Dear Shonda Rhimes,
Thank you for being alive.
Sincerely,
Marla “Shonda Rhimes is some kind of writing goddess sent from the heavens” Pachter
Of all my premieres this TV season, Scandal is the one I was most anticipating. And it did NOT disappoint.
My, oh my.
The last three seconds of last season left us with two shocking revelations: 1) The head of the crazy special ops killer spy CIA division is actually Olivia’s father (Joe Morton), and 2) Someone leaked Olivia’s (Kerry Washington) name to the press.
A lot of this episode is a blur because for maybe the first time in the series, our woman who wears the White Hat was a little out of control. She didn’t know what was going on or who she could trust or what she could do.
But it all came together when Olivia called the President (Tony Goldwyn) and the First Lady (Bellamy Young) into a special secret, safe concrete room and the most deliciously tense and well-written scene played out to perfection. If I could give an award for best performance in a concrete room ever, I would give it to all three of them.
The three of them came up with a plan to tell the truth to the media. Kind of. Not really. But it turns out Mellie went behind the backs of Fitz and Olivia and worked with our favorite team of gladiators in suits to frame an innocent young White House adviser named Jeannine Locke for sleeping with the President. It was quite heartwarming, actually.
But of course, Olivia wears the White Hat. So she took on Jeannine (Samantha Sloyan) as a client.
It’s hard to put into words, and especially into a summary how well done this show is. The pacing and tension and twists – it might be the best TV drama ever written. After an excellent first episode, I’m excited to see where this season will take us.
Will Quinn (Katie Lowes) become a ruthless killer, how will that affect Huck (Guillermo Díaz), will Abby (Darby Stanchfield) and David (Joshua Malina) ever work it out for the love of God please? How will Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) be affected by his time in the box? Things we just got a slight taste of this episode. I’m completely confident that all of this stuff will unfold in a way I never would have expected.
And I can’t effing wait.
