Scandal 4×04 – Like Father, Like Daughter

Building on last week’s stunning hour, Like Father, Like Daughter was an outstanding episode of Scandal that restored my faith in season four.

After four years, Scandal‘s monologues can be grating. After all, real people don’t actually speak the way Shonda characters so artfully express their innermost thoughts. However, this week’s hour impressed me with its poignant and powerful bouts of dialogue. Mellie and Fitz’s faceoff was downright astounding; I loved that Mellie was able to put her husband down with one formidable Olivia-drenched line. Bellamy Young broke my heart as she came to the realization that Olivia Pope of all people was holding her family together. Furthermore, the scene with Mellie finally discussing the sex tape with her daughter before giving her that “one free pass” was tremendously moving.

I’m not exactly sure why Tom couldn’t work up the guts to point the finger at Rowan (maybe the latter is that terrifying up close?), but having Fitz arrest Jake will surely spice things up a bit. Like I mentioned last week, I strongly urge the show to kill off both Jake and Rowan; we need a fresh start, and the B613 crap almost drowned the show in its dull complexity. Thankfully, the episode’s final sequence with the interrogation was incredibly well directed with just the right dose of closeups and edits to ratchet up the tension.

Sadly, I’m so very over Fitz and Olivia, and it was frustrating to endure yet another heavy-breathing-Olivia scene. Haven’t we experienced enough of these to last a lifetime? Isn’t it time to put the love triangle to rest? And most importantly of all, did Fitz seriously believe Olivia went on vacation alone? I know this couple is endgame material, I just wish I was rooting for them.

Scandalous Bits

– The teaser was fantastic with the reveal of the drunken half-naked girl in the party turning out to be none other than Fitz’s daughter. Then Huck awesomely killed all the phones as the gang made their escape via helicopter culminating in the epic sex tape reveal. Jawdropper I tell you.

– It’s fascinating how Fitz asks Karen if she was raped, obviously still reeling from Mellie’s revelation last season.

– Abby didn’t get much to do this week, but it was still sad to see Cyrus put her in her place, particularly while pointing out her jealousy of Olivia and depriving her of the authority to stop Quinn and Huck.

– Jake choking Rosen for the B613 files was pretty shocking.

– I googled Eiffel towering. Damn.

– I need more Mellie/Olivia moments in my life.

– How great was it to see Olivia unleash hell on the greedy couple for trying to extort the President? We need more scenes of Olivia kicking ass instead of moping around childish Fitz.

Quipyness

Cyrus: (to Abby)You will soldier on. As for feeling small, I don’t do that to you. I suspect that jealousy does that to you. My advice on that is this… you are not Olivia, you will never be Olivia, and hating Olivia for your own shortcomings will not change that fact. Also have you ever stopped to think what it must be like to actually be Olivia Pope? Doesn’t seem like that much fun.

Rowan: (to Tom) Once I am indifferent, well I will have forgotten that you were ever one of my favorites, and I just may start wishing for your head too.

Cyrus: Hello Mellie. Got some new boots on there? A new color?

Fitz: I didn’t bring her here.
Mellie: Right. A magical fairy granted your wish and poof, Olivia Pope, appeared in the oval office.
Fitz: Mellie..
Mellie: Or you made one of your masturbating late-night phone calls and she came running over.

Fitz: I have dealt with drunk Mellie, bad hygiene Mellie. No wait.. I got it.. Smelly Mellie. I have dealt with drunk Mellie and smelly Mellie and “screw-everything-to-hell” Mellie and crybaby Mellie and eat-everything-that-is-not-nailed-down Mellie. And I have not complained. But I will not put up with whatever righteous-history-rewriting Mellie you have going on right here right now. This is not your family. You are not the mother, not since Jerry died. Since Jerry died, you have abdicated your role. You have mothered no one. You hold nothing together. You pick up no pieces.

Fitz: But you want to know the difference between you and me? All day, every day, I am running a country. I am grieving for the loss of my son but I am also running a country. All day, every day, you are sitting around in booties and a dirty robe eating chips and getting drunk at 11:00 am.
Mellie: A sex tape?
Fitz: Yeah.
Mellie: She takes after daddy then doesn’t she?

Mellie: I think that you were feeling numb. I think that you thought feeling something was better than feeling nothing. I think that your brother died… right in front of you.. which means you get one free pass. This was it. You don’t get another.
Karen: I really miss him.
Mellie: I know baby. Like it or not, you are the famous child of the most famous man on Earth. And it may not be fair, and it may not be right, and it’s definitely sexist… and if you were a boy they’d be giving you high-fives. But you’re not. So your knees are gonna have to stay together. Do you understand?
Karen: Mom…
Mellie: Hmm?
Karen: Are you okay?

Fitz: The most powerful man in the world, an entire army at my disposal, and I can’t stop two idiots from releasing a tape.
Olivia: Not in the world of the internet.

Olivia: Every family in America will hate you forever, and forget about ever leaving your house again because they will know your faces because I will make sure they are etched in the American memory because this is what I do, and there is no one better in the entire world at it than I am.

Conclusion
Like Father, Like Daughter employs everything this show does best, and ends up being an almost perfect hour of Scandal.

Nad Rating
A