TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Arrow Season 06 Episode 18: Fundamentals

“Fundamentals” was a very apt title for tonight’s Arrow. As it brought back a lot of things from the first season. From the logo and entrance screen to the return of the Hood, and more, it was truly taking things back to square one. The question was, is this a good thing?

Ironically, the answer was “yes”, but not for the destination, but for the journey. After the departure of Diggle, Oliver was on thin ice, and new events caused the ice beneath him to crack even more. He was drugged with Vertigo (which continues to pop up despite the Count being dead), which made him lash out at Felicity and William, then go on a hallucination spree that brought back old friends and old rivals to try and convince him on the path he needed to take.

The best of these was easily the return of Adrian Chase. It actually made sense for him to be the villain that Oliver saw as he was the one who broke him psychologically. Even more than Slade, Merlyn, or Darhk did. He owned Ollie for a whole season, and Oliver knew that. From the fight scenes to the “insights” that he shared with Oliver, it was great, and it kept pushing him towards one goal…the mission.

For when we start to lose everything, we start to think about where it all went wrong, and for Ollie, it became “clear” that everything went wrong when he started to have partners (which was episode 3 of the series ironically enough). That wasn’t the plan, it was supposed to be a one-man mission, but he started to turn away from that and bad things happened. Or at least, that’s how he perceived them under the effects of Vertigo.

Pushed to far, he assaulted the precinct, where he truly knew Diaz was (like legit, he knew), and he would’ve gotten himself killed if the real Felicity came to his rescue. It was great that Ollie was committed to the fact that he was hallucinating her, forcing her to make him see the truth in the only way she could, by loving him.

Yet, despite all that happened, he knew that what he saw under Vertigo was the truth. He needs to go back to the one-man army. How that’ll affect the rest of the season though is unclear.

As for the bad parts, I am sad to see Ollie officially get impeached. It’s very likely that he’ll get the job back (especially when he exposes the corruption at city hall), but I wish I didn’t come like this. Also, I think it would’ve been cool to have more returns via his hallucinations.

I will say this though, Quentin really shined in this episode. Proving that Oliver isn’t the only one who’s changed since season one. And now he’s the mayor!

In the end, “Fundamentals” brought a simplicity to the show that it hasn’t had in a while, all the while building up to the final showdown with Diaz. The season may not have started strong, but it may end fantastically.