Scandal Review: Baby, It’s Cold Outside (Season 5 Episode 9)

‘Tis the season for women’s rights on the Scandal winter finale. After last week’s lull I was a little worried about the final episode of 2015, but “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is full of shock and surprises that leave me feeling more satisfied than any other Scandal episode to date (“No More Blood” is a close second).

The episode opens with Olivia Pope being everything she never wanted, everything Mellie warned her life in the White House with Fitz would be: the doting housewife who’s stripped of any real agency or power and shunted into dealing with table settings and snickerdoodles. Meanwhile, Mellie discovers that the spending bill that the Senate is about to pass has listed Planned Parenthood under “discretionary” meaning that it can be defunded at anytime. As a woman, a supporter of other women, and a fan of the women on this show, it gives me great pride when Mellie Grant, a Republican, junior senator stands up to filibuster against the bill in defense of women’s health.

Mellie Grant takes down the spending bill by filibustering for sixteen hours, without having done any training or preparation. Scandal reinforces how important it is for women to support each other when Olivia helps her make it to the finish line. Susan uses her power as the Vice President, as a genuinely nice person, and as a person who cares about women’s health to ask a question, allowing Mellie to use the restroom so she can physically finish the filibuster. Mellie meets Olivia in the bathroom and the fixer gives her the motivation she needs to finish. The scene between these two shows how much potential they have to have a good, healthy, mutually beneficial relationship. When Fitz isn’t a part of the equation Mellie and Olivia help, support, and motivate each other.

Olivia: [smiling] You’re the biggest bitch I know, don’t tell me you can’t do this. Just a couple more hours Mellie.
Mellie: [also smiling] You wanna come watch?

Mellie’s fight for Planned Parenthood and women’s rights is put into stark perspective when, after Mellie successfully takes down the spending bill, Olivia has an abortion. She doesn’t tell anyone, not even Fitz, especially not Fitz. She goes alone and comes back to the White House frantically searching for one of Mellie’s hidden bottles of hooch. Olivia’s choice is a particularly brave one and it hurts to see her going through this alone.

Olivia missed the cabinet dinner while she was having the procedure done, which leads to a knock-down, drag-out fight between she and Fitz, which may truly be the end of their relationship. To some it looked as though Olivia and Fitz would finally end up together forever at the start of the season, but realistically they were over the minute Olivia admitted to being his mistress in front of the press. This fight between them was inevitable; Olivia finally voices all of her frustrations over being made to do everything Mellie did for twenty years. Olivia and Fitz don’t work when they’re everything to each other: being his significant other isn’t enough for Olivia and she doesn’t want to be his everything.

Olivia: There is no us! There is no this, there is no Vermont, there is no jam! There is no future, not any more.

Fitz finally understands that outside their affair, outside that bubble of secrecy, their relationship doesn’t work.  When the yelling is over, they come to an understanding: they tried, the really truly tried to make it work, but now it’s over. Olivia goes home, and Fitz doesn’t fight her decision to leave. I’m so proud of Olivia for walking away, and to some extent I’m proud of Fitz as well for letting her go.

The final sequence shows how everyone is spending their Christmas: Abby working the press to handle Olivia leaving, and Rowan, Huck, and Jake come to an understanding without harming each other in the process. Mellie spends the evening with her children, while Quinn gets a visit from Charlie. Fitz drinks alone in the Oval Office, and Olivia finally, finally gets a new couch. None of the main characters were killed, or even harmed really–they all got something they needed. The entire episode leaves a truly Christmas-like feeling in the audience: warmth and hopefulness, mixed with an interesting nostalgia for things lost and how things change.

The changes in relationships and dynamics will send Scandal in a fresh direction and I cannot wait to see where the show goes next.

Other thoughts:

• It was so refreshing to see Huck not torture anyone. He and Rowan simply spend several hours in the warehouse having conversation that ranges from light to serious, while Jake takes out the men who were actually trying to kill him.
• I’m still not looking forward to the inevitable fall out of the Susan/David/Elizabeth love triangle, but at least now Elizabeth is aware of it. David seems clueless about Susan’s feelings, and Susan has no idea he’s sleeping with Elizabeth. I have a feeling this isn’t going to end well for anyone.
• According to Bellamy Young, everything Mellie says during her filibuster is true. You can see the wasteful spending here and here. Scandal‘s never been afraid to take on real issues, and it’s very interesting to see how a show often fraught with drama can still be alarmingly close to our reality

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Scandal will return February 11th on ABC.

Samantha Coley

Samantha (she/her) is a social media specialist by day and a sci-fi junkie by night. As a freelance writer and podcaster, she also enjoys live-tweeting, blogging, good music, and better television. Her current favorite television shows include Star Trek (yes, all of them), Riverdale, and Stranger Things and there will always be a place in her heart for Battlestar Galactica, Leverage, and The West Wing.