Scandal is all about power and relationships. Both are messy, but Fitz and Olivia take it to a whole other level. They are no longer the romantic, secret, couple in love, but rather two people who are trying to defeat the person they’re sleeping with. It won’t work.

When Olivia uttered that “yes” last year, confirming rampant rumors of her relationship with the President, she sent this season into a spiraling tailspin. Keen Scandal fans could have predicted that, but we don’t know how what to expect from the second half of this season.

Olivia is calculating and meticulously planning steps ahead, but she’s also often thrust into no-win scenarios. Her team, Quinn, Huck, Jake, and even Abby, so thoroughly have her back though, that she will most likely survive, even in the darkest of times.

Love is a funny thing. It makes us do stupid stuff. It’s not measurable and there’s no one correct answer about how to love. Olivia cannot “fix” love, try as she might. That’s the reason she and Fitz have been going back and forth for years now — much before season 1 — despite every voice, both inside her head and out of it warning her, cautioning her, the affair and romance will not end in Vermont, making jam.

Their doomed relationship is both of their faults, but Fitz in particular was in the wrong when we last left the show.

And now, an open letter to President Fitzgerald Grant:

Fitz, take a seat.

I don’t normally lose my composure watching television. My physical reactions to on-screen events do nothing more than exhaust myself. However, during the Scandal mid-season 5 finale, I found myself shouting expletives at you during your little tirade/ rant towards Olivia.

I do not like watching you move Olivia into the White House without asking her. I have to believe you are not a dumb man, Mr. President. There’s a reason you can sit in the Oval Office, and it’s not because of luck. (Even the person who created you, Shonda Rhimes, doesn’t believe in ‘luck’ but rather there were a series of decisions made that led you to this current moment in time.) However, your missteps in believing that Olivia would complacently bend to your whims is disappointing. How delusional are you, man?

You are a petulant child who can no longer have what he wants and your attempts to control, to diminish, Olivia, her willpower, and, quite frankly, her freedom, is not entertaining.

When Scandal season 5 returns tonight, I will watch Olivia continue to evolve and flourish in her life without you (hopefully) while you sit in the White House for the remainder of your term. I hope you think about what you’ve done.

Best wishes as you continue season 5,
A Scandal viewer