Scandal: Top 5 Speeches from “People Like Me” (Season 7 Episode 16)

Things are more tense than every at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Scandal Season 7 Episode 16 “People Like Me” is wasting no time with the plot to kill Cyrus.

Lonnie Macon’s investigation is poised to impeach Mellie and relationships are coming to a tipping point. The tension is palpable, and that means, in true Scandal fashion, there will be a few big speeches.

Here are our top five speeches from Scandal Season 7 Episode 16 “People Like Me.”

1. “You are my Neil Fitzpatrick.”

Neil reminds me of you! I liked Neil, Neil was different, considerate, but also the kind of strong hand that Karen needs in her life, by all measures, Neil Fitzpatrick was perfect.

What’s really been missing is the loose and really relaxed side of Mellie Grant. This side of Mellie tends to come out when she’s stressed and there have been a few times where this has happened in recent seasons.

What is really interesting about this moment is that even though Mellie’s in a hothouse situation right now, she’s still working a problem. It’s not unlike when Rowan was under surveillance and he was talking to the dinosaur in Scandal Season 7 Episode 9 “Good People.”

Unlike the scene with Rowan and the dinosaur, Mellie’s speech starts off calmly, like Mellie is just getting her thoughts out, and then it eventually winds up to the point where it reveals that Mellie is aware that she’s being watched. When she starts addressing the ceiling as “you” it all starts to make sense, and her words are cutting:

When she starts addressing the ceiling as “you” it all starts to make sense, and her words are cutting, and exactly what I would expect from Mellie Grant when she says:

I was wrong, Karen was right, and now I see that you are my Neil Fitzpatrick. A delusional little boy who believes he’s a leader, but in truth has only ever followed one girl to another, one master to the next, all the while looking strong and pretty on the outside. I see you.

 2. “I, unlike you, know exactly the kind of person I am.”

I’d be exactly the same, no different, no change whatsoever, and I know that Liv. I can answer that question Liv, because I, unlike you, know exactly the kind of person I am.

Olivia’s plan to kill Cyrus is to lock him in a bunker and buy time by drinking wine. On paper, this seems exactly like the kind of plan you’d expect from Olivia, and given the tensions between her and Cyrus, yuo can imagine that things are going to get tense.The scenes between them are dynamic, but they reach a high point when Cyrus asks if Olivia thinks she’d be different if she’d never met Fitz.

And they do. The scenes between them are dynamic, but they reach a high point when Cyrus asks if Olivia thinks she’d be different if she’d never met Fitz.

The resulting scene carries the naked truth of Cyrus’ motives and does put Cyrus and Olivia’s motives side by side. The fact that Cyrus sees himself as having always been this person who will do anything for power is a very telling moment, especially given how pointed the end of his speech is:

If I wasn’t keeping Fitz’s secrets I’d be keeping someone else’s. If I wasn’t knocking Mellie from the throne, I’d be doing it to someone else. It doesn’t matter. I know who I am and who I always will be, so…listen to me when I tell you, you can’t do a damn thing about it.

3. “Take the damn gun, Olivia!”

“Take it. Go ahead. It will be faster, easier, messier. Sure, shooting Cyrus in the face requires a bit more cleanup than getting him to drink a glass of poison, but you’ve got people for that right?”

Sometimes, with Scandal, it’s easy to forget that some of these characters are assassins. The dark turn that Jake has taken in recent episodes reminds us that is, and this moment, when he shows up to free Cyrus is a tense one.

What makes this monologue stand out from the others, is that it really ends with a silent scene with Jake putting his gun in his mouth and Olivia standing there with her hand on the trigger.

It’s dark, and tense, and the look in both Scott Foley and Kerry Washington’s expressions as it plays out are gripping. When the moment ends the posturing continues and it is reminiscent of Mellie’s speech earlier in the episode:

Oh you talk a big game, Olivia Pope, but when push comes to shove, you actually don’t do anything. You give orders. You unleash your dogs. You huff and you puff, and you work so damn hard, pretending to be evil, but at the end of the day, it’s not you!

4. “Mellie, I am with you! 

We don’t need their methods, their tools. We don’t need to adopt or justify violence, just because it’s been business as usual for the men who have led this country since it’s inception. The sins of our past leaders, don’t need to be our sins.

Olivia and Mellie’s bond has always been one of my favorite things about Scandal, because these two are the most unlikely pair. Over seven years, their relationship has grown, and this moment just cements where Olivia’s loyalties are for me.

As much as the subpoena, and the investigation are major plot point, at the heart of this episode is the question: Who is the real Olivia Pope?” In an indirect way, through a series of moments, “People Like Me” got to the heart of that.

Towards the end of this episode, it becomes clear that this whole episode is establishing how much these characters moral compasses have changed. And what we’re finding is, most of them haven’t changed a lot.

Yes, some of them veered off-course, but many of them are finding their way back to the morals and standards they held when we first met them. Mellie and Olivia are no exception.

The only way we can win this is if our bond is stronger than theirs. If we hold fast, together, no matter what comes. Mellie, I am with you! No matter what you think. I have always been with you. Are you with me?

5. “To them I say: good luck.”

These rumors, these allegations, have been stoked by my opponents. Opponents who wish to see the nation distracted from the good work this administration has done and continues to do. Opponents who wish to see me backed into a corner, and to forever tarnish my legacy. To them I say: good luck!

You can’t keep Mellie Grant down. While she may have been closed off, drinking moonshine, and seemingly talking to the ceiling at the start of the episode, she closes out “People Like Me” with some confidence and spark.

One of my biggest critiques of Scandal Season 7 is that there hasn’t been enough of Mellie Grant as President. There have been a couple of notes about the office being lonely, and some early accomplishments in the season premiere, but the focus has been on Olivia and her turn to the dark side.

But “People Like Me” really gives Bellamy Young a chance to do her thing, and let Mellie shine! And the fact that we get to see Mellie at her lowest, and at her strongest in this episode is the icing on the cake.

 

I am not guilty, and I will not be bullied. The truth is on my side, and I will not stop fighting until the truth is out.

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

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Scandal airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.

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