After eight seasons, The CW's Arrow will come to a close with next week's episode, titled "Fadeout", directed by James Bamford and written by Marc Guggenheim and Beth Schwartz. While it's certainly a time to say goodbye, some new images from the finale reveal it's also time to say hello, again, to Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak.

Rickards left Arrow back in season 7, with the longtime Team Arrow tech wizard Felicity Smoak departing with the all-powerful Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) to a place she can be with Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell). But that hypothetical bliss is far into the future, because as you can see in these mostly-depressing photos, Oliver Queen is currently very much dead. The Green Arrow gave up his life to save all of the multiverse in the crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Felicity has apparently returned to deal with that loss alongside characters like Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Sara Lance (Caity Lotz).

Plot details are pretty sparse on "Fadeout", but we can confirm Oliver Queen will be involved...somehow. Amell told us this himself last month, also describing a finale "action sequence to end all action sequences":

"It’s a sequence that, I showed it to Robbie [Amell], and he’s like ‘That was incredible!’. And I’m like, ‘That was the first third of it, keep watching.’ It just goes. It’s a little superfluous, a little theatrical, just in terms of the amount of people I murder. It’s what the fans deserved."

Check out the photos of Felicity's return below. Arrow's series finale airs on Tuesday, January 28. For more on the future of the Arrowverse, here is Rafael Motamayor on how the CW's DC series can move on after Crisis on Infinite Earths.

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