Mellie wouldn't have had the power to do that as a junior senator though. Olivia had a flashback last week about Mellie's ability to forge Fitz's signature and so it seems that is what they did. It just doesn't make sense because a presidential pardon would have been national news. Also, if that's what really…

I know that when one character “reads” another on this show, it’s tempting to think that everything the speaker says is right, but in spite of the fact that Olivia’s decision to release her father is most likely the worst decision she has ever made (and that says a lot), Jake’s monologue wasn’t *entirely* accurate. It…

Rowan is a mass murderer, a child killer, a verbally abusive father, and a megalomaniac. I'm not seeing how Olivia—or anyone else on the show—surpasses his brand of destruction.

So you believe that Olivia is truly as "evil" as Rowan, and, possibly more so, because she doesn't admit to it? Why?

Oh Good. I needed an excuse to accidentally have the German disco song "Ra-Ra-Rasputin" stuck in my head and it looks as if Scandal will provide it. https://www.youtube.com/wat…

"…not accepting her own evil, makes her More evil than if she did. That's the only true difference between her and her father"

"I've never seen writing where a LEAD actress is so maligned "
YES. It's amazing to me how they write so many monologues that give us access to Mellie's POV and people buy into what she is saying, even if a lot of what she is saying does not reflect reality and is biased by her own perception (Fitz made all of her…

I don't think Vermont was ever meant to be a real thing—it was a fantasy space. The character continuity problems are just out of control. Olivia spent an entire season trying to put away her mass murderer father and now wants to release him from prison because it would give her "freedom"? And this "freedom" requires…

So, did Mellie definitely forge Fitz's signature and that's what Olivia's plan was? I was confused on this point even though I understood the flashback. Are they really saying that the media that had just reported on Eli Pope in part of their expose of Olivia wouldn't notice that he had been mysteriously released from…

A few weeks ago, I was baffled to see the writers choose to have Olivia throw her reputation under the bus for no good reason, and after this episode, I'm left again questioning how the writers on this show write for their lead character. This time, Olivia's decision to have Rowan released from prison is just awful…

Perhaps—in accordance with Scandal's ever subtle use of symbolism—each character will suddenly don a red hat that accurately reflects either the amount of blood he or she has directly or indirectly shed, or the amount of character continuity and development the writers killed when they threw them under the bus for the…

What's strange is that while slitting a woman's throat, torturing people, killing a supreme court justice, murdering total innocents like James and those journalists, rigging a presidential election, slaughtering a bus load of jurors, stabbing your husband to death, etc. apparently does not cross a line on this show,…

I agree that the proposal speech was odd precisely because I have no idea why Fitz would think Olivia wanted any of that. I did appreciate that the writers at least were trying to use all those cliched elements (rose petals, candles, etc.) to point out the difference between fantasy and reality and continue to use the…

By "took everything" I thought Fitz meant, essentially, the loss of having a fabricated, politically expedient marriage to Olivia instead of any chance at a real one. Admittedly, that's a terrible thing to complain to your ex-wife about, but what he was saying to Mellie was if you hadn't voted to pursue the…

The strongest OPA cases usually connect into something "political" or the strongest episodes tend to have the OPA case or Olivia dovetailing with some other dynamic at the White House and the political world (the way it did throughout season 2). I agree it's not exactly a political thriller, but it is a melodrama…

I just mean (if I'm remembering correctly) directly say to someone else that she had PTSD even though we could see she did across last season. But the larger point is it's refreshing to hear her character's point of view articulated or represented in different ways than it often has been.

So true. And so frustrating. I think last week's episode was also the first time we even heard her acknowledge her PTSD aloud.

Of course it's an impeachable offense; it's murder. However, the Scandal writers put themselves (or rather Fitz) into a corner—if he does the right thing about Defiance when he finds out about it, the show ends in season 2 because four of its main characters (Olivia, Fitz, Mellie, and Cyrus) would be in prison. So,…

I hope they don't just burn through the impeachment plotline. If they do, it would mean they're rushing to get away from politics and are wanting to return to plotlines about the spy agency that shall not be named.

There were three monologues this episode (Olivia; Cyrus/Fitz) and remarkably none of them hurt my ears by resorting to Scandal cadence (you DON'T. take. command. Because you CAN'T. TAKE. command.). Instead, they were beautifully acted, were character driven, and kind of made sense as human thought.