VO: After the high of the last episode, let’s see if they can keep the momentum up…I have a feeling that as the focus widens, things are going to get a bit more WTF for all of us.
What the hell kind of pull does Nichols have? The Secret Service in cahoots with him? This makes no sense at all right now. And there’s the whole Fight Club speech of “We serve you…do not fuck with us.”
KC: How useless/dumb is Fitz that the entire secret service has completely turned on him? Not just like a couple dudes here and there. EVERYONE.
VO: I wonder if Fitz wishes he had Tom back.
KC: I don’t trust Tom either. He doesn’t care about Fitz, just what Fitz represents.
VO: HEY MELLIE! I wonder if she’s in on this, but I doubt it, given that she does consider Olivia more valuable alive than dead. But I suppose she could use her to make him dance like a puppet on a string.
KC: Mellie is phoning it in. I don’t think she’s fighting anymore.
VO: I really hate what they did with Nichols because I feel like it’s inconsistent. He’s supposed to be in unrequited love for like a decade with Mellie, then he goes to sleep with Lizzie North? And they’re fucking over Fitz? Who’s supposed to be his friend? This is like some major sleep cell deep cover shit and I’m finding it really inconsistent.
Having Nichols being a moustache-twirling villain makes no sense, because didn’t they know who she hangs with? A damaged secret agent who gets off on torture, a girl who just gets off on torture, and a redhead who can fast talk her way through anything? Not to mention Jake? And Papa Pope (even if he’s off the table for now)? Do you know her crew? Do you know who you’re messing with? I’m not including Fitz, because he’s useless, but Cy can be sneaky as hell.
KC: None of this storyline rings very true to me. It’s like they wrote Nichols as an Olivia for Mellie and then decided that wasn’t OMGWTF enough and made him into a two-timing villain. And I am a bit tired of the world revolves around Olivia stories. She’s becoming a Mary Sue again and that’s boring.
VO: I wonder if they suddenly decided to do that after destroying B613 and having Papa Pope go on the run. The problem is that we didn’t really need a huge Big Bad. And if we did, we need someone more believable than Nichols, given how he was introduced to us.
Even when she appears scared, Olivia’s still scheming. We all know that glass of water was a clue somehow.
KC: I like it when we get a glimpse of how much of a strategist Olivia actually is.
VO: I just realized with everyone watching Fitz because they work for Nichols, I am going to have a smaller, and smaller list for parody Office-spinoff where we interview all the staff members of the White House.
KC: It would be more like Office UK, with that underlying sense of sadness and desperation.
VO: I will say that Lizzie’s hair looks better messy like that.
KC: The stylists must have been reading Twitter
VO: OH HAI HUCK! See, this is where you don’t fuck with Olivia’s crew. Huck is insane.
KC: Some things never change.
VO: Yeah, I’m really not buying this turn of Nichols as the uber villain. And football analogies don’t work when her kid is on the line. I’d fucking cross Nichols for a tic tac after Huck’s visit. Or I’d shank Nichols.
OH HAI TOM! I can Shonda loves this actor because she gives him such a lovely meaty speech. And you know Tom has written “Mr. Tom Grant” in pink glittery letters in his trapper keeper.
KC: See it’s really not about Fitz at all. It’s about the Office of the President for Tom, that concept is what he is really in love with,
VO: I’m starting to think that with Jake and Fitz working together for Olivia, I really think that the way to resolve the biggest plotline is to just have polyamory. Admittedly it’d be weird, but I’d be down for it, especially if it made Fitz less of a useless baby otter.
KC: Fitz doesn’t deserve love or sex, but I am down with this plot. it would just make things easier for everyone.
VO: Of course Olivia is pretty damn clever, but I also think that technology created hasn’t caught up for that picture.
I wonder why they haven’t released Mama Pope. It’d be messy, but she’d get the job done.
KC: I would like her to come back too. She would get things done. And where is Rowan? I am calling Khandi for Empire. I want her as Lucious’ big sister or a Suzanne DePasse old school music mogul.
VO:MARLA GIBBS! HEY THERE!
KC: She’s like 80 years old! She looks fantastic. Interestingly, back in grade school we wrote letters to celebrities to get recipes for a black history cookbook and she gave me a recipe for something made with yogurt. I think my mom still has it. Lionel Richie sent me something too.
VO: You are seriously the person with all the best stories. Someday you’re going to have to tell me how Marla’s recipe was, as well as Lionel Richie’s. I hope his had some ridiculous note like “After trying this, you’ll be dancing on the ceiling too!”
“We all hate the vice president.” I’m just dying of laughter.
KC: I miss Sally.
VO: Me too. Kate Burton is also one hell of an actress and I always enjoy seeing her. Cyrus is right, observant, paranoid and wonderful. I am still amazed at how stupid Nichols is. If he wanted to be president, why not just ride out this term? Lizzie, just sell Nichols out. Sex with him was probably serviceable at best.
KC: Everything about Nichols is idiotic.
VO: Here’s the funny thing with Mellie — I believe she’s right when she says that they would make a good partnership and to leave it at that. And I think Fitz would be smarter to have her on his side, which is why I think he told her what was going on.
Mellie encouraging him to war to me just makes me think that she still believes in love or that Fitz is capable of love, because why would he go to such insane lengths for Olivia only to give up now? Either that or she’s trying to convince herself that Fitz isn’t that big of a sociopathic fuckhead as he could be. I don’t know if it I like it or not, but I feel like it’s her pragmatic side talking. Not to mention, as she’s said before, Olivia is more valuable to her alive than dead.
KC: I think Mellie would be fine with just making it a partnership but Fitz keeps fucking things up with his stupid man-feels. He can’t make decisions without everyone dropping what they do to pay attention to how he’s feeling today and instruct him on making basic decisions. Fucking man-baby. When will he die? Why do I watch this?
VO:Mellie is preaching to Lizzie, “Dude did you not know the crew Olivia hangs with? They’re fucking crazy.”
And what Huck did to Lizzie? I’m not saying it’s right, but I’m saying I understand.
KC: Lizzie thought she was on House of Cards rather than Scandal.
VO: Somehow I wouldn’t blink if Mellie was playing the angles. I don’t think she believes Andrew for a bit. Anyone who chooses power over me, I wouldn’t trust at all.
I love how Mellie played Andrew. Nice use of her in red (her power color). So is Mellie’s nickname now NyQuil?
KC: Mellie has no problem with using sex to leverage power. And I think at this point she has pretty much given up on love and is just being strategic about what she can get from sex and her smarts. I can’t say I blame her.
VO: The three of us?” You know Quinn went “sploosh” at that one.
KC: LOL
VO: I don’t get this — if everyone knows who Olivia Pope is, why didn’t someone with more brains than Nichols make a run for her? Nichols was like watching some school child at work.
KC: I don’t think he’s the Big Bad in this case. Someone else is at play. Nichols is a pawn. I dunno, this “selling Olivia Pope thing is gross, I know (I think?) maybe this is a bigger statement, but the fact that the black woman is leveraging power by “selling” herself-possibly to her white lover- is making my head explode.
VO: There’s a lot of big statements in this episode. Lizzie, a white woman, getting tortured and showing Mellie the scars on her back (which looked similar to whipping) and Olivia Pope convincing someone to sell her to buy a little more time or send out information are the two biggest ones.
My issue is more that can they pull this off? Sometimes they can — see Songs in the Key of Life — but this feels more ham-handed than anything else, especially coming after “Run”, which is one of my favorite episodes.
KC: I’m still rather meh about it all in general. I dunno. I miss case of the week Scandal.
