Scandal Review: Wild Card (Season 5 Episode 12)
I hate to say it, but this week’s Scandal left me a little underwhelmed. Usually, this show is filled to the brim with drama and intrigue and sadly this week fell short of the normally high caliber episodes.
The most exciting part of “Wild Card” is the way Cyrus stages an attack on the Francisco Vargas in order to make the unknown Pennsylvania Governor a national hero. I feel like I shouldn’t be surprised by how far Cyrus will go to get his way, and yet it still does when he uses innocent people as collateral in his schemes. With the assistance of former B6-13/Secret Service agent Tom, he gets a man to hold the Governor at gunpoint but not to kill him, creating a completely fabricated situation. Speaking of Tom, he walks out of Cyrus’ bathroom in just a towel and I have a few questions. Is that a thing now? I think I might need a chart just to keep track of who’s sleeping with who.
Vargas overpowers the gunman and becomes a national hero just as Cyrus wanted, all the while he has no idea he’s become a pawn in a fairly sinister political chess game. Since Mellie booted him off her team, Cyrus needs a new way into the White House and it look’s like he’s got his sights on wild card, democrat Francisco Vargas.
The episode title, as usual, has a dual meaning and it’s openly stated allusion in this episode is what Abby calls the President’s love life now that he’s single. While I thoroughly enjoyed watching Abby put Fitz in his place I am really not sure what point this plot served other than to prove that President Fitzgerald Grant III cannot keep it in his pants for more than a month or two, apparently. Abby had to awkwardly interrupt him mid-make out session not once, but twice, to tell him to get his act together and do his job.
I hope the purpose of Lillian Forester is more than a plot device to get Fitz’s shirt off every now and then. I’d really like to read the article she was initially brought on to write, or at least see her doing her job at some point.
Speaking of characters who don’t have much to do this week, Olivia doesn’t have much of a plot either. She’s still sleeping with Jake, who apparently is also seriously dating someone. Olivia expects that something is up with Jake and her father because her relationship with her father is going too well to be true. I’m really not sure what’s being set up with this plot line. Jake and Papa Pope have had the most vague story throughout Season 5, I want to enjoy it, but they just aren’t making it interesting!
Other thoughts:
- David sleeps with Susan, manipulating her so he can continue sleeping with Liz too.
- I want to take Susan and Francisco away and protect these two pure souls from the corruption of Scandal‘s Washington DC.
- Huck and Quinn have been assigned to spy on Jake’s new girlfriend and I really hope they can make me care about that plot.
- Charlie would make a cool dad apparently, but he and Quinn having kids sounds like a recipe for disaster.
- I hope Olivia has more to do next week. And I wouldn’t complain if Mellie was back next week either.
What did you think of this episode of Scandal? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Scandal airs Thursdays at 9/8c 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.