Scandal Review: Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself (Season 7 Episode 12)
The Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder crossover episode has a good set-up, but it doesn’t completely satisfy the potential that the crossover event could have fulfilled.
Scandal Season 7 Episode 12 “Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself” starts to answer the question of “What will Olivia Pope do now?” while giving two characters a meaty storyline. Realizing that this is really a crossover event and not the two universes merging their longterm arcs, it’s hard to know what to expect.
KERRY WASHINGTON, TONY GOLDWYN, VIOLA DAVIS, AJA NAOMI KING
Initially, we hoped for more characters crossing into each show, but since we left Scandal at an impasse with Olivia resigning from the White House, it makes sense for the crossover to come about this way. By doing it this way, the writers clearly placed Annalise Keating and Olivia Pope front and center, and it focuses on them without too many subplots.
The episode opens with Olivia teaching a class on “How to Survive a Scandal” and very quickly moves away from Olivia as a teacher and puts her back in the role of “classic Olivia Pope,” just with a little more baggage.
This is a version of Olivia that I think audiences have been missing. Seeing Olivia Pope navigate the D.C. scene and try to do good was something that audiences fell in love with. That’s not say that characters can’t grow and change, but as we move towards the series finale it was getting harder to imagine the series ending in any way other than Olivia in the crosshairs of a B613 sniper rifle.
VIOLA DAVIS, KERRY WASHINGTON, AJA NAOMI KING
That’s not what we want for Olivia Pope, and what “Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself” does is let Olivia come back to being a White Hat, and hopefully avoid that fate. It’s the first step on a journey, but it’s one that is desperately needed.
Annalise’s proposal in this episode, to reform how public defenders are paid in order to ensure each American gets a fair trial definitely makes for a believable setup and perfectly ties their two worlds together. Additionally, the writers do a good job weaving in a loose thread from Scandal Season 7 Episode 3 “Day 101” regarding a case that Marcus pitched to Fitz.
TONY GOLDWYN, BELLAMY YOUNG, VIOLA DAVIS, KERRY WASHINGTON
Overall, while this episode feels different than the rest of Scandal Season 7, it leaves us wanting to see more of these two. This might bode well for Olivia Pope after Scandal ties up its final season, but I also worry that depending on how the rest of Season 7 goes, that this event is going to stick out like a sore thumb.
Stray Thoughts:
- You don’t realize exactly how close Philadelphia and DC are until you look at them on the map. It surprises me that the writers didn’t attempt this before, but then they wouldn’t have had that epic opening sequence.
- Annalise Keating sitting in on a “How to Survive a Scandal” class is so poetic. If you think back to How to Get Away with Murder Season 1 she probably could have used Olivia Pope’s help this entire time, and classic Olivia at that, not dark Olivia.
- All the scheming against Liv makes for some really interesting drama, but I’m really hoping that Scandal doesn’t peter out on this note. I am trying to have faith in Shonda that she’s trying to give us an ending this show has earned instead of an easy one, but the closer we get to the finale the hazier it seems.
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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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.