Fundamentals Arrow 618 Review

            This ranks as one of my  all time favorite episodes.   The acting, the direction, by Ben Bray, the lighting, well, just about everything happened  like a  perfectly choreographed dance.  Stephen Amell played  his  role to perfection. I love old  movies, and one of the reasons I  do is  because so often the actors spoke pages of  dialogue  just with  their  face.  (If you've never seen Ronald  Coleman in Random Harvest, you should give it a  try.)  Very few modern actors do this with  success  and  emotion.  Stephen  Amell succeeded in this  episode.  My format will  be a little different in this review,  because this episode was unique in that I think this serves to set up the movement forward to the end  of the season.

The action begins immediately.  We  see Oliver dressed as  season  one  Arrow.  The  whole scene  reminds the viewer  of season one.  Oliver takes down the dirty  cops in order to get Diaz.  The direction  for this scene  is  unique we view it as   almost slanted and through  a  window, as if we view it from Oliver's tilted  vertigo eyes.  The corrupt cops collapse like flies at the hands of the Hood.  Oliver's face looks dark,  weak, weary, as we see him stand before a door.  Behind  that door stands Ricardo Diaz and his minions waiting  for Oliver.  The evil in the face of Diaz brought chills.   Then the action  changes to ten hours before.

           Before Vertigo:  There in  the secret lair, we see  a  worried  Oliver and Felicity.  We see  Felicity  at her best as she and Oliver discuss  what they have to  do, and  how they can find  evidence that the police chief  and the  DA work for Diaz.  Oliver thinks he has to  do it alone, but Felicity thinks he might not have to, and Diggle walks in.  Felicity  brought them together, and  who didn't love the line when  she  said, "I  parent trapped you" and  then she  reminded  Diggle that he should not  be so  naive about it since he knows Felicity."  Emily Bett's timing is  impeccable as  she  delivered those lines.  This is why we love Felicity so much.   When Oliver tells John, "I've listened  to your advice for six years; I think i need a  reprieve.  I felt for Oliver. I think John's talk in the last episode hurt Oliver more than anyone except Felicity realizes.

Vertigo:  We then  find Oliver in the mayoral office with Councilman  Collins discussing the impeachment. Oliver and Quentin Lance whom they think  his on their side.  Collins leaves  shakes  Oliver's hand giving  him the vertigo.  Oliver goes home and gets  upset with Felicity.  He's angry  with her for trying to fix things between himself and Diggle.  Then he turns and sees William packing things in that goofy Flash backpack,  and then Oliver  accidentally knocks William's science project to the ground  and destroying  it. (Stephen  Amell live  tweeted and at that scene, he said, it was the sight  of the Flash backpack. haha my sentiments exactly).   William leaves and Felicity tells Oliver to go; she would take care of  William.  She's a mama  bear protecting  her cub. She  doesn't know what's wrong  with Oliver but she  knows  he needs to go.  I never once thought she  meant for good.  Also, notice that William  isn't calling for his Dad  to go, he's calling to Dad,  so he will stop yelling at Felicity.  This is important, because William has a bond with Felicity and he loves her and wants to protect her.  She's becoming Mom. 

Oliver  leaves and goes to the lair.  Then we hear this clanging.  We know something's changed. We  see Felicity again, and she  tells Oliver that they need to separate. What she tells Oliver mirrors almost what Oliver told her about himself in season 5 episode 19.  She says she showed William who  he really was, and that's not the man  I married." I thought back to episode 19 of season 5.  Oliver still has  doubts.   Vertigo  causes a person to see their worst fears.  We think  now we know this can't be  the real Felicity, and Oliver fears losing Felicity.

             We hear this clanging  before people appear, it added toward the eeriness of everything.I  kept thinking of Donne's poem Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.  Anyway,  elevator doors  open  and there is Adrian  Chase and he has that gunshot scar on the side of his head, and Josh Segarra stepped  back  into the Chase  role with such evil perfection.  Chase serves as Oliver's guilt consciousnesses, for a lack of a better phrase on my part. Notice Chase's costuming,  it serves as a dark shadow to  Oliver.


 Oliver's  aware enough to know that Chase can't be real.  They battle. I think since Oliver has been deserted  by  nearly everyone, all that Chase said to  him has returned.  He is  afraid  that what Chase said might be true,  so I think the fight  represents  Oliver trying to battle those fears that Chase put into him.  He does a blood  test on himself and vertigo is  found.  Scenes change quickly  adding to the  sense of confusion that Oliver goes through. An elevator door opens and we  see the Queen Mansion, and you can almost see tears in Oliver's eyes.  Then he sees Laurel Lance and he's confronted with what he had done to  her by leaving with Sara.  Next scene is the hospital and Laurel is dying, and  she blames Oliver, but Oliver still blames himself.  In the next moment Rene lies in the hospital bed, but he's dressed in his suit, and you can't see his  face.  Why was that?  Does Oliver only see Rene as Wild Dog and not as a  person?  Then it changes again, and Oliver's at city Hall, but Lance quickly sees that he's in no shape to meet the councilmen.  He tells Oliver to go the Lair until he's over the vertigo, and he reassures him that Felicity loves him and that she and  William are  fine.

At one point Oliver is face to face with the Arrow.  Now here is where I thought the acting was  so  great, because even though we know that Stephen Amell plays both roles, you feel that there are two different men there. Arrow says, that Oliver failed this city.  There was no  John  Diggle, no Felicity Smoak,  there was only the mission.  We see Oliver  on the floor as though  dead, as a shadow of  himself almost.  He suits up in the season one suit, and  goes after Diaz.

        Olicity: Felicity and William come home  after the science  fair  exhausted, and William  wonders  where Dad is, and  Felicity says,  he  better be buying  us  expensive gifts.  We are relieved. We  know she  isn't angry with him. She  loves him more than her own  life.  Lance  calls and Felicity asks if  Oliver's with him.  He asks  her if she were leaving Oliver, and she says  what we all  know, "no, never."  and  he tells her that Oliver has vertigo in him.  William, listens in and he senses his Dad is in danger. Felicity tells him that he's no drugs, but not on  drugs, oh how she adds so much to Arrow.  William give Felicity her sneakers and she's off  to save her man!  Oliver saved Felicity from vertigo, and now she runs to save him.  She finds Lance down; he  tells her  not to go  him,  but she has to "save my husband."  She  finds Oliver about to go into the room  where Diaz and his men  wait, but he thinks  he imagines her.  She tells him  she's real; she's there.  She touches him on his heart as she did in season 3 when she said, "don't fight to die,  fight to live".  Felicity tells  Oliver that This is the  real l me. I'm here, and I'm  not going anywhere, I'm glue, baby, listen to my voice.  When she touched him, he felt  her hand and the reality of it melted away all the anxiety.  His eyes and  face once tense melted and fell  away.  He smiled that gentle smile he only has  for her.  Like in season 2 they leave with an  arrow in air  and a line pulls  them  up. Felicity says, "Feels  like old  times." He says, "Thank you for coming back for me.  These two  are the heart and soul of Arrow.

      Lance:   Lance  had great lines and was the old  Lance we all  loved. It was so great not to hear him not constantly  talk about his "baby girl".  There was so much of what Lance said to Oliver that was important, but not sure Oliver heard it. He asks Lance "Why  does everyone keep  leaving me?" You  could see and  feel  a heart torn and crying.  I cried for him. Lance  said that John and the others  were going through something within themselves and was taking it out on Oliver, rang true  to me. I think this is what's going on.  Lance seemed more grounded when  he's not focused on Laurel, who really isn't his Laurel at all.  He's mayor now, and he's not going to be used by Diaz, so will this be the end of  Lance on Arrow?

       Diaz and BS:  Diaz was creepy much like Chase.  He's cooler than Chase and not not crazy, but nonetheless creepy.  BS wanted to put 20 bullets in Oliver.  Redeemed?  I doubt it. Was it strange to you  that in Oliver's vertigo state he saw Diaz, so  he fears Diaz I  think, Diaz tells him that  he doesn't want   the Green Arrow to die,  because Oliver would be more powerful as a martyr, but then repeated those very same words to BS.  Strange wasn't it, and significant as well. They are clearly to done with bringing an end to Oliver. I also think Diaz knows that it was  Felicity who kept Oliver from entering that door, so my guess is that Diaz will make a move to get Felicity out of the way.

Final Thoughts:

• What has Oliver learned?  He needs to go it alone?  Even in  season one Oliver needed both John and Felicity.  Sometimes a protagonist learns the wrong lesson, and  then the motivation for the story arc is for the protagonist  to learn how very wrong he was. I think  this is where Arrow is headed.  Felicity looked concerned about Oliver's choice to go  alone, even  without Felicity.  She even asked  if Overwatch were fired.  Do  we really think she will let Oliver go  it alone?  He may  think he's alone,  but he  won't be.  
• Arrow was excellent without all the extra people.  Do we really need  Curtis, Rene, and Dinah?  Is Arrow too cluttered with them?  
• This episode  reminded me so much of seasons one and two
• William  and  Felicity are bonded
• I'm worried that Oliver keeps mentioning as he did to William that he never wants to lose William  or Felicity.  Sometimes when  shows do  this one or the other  ends up dead.  But the writers would never do this, right?
• I loved every time Oliver said "my wife" and Felicity said,  "my husband, baby, and my man"
• Marc Guggenheim in  an  interview said that he guessed he had gotten it all wrong when he had the characters fight each other.  They do this in the comics but it hasn't worked well with the show.  I think that is  in part for two reasons: one is most of the viewers who  are loyal to Arrow know nothing  of the comics.  A possible second reason is  that they  kept the argument going for too long and for no real reason. The  reasoning seemed petty, so we just lost interest and no longer cared for the characters.  
• One of the best episodes this season!
• For  those who expressed concern over my husband,  I thank you. He's much better today.