Scandal Review: The Decision (Season 6 Episode 10)

Scandal makes us drop our jaws almost every week, but their 100^th episode has a slightly different flavor.

Scandal Season 6 Episode 10 “The Decision” takes us to a twisty parallel universe, but while it’s a fun experiment, it takes some effort to sort out any meaning from it.

This parallel reality is bookended by a conversation in the Oval office, but it’s easy to forget with all the “huh?” moments that we’re seeing.

So let’s review. “The Decision” opens with Jake, Fitz, and Olivia discussing how they’re going to handle the people behind Frankie Vargas’s assassination.

The three-hour heated conversation leaves them at an impasse because they realize: they don’t know what this group wants, and all their ideas involve killing the two figureheads they know, which isn’t going to get Cyrus out of prison.

In the end, Jake suggests doing nothing, and letting Mellie take the Oval. Fitz is adamant that Mellie wouldn’t want to win this way. His goal is to clear Cyrus’s name and put him behind the desk.

But Jake challenges them by saying that Fitz’s life would be a million times worse if they hadn’t rigged the election, and so would Liv’s.

So begins the twisty alternate reality.

I am not sure the alternate reality is necessarily “better.” It’s just less compelling.

Scandal is not the first show to try a parallel universe episode, but usually there is a significant drawback. It’s seems like the only drawbacks for Olivia are her lack of connections in Washington, and a significant career change from “fixer” to “activist.”

There is certainly less glitz and glamour on Liv’s part as she joins Marcus Walker to push a criminal justice reform bill through Congress. They have a cheap office that doesn’t have the grandeur of OPA, but it doesn’t seem like a terrible life. It’s just a life without connections to The Oval.

Then Fitz leaves Mellie. Considering this is Olivia reflecting on what might have been, it’s no surprise that Fitz chooses her and that she ends up marrying him. What is probably the biggest surprise is that this doesn’t make her happy.

In the end, this Olivia isn’t just in love with Fitzgerald Grant, she’s in love with the power of the Oval, and if there is one thing this season of Scandal has taught us, it’s that the draw of the Oval can be toxic.

Fitz seems to be doing pretty well himself, but even he isn’t happy because Olivia doesn’t see him in the same light she did when he was about to be Commander in Chief.

So if romantic love is out for Liv, then where does that leave Olivia? She still has her work, she just hits a pitfall when she can’t get anyone to back the bill and she has less juice to push her agenda through. Still, her office is still expanding, and they still end up in the office that would have been OPA, it just took a little longer.

While Olivia and Fitz are able to salvage their relationship, Olivia does realize that stealing the current election won’t help Mellie. When she ultimately snaps out of her daydream, her first move is to seek Fitz out and say she’s in.

The single line is confusing when you consider that all conversation happened at the top of the episode and we just saw alternate reality Fitz and Olivia put a down payment on a house.

It seems like Olivia is agreeing to move forward with their relationship (whatever they are to each other at this point), but the line means that Olivia is throwing her support behind Fitz, much in the same way she did in the 2010 election.

Overall, “The Decision” is a mind bending look at what might have been, and while it was fun for one episode, I much prefer OPA and company as we’ve come to know them.

Stray Thoughts:

• Huck giving Olivia way and then refusing to let her go at the wedding was one of the cutest things.
• Anyone else feel a little nostalgic for the Cyrus/James relationship? I remember being so sad when he died. Perhaps one of the good things about this parallel universe is that it seems like he never would have been killed.
• Seriously? Is Liv okay with David and Abby dating in this parallel universe? Remember how against it she was?
• Any fans of The West Wing catch the dichotomy of Joshua Malina telling Liv she doesn’t have a chance of getting the bill through Congress? It’s kind of like when Sam Seaborne went to California and told Will Bailey that the campaign he was running was an embarrassment?
• Seeing Quinn on “The Prince” as “Lindsey D” was so odd, but I love the Prince’s words at the tiara ceremony about how she loves torturing him and making him guess her real emotions. I also love how Huck seems to be her biggest fan.

What did you think of this episode of Scandal? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Scandal airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.

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