SCANDAL!! Its Handled or Is It?

I spent the last few months holding my breath and watching all of season One and Two of Scandal, counting down the days, hours and minutes until the return of the BEST SHOW ON TV!! And this Thursday I was paid for the wait and suspense in a very lovely way…There was Scandal and intrigue and suspense and just everything else that made me hold my breath as I watched. No, I am not doing a lot of breathing these days.

First of all, Dad. Papa Pope is mean. FACT. In all his scenes with Olivia I cowered and watched in horror as he tore her a new one with every awakening moment of reality. We left last season with that whole Dad reveal when Olivia found out it was her dad who was at the bottom of all the malarkey but now we find he is just in town to fix the mess his daughter finds herself in at the hands of the Whitehouse and mostly of her own making, for “raising her skirt and opening her knees and giving it up to a man with too much power.” He mocks her mediocre ambition to become first lady because let’s face it, it has got to be the most tediously boring role as we can sense from Mellie’s increasing frustrations. We see where Olivia gets her gung-ho attitude that never quits. He reminds her of where she is coming from and who he raised her to be and for one moment, just a moment, she is his little girl again and Olivia is the naughty child. Papa Pope also has other items on his agenda, but he would prefer Olivia stay on the very nice island at the end of her private jet. out of town. Not a bad plan if only Livvie will go. He may have an ulterior motive for wanting his daughter out of the way but he is still a father who wants to clean up the mess of his only daughter. Putting sentiments aside, lets be real here, whether or not we are rooting for her relationship with Fitz, Liv has made a royal cock up of things.

Best line; “Olivia you are getting on that plane come hell or high water and to be clear I am the hell and the high water”

Olivia is in the place she does not want to be, a scandal to be handled. One thing we get from the off is that season three gets a little more personal, we get to know about Olivia and her family, we’ll get a little more back story to the obviously tortured relationship with her father that has made her run so far away and not spent time in the family house from the age of twelve when her mother died. There’s a lot about her that we do not know, which was an issue for me, a minor but crucial one. Its always good to have backstory on a character we have come to love and become so invested in. Olivia did not come out of thin air so it will be good to know what motivates her obstinate manner and causes her to remain such a closed book. We see her vulnerable in this episode, weighed down by the scandal. I hate a weak Olivia Pope but more than anything, I’ll just come out with it, I hate Olivia with Fitz now because he makes her weak. *Dodges a shoe* I love them together but I also hate them together because she cannot seem to focus on her gut which never leads her wrong. Amanda Tanner remember her? I don’t like the fact that she allows herself to get played by Fitz either. I want her to move on, get herself about the game and get her shit together and save Pope and Associates and be the Gladiator for her Gladiators.

Cyrus will one day drop dead of a heart attack but I LOVE HIM and he has the best lines; “honey I am your monster.” He is a dark and snivelling and makes no bones about his dislike for Sally “the Lord’s Wtiness” Langston, the best ever Veep. Cyrus shows allegiance to no one but the office of the President Of The United States, to him he is the President by proxy and he will do anything to hold on to that office as long as he can, eight years preferably, not four. He blows where the wind favours him but make no mistake he will take out anyone that messes with his ambition. This season it is obvious he will continue to play the game and play his friends like puns on his chessboard. He hangs Jeanine out to dry, although its not all him as we later come to find out, in order to prevent that ludicrous fantasy that Fitz harbours, about Olivia becoming First Lady because with her in the White House he loses all power. She won’t be like Mellie who frustratingly plays her first lady role, Olivia will sit at the big table and make moves that ultimately Cyrus out of the way. He doesn’t want that at all.

Mellie, Mellie, Mellie…girl she is frustrated and tired and angry with Fitz, been angry for a very long time and she has every right to be. Her husband is in love with another woman and she has to just grin and bear it. And Fitz is not even trying to hide it from anyone anymore, least of all her. Bad enough she knows it, he says it to her face which makes Fitz the world’s BIGGEST ARSE. Coupled with the frustration that she is a Harvard and Yale educated and can’t do anything but be the First Lady to a philanderer and serve as an ornament in his administration. She, like Cyrus, will stop at nothing to make sure Fitz toes the line and holds on to that office for at least four years, eight if they can bring Fitz to heel. That bunker scene couldn’t have been more tense if it tried, as they negotiate how they are going to handle the war. When Mellie is mean she is very, very mean and she gets growly and grouchy and petulant and stomps her feet…She warns Fitz to curtail his silly fantasies otherwise she will air their dirty linens in public. Mellie is a woman on a war path who wants more for sacrifices made to get her husband into the White House but not a divorce, that can come later. She’ll be damned if she is just relegated to the ex-wife of the POTUS whilst that Silver Fox hunting party girl aka Olivia Pope takes her place in residence in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…No siree Mellie Grant will not be standing for that.

Fitz wants something he cannot have right now; Olivia as his wife and Mellie to be gone. No question he loves Liv, that much is easy to see but he needs to man up and do his job as president, so we don’t end up seeing too much of his private business. He needs to start being presidential and less sappy. His play for her to be his first lady, whilst sweet is unrealistic and for the most part idiotic. He needs to start getting shit real. For real. He is also up to something with Sally Langston, reeling her in slowly and leading her to the gallows because no President in his right mind will want to be crucified by his Veep. He must have a play or he is really as dumb as he is cute. I am choosing to believe he has cards to play but he needs to stop pining for Liv and DO HIS GODDAMN DAY JOB!

Those Goddamn Gladiators BITCHES!!! In the words of Harrison, “IT CANNOT BE LIV” and that’s exactly what they make happen, they make sure Liv is good as gold and comes out on top with this scandal by hanging a White House aide to dry and with the help of Cyrus it is all a go. BITCHES!!! But damn that’s cold. And now, they have to fix it. Her…

We saw David Rosen briefly when he comes as a friend to speak with Olivia Pope knowing she’ll make the harder decision. He just wants to warn her as a friend but he also reminds her he is the law, the law is him so he doesn’t want to see her make the hard decisions time and again, like she always does.

What does Olivia really want with herself and Fitz? I get that she loves him…that “hi” when she walks into the bunker says it all, he loves her, she loves him and they want to be together and as much as we love them together, its all so unrealistic that they think they can continue this game of hide and go seek the mistress and expect Mellie to keep standing by twiddling her thumbs and not say anything or be okay with it. Mellie is a woman scorned and she has had it up to here with Fitz and Liv’s whatever it is they are dealing with. Its hard for her behind closed doors and having her husband’s mistress fix her marriage, that’s all just too goddamn much for her to accept.

And what does Fitz want with Liv? She is not going to play along like Mellie, she is going to demand and get a sit at the big table, she won’t cut ribbons and play with toddlers, she will get in the middle and meddle with the administration and will prove him to be less adept. He hasn’t laterally thought about that has he? He wants what’s between her knees, for sure but there’s more to her than that and for some reason I am not convinced he understands that. Fully.

I want Olivia to quit it with Fitz for reasons stated above, besides he has lied to her as well, so much for love. She needs to be about her own business and not hang about like the perpetual mistress that she is, waiting on Fitz. We know how that worked out for her last time. Mm Hm. Fitz needs to hurt as much as she hurts because of how much he hurt her, get it? He needs to see her moving beyond his cute looks and head of good hair. And he NEEDS to atone for his bullshit with Mellie. There I said it.

Papa Pope is not quite done with Liv and he knows something she obviously doesn’t know about Ftiz and in the grand scheme of things he is only looking out for her, something tells me he is trying to make up for something deep dark issues that happened in the past, an issue they cannot move on from. Killing her mother perhaps? That’s if Liv’s mother is really dead because we know her Papa doesn’t curate a thing in the Smithsonian like his file says. He is up to something and whether or not Liv likes it, he is not going away. I don’t even want him to.

DAMN!! This was good.