The writer, Kenya Barrie, is brilliant with subtlety. every detail about the show usually serves some purpose in presenting a message. I wonder if he used Chris intentionally (either for Chris' sake or for the audience). But, I don't know. It will be interesting to see what he says.

Nope. All I know is the rapper from the 90s named Coolio but I don't know how that connects to Eli.

Wasn't Jake Mellie's VP?

I think you nailed the problem.

I didn't get the Coolio thing. The fact that she said it more than once was really odd. The Beyoncé reference felt like poor writing, but it may lead to a racial undertone later. That Beyoncé song/album is thought to be heavily about the black experience so it probably was chosen for a reason. Also, Eli's line "you…

Sorry for that extra long comment.

She's not technically a villain at all. None of the characters on Scandal are good people IMO (that I can think off the top of my head) except Susan and David Rosen and even David has let some illegal stuff go IIRC.

They all had jobs before. She didn't need Fitz to make social change. She could have done that by going to practice law for The ACLU or any other non-profit legal foundation. She wanted the political power. They all think they're doing it for some greater good. Even Eli thinks that.

The rape was horrific. Where Mellie becomes unlikable is when it became obvious that she hid the rape and tolerated the cheating because she was desparate for power. IIRC, she only married Fitz because of his political potential but Fitz didn't know that. Mellie was a desparate for power as the rest of them, with the…

I'm not hate watching it. But, I'm not invested in any of this. I don't care about any of the characters including the lead. It's becoming one of those shows I watch because there's nothing else on. Maybe that's worse than hate watching.

This storyline would make more sense if they hadn't made Eli out to be some all powerful person with resources even the President couldn't match (maybe not literally). What happened to his B613 resources? The scene several seasons ago where Olivia tried to set him up and the next thing you know B613 guys have everyone…

Toby would have been getting disability. Wasn't Kate Kevin's manager or something where she would have gotten a percentage of his income? Miguel and Rebecca seem to be well off. This is kind of a suspend reality type of show. I don't think it's essential for them to get bogged down in real life details about their…

We know that from this episode. I like Jack but I also wouldn't mind if next season focused more on Rebecca and Miguel, and I'm sure that will evolve over next season. Regardless, my point was really that they could have shown Jack's death. He still would have been part of next season since Kate's issues clearly…

not all of us read all the interviews. The cast has also had appearances talking about Jack's death recently. And the commercials for this episode all insinuated that there would be a drunk driving scene which makes it perfectly logical for people to think Jack was going to get into an accident. It was done that…

It wasn't really a worry. You can't miss that the show operates on flashbacks but there's never a guarantee that they will continue every storyline. For all we know William will have 20 minutes of screen time the entire next season.

They have been advertising it as if Jack's death was going to be revealed in the finale so people were expecting it. It's not so far off to expect to find out about the death of a deceased character.

This is the first episode of This is Us that left me disappointed. But, I actually would have liked it if they hadn't hyped it up as revealing Jack's death. The only upside is that Jack will be in season 2. But, they need to stop overselling this show. I like the sentimentality. I like the love story. Just let it be…

I don't understand the scene where Atwood confesses to the DA that she forged Nate's signature and had Wes' body moved (she didn't say it explicitly but that's what was implied) and he acts surprised and upset. Atwood did hate AK. But the finale made it look like the DA was behind everything and Atwood was his…

Me too. She was especially rude and unfair to Meggie. Laurel assumes she knows everyone in Wes' life as if he couldn't have had an acquaintance from another class or outside of law school who would attend his memorial. Laurel is just obnoxious now.

Good point. Hopefully, they will touch on her mental health next season. But, I think the finale should have touched on how out of control she was. No one knows about most of that stuff from previous seasons except for AK. The other students haven't said anything about how over the top her behavior has been. There's…