ABC’s ‘Scandal’ season 5, episode 7 review: Elizabeth North’s surprising move and more

How do you solve a problem like Elizabeth North? We imagine that this is a question that Cyrus was asking early and often on Thursday night’s “Scandal.” After supplanting her as the Chief of Staff for President Grant, she was ready and raring to go with her latest act of revenge: Going to Sally Langston and singing like a canary about the administration.

Despite whatever Cyrus may have tried to do, the President found a solution: Sending her to work for Susan Ross, otherwise known as the most unhappy Vice President in recent memory. That is before it was even known to her just who her new employee was going to be. So how does Elizabeth react to this news? How about hooking up with David Rosen? You can write that onto the list of “twists we did not see coming.”

So where do we go from here? It feels like we are on the precipice of the ultimate power struggle, mostly as Olivia is starting to get a little more insight into just what being with the President really means. Cyrus’ line was perfect: In some ways, she is the President now.

We do not want to sit here and ignore the story-of-the-week, as this was a significant one about putting a stop to a professor who was accused of drugging and raping a number of his students. We wonder if this was the show’s way of ripping Bill Cosby and his accusers from the headlines; while the story and the circumstances may be rather different, but seeing a university cut ties with someone who was previously honored by them rings to that situation.

In the end, a stronger-than-usual procedural elements lifts what was otherwise a quieter episode than most. Given that there are two more episodes this fall, we imagine things will pick up rather shortly. Grade: B-.

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