She's not a "cold, scheming bitch"; she can realize at any point that she's not in love with him, even though she could have saved them both a whole lot of misery if she had realized it a lot earlier. It's confusing—were the writers positing that she was in love with him and immediately fell out of love once he made…

I don't think the emergence of B613 reflected the emotional chaos of Olivia and Fitz's on again, off again relationship (although that's an interesting idea). I think it reflected two things: first, just how much plot the show burned through in season 2 (assassination, national election fraud, a mole, etc.)—they…

Well, it was a pretty horrible move though. And Fitz should have known that moving her in without her permission would only have pushed her away. Arguably, her decision to release Rowan and lie about it consciously or unconsciously also ensured that the relationship would fall apart. Hopefully, they both realize that…

In all fairness to Olivia, she perhaps couldn't realize that until she was in a relationship with him after he was divorced. What's slightly odd is the timing of that realization: last episode she was saying to Abby, I don't want this to be over, but I think as soon as she was inserted into that "First Lady" role, or…

The thing is, I think the writers knew it was a tired game and thought the best way to get rid of the relationship was to temporarily go all in with it and then eviscerate it. I simply don't see how they could bring them together again when we know Olivia isn't in love him; that's a major revision of the given…

Yeah, Olivia essentially saying to Fitz, your father didn't love you, "at least my father loved me" was pretty shocking, for a lot of reasons.

Yeah…this really is a problem. I'm afraid the show is going to ask the audience to forget or forgive the fact that he is responsible for the slaughter and torture of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. And it's just not happening, not for me at least. Not ever. If they wanted to make him a "flawed" character, then…

He probably meant to say if; I don't think any of the actors know where the writers are going. I don't see why Olivia would have a reason or opportunity to tell him about this; honestly, I don't even see how Olivia and Fitz can be in the same room for awhile or would care to be anywhere near each other—that fight was…

Fitz made a terrible decision and it lead to serious consequences. I think the difficult thing is, Olivia was sitting in actual prison—the definition of being stripped of all agency—because of releasing Rowan. Fitz was the one with the power to keep her in prison or release her, which created a huge power imbalance.…

1) Was the show advancing the idea that being First Lady is automatically a prison because of Fitz specifically and his choice to deny Olivia's agency and move her into the White House or because the show believes that's what the role really is? I mean, for awhile now, the show has been suggesting that being First…

I think it's done. All of their break ups had been one-sided before; this time they mutually arrived at the conclusion that they didn't work. Also, Olivia realized she wasn't in love with him.

To be clear, I wasn't equating their decisions: Olivia's choice to get an abortion was her choice to make without Fitz's input and felt like the right thing that she needed to do. Fitz, conversely, made a decision that he had no right to make and should have only been made with Olivia's input.

Arguably, the romance lost all hope once two people as emotionally damaged as Olivia and Fitz tried to be in a relationship without having any conversation about how to structure it or any discussion of what they each wanted. Instead of conversation, one partner decided to avoid marriage by releasing a mass murderer…

I hope the show is willing to consider Fitz's depression, the (almost?) alcoholism that extends from it, and his suicide attempt a bit more seriously than it has. I always thought the decision to make the "most powerful man in the world" always so close to just spiraling emotionally out of control into darkness and…

Yes…I mean we still disagree on the decisions itself. I think moving her into the WH denied her agency in an important choice and was wrong. I think it was at best paternalistic which is still problematic and will have consequences for her that it simply will not have for him. It would be horrible for her to take on a…

I think you are making a really persuasive argument. I guess I'd just say I wonder if she could say no in that moment though? I mean he makes an intimate relationship decision for her that occurs in a weird context because 1) she's in jail which means she already has no agency and 2) she knows that she has just done…

Sorry to jump in, but neither Olivia nor Fitz had the right to make the decisions they both made. There's justification and there's context and his decision occurred within the weird context of what was already a disturbing power imbalance: Olivia was sitting in jail, stripped of her agency after having mis-asserted…

The thing is, I still don't feel like Fitz made the right decision here because he denied her agency in an important relationship decision. I'm just not sure that there was a "right" thing for him to do and I weigh the context in which he made the decision (that she was sitting in jail and had done something so…

"She can actually start a dialogue with Fitz instead of just meekly accepting it"

Hm, you raise some really good points here especially about those scenes in which Olivia has indicated she'd want to be First Lady. I think even with those scenes, though, any time Olivia was given the opportunity to actually go through with it (end of season 1, end of season 2), she backed out. I agree the idea of…