ABC’s ‘Scandal’ season 4, episode 12 review: Was Olivia Pope sold … and to whom?

Tonight’s “Scandal” episode may as well have been entitled “scary eBay,” since a good portion of it was spent waiting to uncover just who was going to be the winning bidder for Olivia Pope’s services. Interesting, her talents have nothing to do with why she was on the auction block in the first place. Instead, it is the perception that she controls Fitz, and any country can basically use her to completely get whatever they want.

For most of the past half hour, we saw what was ultimately one terribly unsettling scene after another, starting with Abby being in the dark about Olivia’s disappearance and then seeing Mellie’s declaration of power, Olivia being (seemingly) sold to Iran, and then Quinn trying to pummel Huck after he started to say a series of grotesque things about what could be happening to her.

While these scenes were very much shocking, what we really appreciated was how the show chose not to end with some sort of crazy “OMG” moment that ABC tends to obnoxiously advertise. Instead, it was a somber scene of Fitz realizing that his search had already caused bodies to fall, and at this point, he cannot stop until he ensures that he actually has her back. These lives and losses cannot be in vein.

This episode was for the most part pretty excellent, even if we don’t exactly have much in the way on answers right now. Hopefully, these are going to be coming up at some point down the road. Grade: B.

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