VO: AAAAAANNNNDDD WE’RE BACK! Before we begin, I want to give a shout-out to The Legal Geeks for hosting me on their podcast! I had a great time talking with Jess about Scandal and scaring Josh with my knowledge of this show. Go check them out!
For those of you who don’t remember, we left with Olivia and Jake about to do it on the piano — does she even play the piano? — and then Jake came back to an empty room and a spilled glass of wine on that nice couch. Keidra thought (correctly) she was kidnapped. I thought she just had enough and split.
KC: Told ya. Liv would never spill her wine. I feel that.
VO: DUDE ACROSS THE HALL. WHY DIDN’T YOU KNOCK NEXT DOOR?
And I know Twitter was talking about Jake running outside in his underwear, but honestly I would do the same thing too. I also loved Quinn’s snark on the other end. For some reason I could picture her grabbing the phone from Huck as they’re passing information and asking that question with an annoyed sigh.
KC: I very much appreciated Jake running around in his underwear.
VO: You and a large contingent of Scandal fans (except the vocal Olitz shippers). As for the guy all “I tried to tell him” and “Run Forrest run,” I hope Olivia shanks him for being a terrible joker.
KC: Yeah, boo that guy.
VO: I feel so bad for that nice little grandma. If they ever wanted us to kill Olivia’s kidnappers and be on her side, this was the time.
KC: Yeah that scene was a bit too much for my grandma loving heart. Also, (I wasn’t the first one to notice this) Olivia seems to have a serious Only One issue. Anytime another black woman is within 10 feet of her she ends up dead or in jail, like her momma
VO: Is Olivia like the African-American Highlander? I kid, I kid.
I love how even when she’s duct taped up and kidnapped, she’s still got the “Fuck you,” attitude. It’s some great powers of observation. After the past seasons where she was kind of useless at her job and at love, this was a reminder for me of how much of a badass she can be.
KC: That was the best scene of her in awhile. It was nice to see her in Boss Bitch mode.
VO: Five bucks says Ian is the leader and he’s fucking with her head, because honestly, for a guy who’s been held prisoner for a couple of years, he’s looking pretty clean shaven.
KC: Good call. You are right, I didn’t notice the clean shaven part, but considering Olivia’s mom spent years in prison without needing a touch up I figured that is just how Scandal-verse jails worked.
VO: What I’m finding interesting about this episode so far is how tight it is — how all the external stuff has been burned away and it’s Olivia and this guy in a box. I’m seeing that strength in Olivia that I’ve always known was there, but had a tendency to get distracted by other things — namely a useless baby otter. In the scene with Ian, she’s given a lot of range in emotion that I haven’t seen. Even her going “I’m Olivia Pope and that’s useless,” it’s both a breakdown and a weird question.
KC: It’s weird because it’s interesting to see Olivia Pope kind of broken. I don’t mean that in a bad way.
VO: If Olivia Pope is stripped of all her resources — Fitz, Jake, Huck, Quinn, OPA and her father — could she still rely on herself to get out of a situation?
KC:Yeah, like does she live up to her own hype?
VO: Since when does writing a novel pay the bills full time? Or am I doing my life wrong?
KC: That only happens on the teevee.
VO: Can I say I’m glad that they’re being realistic in her hair frizzing out? It’s one of those nice touches I think — even though it looks like she’s on a Britney Spears video set, which I think was a clue for me later that things really weren’t what they appeared.
KC: Still a bit too sexy looking and not as matted and shrunken as I think it should be. Shrinkage is the devil! And clearly she didn’t inherit the power of not sweating your hair out in jail from her mom.
VO: How the fuck do you get an underwire out of your bra in five minutes? Or is that if you have a smaller bra than I do? Mine have enough structural engineering to keep a suspension bridge up.
KC: I’ve gotten an underwire out that quick. But my bras are cheap, mostly.
VO: Like Olivia would wear cheap bras. They’d probably self destruct when they came in contact with her skin.
WHAT THE HELL? How did Jake commandeer all those resources? Or are we doing one of those dream within a dream things, which sadly doesn’t ring true because we all know Olivia can’t cook worth a damn and all her jam would taste like bad red wine.
I love how Abby is is her voice of reality, even if it’s unwelcome at the moment. Abby is her voice of reality and pragmatism and it’s awesome to see Olivia finally realize she’s got to handle this on her own.
KC: I like that Abby plays that role, and has played that role for at least a season or so. Maybe this will be the thing to finally get Olivia to choose herself, Kelly Taylor style? I dunno.
VO: I hope so. I’ll also admit to howling, “WHAT HAPPENED TO HUCK? DID YOU PUT HIM IN A KENNEL? DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO USE A DUTCH OVEN?”
Of course they’d brick over that window. And I hope you realize Olivia that an underwire can do other things also besides open doors.
KC: I thought her meltdown at that was pretty realistic.
VO: That’s the thing about this whole episode — it’s been amazing watching Kerry Washington stretch her acting muscles in this. It’s more than a lip wibble or a huge speech, it’s a myriad of emotions. I know we said last year that maybe she didn’t deserve the Emmy nod as much as Jeff Perry or Bellamy Young, but this episode better be the one she submits for an Emmy.
Is it wrong that I grinned when she shot him? Because if it is, I don’t want to be right.
KC: I was glad she did it. But then again, girlfriend was gonna shoot her dad. People underestimate her.
VO: I KNEW IT WITH IAN! I KNEW IT! *does the I told you so dance*
But I also had a weird feeling that this whole thing was a soundstage.
KC: I dunno man, this episode was weird for me. With Shondaland shows, I wait for it to finally jump the shark and I wonder if this is it for me. I dunno. I don’t know what they are trying to do and what direction they are trying to go with the semi-ISIS thing and it just doesn’t sit well with me right now. I guess we will see.
VO: I had a feeling everything was fake because they went semi-ISIS with this. It just felt too on the nose for me. And the prayers just seemed to be too convenient of a clue as an observer, especially in light of people pushing Fitz to go to war when he wasn’t sure if he should (and Cy of all people also going “NAW MAN”). So I guess is this Lizzie North and Andrew Nichols pushing Fitz into war with West Angola?
I’m on the side of the AV Club when they said that if there was an episode of Scandal you’d show people just to try and get them on your side to try and show, I’d show them this episode. It’s kind of hard to pick out an episode in particular, given that every episode is like being mid-plunge on a roller coaster and that kind of blends together into moments. But this episode was a gripping illustration of Olivia Pope and who she is underneath all of that nice white cashmere and power suits. I’m happy with this episode because it was one of the stronger ones that I’ll remember down the line, and that’s a pretty amazing feat for a show intent on giving us OMG moments all the time.
KC: Yeah, I’m kinda meh right now. If I wanna see Homeland or something, I’d just watch that. I think I’ll save my OMG for Empire for the moment.
