Not sure if you noticed but Felicity was the only one up on the steps before Oliver woke up. What are your thoughts on that? Got any ideas as to why?
(gif @felicitys)
Not only is she standing on the staircase while everyone else is on the ground level, she’s also wearing red. Coincidence? I think not.
At first I was slightly surprised to find Felicity there, because it seemed to me that this entourage of memories comprised of people he’s who’ve gone from his life.
But then it struck me. It’s a pretty simple thing.
This whole dream verse, especially this last portion, is a projection of Oliver’s subconscious. He’s projecting out the people he’s lost and misses the most, people in the eyes of whom he’s redeemed himself.
He’s lost Felicity in a sense as well, but she’s the only anomaly in this group because she’s the only one still living in his life, a person he sees and loves on a daily basis.
But it’s not just that. Felicity has always been a kind of beacon for him - a sort of guiding light. She’s been guiding him on his missions for years and guiding him emotionally to a place where he can find the light and claim it. His trust in her, in her ability to guide him, is completely absolute and unchanging, a fact he reiterated in a very simple, very underrated moment last season
He has her.
He needs a team, yes. But as long as he has her, he knows he can go into any battle and come out the winner. It’s so incredibly beautiful.
And her position on the stairs just marks her elevated status in his mind, because she’s the one he looks up to most whenever he’s in a crisis. And right in that moment, that is the most difficult battle he’s ever had to face in his life - making an active choice to leave behind the people he loves and misses and wants to keep by his side, happy and smiling and proud, every single day. Choosing to leave them all, his parents, his best friend, his first protegee, his first serious relationship, everything… it’s so incredibly hard, and even if it is the right decision, that last step is just so hard to take.
So it is completely natural that Felicity is there in a simple red dress, standing above beyond everyone else he has to leave behind, beckoning him to her, to their messed up crazy lives, because he’s not the man he was in this world, he’s someone else and she’s the only one of these people who knows him better than he knows himself. He trusts that as she’s urging him to honor the dead by fighting, by continuing to fight, reminding him as she always does that he’s not nearly done and the battles are many, but she’s there…
… and that’s all he needs.
He takes one last look around, and walks into the portal.
I love ya Matty. You know I do!!! Beautiful.