced in season one, doesn't it? I never felt that Felicity showed any of these symptoms after Havenrock, and I didn't think it realistic to think that her talk with Rory would cure her PTSD, which the writers said she had.

Felicity has many reasons to have PTSD, first she had the terrible shooting.  She feared for Oliver, while these people were shooting up the car, and then all she went through with the many surgeries and then to be paralyzed.  We saw a little PTSD when she had the hallucination of herself from her college days.  Then she had to make the awful decision that ended in Havenrock.  Arrow writers are the best, so I felt certain they would handle the PTSD well.  I saw the symptoms in Oliver in seasons one and two and Diggle and Felicity helped him through it.  Now with Billy's death, I think we are going to see more signs of it.  The writers have said Felicity will go through a dark time.  We know she's not going to blame Oliver.  She knows he had no choice; Prometheus saw to that.  She won't go there. Felicity, I think will blame herself and Prometheus.

 I think Billy's last words may come back to her that he had to be true to who he was.  She knows she wasn't true to herself.  She as much as told Oliver that when he asked her if what she had with Billy was real, and she said she didn't know.  Love knows.

Felicity may feel guilt.  She may blame herself, and she may try to find a way to get Prometheus herself in a "different" way.  She may even leave the lair.  She would do this because people who go through post-traumatic stress often want to avoid places and people that remind them of what they suffered.  Her trauma centers around the lair and the people she cares most for.

   This is why she was alone at the end of 509.  Diggle was busy being arrested, Oliver couldn't face her because he too feels guilt, but I think she wanted to be alone.  She wants to isolate herself and think things through. I think Billy's death is the culmination of all the traumatic events her life.  It was that proverbial straw.  The writers say she will go to a morally questionable place.  This is what people with post traumatic stress do.  Will she try and get her company back, and find a way to stop Prometheus with some weapon she creates?  Will she involve her father somehow?  Will she be like Oliver in the first season and kill?   I don't know, but some of those things are real possibilities.  Whatever it is, there is one thing I am certain of, and that is Oliver will help her to get out of, because Oliver has been where Felicity will be.

I think we will see Oliver overcoming his guilt without Diggle and without Felicity and he will do it in a way that is honorable. He will do this because he is a hero in the truest sense of the word.  With Diggle in prison and Felicity emotionally unable to help, he will find the strength that is there inside him, and this strength will help  him find his way back to Felicity and be a light and strength to her.  He told the explicit truth; he hid nothing. He didn't have to and it was the hardest thing for him ever to do.  Felicity knows this, but she will lose her light.  I think we will see her in darker place than even after the accident.  She will be on the brink of doing something she will regret forever, and we will be there with her screaming, "No, don't do it," and hopefully it will be Oliver who will help  her, and be her light and pull her back from the brink.

Using Felicity to show us post traumatic stress for me is important.  I know writers in a series have to handle things in a quick pace, but I am hoping they take the time to show the hard reality of it, and how it can be overcome.  I already feel sad for what she will have to go through. I know we were all upset over Billy, but Billy's death will be the tragedy that leads Oliver and Felicity back together.

The writers broke them up so fast, that it almost felt like whiplash.   It didn't feel real.  Getting them back together is going to take time.  I am not even sure we will see them together by the end of season 5, but we are seeing a rebuild and it will be slow, methodical, and very worth the wait.