I may need to lie down. The season finale of “Scandal” was so packed with ups and downs and twists and turns I may be a little sick to my stomach. Some story lines were tied up with a neat little bow, while others were clearly left in a big, knotted mess for next season. Of course, spoilers galore. I’m just hoping I can keep track of them all.
Olivia and the gladiators (someone needs to create a retro doo-wop band with that title) spend a considerable amount of time trying to unravel the whole Cytron card mess. In short, they discover what we already knew (David Rosen!) plus some. While David seems to be an evil little snitch initially, and apparently has somewhere else to be while the gladiators close in on his nefarious doings, we soon learn that this terrible plot is actually happiness and light at the end of the day. David wasn’t a “bad” guy (I use quotations, because logically it would not be a bad thing for him to seek revenge on Olivia and her gang for all the crappy things they did to him), he was a gladiator, too.
Even though he managed to get a full confession out of Billy Chambers for killing Wendy and Molly and “the CIA guy” (Chambers is so murder-y, he can barely keep track of them all!), it was all part of his plan. I guess Quinn didn’t need to jam a drill into Chambers after all, because David had never given him the Cytron card in the first place. Instead, he taped his confession, hands the card over to Cyrus (who had already had to listen to Hollis demand he get the “bang bang, boohoo, bye-bye” treatment) and asks for one little thing in exchange. Next thing you know, Fitz is naming David to be the District Attorney for Washington D.C. I’ll be sad not to see him hanging around Olivia’s office like a grumpy college student or recently divorced guy, but I’m sure he’ll be more fun in an actual position of power.
Sidebar: Just wondering if anyone’s going to do something to Governor Restin. Sure, he didn’t play a major role in the scheme to blackmail Fitz, but I’m thinking someone’s going to give him a rap on the knuckles.
Still, I have to say I didn’t disagree with “bad” David. Olivia and her people had ruined his life and essentially revved up the car, run over him, backed up, then run over him again. I think it’s probably a good thing that the season is ending now, because I’ll have time to think about how screwed up it is to root for a president that kills people, his mistress who looks the other way when people are tortured and helped to fix an election, and her devoted minions who do all sorts of nefarious things in the belief that they’re on the right side. I mean, it makes you not want to vote, ever.
At first, we think that Defiance is now done, done, done, and all the President needs to do is run again, dump Mellie, and marry Olivia. Easy peasy! Yeah, someone tries to kill Oliviaand stuff, so that makes you think it may not be so easy. Jake comes to her rescue, because he’s just That Guy, and he informs her that he’s just a B-613 minion who slept with her because he had to, so there. Olivia knows he’s going to die for saving her life, and she wants to help. No, no! There’s no helping a B-613 guy! Poor Jake must simply walk away, knowing he’s saved the pretty girl he can never have. It’s very sad, at least until we see he isn’t killed and is instead just dumped in that horrible hole Huck was one stuck into. I’m a little sad for the girl Jake killed, but I guess we’re not supposed to talk about that.
One thing that I think all of us saw coming weeks ago and were just wondering why it hadn’t happened yet (and you can almost never say that about this show) is that Cyrus had a heart attack. It was a relief to see nothing can kill this guy, though I thought Olivia just might do it when she calmly explained to him that she and Fitz are going to get married and tra-la-la into the sunset. “What, you thought the black ops guys were firing heart shaped bullets?” he screeches. When her response to Cyrus is that he’s being dramatic, he hits his sputtering, apoplectic high points. “Romeo and Juliette were teenagers and they died!”
And so, Cyrus played his last cards. With Olivia, he told her about Fitz murdering the judge. He shows Fitz the sex tape.
Unsurprisingly, the bigger problem is murder. I mean, Olivia and Fitz were on a break. This isn’t “Friends,” people.
Not that Olitz has a big, ugly scene. Olivia wants Fitz to run again with Mellie. He got a do-over thanks to David, so he should take it! She has to be responsible to her gladiators, and she’s realizing she’s pushed them too far to turn her back on them now.
It seems we’re back to normal (as much as this show has a normal) in that Fitz is going to run again with Mellie by his side, Olivia is going to quietly pine and wear her nice white hat (thanks, David), and people will continue to drag dead bodies and other smelly things into her office like a herd of cats. But then, the twist!
The Big Bad who’s been ordering Jake around is waiting for Olivia outside her apartment, along with a wall of reporters who all know she’s Fitz’s mistress. Olivia looks at him and says the one word we don’t expect: “Dad?”
Of course, I’m now wondering who ordered the hit on Olivia. But then, it’s always good for an episode to end on a cliffhanger.
Do you think we’ve seen the last of Jake? What did you think of Olivia’ dad? Do you think Olitz is on the fritz?