Scandal Season 5 Episode 9 Review: Baby, It's Cold Outside
Miranda Wicker
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Show of hands, how many of y'all thought Olivia Pope got a call from Jake and told him to come on up at the end of Scandal Season 5 Episode 9?
Yeah, I know at least a few people probably did. (I did. And I was sitting here on my couch all WTF about it.)
But no. Nope. Olivia Pope FINALLY decided to replace the couch in her apartment. That's right. HER apartment. Because she's already moved out of the White House.
As far as Scandal winter finales go, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" didn't do much until the last 10 to 15 minutes. The rest of the episode was sort of slow but peppered with some moments of really great dialogue.
For instance, this triangle between Liz North, David Rosen, and VP Susan Ross? Don't care. Everyone knows he's supposed to be with Abby so this is merely weird fodder meant to give the characters something to do and someone to interact with and that's about it. Now we're supposed to believe Liz North is jealous of the Veep over a bracelet and we're supposed to care about this drama? No. Try again.
Quinn is sad and lonely on Christmas and Marcus has a family, but wait! There's Charlie! Now Quinn's not sad and lonely anymore. Awww.
Huck captured Rowan just to...keep him out of sight? O...kay? Jake killed Russell because Russell wants to bring about Lazarus One, and now Jake doesn't want Lazarus One to gain power, so he's working with the enemy instead of trying to kill him, and I can't even keep up with these spies anymore. Good god, men. Pick a side!
(Kudos to Joe Morton AND Guillermo Diaz for their scenes together! Those were some powerful moments between two fathers.)
Mellie's filibuster served as a nice foil to Olivia's new position as White House party planner and cookie delivery service, which, yeah, for someone like Olivia Pope that'd be just about the absolute WORST thing imaginable. Here was Mellie doing something, making a difference, standing for something, literally standing for 16 hours. And here was Olivia Pope, solving "problems" by digging up a Snickerdoodle recipe.
It was a nice turn of events in some ways because it showed just how boring that life was for Olivia, how it was killing her to be Fitz' arm candy instead of his equal. And, yes, Mellie's filibuster for Planned Parenthood held some personal ties for Olivia since, instead of attending the Cabinet dinner, she was having an abortion.
If there was ever any doubt at all about what kind of woman Olivia Pope is, this episode wiped all of it away.
Olivia Pope is a "big dog." She's powerful. She was born and raised to be that way. And finally, for the first time, we heard her say:
There is no us! There is no this! There is no Vermont! There is no jam! There's no future. Not anymore.
Olivia [to Fitz]
Those are never things she wanted. She allowed Fitz to believe she wanted them because, as long as he was married, there was no way they would ever come true. There was never truly a "them" when Fitz was married. She didn't have to worry about the eventual moment when Vermont was a possibility because it never would be. Except now it is, and now we know.
She doesn't want that life. Not with Fitz, and not with anyone.
That scene between Fitz and Olivia where they broke up was heartbreaking. Fitz was devastated. Olivia was devastated. Fans watching at home were devastated. I'm not inclined to believe Fitz entirely when he says that the only reason he moved Olivia into the White House was so they could give things a real chance, particularly when she stood on the Truman balcony and said that living in that kind of trophy wife spotlight was exactly what she did not want. In fact, I don't believe him at all, and that's a solid reason why Olivia had to leave.
Besides, knowing Scandal has more story to tell, did anyone really expect that a happily ever after would start right now?
If Fitz and Olivia are endgame, they'll get back together, hopefully when the time is right and without all this vitriol between them currently, and they'll both have a lot more things to come clean about, like the fact that Fitz still wants her father dead (rightfully so, IMO), and Olivia just aborted Fitz' child. But that information would probably be the final nail in the Olitz coffin, so that's a secret Olivia should probably take to her grave.
What did you think of the Scandal winter finale? Are you shocked that Olitz aren't together? Is Jake working with Rowan again? Scandal returns in February, but until it does you can watch Scandal online!
Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.
