‘Arrow’ Postmortem: Producers Explain Oliver & Felicity Shockers

Ra’s al Ghul and Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak and Ray Palmer in ‘Arrow’

(Spoiler Alert! This story contains major plot details about Wednesday night’s “Arrow.” Come back after you’ve watched for what the producers had to say about those huge twists!)

“Arrow” floored some fans on Wednesday night when two characters finally got together.

Chemistry had been building between Felicity Smoak and, well, every available man she’s encountered on “Arrow,” but on Wednesday night, there was fire between the computer genius and Ray Palmer! (Hang in there, Olicity fans.)

With Oliver still unable to commit, and off in Nanda Parbat getting a shocker of an offer (to become the heir to the demon, Ra’s al Ghul – more on that later), Felicity took her relationship with Ray to several new levels, going from a kiss to the bedroom.

PHOTOS: ‘Arrow’: Scenes From ‘Nanda Parbat’

After a screening of the episode for TV reporters earlier this week, Access Hollywood asked the show bosses about getting Raylicity together, “in the sack” (our words) so quickly.

“Arrow” Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg suggested the moment happened because it fit with what’s going on in the characters’ lives.

WATCH: ‘Arrow’: A Closer Look At Felicity & Ray Palmer

“Part of the fun of watching couples on television is keeping them apart and watching how other people come in [and] out of their lives and there are a lot of people who believe that Oliver and Laurel should be together, and people who believe that Oliver and Felicity should be together,” Kreisberg said. “We’re not sure how it’s all going to end up. We just do what’s right at the time.”

Aside from Oliver’s attempt at romancing Felicity ending in an explosion, and enemies (like Slade Wilson) knowing she is his weakness, Mr. Queen has been pretty busy this season nearly getting himself killed again and again while trying to protect his baby sister, Thea. All of it adds up to why Oliver and Felicity aren’t together, and why Felicity and Ray now are.

“For right now, Oliver has decided that, ‘I can’t do this,’ and Felicity’s not just gonna sit around waiting for him and I think that she’s probably the most healthy of all of them,” Kreisberg added. “He’s the one who’s [been] shutting himself down emotionally when he has this amazing person who’s basically offering him hope and guidance and friendship and love and everything and he doesn’t feel he deserves it and doesn’t feel that that’s what’s best for her, whether she agrees with it or not. And then you’ve got Ray, who in a lot of ways is a real analogue to Oliver. He’s had a tragedy and he’s trying to do right by it, but he’s opening his heart to her and he’s Brandon Routh. I mean, how can you blame her?”

As for that other big twist – Ra’s al Ghul telling Oliver that he wants Mr. Queen to be his heir and lead the League of Assassins — the wait begins from now until March 18 (when the next brand new episode of “Arrow” airs) to see what’s next.

WATCH: Brandon Routh: What Are Ray’s Feelings For ‘Arrow’s’ Felicity

“It picks up literally 10 seconds before the end of this episode. So we do one of our direct pickups, we catch you up a little bit and bring you straight into [Episode] 16,” EP Marc Guggenheim said.

“You want to keep that conversation going, ’cause obviously Oliver is completely — as hopefully the audience is — taken aback because he’s not expecting that to be the case,” Kreisberg added.

Kreisberg said he, Guggenheim and fellow EP Greg Berlanti discussed giving this year’s villain a major twist.

“It was important to have a different villain this year, and somebody who was going to be doing something completely different,” Kreisberg explained. “In Season 1, we had the incomparable John Barrowman [as Malcolm Merlyn], who had his mission and obviously last year, Slade’s mission was one of vengeance, and for this year to have Ra’s, who’s presented as this giant malevolent force, but then to come up and basically offer the keys to the kingdom to our hero — it just felt like such a different way to go and a different relationship for Oliver to have with the villain.”

Airing March 18 at 8/7c on The CW, “The Offer” episode of “Arrow” will start to look at how the characters take the news of Ra’s offer to Oliver, including how his daughter, Nyssa al Ghul (Katrina Law), feels about it.

“I think Nyssa’s journey going forward is going to be really interesting, just because she was so dead set on who she was, what she was going to be… how she laid out her future for herself and then everything’s been thrown up in the air,” Katrina said. “She’s no longer heir to the demon, she no longer has her lover, who I’m sure she was thinking about keeping around forever. So she’s essentially, at this point in the story, lost everything, and I think for the first time in her life she is vulnerable and she feels weak and she feels useless and doesn’t know where she stands or who she is at the moment and I think it’s very jarring for her because she’s never had to go through that ever, in any capacity in her life before. So, you’re gonna see Nyssa trying to figure out who she is and what she stands for now.”

— Jolie Lash