Felicity: Optimist vs. Cynic

For this very special bonus podcast, we welcome Mandy Foreman back to the conversation! That’s right, THE Meghan Rotundi joined Melissa (Fish was unfortunately under the weather) to talk all about those last five episodes as well as questions from throughout the series.  You definitely don’t want to miss this fun discussion with Mandy to close out our podcast!   Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

We did it again!  Season 4 is coming to a close. All that's left is our recap podcast...and then one more surprise from us!   Melissa and Fish tackle the following questions at the end of a full season 4 of Felicity: Ben vs. Noel? Felicity’s greatest achievement? Felicity's biggest fail? Most shocking moment or reveal? Funniest thing that happened? Favorite minor character? Don't miss our superlatives - the “5” Best and "5" Worst of the season.  Plus, Fish, as our official fashion correspondent, gives her quick takes on fashion for the season. Then, find our average ratings for the season across all episodes – and compared to the first three seasons – AND listen to some of the amazing audience feedback we got along the way! And don't miss our recommendations for the next shows we hope you'll enjoy...if you don't do another rewatch of Felicity, of course. Plus...it's not over quite yet.  Stay tuned for one more episode of our podcast that we are working on!     Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

We are your intrepid podcasters, podcasting about a clip show. That's right. The series finale of Felicity is a clip show!   Felicity and Ben pick up Noel's personal effects, and Meghan encourages Felicity to contact Paul Korsakoff to do his pre-published time travel spell. Felicity convinces him to help her and familiarizes him with the highlights of what happened in college.   Ben asks Felicity to forgive him if she wakes up in the future...which she does. They are reunited after she wakes up from her fever dream (?) / her time travel (?) / her time travel fever dream (?)!   All the friends - including a now very much alive Elena and Tracy - celebrate at Noel and Zoe's wedding to the backdrop of Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You."     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Felicity puts in one more attempt to get back together with Noel, including the Hail Mary of telling him she traveled back in time to be with him. After this attempt fails as well, Felicity begs Meghan to find a spell to send her back to the future.   Julie is planning a road trip, and Ben is keen to join her and drop out of school for a little while.   Noel is worried about Felicity's mental health. He and Ben - thinking Felicity might have psychosis - do an intervention with Felicity and persuade her to talk to a professional at a mental health institution. The result? She is put on a 72-hour hold, but first Felicity gives Ben information about his immediate future (Lauren calling him about his dad's liver problems) to try to prove her point. Felicity runs into Zoe in the mental health facility. Ben, who has wanted to believe Felicity all this time, gets the fated call from Lauren and realizes he does believe her. Ben breaks Felicity out of the mental health facility, takes care of her, and gets a download from Felicity on what happens in the future that made her want to get a do over with Noel.    Meghan wants revenge on Sean for breaking her heart. She uses her new (imaginary) boyfriend Paul to make him jealous and then humiliates Sean with evidence of his jealousy in her photography class project. In the process of canceling an order of jewelry from her fake boyfriend, she locates the real Paul Korsakoff, the author of the future time travel book.   Javier and Elena fight because he wants to get a manicure instead of help her study for her Spanish exam. While getting the manicure, Dean + Deluca is robbed, and Javier is fired for negligence.   Ben and Felicity are reunited! He is trying to convince her to stay in this timeline so they can do senior year right, when Felicity gets the news that Noel died in a fire in the administration building.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

New tactic from Ben to get Felicity back: Challenge Felicity in her choices. Frustrated Felicity is flustered. It seems that there is still a force drawing them together. Noel is searching for a new apartment, and he and Felicity decide to move in together.   Sean is excited, because Julie is about to come to visit him. Except, she's coming for an audition. When she finds out that Sean might have other intentions, she friend zones him. And then goes on a date with Ben. Sean reconnects with Meghan.   Somehow, Julie and Ben and Noel and Felicity go on a double date - a date filled with tension and a vulnerable conversation between Ben and Felicity. They all go back to the loft, where Julie, Ben, Noel, Felicity, Meghan, and Sean end up playing an uncomfortable game of spin the bottle. During the game, Noel sees Felicity still has residual feelings for Ben, and he breaks up with her.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

This episode is brought to you by Melissa and Fish getting spun around by time travel and the personality inconsistencies of our favorite Felicity characters.   Felicity and Noel are flirting and romantic, but they are trying to be discreet with their friends. As they go to more out-of-the-way date destinations, they run into Hanna at a street fair. Hanna is struggling to get clients for her piano lessons, and she is keen to get Noel to be her web developer plus benefits. Felicity's jealousy is activated as Noel debates whether he wants to be with Felicity (who is freaking him out) or Hanna.   Ben and Felicity still have a class together, and Ben gets Felicity to tutor him, resulting in a study session that gets a little too steamy for Felicity's liking.   Javier is auditioning for Man of La Mancha and gets Elena to be his coach.   Sean is encountering the money troubles he had at the start of season 4. He won't accept Meghan's financial help, because he is still in touch with Julie and wants to put his feelings out there for her.      Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

We start 6 months from the end of The Graduate. Elena has died in a car accident. Felicity, in her grief, pulls away from Ben, who cheats on Felicity. Meghan convinces Felicity to come back to NY for Noel and Zoe's wedding. After comments from both Noel and Felicity that they each have thought about what it would have been like if they were together (instead of Noel and Zoe), Felicity makes a wish and Meghan does a spell (with a book that was recently published) that sends Felicity back in time to the night Felicity and Noel slept together.    When Felicity realizes what has happened, she embraces the do over.  Felicity breaks up with Ben as fast as she can and tells Noel she wants to be with him. The only person Felicity tells about the time travel is Meghan, and all characters - including Meghan - are confused by Felicity's manic and unusual behavior.   In the alternate timeline, Elena and Tracy fight about the Felicity/Noel/Ben situation and call off their wedding, and this time Meghan and Sean don't get married instead.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Despite the paper shenanigans, Felicity and Ben are both graduating! In other exciting news, Ben and Felicity get engaged right before Ben is called to meet Lauren (who is labor) in Philadelphia.   Felicity's parents come to town for her graduation. Unsurprisingly, Edward Porter discourages her from moving back to NY next year, continuing architecture, or, presumably, getting married to Ben. Noel, at least, is supportive.   Ben returns home feeling sad that he left his son Andrew. Felicity and Ben moving to Arizona to be with Ben's newborn is put back on the table.   Economic times are hard, and Sean and Noel are let go from Webb Group Graphics. Sean shows generosity by taking a job with Mr. Rotundi, but Noel saves the day by re-starting Sean and Noel's business partnership.   The friends all graduate, and Felicity decides to go neither to NY nor to Arizona next year. Instead, she and Ben break up. Many good-byes are said. The show picks up 6 months later with a surprise reunion!     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Lauren is suddenly a villain, and Felicity's and Lauren's claws both come out.  She is leaving for Arizona tomorrow, she's stressed, and she needs Ben's help to pack. Lauren drinks and drives...and crashes with Ben in the car, sending them both to the hospital and him to surgery. After initially lashing out at Lauren, Felicity eventually responds with generosity, and Lauren makes peace with her before leaving town.   Felicity wants to come clean to her art history professor about plagiarizing her paper, but isn't able to do so until the last minute - when she is about to stand in front of the editorial board.   Richard wants Elena to be his date at a fundraiser to make another girl jealous, because he wants to show he supports diversity. Fish and Melissa rip this storyline to shreds.   Sean is concerned about Zoe and Noel's lack of a sex life, making Noel even more self-conscious about it.  Noel confronts Zoe about her seeming lack of interest in him, but when she shares that her sex drive has been connected to her mental health and her meds, her response brings them closer.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Ben gets an image from Lauren's recent ultrasound, and it stresses Felicity out - so much so, that she can't concentrate on her 30-page paper for her art history class. She takes Meghan's advice, copies a dissertation, and submits it as her own. When her professor loves it so much that she submits it for publication, it raises the eyebrows of the editorial board. Felicity is in trouble!   Sean's overbearing style of pitching isn't working well with the clients, and Webb asks Noel to get Sean to tone it down.   Javier thinks Rita's new boyfriend is gay and confronts him.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Ben decides to participate in his child's life, but a new wrinkle is added when Lauren informs him she is moving to Arizona. Ben pushes back to no avail. Stressed, Ben self-sabotages in his relationship with Felicity and becomes angry over Felicity's continued connection to Noel.  Adam and Felicity's model wins the architecture contest, and Adam offers her a job in NY after she graduates to keep working on the project.   Zoe becomes hesitant at the idea of announcing the relationship with Noel to anyone in the office and would rather call it off.  When she reveals the nature of her reservations - for three years she loved someone who loved someone else, and she was hospitalized with depression as a result - Noel and Zoe become closer than ever.   Meghan and Javier's friendship becomes threatened - and then becomes strengthened - by competition over a commercial audition.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Ben's dad heard about Lauren's pregnancy and judges the unknown father for deciding not to be in the child's life. When Ben admits he is the father, Ben's dad urges him to reconsider. Felicity continues to feel the overwhelm and tension around Ben's denial of Lauren being pregnant.     Noel gets Felicity an opportunity to work on an architecture project to explore a possible career path. She assists a grad student named Adam Davis who is heartbroken and obsessed over his ex.   Noel and Zoe continue to try to navigate their personal relationship in a professional office setting.   Meghan and Sean revive their core fight: She wants to go out at night sometimes and he wants her to support his inventions (his latest one being shoe covers). Each finds a stranger who seems to support them more in their interests - but, in the end, they realize they are happy together.   Trevor and Ben volunteer for Big Brother to improve their med school applications.   And all of the characters united at a big party at the ladies' apartment.       Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Lauren breaks some big news to Ben. She's pregnant. It's his. She's keeping the baby. Ben reels and, by the end of the episode, shares the news with Felicity.   Owen and Felicity are going to galleries trying to sell their work, and they are getting rejected at every turn. Felicity, worried about her future, meets with her mom and ends up arguing over whether she should take a safer opportunity in real estate or go for her passion. She decides to stay the course.   Hodges asks Trevor and Ben to be his research assistants on a publication for study. Ben - totally overwhelmed by the situation with Lauren - makes a mistake on the lab and almost gets kicked off the project. But Bill Hodges is forgiving in the end.   Noel and Sean pitch a large account with CGG Corp, in competition for the account with Webb Group Graphics. Noel decides to go on a date with Zoe now that he has his own business. When Noel and Sean get the CGG Corp account AND get a great offer to be acquired by Webb Group Graphics, his new relationship becomes more complicated.   Meghan and Javier are in an acting class together and have to do a scene from All About Eve. Javier's assertion that Meghan is just like Margo Channing offends Meghan, but their fight leads to a great performance.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Ben and Felicity are seeing less and less of each other, but that doesn't mean they're not on each other's minds.   Noel is taking his meds and getting his life back on track. He's even starting his own graphic design business! With his therapist, he comes to the conclusion that he needs to start spending less time with Felicity. Unfortunately, he is having a very hard time setting limits with Felicity every time he sees her.   Meghan's high school-age sister, Lila, comes for a visit - except, SURPRISE!, she's pregnant.  Meghan calls in her mom for reinforcement.   Ben has studied his heart out for his O Chem final, and he gets a 95 - much to the pride of both himself and Professor Hodges.   An electrical fire starts in the administration building. Noel saves Felicity but holds to his boundaries not to hang out with her socially - and he even lets Ben know that Felicity is okay. Ben realizes that he could have lost Felicity and gives her an awkward call where much is left unsaid.   Felicity gets advice from Cavallo that - if she wants to reapply for the honors thesis program - she needs a cohesive theme in her art. She decides on the theme of piñatas and starts painting up a storm. When her work burns in the fire, Cavallo takes pity on Felicity and lets her into the honors art program.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

~This is a spoiler heavy podcast for the next three episodes of Felicity and for A Streetcar Named Desire.~   Felicity is still hopeful to get back together with Ben, but Ben wants to move on. Javier is going to try to put them back together with an elaborate scheme to get them to see a showing of A Streetcar Named Desire together. Unfortunately, Ben brings Lauren - who is staying in NY indefinitely - as his date.   Noel assures Sean and Meghan that he is going to move out soon to cut the tension in the loft. Noel starts going to a therapist, who recommends that Noel take medication for depression.   Javier makes a new friend from acting class, a lonely widow named Rita.   Elena tries to fix Felicity up with Felicity's new studio-mate, a grad student named Owen who TAs the class before hers. Felicity and Owen do go on a date (which includes an awkward greeting at the door by Owen and Ben simultaneously), which piques Ben's interest a little (enough for him to leave a conflicted voicemail for her), but Felicity realizes she isn't ready to date anyone new.   Lauren's ex starts calling her again, and calls Ben in a moment of vulnerability. Commence regrettable one night stand!     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

It's time for the last Thanksgiving of college!   Felicity continues sad/angry painting.  Meghan does a spell to get Felicity and Ben back together, and then endeavors to make the conditions right for the reunion - she arranges for Felicity to host Thanksgiving and invites Ben. Unfortunately, Ben is feeling angry about Felicity cheating on him, and he brings Lauren to Thanksgiving dinner to get back at her. For a moment, it looks like Ben and Felicity might reconcile, but in the end he decides he can't forgive her.   Noel's brother Ryan comes for a visit and asks Noel some hard questions about his life. Noel avoids the situation by picking up a random woman in a bar and getting robbed. Ryan mentions that there is a history of depression among the men in their family and encourages Noel to get help. Noel calls Pavone to get a referral.   Elena doubts whether Trevor is smart enough for her to date. Meghan encourages her to give Trevor a test of his intelligence - which he fails.  Although Trevor is insulted by the test, he forgives her in the end.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Felicity tries to talk to Ben about her affair with Noel, but Ben wants to call it quits.    Noel, with the help of Richard's nudging, comes clean to Sean and Meghan about the affair with Felicity and offers to move out. Sean and Trevor rally around Ben. Meghan, Elena, and Javier rally around Felicity. Noel stands on an island alone.   Noel starts his new job at Webb Group Graphics and meets Zoe! They hook up at work and get caught by her dad, the boss. Noel gets fired! He goes back to the purgatory of his guidance counselor job.   Ben's mom is in town, looking forward to his dad getting well enough so she can bring him home and get back together with him. Ben's nervous about this development, and his internal conflict over whether or not his parents' relationship is good for them bleeds into his evaluation of his own relationship with Felicity.   Meghan convinces Ben to meet with Felicity. After she fails her attempt to talk to him and get him back, Ben walks away, still feeling conflicted.   Elena and Trevor argue over whether men are more genetically wired to cheat than women, which turns out to be foreplay for their first kiss.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

It's Felicity's 21st birthday, and Ben has been planning a getaway to Vermont. Unfortunately, it will never come to pass, because Ben's dad is in a NY hospital with liver failure, and Lauren, one of Ben's dad's contacts from AA, encourages Ben to meet with his dad to say goodbye. His father asks him to assume power of attorney and carry out his wishes: No pain meds, no machines, and a DNR order.   Felicity leads a critique for Art 10 that doesn't go well, Professor Cavallo invites her to lunch to discuss. At lunch, Cavallo crosses the line into sketchy flirting. Felicity calls out Cavallo and he denies having an interest in her - though he appears to be making inappropriate advances to one of his students.   Tammy and Gabby - the frustrating freshmen - become new roommates in the ladies' apartment thanks to Noel's distracted guidance counseling. Elena, while at the end of her rope, leaves an angry message for Noel - during which Richard interrupts and drops the news about Noel sleeping with Felicity. Elena and Richard go on a mission to erase the voicemail from the loft's machine.   Noel goes out on four interviews for jobs that he withheld from his counseling students and gets a job at a graphic design firm! But when he sees Ben and Lauren on the street and thinks Ben is cheating on Felicity, Noel confronts Ben and reveals his affair with Felicity. Fueled by frustration, Ben decides to ignore his father's wishes and authorizes the doctor to save his dad's life.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

It's a Halloween episode!   Felicity interviews for the Art 10 TA position under Professor May and gets the job + scarf! But that's not as important as the fun fact that we unearthed about the actress who plays her professor... Unfortunately, Professor May gets arrested for shoplifting, forcing Felicity to take over until the position is refilled. Her students recognize her from the beauty pageant, and she loses their respect instantly. Melissa and Fish rage against the students raging against the machine. In the end, Professor Cavallo becomes the new Art 10 professor.   The ladies are having a Halloween party in their apartment. Richard dresses as Darth Vader and gets his homemade mask stuck on his head. Meghan and Sean fight over whether her look truly distinguishes her from others, and she ends up deciding to make her 60s Halloween costume her permanent new look.   Javier and Samuel are fighting, so Javier stays with his friends. Noel is forced to distract Javier by traveling to Atlantic City to go to a Lionel Richie concert. The concert may be sold out, but that doesn't stop Javier from getting relationship advice from Lionel Richie in the men's room.   After raising an injustice with their o chem professor, Professor Hodges, Ben and Trevor get kicked out of class. They go out to drink away their sorrows, and Trevor blacks out and lands in a coma. Ben handles the situation well and appeals to their professor about the big picture - and gets them both back into class.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com

Felicity is getting ready for the Miss Sunrise Surprise Beauty Pageant, which she is already reluctant to do, but is even moreso when she discovers she might be pregnant. She shares the information with Noel and Elena, but Ben finds out on his own. By the end of the episode, Felicity confirms that she is not pregnant, to the relief of both her and Ben...and - still secretly - Noel.   We get behind the scenes as Felicity participates in the pageant, along with a new cast of fun characters like Monica!  The singer Monica! Mo-ni-ca Monica. Felicity doesn't win the pageant, but she does win a prize for Best Evening Wear.   Noel goes to the university guidance counselor for advice finding jobs and ends up taking over his job as the new guidance counselor. Good timing, because now he can drop some classes for Ben.  Plus, he has to fill a TA position for Art 10, which is great because he can offer that to Felicity to fix her money troubles.   Meghan's dad was serious about the threat to disown her if she doesn't divorce Sean, so Meghan takes a more serious interest in Sean's business ventures, vetting his ideas for viability.     Sign up for our newsletter for updates: https://mailchi.mp/e73780cdd4ef/felicity-podcast Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicitypodcast/ Find everywhere you can listen: https://linktr.ee/themelissafish Share your feedback or Felicity fan art: themelissafish@gmail.com