Old flames dominate the ''Felicity'' finale

Old flames dominate the ”Felicity” finale

I’ve heard and read some complaints that ”Felicity” has run its central romantic triangle — between Keri Russell’s title character, Scott Speedman’s Ben, and Scott Foley’s Noel — into a rut. I’ll have none of it. If you didn’t admire the swift, skillful twists and turns of that… um, triangle (I know, I’ve got a busted metaphor going), then you’re clearly not up to the artful pleasures of ”Felicity.” The show’s season finale Wednesday night once again managed to place Felicity’s romantic allegiance firmly between her two competing lovable lunkheads without leaving the viewer feeling it was the same-old, same-old.

After all, Noel has now graduated from college (Felicity and the rest of the gang were juniors this season). Loose ends were wrapped up with the sudden appearance of his old flame Ruby (Amy Smart), her adorable out-of-wedlock baby, and her fervent hope that she and Noel might get back together. Noel, looking at the baby as if it was an alien, did the nice version of ”No, way, Jose!” and the Ruby subplot is now history.

So, unfortunately, is the relationship between Elena (Tangi Miller) and DeForest (Kenan Thompson) — they made such a cute couple, but Tracy (Donald Faison) returned (it was a night of old flaming returns) to propose to Elena. This subplot was left dangling, as Elena either fainted, collapsed, or tripped over a piece of furniture; in any case, she was so surprised, she fell out of the frame, not to be seen until next season.

As for the Eternal Triangle: Wuffly, waffling Ben decided at the last minute not to go with Felicity to camp out in Maine’s Acadia National Forest, but instead to enter an Emergency Medical Treatment program in Kansas City. That’s right, the upshot of that fling with the near dead devil girl Avery is that Ben thinks he’s found his calling as a paramedic — as if! This left Felicity with a lot of camping gear and the prospect of toasting marshmallows alone in the abandoned college loft all summer. But then Noel suddenly appeared at the door, proclaiming that his dot-com graphic design job is Seattle had been downsized to oblivion. ”The Internet is dead,” he said wth some wonderment — really, don’t these kids EVER READ A NEWSPAPER?

In any case, having just kissed Ben goodbye and cooing about how much she’ll miss him while he learns how to use those paddles you put on someone’s chest while yelling, ”Clear!,” Felicity was now confronted with the Nice, Good, Smart, Responsible Guy She’d Dumped After He’d Proclaimed His Love To Her; the guy who always knows exactly the right thing to say — in this case, ”Wanna get some ice cream?”

And so, as Noel and Felicity went off to Ben & Jerry’s, we turned off the TV, safe in the knowledge that when ”Felicity” returns in the fall, hoo boy, is paramedic Ben ever gonna be mad! So mad that Noel’s gonna need Ben’s services once Ben gets through cleaning his clock. Are paramedics bound by the Hippocratic oath?