SCANDAL – “People Like Me” – The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) JEFF PERRY, KERRY WASHINGTON
I spoke too soon and I shouldn’t be surprised. After this episode, we only have two more to go until the end of Scandal as we know it and yet basically nothing of value happened in this, like at all. This is something I would expect in the middle of the season (where it did happen…several times), not so close to the series finale. I actually think the only part of the episode I enjoyed was Jake’s doubling down on becoming a villain, as well as his decision to stop taking shit from anyone. Meanwhile, Olivia danced around the idea of murdering Cyrus all episode, only to chicken out when push came to shove. Was it because she wanted to be a good person again or is it what Jake said: She can issue the bad deeds, but can’t carry them out herself (We know this isn’t true as Olivia has definitely killed before, but whatever).
I honestly don’t even know what to talk about in this. Mellie is forced to remain in her office for the duration of the episode, only coming out near the end to step in front of Cyrus’ accusations and proclaim her innocence. Other than that, it was just meetings with Marcus and calls with Fitz about how she can’t head down the same path that Fitz did during his presidency. Mellie is better than Fitz and doesn’t need to resort to the dark paths that he had to take to deal with problems. It is funny that Mellie is currently under fire for apparently putting a hit on Cyrus…and she ends up basically doing just that, but at least she is innocent for the plane hijacking one?
SCANDAL – “People Like Me” – The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) KERRY WASHINGTON, GUILLERMO DIAZ, JEFF PERRY
QPA’s side of the episode is hacking into Cyrus’ phone to gain any details they can to possibly persuade him to give up his crusade on Mellie. These scenes also include Abby taking a class in “Movie/TV Bullshit Hacking”, allowing her to hack alongside Quinn in what seems like 15 minutes. They find the hacker that Cyrus hired to hijack the plane, but oops he’s dead, so tough shit there. Meanwhile, Huck is with Olivia and trying to convince her not to resort to killing Cyrus as he just got the old Olivia back. Huck giving speeches on how murder is bad don’t play with me as I’d say Huck probably has either the top or 2nd highest body count in the series, but the writers seemed to have forgotten about that.
And so we’re left with Olivia’s chats with Cyrus, locked in his secret bunker. They chat over glasses of wine and Olivia tries to channel her old demeanor on Cyrus to no avail. She should know by now that Cyrus isn’t really someone who can be turned and he does what it is in his best interest, the current one being to become President. After about 3/4th of the episode, Olivia finally decides it’s enough and pulls out the poisoned wine she brought along, but oops Jake shows up at the last second to save Cyrus. He then proceeds to flex on Olivia and call her out on her bullshit, stating that without people like him to do her dirty work, she’s useless. Jake’s right as he gives his gun to Olivia, allowing her the chance to kill both Cyrus and Jake, but she can’t. So they leave and this pointless kidnapping comes to an end.
SCANDAL – “People Like Me” – The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) JEFF PERRY, KERRY WASHINGTON
Going back to what I said is my favorite part of the episode, Jake returns home and is called out by his wife for playing second fiddle to Cyrus, taking things too far for him when she calls him “Cyrus’ bitch”. Jake had previously been treated to Mellie calling him out for the same thing earlier in the episode, but through a long winded metaphor, so he’s obviously had enough of people talking down to him. Cyrus comes by to discuss further plans with Jake, only to learn that Jake has already taken the initiative and thrown Olivia into the mix of the plane hijacking. Cyrus doesn’t appreciate Jake going behind his back, but once Jake shows the dead body of his wife to Cyrus things fall better into line. They form an agreement to treat each other as partners from here on out in everything they do as Jake was promised he would work WITH Cyrus and not FOR him.
It seems the next episode will consist of Mellie and Olivia trying to prove that they didn’t have anything to do with the hijacking of Air Force Two, against the tampered evidence Jake has provided and the judge being in Cyrus’ pocket. The cards are against them, but I’m sure some bullshit will happen for them to turn the tables on Jake and Cyrus. Or maybe this series will decide to have a darker ending where evil triumphs? Who knows and honestly I’m really starting to care less as there’s no way I can see this series resolving with a bow in these last two episodes.
People Like Me – 2 out of 5
Pros:
- Jake stepping it up and not letting people step on him.
- At least Cyrus is honest about who he is to Olivia. There’s no games, he’s just telling it as it is.
Cons:
- Basically everything else. Time wasting episode in a spot of the season where there should no longer be time wasting episodes.
- Is Charlie just going to remain in prison? We got about 10 seconds of him in this episode and not much else.
