Scandal: The Candidate Review

The final scene of the night was so reminiscent of any flashback scene where Cyrus mentors Fitz at the beginning of his race. Even more so, I felt like I was watching Matt Santos on The West Wing reciting one of his powerful, moving monologues with Josh becoming even more inspired and motivated by his words. However, in this case, Matt Santos was the governor of Pennsylvania and Josh was Cyrus (but with a touch more revenge behind his eyes than inspiration). Whatever the case, this election is charging the series, already bringing in new characters as well as showing new sides to reccurring ones.

Mellie and Olivia are still teaming up to get Mellie’s memoir perfect and make her look like presidential material. They had some great bonding moments over moonshine and Fitz talk and finally got her book ready for release. However, after some manipulating by Elizabeth North and David Rosen, it looks like the fact that Mellie is a woman, won’t be standing out as much as one would think in the presidential election.

I am not sure how many times I spoke some sort of profanity towards David’s character during this episode, but he really was a piece of work last night. Never have I seen David so easily persuaded to do something he didn’t want to do. Elizabeth North sees Vice President, Susan Ross, as her ticket into the White House and convinces David to play on her affections for him to persuade her to run. David willingly obeys (what happened to his backbone?), and even after he realizes what he did was wrong, Elizabeth has her hold on him once again and he’s a goner.

Not to reference The West Wing again, but come on? Joshua Malina’s characters tend to start off as the “good guy” and then somehow, take a turn somewhere. Well, like David said, Susan Ross is a smart and good person. So, if he knows that, then he should know not to mess with her.

Prediction! Even when (and I mean, when) Susan Ross finds out about this game David and Elizabeth are playing, she won’t just back down.

She will get even.

Out of all the strange pairings tonight, Fitz and journalist Lillian Forrester (Annabeth Gish) definitely take the cake. Her nervously admitting she has a crush on the president to his face was either endearing, or a total tactic. Knowing that this is a Shonda Rhimes show though, this character definitely has an ulterior motive.

It looks like next week we will have to hold off on knowing more about Cyrus’ new “Fitz”, but hopefully not for too long. However, it appears that not only will Olivia get a lecture from Huck about sleeping with Jake, but Fitz will give Abby one, too. I don’t think she likes the new Olivia…

Until next time!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime – Start Free Trial Now