Scandal Season 7 Episode 10 Review: The People v. Olivia Pope

This Scandal review contains spoilers. 

Scandal Season 7 Episode 10

I’m glad Scandal has finally settled my inner debate. Quinn isn’t dead. Long live Quinn! Rowan has morphed into Robin’s fairy grandfather, I suspect, trying to right the wrongs he committed as Olivia’s father. Or more truthfully, it comes from a place of vengeance and wanting to settle a score with Olivia’s having taken his dinosaur bones as a temporary hostage.

I’ve difficulty believing Rowan as mister mom, and he’s certainly no Mrs. Doubtfire. I don’t want to feel manipulated, however, I do. I’ve no problem with keeping Quinn and Robin alive. My issue is with the back and forth in the flashbacks. Flashbacks ought to be used as sparingly as table salt. The Olivia Pope Agency was written to be a formidable one, yet this team didn’t or couldn’t figure out Olivia didn’t kill Quinn and her unborn child. It was troubling that before episode ten Charlie hadn’t moved earth and sky to find the truth.

Scandal isn’t a show that covers weighty topics or tips it white hat toward social or political commentary. Olivia and Jake assassinate a fictional world leader, and the worse, so far, she gets is a firm talking to at an intervention in Vermont with concerned friends. As with other television shows, or specific episodes of shows that don’t live up to my expectations, I knew Olivia would escape unscathed from rural Vermont. Did I want her to be locked in a dungeon and tortured? No. Everyone at the intervention wore kid gloves, and it felt hypocritical given the assembled team members who are guilty of similar and more terrifying acts of destruction, maiming, and murder.

President Bashir’s assassination wasn’t a huge crescendo on the show, so I don’t see why in the world of Scandal it was such a big deal. The justification for the murder felt contrary to what the show sometimes thinks or wants to stand for, female empowerment. Do girls run the world until such time as another power hungry girl disapproves of another’s natural emotional and sexual needs? I’ve said in previous reviews of President Mellie that she’s meant to be The Celibate President, which is ridiculous. Elizabeth I, according to the history books, was The Virgin Queen. Maybe someone in the Scandal writers’ room was inspired by her sacrifice and wanted to update it for modern times. It hasn’t gone well. Perhaps my male brain doesn’t fully comprehend the mixed messages.

Does everything revolve around sex and or its pursuit on Scandal? It would seem so. Fitz lured Olivia to Vermont on the promise of relaxation and rekindling a fire. Bashir is dead because he and Mellie were getting too close, and heaven forbid they actually fornicated. I’m all for lust and lovemaking, but the cost for female characters on Scandal seems to cost them too much. The only productive outcome from the intervention was Olivia getting what she wanted, a chartered plane back to D.C. No sooner had she returned, she was in bed with Jake. The OPA team members were conned.

Looking ahead to next week’s episode, Olivia appears to be on the outside looking in after everyone around her has had their fill of her. Will she escape yet another intended punishment for this season’s power thirst? We’ll have to wait and see how everyone reacts to Quinn’s resurrection and quest for vengeance.