Arrow – Fundamentals

By: Stacy Miller

At the Star City Police Department (SCPD), the cops on Ricardo Diaz’s (Kirk Acevedo) payroll rush to protect their boss when the Green Arrow attacks, demanding to know where Diaz is. Fists and arrows flying, Oliver (Stephen Amell) jabs an arrow in the leg of a dirty cop again demanding “Where’s Diaz?!” “In there,” the cop replies. The doors open and Oliver faces Diaz and more cops with their guns trained on the Green Arrow. “This is going to be fun,” Diaz says with a smirk.

Ten Hours Earlier. Oliver and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) are in the Arrow Cave watching a news report with the headline ‘Obstruction at City Hill’ that talks about the firings of Captain Hill and D.A. Armand and Mayor Queen’s impending impeachment. Oliver tells Felicity that he can’t be impeached if he can show evidence of the SCPD police captain and district attorney’s corruptions. “That’s what you have me for,” Felicity says. She tells Oliver that she’s been monitoring the station’s security feed and discovered that every night at ten thirteen the security footage goes dark and comes back online forty-five minutes later. Oliver thinks this is good; he knows where Diaz will be and if he gets him everything goes away. Felicity reminds Oliver that he can’t storm the castle without backup.  Just then, John (David Ramsey) arrives. Felicity called him on the pretense of updating the chip in his hand and told him that Oliver wouldn’t be there. Felicity admits to “parent trapping” John and Oliver with the hope they all could talk about what happened i.e. John and Oliver’s fight and John leaving the team. As expected, the talk doesn’t go the way she expected. “This is who he is, and you know that better than anyone,” John says after Oliver angrily walks out.

At the mayor’s office, Councilman Kullens (Greg Rogers) tells Oliver that firing the police captain and district attorney investigating the case against him is the very definition of corruption. However, Councilman Kullens says that although he and Oliver haven’t always gotten along, he believes in due process. Oliver shakes Councilman Kullens’ hand and tells him that he’s (Oliver) looking forward to facing the council with his evidence. After Councilman Kullens leaves his office, Oliver tells Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) that Felicity is working on getting the evidence he needs.  He also mentions that John quit the team. As someone who has known Oliver since his playboy days, Quentin says that Oliver has changed and has become a good mayor, family man and leader. Oliver goes home to see how Felicity is coming along with that evidence.

Felicity congratulations William (Jack Moore) on how well he did on his project for the science fair. When Oliver arrives and asks to speak with Felicity for a minute, William reminds that they are already late but walks away to get his The Flash backpack. Felicity gives Oliver a flash drive of the evidence she obtained which includes recordings of threatens made against Captain Hill’s family and D.A. Armand’s back statements. The evidence is just what Oliver needs. But it is too good; the only person who could have gotten the evidence for him is him (meaning the Green Arrow). So in order to prove Oliver is not guilty of corruption would prove he’s guilty of being the Green Arrow. Unless he were to admit that he has a super hacker for a wife. Felicity apologizes that she didn’t have enough time to plant a fake paper trail.  Oliver shouts at Felicity for not having enough time to plant the paper trail because she was busy trying to get he and John back together. When William again tells his father they are going to be late, Oliver yells at his son and accidently knocks William’s science project off the table. William walks out of the room. “Get out, I will take care of William,” Felicity orders.

At the Arrow Cave, Oliver later apologizes to Felicity for losing his temper. Felicity thinks they need to take some space. “You showed William the man his father really is and that’s not the man I married,” Felicity tells Oliver walking out the room. When Quentin arrives, Oliver tells him about Felicity getting the evidence and also how he lost his temper in front of his son. “My wife wants a separation,” Oliver tells Quentin, who thinks that’s a little extreme. All Oliver has to do is apologize to the kid and sleep on the couch for the night and this will all blow over. Oliver laments that everyone leaves him. Quentin assures that Rene (Rick Gonzalez), Curtis (Echo Kellum) and Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) had their own issues and the thing with Felicity and William will blow over. Oliver tells Quentin he has to wrap his head around everything but will see him later at city hall. After Quentin leaves the Arrow Cave, Oliver hears a noise and grabs a gun. He is shocked when Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra) comes off the elevator, particularly because Chase killed himself!  Adrian reminds that Oliver never went back for Chase’s body and also that Queen should be used to people coming back from the dead; he himself once fell off a mountain. Then, Oliver and Adrian starts fighting. Oliver gets Adrian Chase in a choke hold. Chase warns Oliver to kill him because he killed the mother of his son and will come back for Felicity and William. Oliver snaps Adrian’s neck. He’s shocked when Adrian’s body later disappears and turns around to see Chase standing beside him. Adrian Chase taunts Oliver Queen that he’s not that easy to kill. “No Adrian you’re dead. I’m hallucinating,” Oliver realizes. Adrian comments how much he admires Diaz’s agenda by not going after the people Oliver loves but getting them to turn against him. Oliver draws his blood for a blood test and discovers that Vertigo is in his system and is causing his hallucination. Oliver realizes Councilman Kullens gave him a Vertigo handshake. Adrian warns Oliver not to go talk to Quentin because he’s (Oliver) not in the right mind and Quentin may have him committed. “Your worse fear is yourself, your worse enemy is yourself,” the Adrian Chase hallucination says telling Oliver they all come in second to him. Oliver calls Quentin and tells him about Councilman Kullens giving him Vertigo.

The next hallucination of Oliver Queen’s past is Laurel (Katie Cassidy). The Adrian Chase hallucination comes along for the ride to remind Oliver that it was his fault that Laurel was killed because he allowed her to become The Black Canary. Oliver hallucinates Rene blaming Oliver for putting him in the hospital and not coming to visit him. Hallucinations of Curtis and Dinah add that Oliver never came to visit Rene because he never cared about him. Then, Oliver is home where he finds Raisa (Kathleen Gati) bleeding from her abdomen…she was stabbed by a man with a dragon tattoo. It was Diaz!  He appears and tells Oliver how he came for his (Oliver) wife and son but they were at a science fair. But Diaz has decided that he won’t kill Oliver because that would just turn him into a martyr.

Oliver finds himself in the Arrow Cave where he faces his most deadly hallucination: Himself.  “You have failed this city and you know why.  You were never supposed to have partners. There was never supposed to be a John Diggle, a Felicity Smoak and Green Arrow. There was just the mission!” The Green Arrow hallucination tells Oliver; he lost his city and he knows what he needs to do to get it back. Oliver needs to go back to basics.

Over an hour late, Oliver finally arrives at the city council meeting and presents the flash drive evidence and tells the council that it was given to him by the Green Arrow. Councilman Kullens sarcastically says that’s convenient; Mayor Queen insists he’s not the Green Arrow but yet he shares a close personal relationship with the vigilante. Later, the Adrian Chase hallucination encourages Oliver to stop Diaz once and for all; he knows where Diaz will be and even if it’s a suicide mission, heroes are willing to die.

Felicity and William return home. William thanks Felicity for helping him put his project back together even if he only won second prize. William leaves the room. Felicity learns that Oliver is on his way to the SCPD. She calls Quentin. William gives Felicity her sneakers and she takes off running to save her man.

At the SCPD, Quentin sees that Oliver is wearing his old costume and tries to stop him from going inside. But Oliver knocks Quentin to the ground. Soon, Felicity finds Quentin. She urges him to get away from the SCPD as the Deputy Mayor shouldn’t be there. Felicity finds Oliver and is able to talk him out of going into that room where he is a sitting duck for Diaz and his hoard of cops. With the Vertigo slowly leaving his system, Oliver listens to Felicity and they escape just in time.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity gives Oliver a homemade hangover cure. When they turn on the television, they see Councilman Kullens making a statement: The city council has voted to impeach Mayor Queen. Quentin is the new mayor now and Oliver tells Felicity that he is going back to basics and getting back to his original mission.

Diaz tells Laurel that the impeachment was just the first step. “We spread the word that with Mayor Queen out, Star City is opened for business.”