Scandal Review: Power Corrupts

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Scandal dropped bombs and shocked my face off tonight. My eyes are still wide open and, as is often the case with this show, I'm having trouble forming a complete sentence because so many sentences are flying into my head at once.

Total. Game Changer. 

On "Nobody Likes Babies," some alliances were tested and renewed while others were broken, perhaps for good.

Olivia and Fitz on Scandal

"Nobody Likes Babies" picked up right where "Truth or Consequences" left off: in the elevator.

Just as the doors began to close, Huck squeaked in with Charlie and Hollis and saved Hollis' life. If, that is, Hollis agrees not to take the deal being offered to him by David Rosen. As long as he doesn't take the deal and rat out the others involved in election rigging, Huck will protect him. If, however, he decides to talk, Huck won't get in Charlie's way. 

Hollis is now one of the safest men alive, which seems to be how it always works out, right?

Meanwhile, Olivia wasted no time putting it together that Verna was the one who hired Becky since Verna was the one who had dropped the tip about Hollis and the burner phone. Verna's quest for power, and for protecting the power of her own legacy, cost people their lives. Killing Fitz, to her, was a way to end their dilemma.

She gambled on the fact that she would be dead before anyone discovered that she was the one who hired Becky, and she lost. But she couldn't die without clearing her conscience.

By telling Fitz what they did and why, she robbed the others of the chance to tell him and sully her name. This is a woman for whom reputation was everything. Confessing her sins to Fitz was her way of still looking out for herself above all. But she underestimated Fitz' reaction to being given such news. Because he killed her after hearing it.

Yes. 

Fitz killed Verna. The President is a murderer.

As he was walking toward the hospital door, I had a quick back and forth in my head about whether he was about to do what it seemed like he was about to do and then he did it. He just went over to the dying woman and pulled off her oxygen mask. 

Whether he did it to protect Olivia, Mellie and Cyrus, to protect himself, or because he was shot in the head, (or, most likely a combination of reasons) we'll likely know soon enough. But he did it. And I'm still shocked by it.

Now to change gears, I loved the parallel scenes in tonight's episode. The first Fitz-Olivia scene had him begging her to wait for him. Once she saw Edison again and realized that she would never have "painful, difficult, devastating, love" with him, she knew she would wait for Fitz for as long as it took. But by that point, he was crushed by what he had learned. And he used that information to crush Olivia. Their final scene together was a heartbreaking mirror of their conversation in Cyrus' office.

The Mellie-Fitz reunion was also heartbreaking, even though I don't think it was supposed to be. He's correct in that she's always shown him her true intentions. (And even though Olivia has, too, he has no way of knowing that right now.) Mellie has stood by him through his affair which, until he murdered someone, was the worst thing he could have done. While there's is a marriage of a shared interest in power and political station, I'm interested in seeing how this plays out. Will he still want a divorce in three episodes? Are they capable of real tenderness with one another?

Marriages, it seems, were key tonight.

Cyrus nearly had his own husband killed to prevent James from testifying, but in the end, he couldn't do it. He loves James more than he loves power, but his speech about how he wanted to be President was so powerful I believed Cyrus capable of having Charlie complete the job.

Cyrus: [to James] I wasn't made to be the Chief of Staff. Do you know what I was made to be? I was made to be the President of the United States. I was made to lead the nation. I was made to ensure this country's place in the world for generations to come. I would've been great at that. I have the stones. I have backbone. I have the will. I would have been a great President. But guess what, I'm fairly short, and I'm not so pretty, and I really like having sex with men, so instead of being President of this land, that I love, I get to be the guy behind the President of the United States, and sure I have power. I influence decisions. I help steer the country. But I'll never be in the history books. My name will never be on an airport or a doctrine. Being the guy behind the guy is as far as my road goes. | permalink

What this makes me hope for is a scene or an episode from the time when Cyrus first latched on to Fitz. When and where did they meet? How did they become friends? Clearly, Cyrus saw Fitz as the ticket to the power he loves.

James loves Cyrus more than he loves either their daughter or himself. Enough to perjure himself in front of the Grand Jury and derail David Rosen's case about the election rigging in Defiance. 

Poor David Rosen cannot catch a break in court. Or with Abby. Despite discovering his confession of love on the CDs, I knew she would betray David after Harrison's reminder that they are Gladiators, but I was hoping she hadn't needed to and that someone else had gotten to the card first. I guess when Abby said "over a cliff" she really meant it, despite what it seemed earlier this season.

So, TV Fanatics, what did you think of "Nobody Likes Babies?" Have you had a chance to pick your jaws up off the floor about Fitz killing Verna? 

Nobody Likes Babies Review

Editor Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
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Rating: 4.3 / 5.0 (225 Votes)

Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.

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Scandal Season 2 Episode 13 Quotes

This isn't theoretical anymore, Liv. It's real. Say you'll wait for me. We love each other. We belong together. So say it.

Fitz

Mellie: I married you for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, til death do us part. There will be no divorce, honey.
Fitz: Do not push me.