Without Felicity Smoak, the finale of the Arrow series would not have felt complete. Fortunately, we're not going to have to suffer this fate. Stephen Amell announced via Twitter that Emily Bett Rickards will be back for the Arrow Season 8 finale, which will also be the series finale, leaving the show as a series finale after Season 7.

Check out the tweet...

There%u2019ll be a lot of news coming out about our final episode over the next few months. I prefer when you hear it from us. Welcome back Emily. pic.twitter.com/YlVpgoPWLi

— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) November 1, 2019

The last time we saw Felicity was in the Season 7 finale, which saw Monitor show up to collect on the deal he made with Oliver in the "Elseworlds" crossover last season: e.g. that, in exchange for saving Barry and Kara's lives, Oliver would have to help Monitor in some mysterious way.

Download >> Arrow Season 8 (Complete Episode)

Also in the Season 7 finale, we saw future Felicity visit Oliver's grave with adult Mia and William. While there, Felicity met up with Monitor. "Where I’m taking you, there is no return," Monitor told Felicity, presumably implying that he would be taking her to see Oliver. "I’ve been waiting a very long time to see him," Felicity told Monitor. "I’m ready."

In the Season 8 final, Rickards will presumably return to show the follow-up to this scene: showing Felicity coming together with Oliver decades after his apparent death.

We're going to have to wait until the Arrow Season 8 finale in early 2020 to see how exactly this all goes down and what else we can expect from the return of Rickards, but if the finale is as good as all that has come so far in Season 8—which was a nostalgic trip of beloved characters returning and clever callbacks to all that has come before— then it's going to be something special.

Download >> Arrow Season 8 (Complete Episode)