Thursday night means Scandal, with last night's episode titled “The Last Supper”.
It was written by Allan Heinberg and directed by Julie Anne Robinson. But I can't say I was that impressed.
It's a weird feeling, especially considering next week is the winter finale, and the previous penultimate winter episodes have been a lot better, more intense, more exciting. It's almost as if the winter finale is a week too late.
It's hard to put my finger on why I didn't warm to last night's episode, but I guess there was a lot of bridging going on, whereby the story arcs were being sustained until next week, with a lack of real progression or answers being added to the equation.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the entire episode - I enjoyed several aspects, but not the entire hour. One of two main highlights for me was seeing Olivia give Cyrus her shoulder to lean on, in the wake of his indiscretion surrounding Michael. Olivia also supported Cyrus's endeavors to patch things up by not revealing to Michael's boss, Elizabeth, why her phone was playing up. With (finally) some noticeable traction for this arc, hopefully it will come to an end soon. Parts of the episode also made me wonder whether killing off Emmy award-winning actor Dan Bucatinsky's character James Novak was the right thing to do, but that's for another discussion.
The second highlight of last night's hour was seeing Rowan play his cards better than a blackjack card counter. Jake, Fitz and Olivia had earlier made the decision to take down Rowan as soon as humanly possible, but that led to a series of poor decisions, chief among which was the failure to examine the files Jake said he had, prior to attempting to take the man down.
Joe Morton was the standout male cast member once again with his performance in the restaurant as he beautifully asserted himself over his daughter. Kerry Washington did an excellent job expressing Olivia's genuine terror. Despite his confessions regarding his poor attempt at being a father, Rowan wasted no time disabling the pending offensive play against him. The President's Situation Room was rendered useless as Rowan calmly walked to his car, got in, and left. He's in the wind, but it's Rowan vs the world.
In previous weeks I was more than happy to see Huck building a relationship with his son, but I thought last night's progression in this area was dumb. It was a major miscalculation on Huck's part to involve his son in a stakeout, but I can't understand why the creative team even went there. All it's done is roll everything back to square one, which will continue to unnecessarily sidetrack Huck, limiting his use for OPA. As a side, Huck using the broken window to dispatch his attacker was pretty good to watch.
I'm on the fence as to whether the reintroduction of Andrew into the picture is the right idea, but I'm happy to let that one play out. The man nearly got blown up by a car bomb, making him the second character this season to cheat death from one. Andrew and Mellie wasted no time having a fling, followed by a more emotional discussion later, in Bellamy Young's strongest scene of the night, but things grow tenfold in complexity when we see Andrew also involved with Elizabeth. I'm wondering whether the man is a puppet on a string - could Rowan be holding them?
There was stuff to like, but the episode as a whole wasn't that good. Let's hope next week's winter finale, and ninth episode of the season can deliver on the promises made in the promo.
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to share your thoughts and theories in the comments below, and to follow Scandal's ratings on my TV ratings website, www.seriesmonitor.com/scandal.
Jimmy.
Hey Jimmy, not argument from me. Probably the worst episode of the season. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to insert a new writer for the penultimate winter episode. This episode was totally disconnected from 4.07. Allan apparently wrote for GA, so he's from Shondaland, but he doesn't know Scandal and I wasn't impressed at all. Go back to GA man. If I didn't know better, I would call this episode an early throw away to expand the season.
ReplyDeleteThe triangle is so stupid. It is tiresome and played out. Jake is salty and sees Olivia as a piece of meat. Throwing in Olitz kissing time was sweet. I did like how Fitz actually asked Olivia how she was doing. Rowan killed Fitz child, but even he was rational enough to understand it can't be easy for Olivia to lose another parent in such a short period of time. Therein lies the difference between the two men. Fitz worried about the effects of Rowan being killed would have on Olivia already damaged psyche. Jake didn't care. It is not even about Olivia for Jake, it is trying to one up Fitz, which is pretty impossible considering he is Prez and Jake doesn't have a pot to piss in. From where I stand Olivia hasn't made any grand confession of love to Jake. She has to Fitz, so there it is.
Hoping Tony Goldwyn's episode is a lot better next week. Mark Wilding is pretty good and he's been with the show since Season 1. So I expect the writing to be better for sure.
I don't know which show you were watching but last night episode was a stellar one. I think you guys watch the show in a superficial way and so completely miss the layers and interpretation to the characters and scenes last night. The show is finally get back on track. up and made me pay attention. If you want a nuanced review go watch the Afterbuzztv Scandal review on you tube. You may learn a thing of 2.
ReplyDeleteI don't know which review you were reading.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say I didn't enjoy the entire episode - I enjoyed several aspects, but not the entire hour.
It just wasn't as good as I hoped, but I still explained what I enjoyed and what I didn't.
I agree. Mediocre episode. Except for the Cyrus/Olivia scenes and Olitz, I almost fell asleep.
ReplyDeleteI will say the Olivia and Fitz tease is magnificent the last five episodes. Writers think they are slick...I'll break it down:
1st Fitz got Olivia to admit that she missed him by giving her a "fitzgasm" in the Oval.
2nd He got in head so much that she had a dream of being back on the Island with her natural curly hair while having sex with Jake, wishing he was Fitz.
3rd Fitz left Liv all hot and bothered with the "Fitzphonesex" call that had her flustered.
4th Fitz asked Liv to kiss him because he knew she wanted to kiss him the moment she realized it was safe and nobody was looking. She gives him a hot kiss and then HE stops it. Okay Fitz stops the kiss while Liv is wanting to more. Ha!
Next week, Fitz will have Olivia begging for the cobra...Fitz is BOSS! He's in charge of the country and he has a firm grip on Olivia's mind, body, soul, and heart.
Agree 100%. The love triangle is getting tiring for me too, but probably not to the same extent as your frustration. Can't say I'm far away from that level though. And yeah, a better writer will help things along next week
ReplyDeleteThe show was awful. Are you kidding me Afterbuzztv? Those idiots never know what they are talking about. Nuanced review? Don't you mean retarded review where the people don't even follow the facts.
ReplyDeleteThis episode had a total disconnection from the previous one. The writing last night wasn't good.
I'm still laughing that you think afterbuzztv is a nuanced review. That's really comical. LOL!
I read facebook, tumblr, and twitter and most people agree with Jimmy. Episode was garbage and a major let down from an excellent episode last week.
ReplyDeleteI know you did not fixed you key strokes to type that afterbuzztv is a nuanced review. Bye Felicia.
Allan, I vote you off the Island. Scandal is not like Grey's Anatomy. Boring is something we don't do on this show. I did like Mellie getting her groove on. Now file for divorce lady. Your husband is cheating. You are cheating. What is the point of staying married? Olitz kissing was the highlight of the episode.
ReplyDeleteThis epi was horrible. Esp after all the stellar ones before....
ReplyDeleteIt was a huge let down the whole bunker scene....it was a cliffhanger last week only to really amount to nothing this week.....ah well....I hope next week is better.
Yeah good point about the bunker scene. I didn't even give it a second thought - probably because it was too mediocre to
ReplyDeleteOlivia is being teased by Fitz & I love it. Something's got to give with those two. Dare anyone say he's manipulating her. She kissed him and wanted to continue to kiss him but he stopped it. No other man excites or love Olivia like Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III. Jake who?
ReplyDeleteI think they are setting us up for the winter finale (if that's what it is called), which will probably be a huge episode, which will close out storylines and open up new ones....
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show that Olivia's father is always one step ahead....kinda made me laugh....
I'm tired of the triangle as well. I thought Jake telling Fitz about "standing in the sun" with Olivia was so catty. Also correct in that this episode had no connection last week's episode which was 10X better. I enjoyed the kiss between Fitz and Olivia. From last weeks phone sex call and this kiss, Fitz is having the upper hand.
ReplyDeleteOlivia loves Fitz and she is torn. Olivia told Jake in the season 3 finale that feelings for him feels like betrayal. Jake is catty and a snake. I feel that his is the mole that informed Rowan about the files and the restaurant. (Was I only one who knew that wasn't going to go well!).
Now Rowan. His monologues are master class worthy. You can pick out sayings of an old school Black father telling their child (season 1) " you have to be twice as good to get half as much as they have" , "choosing them over me" and "you will never be one of them".
Hopefully the finale will be better. I need a Scandal respite. Have a great day gladiators.
i really don't like this confused olivia she is acting like a switch when ever she is with her boys she is she act like switched on that mode like when she is with fitz she is on fitz mode and then suddenly while with that jake she is then switched on bloody hell jake mode. hate hate this confused olivia.
ReplyDeleteNever thought that people would be so bad. i actually thought that andrew was a good guys for mellie and they will standing in sun at the end. felt very bad for mellie. olivia gets two very loving bf who really care for her where mellie gets two very unfaithful men who just use her.
I thought the same. Jake tipped Rowan off...Once B613, always B613. Jake is a snake in the grass and shouldn't be trusted. At least with Fitz, he always has Olivia's best interest at heart.
ReplyDeleteThe finale has to be better because it doesn't get much worst than this episode.
Fitz does have the upper hand with Olivia. For me with Olivia and Fitz, outside the bedroom Olivia has the most power over Fitz. Inside the bedroom, Fitz is in control over her body, mind, and soul and she's powerless when he turns on his passionate charm and love for her.
Olivia only has one. I don't really buy that Jake loves Olivia the way Fitz loves her. For Jake it s more male bravado of getting the girl because really he has nothing else to dangle over Fitz head. I believe Jake was the one who tipped Rowan off because he wants to kill him, not arrest him like Fitz and Olivia. I think Jake will try to convince Olivia to kill her own father next week, but I believe Fitz will stop him.
ReplyDeleteI do believe Andrew loves Mellie, but she was cold to him after her son died. So who can blame Andrew for moving on. Its probably just a business/ sexual thing with Lizzie.
ICAM!! Afterbuzztv is a complete joke.
ReplyDelete#TEAMolitz
ReplyDeleteand want to see mellie happy
I knew we were going to get some hot sex between these two. How much more can me, Olivia and Fitz take! LOL.
ReplyDeleteI'm a original Olitz fan. I've watched the show from the beginning. I also want to see Mellie happy, although I don't really like her. How can I root for Olivia and Fitz and not want Mellie to have the same happiness? I believe Andrew loves Mellie and what he's doing with Lizzie is just sex.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, when the Jake Ballard character shows up the show goes downhill fast like Sleepy Hollow with Hawley. Forcing a character with no real relevance into a show never works. Jake should have been killed off rather than James who had actual relevance.
ReplyDeleteTo go from a great episode last week to this meh episode was disappointing. I missed Abby and too much time was spent on Jake talking crap when it should have been on the other characters - Quinn who is being sidelined, Olivia doing OPA work, Huck and Javi talking about his reason for leaving, etc.
Jake came off like an idiot in this episode constantly bragging about his relationship with Olivia to Fitz instead of focusing on Rowan. I wish he would STFU with his frat boy juvenile act. I'm glad Fitz ignored him.
I knew from the beginning of the season that Andrew was working with Lizzie. No one is a nice person on Scandal especially a politician. Has he been working with Lizzie before the Mellie affair or after becoming VP?
As for Mellie and Andrew, I predicted Andrew being a snake from his first appearance last season. I will say that now this plot line is interesting and gives Mellie something to do from all the whining. Bellamy needs to practice doing love scenes because she is terrible at pretend sex.
Also, Papa Pope still has spies in the White House and the Pentagon. Who knows if Jake is still being
controlled by Rowan else why has he not killed when he has had many chances to do so.
Please, please end the B613 nonsense. The best episodes are the ones without the focus on the spy crap
and just the political maneuvering.
Scott Foley is so one note and one octave. Those bunker scenes were awful to watch. Jake was screaming like a little whiny girl.
ReplyDeleteJake warned Rowan about the set up so that he can manipulative Olivia into killing her own dad. He hopes that she will depend on him to protect her after Rowan is dead, but I think Olivia is going to figure it all out.
Mellie got two men cheating on her. Ouch! Shonda has no love for her pets Mellie and Jake.
I loved the episode. Scandal is a political thriller and dialogue dependent. This means you have to pay close attention to the dialogue and of course the alliances. I think the alliance between Lizzie Borden, Andrew and Kubiak was shocking. I certainly didn't expect that. And what does it mean that Lizzie Borden is not the least bit intimidated by WH power will do anything to ensure a course correction in Fitz' agenda. If you think Huck's current arc is just about his relationship with his son Javi then you need to go back and watch Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington. There are so many questions: Like who changed the contents of the B613 files to blank pages and why do they only go back to 1995? Rowan has been head of B613 for 40 years. Why are there hard copies of B613 when they could be stored on B613's secure Intranet? Capt. Ballard is still on active duty so why wasn't he arrested and detained by NCIS? Earlier, there's an assassination attempt on the VP in which he suffers slight injuries and 2 agents sustain severe injuries. Later, VP Andrew appears at Lizzie Borden's secret DC apt and when asked by her where his secret service is, Andrew says " I told them to keep their distance." How could that be unless Andrew was in on the planning of the attempt on his life. but the most bizarre thing of the night was the attempted capture or kill of Papa Pope, while having his Last Supper with his daughter, Olivia. During this segment, we are shift back and forth between the WH situation room in which one person present tells us that the FBI, CIA and DIA are all providing support. Fitz and Jake are both present. This should have been the first clue Papa Pope was not going down because he has agents in all three agencies. Second, when Papa Pope changed his seat that was the signal for his people to take out the SWAT military team. Finally, there's the issue of the people stalking Olivia, probably something Papa Pope has managed to neutralize the affect of all these years. With Papa Pope leaving that protection is now gone. Yes this was an episode that required you to recall what happened from the beginning of this season as well as earlier seasons. If you only focus on each episode as a separate story arc, you miss the overarching premise of the story which is about political power, who has it, who's trying to get it and who is willing to give it up.
ReplyDeletei agree. There are two levels to this show, a political thriller - the middle school where it's all about "I want to see them DO it" and there's the adult version, requiring attention, memory and critical thinking. While I'm not a big fan of afterbuzz - scandal reviews, I think they do an excellent job of digging down and getting at underlying themes. Another really great reviewing team is Larry Brown Jr. and Genia Wright - they have a live chat with theirs. They're both very well-educated so they also drill down into the nuts and bolts. I would also recommend Men on Scandal (awesome) and SimoneTalk (fantastic).
ReplyDeleteLOL, seriously? Rowan was rational enough to understand she can't lose him? He's just as controlling and manipulative towards her as Fitz is...If it weren't for him she wouldn't 'lose' her mom in the first place - please go rewatch last season and then we'll talk.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jake is treating Liv like a piece of meat? I'd say the opposite. Sure, boys will be boys and they battle out in the dumbest way possible...but the way I see it Fitz's "you know you want to kiss me" is waaay more gross and he has a pretty good history of objectifying her despite his alleged great love for her, whereas all Jake really wanted for the past few eps was to have a piece of what they had back in the Bahamas - and who could blame him. Like, people, try to freakin' get into his shoes and stop the ship-bias overcloud your judgement. Wouldn't you feel insecure were you in his position? Yeah -- that's what I thought. And after all he has more class than Fitz ever will regarding this toxic relationship that he tries to force upon Liv.
Fitz has Liv's best interest at heart? Yada yada yada. Probably the instant he wanted to kill her father was the one where it showed the most. And don't get me started on his misogynistic ways. I just kinda can't freakin' wait for when the writers introduce some other woman into the mix - which will happen eventually if Scandal goes beyond season 5 - and all the little Olitz's shippers' hearts will break into pieces. Yeah, that was mean, I know, but I AM TIIIRED of his character -- and I used to love them together.
ReplyDeleteI can't wrap my head around how a man being "in charge" of a woman (let's say it's true) and imagining her "begging for cobra" can be appealing to any woman. This is dysfunctional relationship we're talking about -- they aren't partners outside of the professional life and haven't been in a long time, see -- that's the problem (that he's IN CONTROL of her, objectifying her) and you are kinda aware of it, but somehow you end up glorifying it.
ReplyDeleteI misread the comment and somehow was under the impression you reffered to GA with "boring is something we don't do on this show"...but, in fact, you meant the actual opposite. That's just plain rude, I find GA to be really entertaining (maybe not thrilling as a political drama that Scandal is, but still entertaining) this year more than in the years prior.
ReplyDeleteMy input here will be minor, but I gotta say that Rowan switching seats also grabbed my attention to an extent that I almost screamed at my screen as if I wanted to warn the SWAT guys, lol.
ReplyDeleteDude chill out. Scandal is on its 4th season and you actually think Olitz fans are worried about Fitz falling out of love with Olivia. You're being stupid and silly. Dismissed. I can't debate with a fool.
ReplyDeleteAll roads lead to Fitz and Olivia on Scandal. He's Fitz and she's Olivia and its only a matter of time that their loving passion will explode again.
ReplyDeleteLook, I agree with certain parts of this review, but not with all you said Jimmy, I think the episode was excellent, of course they let some thinks with half of the progression before the winter finale (this case the all Elizabeth's arc left open), but is good to see how Olivia, Jake and the president are predictable, they had a good plan, but Roman is an brilliant villain, he knows his daughter and he knows she is weak when feelings get in the way, see the entire final scene was a great entertainment for me, because papa Pope was great and playing Olivia and the others like puppets, if you see in that way than will maybe have fun too.
ReplyDeleteDid I call you names? No. What's foolish is your behavior and simply 'dismissing' someone else's opinions, very mature, indeed. Plain rude. And the problem is that you guys, in fact, aren't worried at all, but knowing Shonda it'll totally come out of the blue and then you may see him for who he really is.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it's just the beginning of Elizabeth's arc. It may come to a head in the winter finale, but then there's the whole second half of the season, making adjustments after the chaos she leaves behind and/or trying to take her down.
ReplyDeleteI think you are just trolling. Love or hate Olitz, Shonda Rhimes said they were the heart of her show and they will never be over. My point is, he hasn't fallen out of with her yet and the same for Olivia love towards Fitz. Other lovers will come and go, but these two always to come back to each other.
ReplyDeleteAlso Shonda said there is an ending point for Scandal. She doesn't see the show lasting as long as GA which is more of an ensemble cast. Scandal is about the fixer in love with the President and the show will end according to Shonda even if the ratings are still good. You can only write so many Scandals and plus I don't think Shonda knows what to do with characters like Mellie or Cyrus if they don't have Fitz as President. Despite what some might think, she can't automatic be President just because she's FLOTUS. Its ridiculous when I read Mellie for President. It doesn't work like that, not even in fiction.