What happened to Scandal?
Do you remember the preview we were given last week for tonight’s Scandal? Look at how exciting “Paris is Burning” was supposed to be:
“Prepare yourself for full. Metal. Payback,” the trailer told us.
We didn’t get anything like that, and that’s Scandal these days, isn’t it? Up, down, up, down, up, down. Then at the end of each episode: “Surprise twist to wake you up for How to Get Away with Murder!”
Scandal season 5, episode 3 ditched the Case of the Week format and instead focused squarely on last week’s announcement from Olivia that yes, her and the President are having an affair. You would’ve expected many more fireworks after such a statement like the trailer promised us, but we didn’t get many.
Instead what we got was a slow episode filled with flip flops, including Olivia regretting her “yes.”
At the beginning Fitz decided that he and Mellie would come clean about their broken marriage in a live televised interview in light of Olivia’s announcement, but the First Lady said she would only do it if Fitz met her demands (Support her politically, don’t let Olivia take the “Grant” name, etc.).
Mellie, understandably, was broken by the affair becoming suddenly publicized. She brought Cyrus into the fold to help her get what she wanted, but nothing seemed to satisfy her.
Cyrus later realized that there was just one thing that could fix all of this: Fitz and Mellie needed to get back together. Oh no, not this again!
One scene that stood out to us was Mellie’s drunk encounter with Olivia in the First Lady’s dressing room. Mellie pushed Olivia into a state of shock when she reminded her that everything she had created would go down the drain if she became the First Lady.
This moved Olivia so much that she told Fitz to take Mellie back after all. What? Are you kidding? You’re a smart and calculated person, Ms. Pope. Why would you reverse course after telling literally the entirely world just one episode ago that you’re sleeping with the President of the United States?
The burning question on Olivia's mind!
#Scandal pic.twitter.com/HzQfxDDn91
— Scandal (@ScandalABC) October 9, 2015
… Um, Olivia? Did you not think about this last week?
Towards the end of the hour Cyrus begged Fitz for his job back. The President said no, which made Cyrus even more furious than he already was at Olivia. The former Chief of Staff whisked Mellie out of the White House and towards… a mystery location. We’ll have to find out where they went next week.
Finally, as Abby the Handler shamed Olivia in front of the media in an attempt to get them to move on, Jake paid a visit to Papa Pope and informed him that the Lourve is burning. Rowan seemed to care about this news for some reason. This was the big “twist” at the end to wake us up in time for Shonda Rhimes’ current best show, How to Get Away with Murder.
Abby in Fixer Mode!
#Scandal pic.twitter.com/eiyGw9pQnU
— Scandal (@ScandalABC) October 9, 2015
This was definitely a unique episode. Most scenes were slowed down dramatically compared to the standard speed of Scandal. To put it another way, it felt like Scandal had a power outage. Very few music cues, very few quick shots back and forth, and a lot less action.
So where do we go from here? The story didn’t advance much in this episode other than Olivia regretting her “yes” and Mellie leaving the White House. Will Olivia and Fitz go back into hiding and hope that more photos won’t leak? Will Fitz just come clean about the affair himself? Will Mellie come clean about the affair herself? Time will tell, but we would’ve liked a bigger hint at the end of tonight’s episode.
“Paris is Burning” is, we hope, Mellie’s grand farewell to the White House (until she becomes President). Otherwise… what was the purpose of this episode? It felt like one big goodbye to Mellie as First Lady despite a couple moments where characters suggested they get back together.
Now let’s look at the promo for next week’s Scandal. It looks exciting, doesn’t it? Well, so did this week’s. And we know how that turned out.
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