SCANDAL – Day 101 – ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) TONY GOLDWYN
The first two episodes of Scandal Season 7 had tried to keep Fitz out of the picture for now, focusing more on Olivia’s rise to power as not only the Chief of Staff for the White House, but also Command of B613. The final scene of Episode 2 reunited Fitz and Olivia as he finally made his homecoming to Washington D.C. Sadly, we didn’t get to see any of the follow-up on that this episode, instead offering to go back in time to cover the previous 100 days of Fitz’s post-President lifestyle before his reunion with Olivia. AKA, this may have been the most boring episode of Scandal history.
After arriving in Vermont, Fitz decides he doesn’t want to have the exact same lifestyle that every President before him had, constantly catered to in every way imaginable just as they were in the White House. This causes him to fire all his caretakers and force his bodyguard to allow him to drive at his leisure. This leads into a montage of Fitz doing everyday duties that he never got the chance to accomplish as President. It’s a liberating moment for him, finally being able to cook/fail at making a turkey dinner and enjoy football with a few beers at his side. The loneliness starts to play a factor, however, which causes Fitz to contact Marcus, his former press secretary, in order to have a friend and get some shit done.
After an awkward bar conversation about the women in their lives, including the fact that Marcus had been hooking up with Fitz’s ex-wife and now President Mellie, the duo start to work on Fitz’s legacy after his Presidency. This includes building a public library in his name right in Vermont and having dinners with politicians in order to properly fund this goal and others. It is through this that Marcus starts to realize he’s less of a team player with Fitz than he desired and actually just more of a chauffeur. This culminates in Marcus and Fitz getting in a fist fight over his hurt feelings and Fitz alone again.
SCANDAL – Day 101 – ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) TONY GOLDWYN, CORNELIUS SMITH, JR.
Marcus decides to reach out to Mellie in hopes that she will answer and tell him what he should do next, while also seeing if there is a future for them after their previous hook-ups. Mellie actually gives a good pep-talk to Marcus about the three stages of dealing wth Fitz as a person. You admire and see potential in him, then you see the entitled and selfish side of him, before finally realizing the potential you previously saw was true all along. This is enough to convince Marcus to return to Fitz and set him straight on the road meant for him. We don’t really get an answer about the Marcus-Mellie relationship though, at least for now.
Before Marcus can reunite with Fitz, another visitor arrives (or breaks) into his Vermont home. It’s none other than Eli, Olivia’s father. He informs Fitz that a lot has changed about Olivia since he’s been gone from Washing D.C. Olivia has embraced the dark side of B613 and Eli is worried his daughter has been corrupted by the ways he once was. He knows Fitz is the only one who has the ability to set her straight, so he practically begs Fitz to return to D.C. in order to confront Olivia and make sure she puts the white hat back on. Also, Eli is brandishing Fitz’s father’s old gun during this scene before handing it off to Fitz and it’s really weird.
Marcus shows up shortly after Eli leaves, letting at least some of his pride go to apologize to Fitz for what happened between them. Fitz decides to heed Eli’s words and head off to D.C., but wants to accomplish something of worth within his first 100 days out of office first. A background plot of this episode was showing that an African-American student was protesting a Confederate statue in Vermont and was slowing losing morale for his cause as the days continued on. Fitz and Marcus head to the statue right as the student is finally about to give up and voice their support for his cause. The renewed media attention due to Fitz’s appearance finally allows for the statue to be removed, making Fitz’s first 100 days not entirely worthless.
SCANDAL – Day 101 – ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) TONY GOLDWYN
And we end the episode right as the previous one ended. Fitz flies into D.C., heads over to Olivia’s apartment and knocks at the door to no answer. Right as he turns around to head back out, the elevator door opens to the intense make-out session between Olivia and Curtis. Hopefully next episode isn’t a flashback on how Curtis’ last 100 days went as well because I’m not interested at all.
“Day 101” was the definition of a filler episode. We really didn’t need to see any of this and it could’ve simply been a paragraph or so in a future episode to explain how Fitz was before he returned. Padding isn’t something I want in a final season, I’d argue the only important scene of the episode was Eli’s request to Fitz to return for Olivia. That scene also could’ve worked as a flashback in another episode, but whatever. The main arc of this season will obviously be if Olivia will be consumed by power or not, so I’m ready to dive right in.
Day 101 – 2 out of 5
Pros:
- Marcus throws a mean right hook apparently.
- Mellie’s pep-talk was interesting enough.
- The Eli/Fitz scene. Joe Morton continues to show he can chew the shit out of some scenery.
Cons:
- Basically everything else in the episode.
