Hmm, fair, I forgot about 90s TV (it was so long ago and my memory is shit). Don't know who Olivia Benson is.
Also Ally had weird fantasies, I don't remember her being that damaged, but again, memory not to be trusted. I'll take your point, but I still think was a brave move.

I like Jake also, but mostly that's because I don't buy him as a cold blooded murderer. He's too nice of a guy

Really? You expect a kid who just walked in on her mother screwing another guy to understand "nuance" or context?

I have to say that I think that Shonda does a great job of representing the complexity of modern professional women, though I don't appreciate her tendency to let "love" override all else. Also Meredith Grey is pretty much unrecognisable from the early seasons. And before Grey's I don't know that I'd seen a main…

Yeah, I think that's the difference. Season 1 Mellie was a different person to season 3 Mellie, and I am definitely basing my assessment on the current (in my eyes more realistic) Mellie. Season 1 Mellie was c-r-a-z-y. I think that Fitz still sees her as she was in season 1, which is why the views of him get more and…

Although now that I think about it some more, I could excuse it once or twice, but by now they really should have wised up. It is disappointing to see that two women (characters) who I saw as strong are again revealed to be really weak and willing to give everything up for the love of a man. Even if I understand it, I…

I think you both have valid points. It was obviously an incredibly difficult position for Mellie to be in and one cannot blame the victim. On the other hand, you can't expect partners to read minds and both sides needed to make an effort. But I don't see this as the main fault line in their relationship.

Yeah, I agree. I generally love his speeches - the one two episodes ago sounded Shakespearean to me - but being that intense week after week kind of loses its impact.
It was kind of interesting to see where Olivia took her father's speech to though, and made me reconsider what it was that he actually intended

did anyone else think it was strange that Jake needed information from Olivia Pope to find out that those 4 were involved? Wasn't the NSA tapping everyone's phones? Surely that info would go directly to B6-13?

agreed! I loved Jake standing up to Cyrus. It seemed for a minute that he would be just overwhelmed by the insanity of Cyrus' end-of-the-world/republic scenario and say nothing, I was so impressed with him for putting Cyrus in his place which I don't think anyone has done the entire series.
Mellie as Sally was…

I agree that the character is often irritating but I actually think she's a very funny actress. I find all her ridiculous crying scenes hilarious and I don't think that's so easy to pull off

Agreed on both points @avclub-9d1942432324ea09962de3755c15a28e:disqus . And while I definitely didn't agree with last week's review, I think this one hit a few problems on the head. I thought after Mellie's speech that Fitz was about to act like a human being and realise what a complete arsehole he was being, but his…

I cannot agree with this review at all. I thought this episode was amazing! There's a great line from Buffy (D'Hoffryn) "never go for the kill when you can go for the pain" - and this episode was all about pain. It milked every character's emotional pain in every scene (metaphorical pain is so much better than actual…