ABC’s ‘Scandal’ season 5, episode 14 review: Abby, Hollis Doyle’s power plays

Tonight on “Scandal,” we clearly saw the show’s interpretation of Donald Trump with the announcement that Hollis Doyle was running for public office. He’s a billionaire, he’s unafraid to offend people, and he is causing some other candidates to go into a tailspin. Sound familiar to anyone else?

Well, Doyle running causes problems for all of the other candidates, with Susan Ross topping the list. She unloaded on Fitz for allowing her to be put into a precarious position, especially when she was putting so much of her personal focus already on trying to figure out the right way to defeat Mellie. This is another obvious problem to put atop the list.

Of course, this wasn’t the only major problem in the episode. Abby started to become a little more power-hungry, and used Cyrus’ newfound connections to Vargas to stage a coup on the White House, becoming the new Chief of Staff and allowing him to go the other way. This is a big game-changer for her, and it’s something that Cyrus is probably paying a whole lot of attention to.

Our final major revelation this week comes courtesy of Olivia Pope, who figured up specifically that Jake Ballard was up to something. He met Vanessa in the same exact way that he met her, and there is something clearly intentional about his actions. Therefore, she’s increasingly security.

Were we entertained with this episode? Certainly, but we are admittedly concerned about art imitating life in such a big way on the show. We already have enough trouble as it is dealing with politics in the present way; “Scandal” is almost the escape from that. Episode Grade: B.

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