Scandal 1×07 ‘Grant: For the People’ review: The Pursuit of Happiness

You know, for a show with only seven episodes in its freshman season, there sure are a lot of intense slow-motion walking scenes as pictured above. In fact, there were at least two in the finale last night. You just know that moment has been tough on Olivia. But I’m always wondering how a slow walk makes her feel better. (Joke.)

Anyway, last night’s finale of Scandal was all in all pretty great. If you disregard some of its stupidity — like, why would Quinn not call the ambulance FIRST and how could she NOT know that you aren’t supposed to remove the thing that’s keeping blood in your body lest you want that person to bleed to death? — but even in spite of that, the hilariously bad scissor scene from last week did take a better beat in this installment. I was actually anxious at the cold open instead of laughing hysterically. Even if Quinn’s shaking made me feel as though I was in a meat freezer. Take that as you will.

Speaking of which, I still don’t know if I’m supposed to praise Olivia for making decisions that ride the fence immensely on moral ambiguity. But that quick-paced dialogue sure does trick me into thinking she’s kind of a badass. I’m okay with that. After questioning morality so much with The Vampire Diaries, I think I’ve come to the conclusion to just take shows at their face value and stop complaining about it. I mean, she did sort of make it so that Gideon’s death could never receive justice — and then Huck told his killing buddy to silence Billy because he can reveal secrets about him…but… okay whatever, let’s not get into it. Because I enjoyed the ride.

I suppose it will make sense come season 2 when we figure out who Quinn is. Alien? Spy? Alien spy? But it’s going to have to be something major if they want to convince me that Oliva’s call was the right one. Unfortunately, in the interviews I read about this show, no one ever seems to ask questions about that. When I was able to talk to the supporting cast, they mentioned that Olivia and Abby will clash a bit because of this. So it seems like that will be a recurring theme, judging by this finale.

Elsewhere, Fitz’s presidency was in jeopardy after Billy went on a Fitz’s-a-slut tour, where we got to hear that whole “Take off your clothes” recording over and over and over again. And frankly, I think the First Lady is becoming my favorite character on this show. Talk about badass, but on the verge of creepiness. I’m into it. Until the flashback episode, it had never occurred to me how much she orchestrated this entire presidency. Obviously, there were hints that she knew about the affair, but her determination for power and prestige surprise me. “I did my job. Why didn’t you do yours?” Well. Fitz’s life is almost devastating; his story is more important than his happiness at the moment. But, quite frankly, who knows what saying the Capital T Truth would have done for him. It’s just scary to think that children are reared and created on this show as a public image.

Anyway, a nice, thrilling, sometimes hilarious for the wrong reasons, freshman outing. I don’t know how they can tell a second season story, but I’ll be there when they start.