Yikes, dudes! I, for one, have been anxiously awaiting Scandal’s return, and it did not disappoint. For fans of the Thursday-night Shondaland block, it will interest you to know that tonight’s très dramatique episode was directed by Tom Verica, a.k.a. the same actor who plays Sam in How to Get Away With Murder. Anyway, let’s talk about the episode.
“Run” is all about Olivia, which is as it should be after such a long break. We pick up right where we left off, and even though we stay in only two locations, plenty happens. Let’s recap the key points.
We see Olivia’s kidnapping from her perspective
How trippy was the opening of this episode? Between the multiple perspectives and the slo-mo shots, the stakes felt very high. Also, props to the writers for building in nearly ten full minutes of Scott Foley running around in his underwear.
The Vermont + Jam situation is WAY more boring than I even ever imagined
In the middle of the episode, there is a very glossy sequence in which (now-clothed) Jake rescues Olivia, and she ends up in her fabled Vermont farmhouse with El Prez, having shower sex, making jam, and getting judged by Phantom Abby, who is STILL the only one who has any idea what’s going on in anyone’s life. Also Fantasy Liv and Fantasy Fitz have a golden retriever and horses. It is incredibly boring—but at least everybody involved knows how tedious and laughably mundane the actuality of that would be.
Ian is so clearly a plant, his last name is probably Ficus
When Liv wakes up in a dirty holding cell, with what little view she can see suggesting impossibly blue skies and Muslim prayer calls, and her cell mate just happens to be an impossibly compassionate guy—played by True Blood’s Michael McMillian—even she didn’t think she was actually kidnapped. Instead, she gets put through mental and emotional and personal hygienical torture (which is a word now), and turns out Ian Ficus was just pumping her for information all along. Surprising? Not at all. Dramatically interesting? You bet your perfectly-manicured-after-long-imprisonment ass. Can’t wait to see where this is all headed.
Best moments/thoughts:
Olivia has clearly never made contact with a toilet seat that was not her own, so it was a nice way to show the passage of time. Also, as my viewing companion astutely pointed out, “They don’t even let you have your bra wire in actual jail.”
“Do you know how to use a Dutch oven? Do you even know how to turn on a regular oven?” Also “You are the only gladiator in this place—rescue yourself.” I love so much that the voice of reason in Olivia’s head manifests itself as Abby. That makes more sense than anything on this show possibly ever.
Olivia killed 1.5 people (the .5 is the guy who could definitely still come back, horror-movie-style). Also for all the men who think they know Il Papa inside and out, Ian might have come the closest to nailing it: “You have to save everyone,” he tells her. And now he’s got “the goose that lays the golden eggs.”
What did you think of this week’s Scandal? Sound off in the comments.
