Because The A.V. Club knows that TV shows keep going even if we’re not writing at length about them, we’re experimenting with discussion posts. For certain shows, one of our TV writers will publish some brief thoughts about the latest episode, and open the comments for readers to share theirs.
- Not only did I call Quinn still being alive, she totally stopped Rowan and Charlie from fighting like I predicted.
- The show remembered Mellie was the president this week. I don’t think making Jake the Chief of Staff makes any sense, but at least Mellie got to make some decisions this year.
- I don’t know why Cyrus and Jake are enemies all of a sudden, but that scissor threat scene was odd. Obviously, it’d look incredibly suspicious if Cyrus died. Mellie and Liv would both think it was Jake. Jake, what are you doing? Are you on steroids? You seem way too aggressive.
- Cyrus seems to be the only person giving Mellie good advice. Everyone knows Olivia is a master manipulator, but everyone conveniently forgets this episode except Cyrus. Mellie has been brainwashed. It’s just too bad it doesn’t play out the way he wanted.
- Scandal has been about Olivia’s slow climb to power and how much harder she has to work as a black woman. In theory, it’s interesting to watch her lose that power (Fitz literally tells her, “You don’t have any power here.”), but Olivia hasn’t been the Chief of Staff long enough for this to seem like a huge loss.
- Plus, Liv is a thoroughly horrible person now. I don’t want her to be the Chief of Staff. Like Quinn, I want her to be in jail. Olivia’s strut back into the White House doesn’t feel earned at all. The music begs us to cheer for her, but there’s no reason to cheer for her. We just saw her manipulate and lie to everyone.
- I do love that Jake threw Liv under the bus. Only because Olivia and Jake are awful together and I really didn’t want to deal with them teaming up.
- From torture lessons to baby lessons, who would’ve thought we’d be rooting for Quinn, Charlie and Rowan. Rowan is not invited to the Quinn/Charlie spin-off I dream of in my head.
- Why isn’t Olivia even a little concerned about Charlie killing her?
- All of this is going to seem awfully pointless when everyone realizes Quinn is alive.
- You’d think an intervention for Olivia would look at some of the toughest moments she’s faced in the show’s history. You’d think someone would be like “You were kidnapped.” But, no, this episode has to exist in a vacuum because Scandal’s narrative is filled with too many inconsistencies to ever look back at a character’s experiences like that.
- The weird “Jake slutshaming Mellie” moment was weird and unnecessary. I’m glad Mellie pointed out the hypocrisy, but they’re really just out to make Jake look like a huge jerk this season for no reason.
- Fitz…wasn’t so bad this episode. I like him when he doesn’t really do anything but stare out of windows.
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