SCANDAL – “Lost Girls” – The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Richard Cartwright) TONY GOLDWYN
As if Olivia’s life wasn’t starting to head into the hectic zone enough, Fitz decided it was time to return to Washington D.C., further complicating Olivia’s life. Granted, he mostly did so on Rowan’s orders, but Fitz also still loves Olivia and wants to be with her, or at the very least make sure she doesn’t stray down the path that her father did. Fitz’s plan to get Olivia back from the dark side is apparently to solve the case of several missing African-American girls who have continually increased in Washington D.C. As expected, this doesn’t do much for Olivia as she has other more important issues to deal with and basically sentences Fitz off to work with Quinn as she’s now in charge of Olivia’s old firm.
Fitz does just this, but QPA quickly comes across an issue in deciding who should be the poster child for their attempts to raise awareness to the cause as the media will find any way possible to discredit whoever they choose. After a lot of digging, they managed to nail down a girl who had good grades and no criminal tendencies to push to the media. Even with this, however, the news just won’t pick it up as much as other circling trends, such as the tensions with Bashran. Olivia finally decides to help out a bit and stops by QPA to explain that the media has a easier time having audiences relate and see a mother’s struggle with her missing child than just simply the info of the missing child.
After speaking with the mother of the missing girl they chose, Fitz has himself and her appear on Curtis Pryce’s talk show to get the ball rolling on their movement. For the most part, this ends up being a successful venture, but since Fitz and Curtis are eyeing the same girl in the form of Olivia, there ends up being some tensions between them as they discuss the topic. I guess we’re trading out Jake for Curtis in the love triangle and I really wish this would just end already. The talk show segment does manage to spread awareness and even locate the missing girl, but the news quickly shifts to another exploding topic that comes into play.
SCANDAL – “Lost Girls” – The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Richard Cartwright) CORNELIUS SMITH, JR., TONY GOLDWYN, GEORGE NEWBERN, KATIE LOWES, KERRY WASHINGTON
Mellie and President Rashad continue to flirt it up while also discussing their plans to peacefully end nuclear armaments through a treaty between the United States, Bashran, and Dacal. Marcus, having returned to Washington D.C. alongside Fitz, tries to link up with Mellie to discuss their relationship, but Olivia doesn’t allow it. That’s the extent of that secondary love triangle for this episode, but I’m sure they’ll be more. The actual important event that takes place here is that during the treaty meeting, Mellie manages to convince the Dacal prime minister that peace is possible between them after revealing the true extent of how she got Rashad onboard.
This ultimately ends up not mattering as a coup takes place in Bashran and a new President rises from the ashes, effectively making Rashad useless. This doesn’t sit well with Mellie as she was so close to her goal and also has feelings for Rashad, so she debates going to war with the rebels of Bashran in order to reinstate him. Olivia and most others feel this is a bad move, but Mellie refuses to return Rashad to his home country only to be killed. Demanding that Olivia allow her to make one choice as President, Olivia finally agrees and provides the plans that she cooked up that Mellie can use for the war.
In the midst of all this, Olivia is also treated to several moral conflicts that allows her to come to the decision of allowing Mellie to go to war. First, Rowan reminds her that she can’t be the head of B613 and also have Fitz. Second, Jake reminds her that she can’t be the head of B613 and also have Fitz. And third, Fitz shows up at her apartment and tells her she was a shitty President when he wasn’t with her…and hinting she shouldn’t be the head of B613. Though despite being told to pick and choose, it seems she’ll still continue ride the line and see what happens. Also, Jake informs her that Rowan was the one who had Fitz return to D.C. in the first place, so she pays a visit to him at the end of the episode to figure things out between them.
SCANDAL – “Lost Girls” – The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) SCOTT FOLEY, KERRY WASHINGTON
The side arc of Cyrus and Fenton continues on as well and somehow managed to be the most boring part of the episode. Cyrus still doesn’t know what to do with the painting Fenton gave him as technically you can only be gifted something with a value of $20 in the White House, so he goes to Fenton’s home to ask him to take it back. This somehow leads to them playing around with virtual reality headsets and then having a intimate moment. Cyrus later returns once again and buys the painting from Fenton for $20, so that he’s allowed to actually keep it. Before this, Cyrus has a peptalk with Mellie about how Cyrus believes Fenton is too beneath him as a person to have as a romantic interest, but Mellie quells his fears about diving into a relationship again and convinces him to give it a shot. So, while Cyrus doesn’t outright say he’s interested, he offers to help guide Fenton through the government in order to help him achieve his dream of being Governor.
So “Lost Girls” was an episode of Scandal that did get the ball rolling on certain elements of the plot, mainly the decision to head into war to assist Rashad against Bashran, but there was a lot of spinning wheels on other fronts. Fitz still hasn’t broken through to Olivia, Rowan is now outed as the main enemy against Olivia’s rise (Though what else is new?), Mellie’s love triangle is meh, Olivia’s love triangle is meh, and seeing Hank from Breaking Bad come onto Cyrus is still really weird. Hopefully next episode kicks this into shape.
Lost Girls – 3 out of 5
Pros:
- Progress on the Bashran plot.
- A VR promo is cool, I guess?
- That’s basically it.
Cons:
- I know Scandal loves its love triangle, but I could really do without it this season, eventually given the options that are being drawn here.
- Why did Fitz thing a missing girls case would bring Olivia back to him 100%?
- Mellie going to war for love doesn’t sound like an amazing plan.
