Scandal season 7 premiere review: Are Olivia, Jake over for good?
Because of this, we have a pretty darn good feeling that Olivia is going to be just fine as the new Chief of Staff. She’s authoritative and willing to get the job done. Not only that, but we’re going to see her working perfect collaboration with Mellie and Cyrus. They’re working very well together.
One of their big goals tonight? The Vargas bill. It’s a way to offer free college for many people who need it, but there were many people who were fighting it. One of the more interesting ones was seeing if Cyrus getting pushed to potentially betray Mellie and go against the bill, mostly so that he could work down the road to create the legislation for himself if elected President.
Ultimately, Cyrus was left with a choice as a vote nears. He could betray the unity ticket and fight for himself, or opt to go his own way. The good news, both for the sake of Mellie and for the country, was that he chose to fight alongside the President. The Vargas bill is going to pass! What you are still left to wonder is if Cyrus still has a price. We have a feeling that moment could come sooner rather than later.
What’s happening at QPA?
Quinn Perkins & Associates are the new sheriffs in town when it comes to resolving some of the different crises that are going on in Washington, and despite some early concerns they did get a rather exciting case to eventually land on their doorstep. This one revolved around the father of a woman missing in the country of Bashran, a very dangerous place for them to be. The initial suspicion was that this missing person was a spy, and a high-ranking one in fact. Quinn went to Olivia with more information, and in turn Olivia turned that information over to Jake … who wanted to kill the spy before anything else happened to jeopardize the lives of America.
We haven’t mentioned it so far in this review but there’s no avoiding it at this point: Olivia is Command. That’s her job more so than Chief of Staff, per Jake — she needs to make the tough calls to keep the world safe, even if she doesn’t like them. Or, this was at least the pile of you-know-what Jake tried to sell Olivia in order to convince her to do what he wanted. When Olivia wouldn’t bite, Jake went over her head and went over to Mellie with his plan.
With that, Olivia did her part in order to play hardball, using Huck in order to threaten the Ambassador of Bashran’s son. This was enough to convince the Ambassador to make the call, one that would eventually still get that man out alive. Olivia got what she wanted, and with that she also sent Jake away to his wife. She was done with him and focused on the job more than ever.
Oh, another twist
The entire plan to sway Cyrus was just a ploy in the first place. Olivia also followed that reveal up by challenging Mellie on her rule and making it clear: She was always right.
CarterMatt Verdict
Scandal is a show at this point that clearly knows what it is, but we do still like that they toned things down and streamlined the story somewhat. This was an exciting, powerful episode that defined that Olivia is very good at what she does now, and she’s okay to cut people if need be.
Where are things going on Scandal season 7 episode 2?
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