This week’s episode of Scandal, “Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance,” opens with Fitz addressing the country and his family in a press conference where he shows some remorse regarding his cheating ways. His mea culpa is a hit and puts the final nail in the coffin of the impeachment. Also, once again, we are reminded that the man is indestructible.
Following Fitz’s words, the White House staff members toast the end of the hearings. Olivia is present at the celebration, and naturally, she moves with caution since she’s uncertain regarding where she stands with the president, since just last week she had someone return his engagement ring for her and reject his proposal. However, Fitz seems to harbor no resentment towards Liv; in other words, Olitz is still very on. The reconciliation bliss is short-lived, though, as Abby interrupts the couple to break the news that Daddy Dearest and his sidekick are in the wind. Olivia, fast on her feet, plays dumb, and does an eerily believable job at that. Abby doesn’t buy it, though. It’s thrilling to know that Liv’s lies and the role she played in releasing her father will eventually haunt her, but for the moment, Fitz gets to play the knight.
Later on, Jake is waiting for Liv inside her apartment. It’s not pretty. Ballard rightfully calls Olivia out for her part in freeing Rowan, who is nothing short of a psychopath. He also blames her for Elise’s demise. Olivia takes every verbal punch her ex throws at her silently. Then kicks him out. To add knots to the already tangled bond the two share, Jake lightly pecks her lips before exiting the premises. It was bittersweet to watch. That said, Jake needs a sidekick.
After what seems like forever, OPA has a new client; however, Liv doesn’t properly savor the moment since before she gets to meet the face of this week’s Scandal case, she is intercepted by her team. Quinn is disappointed that Rowan got his wish, while Huck fears B613 might have a comeback. Though the show’s heroine makes a decent attempt to calm everyone, the truth is that she can’t promise her father won’t resume being the monster he is. She made a mistake by facilitating his release, and she knows it. Additionally, she is the one half of Olitz that seems to be paying a price.
Cut to the case of the week: the client is Hannah, a rape survivor, who confides to Liv that the perpetrator of her abuse is none other than Frank Holland, a famed Nobel Prize winner who just happens to have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the POTUS. The storyline, of course, echoes the Bill Cosby scandal, which I must say, was a brave endeavor for Scandal to take on. However, given the nature of the series and the many other moving pieces at play in the installment, the arc falls a little short.
To begin with, Fitz, who is already one of the most difficult Scandal characters to love on (even next to murderers like Charlie), shows initial skepticism when he hears from Liv that he might have shook a rapist’s hand. I get it: Holland is actually praised for fighting for women, BUT considering that his own father raped Mellie, has the POTUS not learned a thing? Has he not gotten more educated? Does he believe that only CERTAIN men are capable of rape? Where was his indignation? This was exactly the kind of storyline where Fitz could have redeemed himself, but instead, he dug his hole deeper. A sad missed opportunity.
Olivia does believe Hannah and cannot stomach giving up, so she and Quinn confront Holland; however, he disregards the accusations and muddies the girl’s character by revealing she plagiarized an essay for his class. Fully aware that taking him down would be an uphill battle, Liv has Quinn and Marcus looking for other victims. As a result, the Gladiators gather several women whose accounts are awfully alike. Holland at first operated as their mentor, and then drugged and sexually assaulted them.
The OPA team also figures out that Holland uses his wife’s Oxy to subdue his preys, which makes everything even creepier. What is worse, Mrs. Holland defends her depraved husband and justifies his sick, criminal behavior by saying his legacy is too important; she implies that a few sacrificial lambs are no biggie, and Olivia is revolted. That scene hit all the right notes, yet the problem is that because of the time given to the case, the audience is not attached to Holland, and the so-called fight the man helped woman with is diffused. Moreover, we don’t even know much about Hannah, let alone the other victims, but we want to defend them; we want justice for them by principle. So does Olivia.
Meanwhile, at the Oval, Fitz has put a hit on Rowan, Not knowing that his ex wife and current squeeze were the people who freed him. Moreover, the hit man is his paramour’s former boyfriend and occasional Gladiator. It’s an interesting web, one that viewers can’t help to be drawn towards.
In parallel, Abby meets Liz, who discloses that she has been offered to do an interview with Sally. The threat is obvious: Liz can expose secrets. Having leverage, she asks for a new White House job. Cyrus vetoes the idea, therefore David intervenes and confronts the former chief of staff about disclosing “classified” information; however Liz does not budge. Do they not have their employees signing NDAs at the White House? Impossible to buy, Scandal.
Liz does partake in the interview, where she praises Fitz. Of course, following Liv’s advice instead of Cyrus’s, the POTUS re-employs the woman, who is now Susan’s right hand. Let’s face it: to pair Liz with Susan is the equivalent of seasoning caramel ice cream with garlic salt; it’s a combination that simply won’t hold, which probably means there will be tons of drama and comedy ahead.
Given the new developments, David calls out Liz for playing dirty, and she makes him admit that he likes her. Soon enough a new workplace fling is born. At the same time, Susan, who seems to have a crush on David, waits for him, wine coolers in hand.
With the episode almost over, it’s time to take down Holland. While the man is on a stage performing a reading in front of a crowd, the women he so shamelessly abused walk into the auditorium, get on stage, and share the horrific episodes Holland wrote into their lives. The number of survivors, all in the same place, causes a similar effect that the New York Magazine cover did; there is just too many of them, they stand strong and brave, and they are undeniable. Media outlets cover Olivia’s piece of art, and the public opinion condemns the monster. End of case. Again, it works, and the imagery is strong, but the case is not as layered as it could have been.
Back at the White House, Cyrus, who is not willing to make nice with Liv, accuses her of being the real POTUS. Olivia acts as if the remark doesn’t affect her; however, right afterwards, she sips whiskey while Fitz lists assorted problems he’s dealing with before saying that he believes Rowan is gone for good. That line fuels Liv, who soon begins to describe how to fix every issue the POTUS had previously mentioned.
This week’s Scandal was a very charged episode; sadly, it had too many things going on at once. I admit that, at times, “Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance” balanced the different arcs well, but ultimately, there were fast-paced, emotionally ineffective resolutions. It keeps getting harder to invest, as a viewer, in the cases of the week, because they don’t get the time and depth needed to be fully fleshed out. Especially in this instance, given the case, I wish Scandal had threaded lightly. That said, except for Rowan roaming about, there seem to be no stakes. Liz giving an interview after killing a possible impeachment is not a credible threat.
Back to the case, it opens and closes very fast, and with little interference, which takes away most of the gravitas of the topic addressed and the story that inspired it. Holland is not Cosby; he’s awarded but he’s an intellectual, not a popular person that people feel they know because once a week, for years, they chose to make him part of their family rituals. Still though, I believe Scandal had its heart on the right place. The episode and the show do hammer home the point that public opinion usually acts as a sentence that can either help a president or destroy a famed writer. That is no small accomplishment.
[Photo credit: Eric McCandless/ABC]
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