Felicity 3.12, Girlfight: Unabashedly Evil

February 6, 2021

Felicity 3.12, Girlfight: Unabashedly Evil

Danger! Danger!

Summary: The Christmas party has dissolved into chaos after James’ arrival with a gun. Sean and Tracy chased him out but lost him on the street. Everyone else is trying to find out if anyone was hurt, since the party guests have spread out around the apartment. Felicity checks on Molly, who’s shaken up and blames herself for James’ actions.

Ben is trying to tend to a blond woman who’s bleeding, and as Felicity calls an ambulance, she sees that Elena was also wounded in the arm. Ben rides in the ambulance with the blond woman, Avery, and tries to distract her by talking about plans for Christmas break. Her heart stops and Ben looks into her lifeless eyes as the paramedic tries to revive her.

Later, Sean interviews people about their experiences. Ben is shaken by the memory of watching a woman die. Felicity talks about hearing stories about tragedies that happen to other people. Noel literally dodged a bullet because he happened to be bending down to tie his shoe when James fired the gun. Ben clarifies that the paramedic saved Avery. Molly says that the police found James about an hour after the shooting, and he’s in jail. Tracy doesn’t want to go to Africa now, since it’ll mean leaving Elena (who’s going to be fine), but he knows the program is important. Molly will go back to England for a while.

We fast-forward three months, to Javier giving Sean an interview about the shooting. Javier can’t believe how easy it is to get a gun. Welcome to America! Elena has fully recovered and is taking a self-defense class to feel safe again. Unfortunately, she keeps practicing what she’s learned in class on Felicity. Felicity promises to take the class when she has time, but she’s dealing with classes, work, and Noel’s existential crisis.

Noel has been slacking on “Loser Pet Store,” but Felicity tells him she’ll be coming over later to make him work. Avery comes by the loft with a present for Ben, but Noel doesn’t realize who she is until she says her name. He tells her she’s the reason for his existential crisis. Everything has felt pointless to him since the night of the shooting. Avery, on the other hand, feels like she’s gotten a second chance, and like her life has new purpose.

At the dorm apartment, Meghan complains to Sean about her new psych project: She’s been assigned to work as a teaching assistant at the college’s elementary school. Meghan, unsurprisingly, hates kids. Sean’s like, “Then just don’t do it,” as if that’s an option. Meghan is anxious about returning to her bad childhood memories, and Sean isn’t sympathetic. He thinks she’ll end up having fun.

Felicity goes to the loft to try to make Noel do something productive. She accuses him of feeling sorry for himself. He tells her Avery came by; it sounds like she’s been away from school this whole time and is just now back. Felicity isn’t happy to learn that Avery was looking for Ben, and Noel sent her to Dean & DeLuca to find him. It’s clear why Felicity’s unhappy, because the way Ben and Avery look at each other when she shows up at Dean & DeLuca is the way Ben used to look at Felicity.

Meghan’s role at the elementary school is going exactly as poorly as you’d expect. Felicity shows up at Dean & DeLuca and meets Avery for the first time; Felicity sent her a nice care package while she was in the hospital. She tells Avery that Elena is really into her self-defense class and invites Avery to come along when Felicity goes to her first session that afternoon. Avery gives Ben his present, a really nice swimmer’s watch. She asked his mom for advice on what to get him. She feels like Ben saved her life, and she wants to repay him, so he can ask her for anything he needs.

Elena tells Sean that Tracy is back a month early…but not alone. He didn’t call her to tell her he was back in town. She saw him hugging another woman and figures he brought a new girlfriend back with him from Africa. At the self-defense class, Avery overhears Felicity and Elena discussing Tracy and encourages Elena to talk to him. The situation probably isn’t how it looks. The instructor has Avery practice a take-down move on Felicity, which ends with Felicity on her back on the floor.

Meghan tells Sean that the kids weren’t as bad as she’d expected, but the other teachers are awful. One sent her home to change clothes. Sean says Meghan should get revenge by teaching the kids witchcraft. He’s joking, but Meghan takes him seriously. Elena goes to Tracy’s and asks him about the woman he was hugging. That was Rose, and Tracy decided to leave early with her group. He admits that they’re dating.

Avery comes by the dorm apartment to apologize to Felicity for being so aggressive in class. She gives Felicity an expensive apology sweater, then asks if Ben liked the watch. Avery thinks Ben and Felicity were made for each other. Felicity doesn’t want to accept the sweater, since it’s so nice and pricey, so Avery says that in their next self-defense class, Felicity can flip her, then buy her something.

At the loft, Ben, Sean, and Richard are playing video games while Noel tries to read. Richard and Sean tell Ben that Avery is a trust-fund kid, which explains how she’s able to afford such nice gifts. Richard thinks Ben should take advantage of her generosity. Ben declines, but when Avery offers him courtside Knicks tickets, he has a hard time turning her down.

Later, Ben tells Felicity about the game, which is that night, and Felicity is a little annoyed that he’s going with Avery. She thinks Avery should have given him both tickets and let him pick someone to go with. Ben offers to try to get another ticket, but Felicity has to work on “Loser Pet Store.” Ben promises that it’s just an innocent basketball game. He feels bad for Avery, since she seems to think she can only make friends by buying them things. For the record, Felicity’s wearing the sweater Avery gave her.

While working with Noel, Felicity tries to convince herself that the game is just a friendly thing and she has nothing to worry about. Noel’s like, “Well, it’s not like she’s ugly, so…maybe worry a little?” Meghan meets Sean at the loft and tells him that her teaching job has been going great – so great that she now wants to be a teacher. Specifically, she wants to teach witchcraft.

Sean, of course, objects, so Meghan thinks he’s being too critical. He should be happy that she’s figured out what she wants to do with her life. Sean backs down and offers her some encouragement. Meghan thinks it’s weird that they just had a fight and didn’t break up. Yeah, thank God.

Ben calls Felicity from a club and invites her to join him and Avery there. She asks if she can bring Noel, too, even though Noel doesn’t want to go. When they get there, Avery hasn’t put them on the guest list, so they can’t get in. Felicity thinks Avery did this on purpose. Noel decides to channel Leon and get them inside.

Avery introduces Ben to some friends she’s told all about him. They haven’t, however, heard about Felicity. “Leon” uses his new existential readings to convince the bouncer that the VIP list doesn’t matter – the only list that’s important is the one that says who gets to go to Heaven. The bouncer seems to decide he doesn’t want to spend the night arguing with college kids, so he lets Felicity and Noel inside.

Felicity immediately pulls Avery aside to ask if she’s interested in Ben. Avery admits that she is, but she knows it doesn’t matter, since Ben is so in love with Felicity. Avery feels a connection to Ben because he was with her in the ambulance when she briefly died. She hasn’t been able to stop thinking about him since then. Avery knows her money will only get her so far, but until then, I guess she’s going to use it as much as she can.

Elena tells Sean that she’s realized that Tracy needs to be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t want to have sex. Elena claims to be okay with it, but she’s clearly not. She meets up with Tracy at Epstein Bar to encourage him to be with Rose. At the moment, she seems to be a better match for Tracy than Elena is. Elena just wants Tracy to be happy. He gives her his wallet and tells her to order whatever she wants while he uses the bathroom. Elena is surprised to find a condom in the wallet.

At home, Felicity complains about Avery to Ben, calling her “unabashedly evil.” Ben is sympathetic toward Avery, but Felicity says that being shot doesn’t absolve her of having to take responsibility for her actions. She’s sick of seeing Avery everywhere. Ben promises that he wants to be with Felicity and no one else.

Felicity is concerned because she and Ben both said they didn’t want anything from Avery, but they’re accepting what she offers anyway. Ben is amused by how angry Felicity is; he’s never seen her hate someone before. He promises that now that Avery has thanked him, things will go back to normal. Yeah, probably.

Noel takes Avery to the loft after his surprisingly good night at the club. In fact, they had such a good time that they stayed until the club closed. Avery casually asks if Ben is coming home that night, so it’s pretty obvious that she’s more interested in him than she is in Noel. She tells Noel that she no longer feels like her life has renewed purpose. She hasn’t lived up to the expectations she thought her life would have. Noel can relate – he’s graduating in just eight weeks. They start kissing. Oh, dear.

Meghan gives one of the girls in her class a little witchcraft kit, so her teacher decides to report her to the psychology department. Meghan tells Sean that she now has to undergo a psychological evaluation. Ooh, fun! For us, not Meghan. Avery’s generosity hasn’t stopped, and she’s sent a motorcycle over to the loft for Ben. Ben promises Felicity that he’s not going to keep it.

Noel has figured out a solution for a plot problem in “Loser Pet Store,” and though he’s still having a tiny existential crisis, he’s coming out of it. He tells Felicity he was with Avery when she ordered the motorcycle for Ben, like she was ordering a pizza. Felicity realizes that Noel slept with Avery. Noel says that when she wants something, she really wants it bad. Ben gets on the motorcycle, supposedly just to check it out, but it looks like he won’t be giving it back.

At their next self-defense class, Felicity tells Avery that Ben is returning the bike. Avery doubts that. The instructor has them practice moves on each other, and this time Felicity puts Avery on the floor. She tells Avery that she returned the sweater. At home, Felicity happily tells Elena that she took Avery down. Elena is also down – she’s coming to terms with the fact that Tracy doesn’t love her. Sex clearly wasn’t the issue between them, so it must be that Tracy never loved her.

Ben tells Sean that he doesn’t want to push Avery away after everything she’s been through, but he needs to tell her he can’t accept the motorcycle. He meets with her at Dean & DeLuca, returns the watch, and tells her to stop buying him stuff. She asks him what he saw and heard that night in the ambulance. He tells her he saw her die, but he didn’t hear anything.

Avery says she could hear him, even though he wasn’t saying anything – she heard him inside her, telling her not to go. Ben says that’s what he was thinking. Avery heard him, and she stayed, and now she feels like she belongs with him. Ben resists, reminding her that he has a girlfriend. Avery tells him he can keep the stuff she bought him; they’re just things. What’s really important is what they went through and how she feels right now. She’s never felt like this before, and she doesn’t think Ben has, either.

Thoughts: Who knew you could take three months off from school and then get right back into classes in March?

Way to illustrate that Noel is having an existential crisis by having him read Sartre. You don’t have to be so literal, show.

Spin-off idea: Meghan and a bunch of kids. That’s it.

Not enough Javier! Not enough!

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