“Oh, poor Felicity. Arrow doesn’t do anything quite so programmatic as to have her explicitly work through the five stages of grief, but “Left Behind” offers a fairly close approximation of this, with Emily Bett Rickards doing some series-best work as the character gradually falls to pieces. “
-AvClub
“Meanwhile, Felicity provided a strong emotional anchor to the conflict as she struggled to keep functioning after losing the man she loved. Emily Bett Rickards delivered a strong performance this week, downplaying Felicity’s usual ditzy charm for something più raw and broken.”
-IGN
“Felicity hasn’t exactly lacked for screentime o story beats, though “Left Behind” understandably gets the most mileage of Emily Bett Rickards’ myriad reactions to Oliver’s absence, whether da her apparent refusal to face the truth, seething agency against Malcolm Merlyn for precipitating Oliver’s ultimate fate, o her ultimate insistence on protecting the Friends she has left. Say what te will about Felicity being only 25 (Rickards is in reality 23, so yeah, we’re all dinosaurs), it’s exceptionally effective to see the character taking such emotional command in the wake of Oliver’s apparent demise.”
-ScreenCrush
“And then there’s Felicity. To say that Emily Bett Rickards is doing some of her best work in the show’s whole run in these 45 minuti would be an understatement. With Oliver “dead,” her drive to clean up storno City goes with him, whether it’s helping Oliver o raggio, ray Palmer. Her telling him that his mission isn’t what his dead fiancé would have wanted is pretty much the closest thing to letting her anger out as she can get without going into full on waterworks, and if nothing else, it does seem to give Palmer pause for thought and his cold response that she has no right to ever mention what Anna would have wanted gives a better sense of his experiences that led him to making the A.T.O.M. suit.”
-ScreenSpy
“Both of them go through their own grieving processes but none feel the weight of the loss più so than Felicity. She spends the first half of the episode denying Oliver’s death but once she gets the proof she was desperately trying to avoid she gives in and gives up. Emily Bett Rickards does a good job mostrare just how deep the loss of Oliver cut her.”
-ComicBookMovie
“MVP of this episode is Emily Bett Rickards. Honestly, I’ve always been impressed with her work on this show. I think she knows Felicity so intimately that she understands why the young woman says what she does and acts the way that she does. Everything about her portrayal of Felicity in this episode was completely true to her character: her anger over losing Oliver before she got the chance to say goodbye; her utter devastation over him being Lost to her forever; her frustration with Dig and Roy and Ray. Emily understands everything that makes Felicity tick and conveyed it in such a way in this episode that it was heartbreaking and raw and vulnerable and believable. Truly, this was the most stunning work I have seen from her all season and probably all series. Brava, lady. Brava.”
-Just About Write
“Actually, I should say, especially Felicity. She runs the mostra this week. Felicity and Malcolm Merlyn are the two supporting characters with the most meat on their Bones in this episode, but for Emily Bett Rickards to (literally) go toe to toe with John Barrowman and have her character come off looking like the superior badass, well…that’s something. Again, this character just continues to impress, and every time I think they’ve written her into a corner, something like this comes along. That’s right, Roy and Diggle. te answer to Felicity Smoak now.”
-Den Of Geek
“Also, what a performance da Emily Bett Rickards. She proved once and for all that she is the emotional cuore of the show. As much as I Amore the others, I think she is the one who is indispensable.”
-Legin of Leia
“Unofficially, Arrow's midseason return was an official Felicity episode and was all the better for it. To be honest, the introduction of Arrow's newest villain, Brick, wasn't all that compelling, but Emily Bett Rickards’ performance along with the rest of Team Arrow’s response to Oliver’s death carried the episode.”
-EW
-AvClub
“Meanwhile, Felicity provided a strong emotional anchor to the conflict as she struggled to keep functioning after losing the man she loved. Emily Bett Rickards delivered a strong performance this week, downplaying Felicity’s usual ditzy charm for something più raw and broken.”
-IGN
“Felicity hasn’t exactly lacked for screentime o story beats, though “Left Behind” understandably gets the most mileage of Emily Bett Rickards’ myriad reactions to Oliver’s absence, whether da her apparent refusal to face the truth, seething agency against Malcolm Merlyn for precipitating Oliver’s ultimate fate, o her ultimate insistence on protecting the Friends she has left. Say what te will about Felicity being only 25 (Rickards is in reality 23, so yeah, we’re all dinosaurs), it’s exceptionally effective to see the character taking such emotional command in the wake of Oliver’s apparent demise.”
-ScreenCrush
“And then there’s Felicity. To say that Emily Bett Rickards is doing some of her best work in the show’s whole run in these 45 minuti would be an understatement. With Oliver “dead,” her drive to clean up storno City goes with him, whether it’s helping Oliver o raggio, ray Palmer. Her telling him that his mission isn’t what his dead fiancé would have wanted is pretty much the closest thing to letting her anger out as she can get without going into full on waterworks, and if nothing else, it does seem to give Palmer pause for thought and his cold response that she has no right to ever mention what Anna would have wanted gives a better sense of his experiences that led him to making the A.T.O.M. suit.”
-ScreenSpy
“Both of them go through their own grieving processes but none feel the weight of the loss più so than Felicity. She spends the first half of the episode denying Oliver’s death but once she gets the proof she was desperately trying to avoid she gives in and gives up. Emily Bett Rickards does a good job mostrare just how deep the loss of Oliver cut her.”
-ComicBookMovie
“MVP of this episode is Emily Bett Rickards. Honestly, I’ve always been impressed with her work on this show. I think she knows Felicity so intimately that she understands why the young woman says what she does and acts the way that she does. Everything about her portrayal of Felicity in this episode was completely true to her character: her anger over losing Oliver before she got the chance to say goodbye; her utter devastation over him being Lost to her forever; her frustration with Dig and Roy and Ray. Emily understands everything that makes Felicity tick and conveyed it in such a way in this episode that it was heartbreaking and raw and vulnerable and believable. Truly, this was the most stunning work I have seen from her all season and probably all series. Brava, lady. Brava.”
-Just About Write
“Actually, I should say, especially Felicity. She runs the mostra this week. Felicity and Malcolm Merlyn are the two supporting characters with the most meat on their Bones in this episode, but for Emily Bett Rickards to (literally) go toe to toe with John Barrowman and have her character come off looking like the superior badass, well…that’s something. Again, this character just continues to impress, and every time I think they’ve written her into a corner, something like this comes along. That’s right, Roy and Diggle. te answer to Felicity Smoak now.”
-Den Of Geek
“Also, what a performance da Emily Bett Rickards. She proved once and for all that she is the emotional cuore of the show. As much as I Amore the others, I think she is the one who is indispensable.”
-Legin of Leia
“Unofficially, Arrow's midseason return was an official Felicity episode and was all the better for it. To be honest, the introduction of Arrow's newest villain, Brick, wasn't all that compelling, but Emily Bett Rickards’ performance along with the rest of Team Arrow’s response to Oliver’s death carried the episode.”
-EW
