Scandal is back, its back, its back, its baaaaaack!! It felt like forever didn’t it? I thought this day would never come. Goddamn summer breaks and all.
After last season’s messy finale I didn’t know what to expect this season coming, lets be honest, last season was very much, up-down-side-to-side-wtf-is-going-on… for the most part and Olivia was off her game. I didn’t know if the Olivia coming back to me was the same old simpering lip, whimpering woman who got on a plane, very nearly broken and in need of a time out. She was not a gladiator, she was not even a bitch, she was…weak and damaged goods with a messy trail behind her. She needed to get away.
Season 4 opens and we know where Olivia has been, off the grid, near the coast of Zanzibar, luxuriating with Jake. Olivia Pope with her hair all the way down and curled right. On a beach, in a bikini? Yup that’s where we started and it was as good a place as any…
Taking it from the top;
The characters;
Olivia is back in town, Harrison is dead, Quinn is still alive and not as annoying this time round but it is very early days. Abby is the new Liv Lite of the White House with really good hair and gorgeous coats, and Huck is a technician at the genius counter at a tech store. Not even Apple. Oh Huckleberry. Fitz is being tyrannical President Assertive whist trying to move on from the death of his son. Mellie is a shadow of herself mourning their loss, Cyrus still has evil brewing beneath the surface and Jake is going to be the Quinn of this season, he wants for something he cannot have and he is whinny about it. A new face, Portia Di Rossi, RNC chairman, whom Cyrus so fondly calls Lizzie Bear. She’s the new Hollis I think, with hair just as funky…I miss Hollis, there was none as evil as him. I don’t know Portia’s slant but from her lines it reads like she is bringing something wicked and coming this way. Oh Papa Pope is being the devil he is and I LOVE IT.
The story;
Liv is back and no one is thrilled about it. She hopped on a plane and abandoned OPA left it to her father who from the looks of things served them the pink slip the minute Liv jetted off into sunset because nothing is as she left it. The furnitures have dust covers on them and there is no sign that anything ever moved forward from the moment she left. Papa got rid of Harrison along with his pal Adnan, and threw the others out to fend for themselves. Now that Harrison is dead, Liv is back to say goodbye and maybe close the door on the life she once knew…not so fast there girl.
Things happen that takes Liv back to the person she used to be, Olivia Pope; a senator has killed another senator and she is called in to fix it. White Hat back on, even though she stands alone, for the minute, albeit with Quinn at her side, she handles the case and channels it into a conversation regarding the equal pay act… that’s our girl. But all roads still lead to Fitz who is trying to pass the Equal Pay Act.
What would Harrison say?
“Are we gladiators or are we bitches?”
Olivia Carolyn Pope is nobody’s bitch, she doesn’t run and hide, she stands to fight. And at the end it is Quinn and Huck who are by her side.
Liv-Fitz-Jake;
I am not on board with this love triangle, neither am I rooting for any two to come out on top. I am beyond done with Fitz and Liv, she’s a mess, he’s a married man and a cheat, which makes him weak. And for once I’d like him to focus on being the President, not getting between the magical thighs of his mistress. Fitz weakens Liv and makes a mockery of her with every line that come out of his slick tongue. Has been doing so from season one. Together they bore me and make me mad in equal measure. They finally came face to face in this episode and without even making contact, but a secret touch, should we call it, even if there was none, as they walk beside each other, their chemistry is intoxicating…still, I am done. Jake is the guy who is genetically predisposed to be the friend. Its not you its me, is his relationship tag line…he’s nice and needy and Liv does not need, needy.
Mellie and Fitz;
I hope they make it. They need to make it. Mellie needs a break… she needs her husband back, not Olivia making a mess in their midst. Mellie needs to be happy so I hope they make it. But even she knows, at the back of her mind, with Liv back in town, their chance at ever being happy is next to none. Even if he keeps his word and doesn’t see her, she’ll always be there.Bellamy Young takes this episode for me, because she comes apart at the seams, mourning her son, and then Fitz informs her that Liv is back. That look on her face says it all, its the dark cloud setting on their situation again… I love Mellie, she emerges heaps and bounds as a character on this show. She’s uptight, troublesome, emotional and real. And that moment between her and Fitz on the balcony is as good as they come. Its the moment of truth that reminds her that her of the facade that is her life.
One more thing…
Harrison is buried in a closed casket… is that Shonda messing with our minds or am I reading too much into this?
This was about the gladiators, their frigid relations does little to hide the bond they share, and its about finding their way home to each other. Let’s be Gladiator people, not bitches.