Scandal Review: “No More Blood” (4×13)

By the end of “No More Blood,” Olivia Pope is back in Washington where she belongs, and everything has changed. Or at least this is the note on which Scandal would like to leave us at the end of this long ordeal.

“No More Blood” brings the kidnapping of Olivia Pope to a somewhat natural, mostly satisfying conclusion, but the path to the episode's rather strong final act is circuitous and often repetitive, a sin that this arc has now committed multiple times. I have one basic pet peeve with serialized television and it is this: the false cliffhanger, followed by an immediate reversal and then several scenes that reenact the exact situations that preceded the cliffhanger. This sums up the first three-quarters of “No More Blood” perfectly. Before even the title screen, the Iran deal is undone, of no consequence despite last episode's Shocking Twist. Then we endure more scenes of people watching an auction on a computer screen; more scenes of Andrew and Mellie trading barbs; and a near-identical prisoner exchange, this time with Russia.

It's easy to call this an inescapable reality. There are a certain number of episodes to fill, and plot beats need to fall at specific points throughout the season. Sometimes you need to stretch, to pad, to double back or take the scenic route to the desired conclusion. But that doesn't make the plotting not lazy—and besides, there are plenty of shows that do not do this, and even Scandal was, once upon a time, better at avoiding this sin.

Fortunately, the episode is peppered with more original and interesting developments throughout the early going, and once Olivia is delivered safely to (surprise!) Stephen Finch, the episode picks up the pace considerably heading into the next segment of the season. In many ways “No More Blood” is an investment in future episodes of Scandal, wrapping up Olivia's kidnapping but also sowing the seeds for character and story arcs to come.

In that transitional capacity, this is a fine episode. Look to Cyrus's conversation with Abby toward episode's end to recapitulate the conceit of the series, and lay the groundwork for a fair amount of drama to come. “You almost killed her today,” Abby says, “and he has no idea.” “Not unless you tell him,” Cyrus replies. There has been no shortage of secrets between the cast up to this point, but this is by far the biggest one. Cyrus was seconds away from killing his best friend and betraying his most loyal ally, an act averted only by a fluke of Abby's involvement. Meanwhile, Mellie has committed yet another unspeakable act without Fitz's knowledge; Huck has yet another secret to hide from Quinn; and Olivia harbors a resentment toward Fitz that she can barely even vocalize.

What's great about “No More Blood” isn't the progression and resolution of the plot, which is frankly pretty by the numbers, but the suggestions of conflicts to come. I continue to be most engaged by Fitz, of all people. He comes to see Olivia safely home, only to walk into a fight he wasn't expecting. “I saved you!” he said, but of course he didn't. He started a war for Olivia, sure (something she wishes he wouldn't even have done), but he didn't save her; Abby having the foresight to contact Stephen did that. Throughout this episode, characters argue with Fitz for not performing to their expectations of him. Cyrus does it, imagining himself reaming Fitz out for his decision making, before instead deciding to, as always, yes the President to death and do the real work in backroom dealings. Olivia does it too, at what would seem the unlikeliest of moments, when one might think she'd run back into Fitz's arms. But Fitz isn't a person for Olivia or for Cyrus, he is an object, a symbol, an achievement. Fitz doesn't want to be that—he wants to be a guy in love with a girl. It's just that no one will let him. Who would have thought that Fitz would be so compelling at this point in the series, let alone the most compelling figure on the damn show?

When all is said and done, Olivia's kidnapping was a cool adventure, but I'm happy to see the show back to normal—or at least, what passes for normal for our gladiators. The arc has featured some of the series' most ambitious storytelling to date, and some truly excellent character work, but it's also made some questionable decisions, taken a little too long, and wrapped up with the strangest of deus ex machina (dei ex machina? deus ex machinae?) in Stephen Finch, who drops in for a brief cameo and is gone again, just like that. But what it's done with unquestionable success, and we already see the fruits of this labor in the closing moments here, is leave the kind of scorched earth wreckage that will have repercussions straight through to whatever crazy finale Shonda Rhimes has in store this time.

 

Stray Observations:

• Another neat, potentially deep direction: examining why Jake and Huck have had such different outcomes following their torture at the hands of B-613 and Rowan. Huck makes the titular promise to Quinn, but within mere hours he's induced a stroke in the Vice President in an act of hired revenge. Perhaps he's just taking his promise literally? But there's something uniquely wrong with him that isn't wrong with Jake (or maybe Jake is just better at hiding it).
• So all of these people risking life and limb to extract Olivia, they must know Fitz is doing it for love? Obviously Cyrus does, but now he's barely even hiding his motivation from the rest of his staff.
• Fitz's blinded-by-love decision making is particularly personal to Cyrus, of course, given that he inadvertently sacrificed his own husband in pursuit of “the Republic”.
• Joe Morton! Hadn't realized how much I missed his presence, but his scene here—which is at its root an overwrought monologue about fishing, somehow—is magnetic.