A close-up on Felicity's face from the finale, looking absolutely luminous and smiling at something off-camera

About:

Title: Felicity S4.E21 “Felicity Interrupted” + S4.E22 “Back to the Future”
Released: 2002
Series:  Felicity

Drinks taken: 27

Follow the whole rewatch here!

Welcome to the last-ever Felicity Rewatch Project! This has been such a fun, funny, beautiful journey, and I’ve loved being on it with you guys and with Sarah, who last week published a couple of her charming old journal entries to show how much this series has meant to her and to our friendship. Thank you for being the Felicity to my Javier, Sarah! 

Now, a reminder of where we stand: Felicity traveled back in time! She’s been fighting to be with Noel after Ben broke her heart in the present day timeline, but she’s acting so weird and urgent about this mission that Noel ends up dumping her. Oh and Julie’s back! But because Sean’s an idiot, that leads to him and Meghan breaking up.

Okay, one last time, let’s drink to this wonderful, weird, lovely, singular show, and to Keri Russell, who turned in the performance of a lifetime for it:

An updated version of our usual drinking game picture, this time with Felicity and Ben from the finale, both in formal attire and holding up champagne flutes in a toast

The Felicity Drinking Game Rules

Drink once every time:

You cringe during the “New Version of You” credit sequence.

Felicity is endearingly earnest.

Ben smiles sheepishly.

Noel is adorkable.

Elena is a better friend than anyone deserves.

Meghan is mean and it’s awesome.

Javier butchers a word or figure of speech.

Richard freaks out (in a good or bad way).

Drink twice every time:

Felicity stresses you out.

Felicity says, “Dear Sally.”

Sean invents something.

Javier refers to Ben as “Benjamin.”

Onto the (sob!) final two episodes of Felicity:

Felicity looking frantic in the foreground, with a concerned Ben in the background

4.21 “Felicity Interrupted”

Felicity meets up with Noel so she can try one more time to convince him to stay with her, and he’s just not having it, because she’s still being so wackadoo about the whole thing. She gives him a tiny magic 8-ball keychain for his new apartment, because of course they have so much history with the magic 8-ball, and he’s touched, but not convinced. So in a last-ditch effort, she tells him the truth:

Astonishing that this doesn’t work! Noel runs to Ben and tells him he thinks Felicity’s on drugs, so then Ben goes to find Felicity, and catches her in the middle of a spell she got from Meghan to try and fix the timeline. He tells Noel as much, and Noel convinces Ben that Felicity’s having a psychotic episode, so they check her into a psychiatric ward. Whoa, this escalates quickly! When Meghan finds out, she is FURIOUS at them for hospitalizing Felicity instead of supporting her and listening to her. It’s one of Meghan’s most righteous speeches ever, and I love her for it. 

Felicity runs into Zoe at the hospital (remember, Zoe told Noel she was hospitalized after her very bad breakup?), and though Zoe has no idea who she is, the fact that Felicity knows her full name and stuff about her life seems to confirm that she’s not crazy – she really did travel from the future, which Felicity was beginning to doubt after Ben and Noel’s reactions. She calls Ben and says she knows how to prove to him that she’s from the future: she tells him about his dad’s liver failure and AA sponsee, Lauren. Ben’s still just super worried about Felicity, thinking she’s hallucinating, until Lauren calls later, introducing herself on the phone and telling Ben that his dad is dying of liver failure. Ben tells Noel that there’s no way Felicity could have known that, and when Noel scoffs that Ben can’t possibly believe that Felicity time-traveled, Ben says, “Yeah, I guess I do.” And then he BREAKS HER OUT OF THE HOSPITAL! Team! Ben! This redeems every mistake he’s ever made, and it feels like the definitive answer in the Ben or Noel saga: when the chips are down, Ben believes the unbelievable when it comes to Felicity, and Noel does not.

So after their surprisingly easy jailbreak, Felicity and Ben are talking at Epstein Bar, and she fills him in on the future: Palo Alto, and pre-med, and the fact that he cheated on her with Claire, setting this whole timeline into motion. He’s horrified that he would do that to her, and promises her it will never happen now, and tries to convince her to stay in this timeline with him, to do senior year all over with him and to do it right this time. It’s a VERY COMPELLING SPEECH, I gotta say.

Felicity’s definitely considering it, until she gets a heartbreaking call moments before the end of the episode: Noel died in the fire in the administration building, the one he saved her from in the original timeline. Now she knows she has to go back, because it’s the only way to save Noel. And though it’s unlikely any viewer believed Noel’s death would stick, Keri Russell’s performance in this scene is so devastating that it makes the stakes matter in a way they wouldn’t necessarily otherwise.

In other news: Sean’s trying to win Meghan back, and she’s so furious that she’s faked a boyfriend and is sending herself dozens of bouquets of flowers to make him jealous, Cher Horowitz-style. Javier lies to Elena and tells her he can’t help her with her Spanish final because he has a show, but instead she finds him getting a manicure in the backroom of Dean & Deluca. She’s really mad – plus while he was primping, D&D was robbed, which gets him fired. But at least he apologizes very sincerely to Elena, who of course forgives him in the best way possible. AND Julie keeps flirting with Ben, who asks to join her for her road trip to Dollywood until the whole Felicity thing happens, and just like Noel, Julie realizes she’ll always be a distant second to Belicity. She says goodbye very sweetly and brightly, and it’s a much better farewell to her character than the first one

Oh and and and! As Meghan’s fretting over Felicity’s hospitalization, she redoubles her efforts to find the Korsikoff guy who supposedly wrote the spell book that sent Felicity to the past. And after realizing she’s been spelling his name wrong, she finds him! Y’all know how much I love Elena and how happy I am to have her back, but Meghan wins Best Friend Forever points for this one.

How many times do I have to take a drink?

9

Important Fact Checking

When Julie leaves, she says she has a friend meeting her in Nashville because she’ll appreciate Dollywood much more than Ben would. But since Sarah and I really DID take a road trip to Dollywood, we know that it’s in Pigeon Forge, not Nashville!

Sarah and Meredith, both in hot pink jackets, standing in front of the Dollywood sign together, smiling

Team Zoe

Felicity’s hospital stay not only convinces her that Ben’s the right guy for her, it also convinces her that Zoe’s the right woman for Noel. They have a lovely talk during which Zoe is incredibly supportive and kind to the newly admitted Felicity, and she admits that she could use a little happiness in her future when Felicity hints about her one-day wedding to Noel. It’s such a good, respectful way to treat all of the characters involved.

A close-up of items on a scale: the 8-ball keychain Felicity bought Noel and the necklace Ben bought Felicity

4.22 “Back to the Future”

Everyone’s sitting around silently grieving over Noel when Meghan enters and announces that she thinks Felicity can fix it. “I found Korsikoff.” Felicity goes to visit the magician, and after convincing him that it’s not a prank, that his spell really did work and sent her to the past, he agrees to help her. He tells her to gather as many personal belongings of everyone connected to Noel as possible, and she does, and meets him in his office. He places a peculiar, gnarled, tree-like sculpture on the table between them, and tells her to start from the beginning. So Felicity starts with the pilot and tells the tale of Felicity, and it’s a sweet, very clever way to deliver a flashback episode for the series finale. Meanwhile, Korsikoff is taking mementos from each of these memories and attaching them to the sculpture on the table while Felicity walks us through the story of her wonderful friendships in New York:

Noel flashbacks! “Stay in New York or perish.” Boggle. Their disastrous first attempt at sex. So many empowering, heartfelt, adorkable Noel Crane speeches. Korsikoff glues Boggle letters and a picture of Noel to the tree.

Javier flashbacks! The toupee. When he made her wear his glasses so she could see the new Ben. So many crunches and Beenjamins and hugs. Korsikoff ties a black Dean & Deluca hat to the tree.

Meghan flashbacks! When Felicity went up “like, a notch.” Their Jell-O showdown. So much magic and snark and eternal friendship. Meghan’s tarot cards make it to the tree.

Elena flashbacks! Punching out BlairKicking ass at AssassinsGetting engaged to Tracy. So much toughness and loyalty and brilliance. The plastic Assassins gun is now on the tree.

Sean flashbacks! SmoothaiseMusical condoms. So many big ideas and enthusiastic announcements and perfect Shmeghanisms. The “Rubber Band” is on the tree.

Sally flashbacks! The iconic Felicity silhouette. The time Felicity’s Sally tape is played at the dorm party. Every hidden insight Felicity shared with Sally before she had any other friends to confide in. A Sally tape sits on the tree.

And fiiiiinally: Ben flashbacks. Oh man, so many, so good. The necklaceTheir first kiss. The time machine, you guys, HE CALLED IT A TIME MACHINE!! It’s like this was planned from the beginning! So many epic kisses and yearning looks and sheepish smiles and stressful Felicity moments. The necklace hangs on the tree. 

Korsikoff tells Felicity that they’re almost ready to cast the spell, but he can tell that she’s holding onto something, and the spell won’t work until she lets it go. She hasn’t really made a choice yet, and she never really did make a choice, even when she thought she chose Ben. Maybe that’s why she and Ben never exactly worked – because Noel was always in the drawer, like Pavone said. So she reaches into her pocket and pulls out the 8-ball keychain, and makes a choice, and hands it over to Korsikoff. He hangs it across from Ben’s necklace, and they balance this tiny scale out perfectly. The spell is ready, and Korsikoff hands Felicity a candle and tells her to “seal it off.” She drizzles candle wax all over the mementos, and it feels powerful. Like magic. 

She goes back to Ben that night and tells him she’s afraid to fall asleep, because she knows she’ll wake back up in the original timeline and they won’t be together, and she won’t remember all that’s happened. He tells her she has to remember one thing: that he’s so terribly sorry for cheating on her in the future. 

I’m sorry for what I did.
It was stupid, immature, and it was unforgivable.
But you have to find a way to forgive me.
I don’t know how, but you have to.
Because I don’t want to live my life without you.

Felicity wakes up in the original timeline, in bed surrounded by her friends, very Wizard of Oz. Turns out she had a 104-degree fever (SHE SHOULD BE IN THE HOSPITAL), and they were all so worried about her. She tells them she had a terrible dream where Noel died (and you, and you, and you were there), but Noel’s here and glad to see she’s okay, and he’s ready to get married to Zoe, and Felicity’s so happy for them both. Ben asks if he can talk to Felicity alone, and they clear the room, and he apologizes to her, saying exactly what he said in the past, or in her dream: “Because I don’t want to live my life without you.” She forgives him because she doesn’t want to live her life without him, either, and we know they’re going to work this time, because there’s nothing in the drawer anymore. Felicity finally, FINALLY, made her choice. 

It’s Noel and Zoe’s wedding now, and Elena’s there! With Tracy! Everyone’s so happy, and it’s a perfect Felicity montage set to music, with everyone toasting and laughing and hugging, and it ends on this big, beautiful cheers among all of our besties, and I love it so, so much. It’s perfect. 

How many times do I have to take a drink?

18 – so many rules in all those flashbacks!

Cameo

Korsikoff is played by Kurt Fuller, from The Good WifeParenthoodSupernatural and Abrams’ own Alias.

Kurt Fuller as Korsikoff

BFFS:

Gah, these two.

Turns Out I Love Time Travel

I never watched the fourth season of Felicity before this Rewatch Project, because I was so skeptical when I heard about the magic spell and the time travel. But it turns out I LOVE IT! It’s such a strange and poetic and, well, magical way to end the series. I wouldn’t change a thing about this finale, even with the few plot inconsistencies that come with a time travel paradox.


So that’s curtains on The Felicity Rewatch Project. I miss it already! Questions for you lovely RAs and Wiccans and Smoothaise enthusiasts and Dean & Deluca employees and friends:

What’s your favorite episode of Felicity? (Mine’s “The Aretha Theory.”) Who’s your favorite character? (I can’t help but say Felicity, but Javier’s a close second!) And most importantly! What series would you love to see get the Rewatch Project treatment in the future? (So far we’ve done Gilmore GirlsDawson’s CreekVeronica Mars and The O.C.)

And thanks again for following us on this trip from Palo Alto to New York, to the past and back to the future. Talk back soon.

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Meredith Borders is formerly the Texas-based editor of Fangoria and Birth.Movies.Death., now living and writing (and reading) in Germany. She’s been known to pop by Forever Young Adult since its inception, and she loves YA TV most ardently.