Scandal Season 4 Episode 7 recap
Last night as I was pressing play on Scandal, Lainey discovered the Duggars. So I was already in a delighted mood and this episode of Scandal kicks it up a notch for several reasons. Mainly, it’s the best episode of Scandal in a very, very long time and you can tell because their “where are we and what’s going on” montage is to I’m Every Woman. Plus, Olivia Pope is back to actually doing things and appears to have a sense of purpose. So great for all of us!
There are the usual detractions, of course. Fitz in the Situation Room looks like he has diarrhea and an appendicitis attack at once. Cyrus is still being criminally underused and I am starting to worry about Jeff Perry’s health because why else. I gave up on Fitz long ago being a person but we still got a lot of “come over here right now” and “I’m very powerful” because that’s the only way he manages.
I do love these little fits of rage and feminism that shoot out of Mellie at inopportune times. I love that the carrot being dangled in front of her is being able to matter. As though that’s such a fantasy. The fact is that when she talks, it’s not like she’s an idiot. It’s just that Fitz needs her not to say the things that are ostensibly his to say. I was worried when they did the whole “Mellie commissions a crack team to solve an already solved crime” that she would be an idiot albatross, but I love that she’s just stuck in a situation. Like Eleanor Roosevelt.
Other good things? They’ve finally figured out Katie Lowes’ makeup so that she doesn’t look like she’s constantly been punched in the face or injecting her jaw with saline. Her lipstick was so pretty I almost wept in relief. But she used it to stomp around a campaign office and then to hand over cash in a fast-forward flashback thing. Remember when she had a plotline?
Still this week that’s reserved for Abby as only one OPA associate can have a story at the same time. At least it’s a good one. I love that they couldn’t have known when they were making this how topical it was going to be, but hashtags aren’t just for Canadians. Abby exemplifies why women don’t say something and why they don’t go to the police and it’s so nice that she gives voice to those truths while never not being a strong woman with an important job.
Also, while I don’t like dudes who just decide they want a woman and move hell or high water to “get” them, and while I’ve felt no reason to have any affection for this dude, and while he kissed Abby in a press room meant for crazy David Rosen to flame out in, I appreciate that he saw no other thing to do but to sink his own ship because his candidate beats women.
Kerry Washington is six times better in the scenes where she is bossing around people than the ones where she is emotionally involved with anyone, and I just wanted her to be with Susan Ross more because I miss that Olivia so damn much – but I do enjoy the scenes with her and her dad because no matter how hard she works she can never outdo him. So that’s what we’re left with now. She and Fitz and Jake will team up to take him down, because she’s engineered the situation, because she’s now that ruthless. I mean – sure, I’ll take that.
Additionally, Huck’s kid is adorable (and possibly played by the same kid who played him a couple of seasons ago?) but that’s not news.
