Arrow Season 6 Episode 18 Review: Fundamentals

Oliver Queen has not had it easy in any sort of way as the mayor or as the Green Arrow in season six.

You might have though the losing of millions of dollars during the Cayden James takeover of the city would have spelled doom for his time as mayor, but it was something much simpler that leads to the impending impeachment in the episode "Fundamentals."

The episode starts off with Oliver moving through Star City PD taking down dirty cops and eventually getting outside a door that has Diaz and more waiting beyond it, before we jump back in time to hours before this.

We learned at the end of last episode that the City Council of Star City was going to be going forward with impeachment proceeding for Oliver after his supposed overage of power when firing District Attorney Armand and Police Captain Hill.

Oliver seems to have a potential friend on the council that he meets with, though we later learn that not to be quite the case.

Oliver then goes to visit Felicity to see the progress on finding evidence that Armand and Hill were working for Diaz, though without it looking like he got it from a source only the Green Arrow would have.

Felicity was about to take William to his science fair, but when William starts pushing her to leave, Oliver yells and ends up breaking his entire project. He leaves and heads to the bunker, where things start to get worse.

Felicity comes to the bunker and is furious at Oliver for what he did. She tells him that she wants a break after seeing him do that to William before leaving.

Quentin also comes by to visit to talk to Oliver, as his Deputy Mayor, about what they have planned at this point. During this time, Oliver keeps hearing this clanking noise, which he hears again after Quentin leaves.

He investigates, which leads to some very familiar music playing and the reveal of Adrian Chase aka Prometheus. He starts fighting Oliver and beats him up pretty badly, including shooting him.

He explains that Oliver never came back for his body and that he's really alive. You almost wonder for a second if this might be true, but then realize it has to be a hallucination, which it is.

Oliver tests himself and it ends up that he has been dosed with Vertigo, which was done by the guy from the City Council that he met with.

Chase was a perfect fit for this role as someone haunting Oliver in some of his darkest moments, really making us miss Josh Segarra on the show even more, as he was the best villain perhaps the Arrowverse has ever seen.

Oliver ends up going to the Mayor's Office while still under the effect of Vertigo and meeting with the City Council, providing evidence on a flash drive that proves the connection between Armand and Hill with Diaz.

However, when he is pressed on where he got it, he reveals the Green Arrow gave it to him, which does not go over well at all.

During all of this, he's still seeing Chase everywhere, which was a perfect fit in this episode. This gets even better as he's back in his own office, before he returns to the bunker.

While still on Vertigo, Oliver realizes that his problem all this time has been that he has not been taking on the mission the way he should.

Instead, he realizes he must go at it solo like he did in the old days, essentially going "back to basics" as he puts it.

This leads to the moment from the opening scene of the episode, where we see Oliver in Star City PD taking down the dirty cops. Going with the back to basics mentality, he is also wearing his classic season one costume and eye makeup instead of the mask. Quentin tried to confront him outside to stop him from going on this suicide mission alone, but he knocks him out instead.

Thankfully, Felicity comes along after finding out what he is doing and sneaks in after Oliver has taken out everyone in the open.

She finds him and reveals that the door he's about to try to go through has not only Diaz, but tons of armed guards that will take him out.

She reveals that she never asked for a separation, with that being a hallucination of the Vertigo earlier, and talks him down and they leave together just in time.

After this incident, Oliver explains to Felicity that he has to disband Team Arrow as a whole, including her.

He believes that the Green Arrow must work alone at this point to achieve his goals that he is trying to achieve for the city to protect it.

At the end of the episode, Oliver is indeed impeached by the City Council and Quentin is named mayor in his place as a result.

This leads to Diaz talking with Laurel and telling her that it's time to tell everyone that Star City is "open for business."

"Fundamentals" was a really fantastic episode that relied on the interactions between Oliver and Chase mostly.

The surprise of Chase's return was really awesome, especially with how things like this usually leak beforehand somehow.

The back to basics approach from Oliver will be interesting to see for the rest of the season, with only five episodes to go in the season.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Arrow Season 7 Episode 4 Review: 'Level Two' (more); Arrow Season 7 Episode 3 Review: 'Crossing Lines' (more); Arrow Season 7 Episode 2 Review: 'The Longbow Hunters' (more); Arrow Season 7 Episode 1 Review: 'Inmate 4587' (more).

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