Scandal Review: “I’m Just A Bill” (4×19)

I have very little to say about “I’m Just A Bill,” because frankly, it’s more of the same. More conversations between Rowan and Olivia that, however well acted, are tedious and repetitive. More cases of the week that lead the OPA team to make questionable moral decision, only to turn around and rail about justice and white hats. Basically the only thing even remotely engaging this week is Vice President Artemis, who continues to be a beacon of sanity in a show that by now is nearly finished swallowing its own tail.

How can an episode that features the murder of the mayor’s wife, by the mayor himself, in order to frame his electoral opponent, be so deadly boring? Because that kind of convoluted scheme is Scandal Paint By Numbers by now. It’s the case of the week here to suggest some sort of parallel with Olivia’s quest to take out her father, on the nature of Justice with a capital J, as an absolute. But the “fuck your white hats” mentality is well in place here, and either the show is cannily setting us up for one hell of a fall (which, maybe?), or it’s completely tone deaf to the fact that, with the exception of maybe David Rosen, none of its heroes have any business talking about justice, capital J or otherwise.

It’s also just flat out not that interesting of an explication. Scandal is a soap opera at the end of the day, and while for a while the notion of the Republic was a fun one, we’ve long since outlasted any capability the show has to raise questions on that high of a level. Joe Morton is great, but his long speech at the beginning of the episode covers well-trodden ground.

My problem is the same that I’ve had for a while now in the back half of this season. Everything is just running in circles in the season arc, and the episodic stories aren’t engaging enough to make up for the fact that the needle isn’t moving at all. And I mean, I’m saying about an episode in which a series regular is violently murdered! But even Jake’s death at the episode’s end doesn’t pack the shock value that it should, because Jake is boring as shit, and the reveal that Russell, too, is a secret B-613 just induces nothing more than it does a healthy eye roll.

Like, how many times now have Olivia and company resolved to take down Rowan? Just get on with it already? There are still three episodes left in this season, and at this point I wouldn’t be surprised to see us go around this bend at least two more times. I’ll grant that this B-613 thing has amounted to a narrative corner to end all corners, but enough is enough.

Over in the White House at least things are entertaining, if not entirely consequential. The so-called “Brandon bill” is poised to be a centerpiece of the Grant administration, but as Artemis’s investigation reveals, the bill is a dud, a gesture in the direction of racial equality that is totally unenforceable. This fact doesn’t bother Cyrus, who sends a whole parade of people to convince Artemis to just go split the tie in the senate already, but it does end up bothering Fitz, who ultimately agrees with Artemis, scraps the entire bill, and sets to work with her on a new one.

And therein lies my issue with this story: it’s another way to prop up Fitzgerald Grant as a Great Man (and just in time for him to take a fall as B-613 eventually starts to unravel), but it otherwise has basically no bearing on the rest of the episode. Olivia and Marcus played a fairly significant role in the events that resulted in the Brandon bill—and they, what, have no comment on it at all? With Olivia’s kidnapping, it made sense to diverge the White House and OPA settings, at least for a time. But now they’re happening in totally different spheres; in fact they may as well be different shows entirely.

This is the biggest problem facing Scandal as it heads into what’s looking to be a pretty significant re-tooling: it’s currently a show without identity, when it used to be one of television’s most distinctive offerings. The sooner it can start to show signs of what it plans to become, the better.

Stray Observations:

• The episode starts with Rowan asking Olivia if she’s ever heard anything so ridiculous as B-613. I know I have! Shonda Rhimes has been shoving it in my face for going on three years now!
• Taken totally in isolation, Joe Morton and Kerry Washington’s scenes together are always great, and that’s the case here, too.
• Cyrus is so disgusting in his excitement that they’ve also incidentally captures the black vote, but at least he readily acknowledges it, I guess?
• Ethan is sent to retrieve Artemis from spelling bee duty, but she’s so upstanding that she won’t leave even that job undone. His fidgeting as the kid takes forever to spell “onomatopoeia” is hilarious; he looks as though at any moment he may just finish the damn word himself.