Scandal Season 5 Episode 7 Review: Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance

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Rowan Pope might be in the wind for now, but that won't last for long. On Scandal Season 5 Episode 7, Fitz put Jake Ballard on the case. Whether that was Fitz' idea alone or whether Jake reached out to his one-time buddy to "help" remains to be seen.

One thing's for sure, though. Someone on this series is about to go down. The bigger they are, right?

It had never occurred to me until tonight that Olivia is Rowan's greatest achievement. Their similarities and abilities to make calls which often wind up leaving behind collateral damage have long been noted, but the idea that Olivia is Rowan's unwitting protege didn't strike my mind until tonight. 

Jake wasn't wrong when he made that statement. Olivia is her father's child in more ways than one. Rowan and Olivia both love power. They both love being the person behind the person in charge. 

Neither of them are comfortable unless they're in positions of power, but they don't want to be front and center in that power. They prefer to be the string-pullers behind the scenes. They're shot callers, and as such well-insulated from the fallout of their choices. That cannot last indefinitely and it's likely that Olivia will be the one to pay. 

News broke that Rowan is out of prison and Fitz doesn't suspect Olivia. Everyone else does, but not him. He thinks magic stopped the impeachment proceedings because he's not intelligent enough to piece it all together.

Seriously, Fitz. How else does he think this happened? Rowan walked out the front door of his prison and stopped the impeachment proceedings out of the goodness of his heart? To protect the daughter who had him locked away in the first place? 

This is a man who killed a teenager so he could regain his place of power. He's not a man who cares whether his daughter's career is ruined. He knows he's given her the tools to rebuild, to rise back up out of the ashes. And if not at least she has, hopefully, invested well and she can just jet off to a remote location to live out the rest of her natural born days.

There is no way this chicken doesn't come home to roost and cost Olivia dearly. There's no way that her ascension to the throne at the end of tonight's episode won't end poorly. 

Does Olivia even know she's leading the country? I mean, yes, Cyrus told her she was. She has to realize this, right? Please say yes. Please say that moment where Olivia sipped the bourbon was the one where she just accepted the power, decided to run with it, and will do a great job until she gets caught for breaking a murderer out of jail. THAT is why she loves Fitz.

She loves Fitz as a man, sure. But she loves him as a man of power too. In that regard, she's not much different than Cyrus.

Ugh. What frustrates me about that is that Olivia is standing in someone else's power instead of her own. When she saves her clients, she's in her own power. When she runs the country, she's in Fitz's orbit. It makes me feel weird and I don't like it. 

I liked watching her work for her client tonight, and Scandal really needs to get back to cases inside the offices of OPA. We need a break from the Rowan Pope/White House drama for a change. Too bad the previews for Scandal Season 5 Episode 8 don't seem to indicate we're going to get that break any time soon. Hmph.

As a break from all that drama, the Scandal writers gave us a weird triangle between David Rosen, Liz North, and...Susan Ross. 

David Rosen is about to find himself caught between the Vice President and her Chief of Staff. After swapping barbs about how much they dislike each other, David and Liz took it to the sofa in his office to work out their difference. Meanwhile, Susan Ross is waiting in his lobby with wine coolers.

Aside from Fitz and Olivia, David Rosen might get more action than anyone else on this show. You go, Joshua Malina! 

Liz is back in the White House after a threat to go on Sally's show. I care, but I don't. They had to find a way to resolve her firing because there was no way a woman as tenacious as Liz North would just get fired as White House Chief of Staff and go home and do nothing with the rest of her life. She wanted power so she found a way to get it. 

Power was the running theme throughout tonight's episode. Who has it? Who's taking it and from whom? But as the old saying goes, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. The characters on Scandal are lined up like dominos. The only question is who's falling first?

What did you think of "Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance"? How did Fitz not figure out that Olivia had something to do with Rowan's escape? Will Jake manage to kill Rowan if he finds him? Sound off below and don't forget to watch Scandal online!

Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance Review

Editor Rating: 3.8 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 3.8 / 5.0 (39 Votes)

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

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Scandal Season 5 Episode 7 Quotes

How does someone as brilliant, as accomplished as you, not know what you are, who you are?

Jake [to Olivia]

To Congress! May their heads one day depart from their asses!

Fitz