Privilege. Ego. Unbearable. However you want to call it, this week’s episode of Scandal got rid of the formalities to showcase Olivia at her worst. Olivia is full black hat now. Gone are her white hats; they’ve been replaced with her power-hungry, glorified title as B613 Command. Scandal season seven is a roller coaster, to say the least. There were times where it’s been fast-paced and feels like the show we love; on the other hand, we also got episodes where it was slow or Olivia went full villain. Unfortunately, “Adventures in Babysitting” is the latter.
Regardless of what you have to say about Eli, he handled the power trip that came with being command well. Not everyone can hold these dangerous positions; it can sometimes seriously affect their mindset. We saw a bit of this happen with Olivia’s interactions with Eli, Fitz, Cyrus and Mellie. While she may be the head of B613, she is not the most powerful person in the world, regardless of what she thinks. She got away with controlling Eli and Fitz, but trying to take down Cyrus and Mellie could’ve had serious ramifications. As viewers, we’re spending a lot of time watching people keep Olivia’s ego in check.
A common theme that is happening with Scandal season seven is the reminder of Olivia’s human side. This isn’t so much the plot wanting us to remember her old self; it’s the others reminding her of it. We saw this happen a few times, like with Cyrus reminding Olivia that they are friends and the news anchor calling out her lack of humanity. In fact, “Adventures in Babysitting” could be the first time we saw more people stand up to her than the odd person. Her character development is heading down the cold-hearted villain path and as viewers, we’re meant to notice the big shift. I can’t wait for the moment when she has an epiphany about the power and decides to change back. I love the character of Olivia, but this was a hard episode to watch. As the main character we follow, I don’t want to root for a villain.
I called it in the review for “Lost Girls”! Cyrus and Glackland’s eventual romance was a sure thing. It was so obvious these two were going to get together and have a romantic storyline. It’s good to see the character of Glackland do something productive and helpful for Cyrus; a lot of it before was simply toying with him. His decision to track the numbers gave insightful information about the war and Cyrus needed that. Still, I don’t foresee this relationship to be one that will last.
Let’s talk about the big case of the week: approval for the war. I’m glad Olivia realized she needed to ask Mellie what she wanted. A lot of the decisions and conversations were being made around Mellie, but no one took the time to see her position. Olivia has preached about them working together, but it hasn’t always been the case. They seem to finally be on the same page; however, it’s a shame the plot threw all the positive character development out the window at the end in favor of Mellie bending to Olivia’s will yet again. Fitz was only trying to help Mellie and save Olivia.
Whereas the war campaigning plot made sense, I think the big side-plot with Yasmeen didn’t work. Why did Yasmeen have to go back? Seriously, someone tell me. It would be safer for her to stay in the U.S. under asylum as a student than head back to Bashran and be a bigger target for assassination. At least she could hide in the U.S. and continue to live her life instead of being a marked person. The Scandal characters were constantly pushing to get her on the plane only so they could kill her with the end twist. I detest this type of trope. We don’t need a character to be introduced at the beginning of an episode, made to care about them, and then kill them at the end to serve a point. It’s a pointless death.
“Adventures in Babysitting” ended the story of President Rashad and Yasmeen with a bang…but not in a good way. Relationships ignited only to be torn apart in the end. And Olivia continues to be set up as the big bad villain of Scandal season seven. Think about it, she’s her own worst enemy. I’m still sticking with Scandal until the bitter end since it’s the final season; however, Evil Olivia is making it really hard to want to root for her.
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