I was hooked on Felicity all through the first season. Always one for overly dramatic teen angst, the starting-your-life over story came just as I was graduating college and trying to figure out my little path to take. And while I never understood what our heroine saw in her Ben-Boy-Wonder, I could totally emphasize the need to shake things up, be impulsive and hell, if you can figure a cute boy into the mix – all the better.
Then from down the hall, another boy arrived. A funny, charismatic, goofy and adorable boy. A boy who had an actual personality and interest in Felicity. Noel, the RA. I, for one, completely forgot about the Ben-Boy-Wonder and crossed my fingers that Miss Felicity would as well.
Alas, things don’t always turn out as well as we hope.
Even though Felicity and Noel got together, when she chose to go cross-country with Ben in the first season finale, I lost interest. I lasted about midway through the second season and kept up with the goings on of the characters through E! Online’s Wanda. (True, most of Wanda’s spoilers need to be taken with a shaker of salt, J.J. Abrams – or one of his crew – seems to like her and dish the real dirt. Personally, I think they should start spilling spoilers to the PopGurls so that we don’t have to weed through Wanda’s transcripts for pearls of truth, but that’s another article entirely.)
Anyway, for some reason, I stuck around for the Felicity season premiere after Dawson’s Creek and was rewarded handsomely with some Felicity/Noel smoochies. Well, more than smoochies to be honest and I was a happy little PopGurl hoping that Felicity would see the error of her ways and dump the weenie Ben-Boy-Wonder.
Again, things don’t always turn out as well as we hope.
Our Felicity, well, she’s a gurl of romantic notions. And insane ones as well. She dropped all her post-high-school plans to follow a boy to New York because he said he’d watched her all through high school and wondered what was in her head. The same boy who said he was more than content to admire her from afar, and then dated her best friend fully knowing how Felicity felt about him. But she was a young freshman and needed a firm shove onto the scraping concrete of reality.
Sadly, she never truly saw the reality that the Ben-Boy-Wonder isn’t all that wonderful after all. In the past year, Felicity slept with Noel and Ben cheated on Felicity – resulting in the other woman (Lauren) getting pregnant. He decided to follow Lauren to Arizona and expected Felicity to go with him. Later, when he dragged Lauren and his son to Palo Alto to be near Felicity – he cheated on her yet again.
AND SHE TAKES HIM BACK.
Now, I understand that Ben is that boy – the one you swoon over in high school and have these recurring fantasies about sweet kisses and romantic, perfect sex, fantasies that may even lead into happily-ever-after. But the fact is, that boy (or gurl) is rarely the one you end up with. He’s rarely the one you’re supposed to end up with.
Noel, on the other hand, is the Xander. He’s incredibly cute and fun to be around. He has more than one tone of voice and an actual personality. Whenever there’s an issue that breaks Felicity’s heart or some fantastic news to share – she runs to Noel. They have this tremendous chemistry together, their faces simply light up when they’re on screen together. But Felicity’s romantic notions get in the way of actual romance, and we watch them with the overwhelming desire to shake them both really hard and say, “You’re perfect for each other, you idiots! So get over whatever issues you have and kiss (again) already!”
Guess what? Things don’t always turn out as well as we hope.
So, in the end, Felicity chooses Ben. Why do they always have to pair people off – especially when it’s been shown repeatedly just how unhealthy their relationship is? When does Felicity stop chasing after a dream and realize that what you wanted at 18 is not necessarily what you need at 22? I hate to say it, but I would have been happy with a Kelly Taylor cop out decision of “I choose me.” (Get the reference friends, and I will happily hand over the shiny nickel.)
Damn you, Felicity Porter for teasing us. But it’s okay – in my head, Ben went off to Arizona – his hushed monotone never to be heard from again, and you and Noel find blessed-Boggle-bliss.
2002-05-25