Dear @RoyRogersMc Freely, I guess you are referring to my post, and I’d like to comment on your thoughts.
I’m indeed of the opinion that, in the second timeline, Oliver lies to Felicity when they are back at the loft after defeating Vandal Savage (telling her that everything was fine when she asked him about what was going on in his mind), because
- he is afraid of losing the committed love relationship he has with her, and
- he believes (albeit wrongly, based on Barry’s sketchy information about O/F’s fight in the first timeline) that if she found out about William, it would be over between him and her.
However, the factual statement about Oliver’s actual motive for lying to Felicity:
- “Oliver lies to her, because he doesn’t want to lose her”.
isn’t equal to the normative statement about an attempted justification for Oliver’s lie:
- “Oliver HAD TO lie to Felicity in order not to lose her”.
Although I believe that Oliver’s desire to be with Felicity (+ his false conviction that he would lose her if he told her the truth) is indeed his reason for lying to her, I don’t believe that it is a good reason. I try to understand Oliver’s action, I don’t defend it.
Now, I’d like to explain why I posted about Oliver’s reason for his lie in the first place: Like many people in this forum I asked myself during and after the episode: WHY does Oliver lie to Felicity at the end of 4x08? At first, two possible answers came to my mind, both of which seem unsatisfactory:
- “Oliver lies to Felicity, because he thinks that if he doesn’t fulfill Samantha’s wish, he won’t be able to meet William and spend some time with him”.
I don’t like this answer, because I can’t believe that Oliver is THAT stupid. There are other obvious possibilities, and whether these alternatives turn out to be viable options or not, at least Oliver should consider them first before dismissing them: i.e. taking legal means in order to enforce his right to visit William, or simply talking to Felicity without letting Samantha know about it.
- “Oliver lies to Felicity, because he regresses to a former self of his: either to the PTSD suffering post-Island vigilante who, in general, is reluctant to tell the truth and prefers to keep secrets from others, especially those close to him, or even to the spoiled brat pre-Island Ollie who only cares about himself and lies whenever it seems to be convenient for him”.
I don’t like this answer either, basically for two reasons: The first one is a kind of meta-reason regarding the writing’s effect on the audience: It would be boring. It would mean that now, in S4, we are watching Oliver’s development from the first three seasons all over again. It would be repetitious story-telling. The second reason has to do with Oliver’s character in S4. IMO he has come a long way since his return to Star(ling) City. He has shown at least some degree of personal growth. Such a kind of regression simply doesn’t fit in with what we have seen on screen. S4-Oliver isn’t the same guy we met in S1-S3. He wouldn’t suddenly slip back to his former self for no good reason.
Therefore I tried to find (cook up/ fanwank) a different answer that is slightly more satisfying (I hope). And it goes like this: S4-Oliver differs from S3-Oliver especially regarding his attitude towards a committed love relationship with Felicity. During S3, Oliver’s attitude can be summed up like this:
- “I can’t be with the woman I love”.
But now, in S4, his attitude seems to be the opposite, something more like:
- “I can’t be WITHOUT the woman I love”.
(If you have any doubt about this, please remember what he said in 4x07 about having found peace through his relationship with Felicity. Furthermore, I interpret his cuddling with Felicity at the end of 4x08 as a sign of his utter relief that he hasn’t lost her. This guy is clinging to her as if he were clinging to life itself! A life without her has become unthinkable for him.)
IMO this new attitude is an improvement compared to his attitude in S3, because now he has learned:
- “I can have a good and happy relationship if I want to”.
However, his new attitude is still somewhat flawed and immature. Now, he has to learn:
- “I can live well and happily on my own if I have to”.
Felicity harnesses his light, but she isn’t his light. She helps him to grow, but he has to grow on his own. There is no doubt that Oliver can survive on his own. He has proven this time and again. But now he has to learn to live on his own, i.e. to have a decent, balanced, healthy, and –to a certain degree– happy life independently of Felicity’s constant support.
But he isn’t there yet. Right now he can’t imagine a life without the relationship he has with the woman he loves, and since he takes it for certain (based on what Barry told him) that his relationship would be over, as soon as she got to know the truth, he chooses the (apparently) easiest option in order to avoid any risk of losing Felicity: he doesn’t tell her about William and pretends that everything is just fine.
This is stupid, because he should know that she is going to find out anyway. (After all, she is incredibly good at gathering information, and he is a terrible liar.) It is shortsighted, because he doesn’t take into account all the future lies he will have to tell her from now on in order to keep her from finding out the truth. It is selfish, because what drives him is his desperate personal need to have her in his life. More importantly, it’s unfair, because Felicity has a right to know something that is relevant for her decision whether she wants to stay in a long-term love relationship with Oliver or not. Is it a regression on Oliver’s part? Well, at the level of his behavior, yes, it is: He reverts to lying, something that he has done (too) many times already. However, I would not consider it a full-fledged regression at the level of his character or his personality, because his motive for his lie is a new one, based on a new attitude towards his relationship with Felicity, an attitude he didn’t have before the end 3x23. IMO his “protecting” the relationship with Felicity (using bad, inappropriate means) fits in with the mind set of S4-Oliver as we got to know him during the episodes 4x01-4x07. It fits in with the mind set of person who earnestly wants to be in a lasting committed relationship (at last!), but who hasn’t figured out yet how to do this responsibly.
In conclusion, I would like to explain why I went to such great lengths reflecting on Oliver’s reasons for lying to Felicity (and bothering you with my ramblings):
IMO it is obvious that the writers have inserted this terrible baby mama plot in 4x08, because they think:
- “The audience will get bored with Olicity if they stay together as a happy couple; therefore, we have to break them up somehow in order to keep them interesting”.
- “We have to stall an Olicity wedding until S5 (when we get syndication for ARROW), because this will help us to sell the show to other networks”.
They are not writing for character, they are writing in adherence to (dubious) TV laws.
The only way I can tolerate this writing and survive watching this awful soap opera drama is by making up my own explanation of it, based on where Oliver is right now in S4 and what has to happen next in order for him to grow as a person and as a superhero. The best I can come up with is the following:
It makes (at least some) sense for the show to drive a wedge between Oliver and Felicity and provoke a temporary breakup in S4, because it gives Oliver the opportunity to learn to have a decent, balanced, healthy, and –to a certain degree– happy life independently of Felicity’s constant support. A breakup gives Oliver the space he needs in order to learn how to live (not only survive) as a single (not lonely!) person – by being a loving brother to Thea, being a close friend to Diggle, Barry etc. as well as being a responsible superhero (by night) and a committed mayor (by day) to Star City. Only after learning how to keep his inner light shining bright on his own (without constant assistance from other people), he will be ready to enter a new and definitive relationship with Felicity and find (a higher degree of) happiness together with her.