Last night Kerry Washington took to Twitter to let the world know that this episode of Scandal was written by a black lady (Raamla Mohamed), and directed by another black lady (Debbie Allen). It’s a great answer to the ongoing questions about diversity on screen and offscreen in media and entertainment. Where are all the black ladies? Well, last night, some of them were handling another strong episode of Shonda Rhimes’s show.
If you enjoyed last week’s “Run” as much as I did, you may have gone into this episode feeling a little apprehensive. Would the momentum keep up, or would we be disappointed after such a wonderfully strange winter premiere? For the first 20 minutes or so, as we re-entered the White House and the offices of Olivia Pope & Associates, I’ll admit that I missed the darkness and mystery of “Run.” It was a necessary opening though, as it confirmed what many viewers suspected—that the Vice President Andrew Nichols (along with RNC head Elizabeth North) was responsible for Olivia’s kidnapping. Fitz is basically told to play nice, and not reveal any of this to anyone—and we watch as he grows increasingly paranoid. He really can’t trust anyone, and he can’t even speak freely to the few people he does still trust. As a result, he has to pretend to whisper sweet nothings in Mellie’s ear, as he tells her, “In 24 hours, I’m going to kill Olivia Pope.” He means, of course, that he doesn’t think he should go to war to save her. But Mellie knows Fitz, and she knows she, essentially, needs to give him permission to declare war on West Angola, so that he can have the love of his life back.
These kinds of scenes are the ones we used to love seeing on Scandal. Mellie is such an odd, incredible First Lady and wife. Even if her intentions are sometimes selfish, she always wants what’s best for Fitz—whatever is going to make him function at his highest level. That Olivia Pope, his lover, is one of those things rarely matters to Mellie. So she does the right thing, and urges Fitz to do whatever it takes to get Olivia back. And when Elizabeth comes to her after being tortured by Huck, Mellie takes her involvement a step further.
But first, let’s discuss the return of HUCK. Scandal is a show that plays on your perceptions of good and evil, and everyone loves how Guillermo Diaz plays this character—he can be so bad, and because we love him, it’s always so good! So I confess that it gave me great pleasure to see him sitting in Elizabeth’s daughter’s bed, whispering over her, and threatening to kill her. Huck loves Liv! You don’t screw with Liv! Now, I’m glad he didn’t hurt the daughter, and I was sick looking at Elizabeth’s back, but… well, it worked.