After Damien's reaction when he found out the guy had taken Jessica's daughter I'm leaning more towards him being Papa Smoak but I thought that the producers had said that he wasn't.....

They never denied, actually. At least, I do not recall them denying - which also doesn’t mean they wouldn’t lie. They lied to our face about Sara, saying she’d be appear the whole s03 and they killed her off, so… 

But I agree! Did you read the new interviews with the actor that plays Damien? Read this:

and this:

So, Damien being Papa Smoak and leaving Felicity and Donna to lead a life of crime and not put them in danger seems likely, specially as he said that kidnapping someone’s daughter is a line he can’t cross.

I ship Olicity harder than any other tv couple in the history of ever, but I do see some holes in their story that bug me. (maybe you can fix them because I don't want them there!) like, why did Oliver let Slade take Felicity? Not just let; it was his idea. He handed her to Slade. Any other instance of Felicity being in trouble, Oliver gets super protective and angry. It doesn't seem to fit, especially considering how afraid Oliver was of what Slade could do. Why would he risk Felicity like that

I think one of the reasons why Slade was such an amazing villain was because he knew Oliver - he was there before Oliver became the Vigilante/Hood/Arrow, he was one of the people who taught him how to fight and defend himself, who taught him how to survive, and, more importantly, he inadvertently taught Oliver what it meant to lie to someone you hold out as a brother - which is what he did with Shado (he lied about how she died, which is where all this villainous rage from Slade comes from).

Slade knows Oliver, that’s why he was such a formidable opponent - he knows how important his mission is, how important his family is, how important the people he loves in his life are.

Oliver took the most important person in Slade’s life away from him, so he’s going to repay the favor by taking Oliver’s city away, taking his family away, and, finally, taking away the woman he loves. He naturally assumes this is Laurel - he knows how Oliver felt about her on Lian Yu - he saw the picture, he saw the way Oliver stared at her, he saw the pedestal he put her on. He rightly assumes that she will still be just as important to him, which is why he takes Laurel…

Oliver did love Laurel, yes, and he knew any attempt to save her would end in her death.

What was he going to do?

Here’s the thing about Olicity - Oliver didn’t know he loved Felicity until the moment in the clock tower when Oliver is admitting he doesn’t know what to do - yes, the Captain says he thinks it was on 2x06, but that, IMO, was more Oliver realizing he might have feelings for her, that he might see her in a different way, that he should stop those feelings and pretend they don’t exist (which he does a fine job of, doesn’t he?). 

I think it’s in the clock tower, when Felicity is the one who pulls him back from the brink, who tells him he’s not done, that he is going to keep fighting, that he will find a way, and that she believes in him… it’s when she shows Oliver (and us) that she’s the one who sees him as he needs to see himself, as a hero… 

That’s when he realizes he loves her:

You can see moment of realization on his face… and then he hugs her back…

(i’ll never be over that lighting, are you freaking kidding me, look at it)

This is also when he knows what he has to do - in that same conversation, Felicity also helps him realize what he has to do to trick and capture Slade.

He never would have been able to capture Slade if he didn’t love Felicity. 

(This is important, not only to Oliver and Slade’s arc, but also to Oliver’s overall arc - this was one example of Oliver putting the city over his love for the people around him, namely Felicity. This was the beginning of him understanding that he has people around him who love him, who will do anything to help him, that he should let them help him - his entire journey in Season 3 was understanding this! In this instance, his hand was forced, but he fights it tooth and nail throughout Season 3 until everything is taken from him and he realizes he doesn’t need to do that anymore.)

Slade needs to see that Oliver loves her, because Slade will see it’s genuine. Oliver knows Slade has the cameras up in his house, knows he’ll see Oliver declaring his love for Felicity, and he knows Slade will believe it because… it’s true. 

Oliver loves Felicity.

I said this in a previous meta that he didn’t realize how much loved her until he had to put her in danger - there was no way around this. They needed to capture Slade, and it had to be Felicity, because he loved her.

(This is also what I like to call A+ storytelling, because frick, so compelling.)

So, Slade takes the bait (we shouldn’t even really call it bait, though that is what it was intended to be… it’s bait that happens to be the truth), and here’s where Slade reveals the depth of his knowledge and understanding about Oliver:

I was surprised. I thought you had a thing for stronger women, but now that I’ve met her I can see the appeal.

Another important aspect to this is that he needed Felicity to play her part, not just in hearing his declaration of love, but in taking down Slade - he couldn’t have asked that of Laurel. He trusts Felicity to know what he’s asking, to know what to do when the time is right…

And she does, she delivers the blow that eliminates Slade’s physical advantage over Oliver!

So yes, Oliver did take a huge risk by delivering Felicity to Slade, but it was a risk he had to take - part of the whole hero thing is being willing to sacrifice the most important things in his life, which this was a glimpse of. And this time his gamble paid off.

And then we get this beauty:

(you poor bastards)

We should be glad that Oliver had to do this, because it forced Oliver to look at his feelings for Felicity, to realize the way he saw her was something he wanted, something he needed.

(Good job, Slade! In your desire to destroy Oliver and everything he loves, you actually showed him the path to his ultimate happiness! Ah, this irony tastes so good.)

I wonder how Oliver would have acted/reacted had he known before this happened that he was in love with Felicity… but that requires Oliver being in a different mindset. Oliver, at the end of Season 2, was in the correct mindset to face and defeat Slade this way: he was willing to make this sacrifice.

How would the Oliver we’re going to get in Season 4 handle something like this?