Scandal Review: “Put A Ring On It” (4×17)

Love is a complete sham in the world of Scandal. Or at least that's the takeaway of “Put A Ring On It,” which, despite this rather bleak worldview, manages to be a thoroughly enjoyable time, and which even wrests from the wreckage of all these romances something vaguely resembling a happy ending. This is an episode that play on one of the show's greatest strengths, taking its case-of-the-week structure and turning it inward upon one of its own characters: in this case, Cyrus Beene, who has been neglected this season and takes a well-deserved moment in the spotlight. It also employs another of the show's greatest strengths, sparingly used, which is the flashback.

But there is a curious thing about “Put A Ring On It” as well, which is that it feels dreadfully out of place in the season as a whole. For a moment I wondered if ABC had somehow rearranged the air dates of some episodes, but there's enough frame of reference here to confirm that that's not the case. So why are we completely ignoring that Huck killed a girl last week, and that Quinn and Olivia are well aware of that fact? What of B-613, who at any minute will kill any number of these people who are angling to take them down?

Please don't mistake my questioning of this for an actual desire to have the questions answered. I am more than happy to pretend that B-613 never existed on this show, and for much of “Put A Ring On It” we can do just that. (The flashbacks to James do force us to remember exactly why he is dead.) The bottom line is that this episode is much stronger for cutting the overwrought baggage that has accumulated in these stories.

Really, I just wish Scandal would strip down to this level more often. There's any number of things to laud about this episode. The focus on Cyrus's impending sham wedding allows for a flashback structure that investigates his evolution over all these years. His time with his first wife, Janet (played by Shameless's Emily Bergl, which is no doubt pleasantly distracting for viewers of both shows) reveals a man who has always been externally at odds with his internal self. He marries her not for love but for a leg up in the election for comptroller, of all things. She is a means to an end, and that callousness towards his own personal life eventually chases her away.

When his honeymoon with James rolls around, Cyrus has not really changed; if anything he has become more callous, more calculating, colder than ever. He asks James to use his influence as a journalist to bury a story that would otherwise require him to cancel the honeymoon. It's the one thing he was never going to ask, and it means that for the remainder of their marriage James is a tool first, husband second. (See Leo and Abby's arguing about the “separation of church and state” for a counterpoint to this.) And it's this attitude that got him murdered. More than anything, “Put A Ring On It” parades in front of Cyrus and in front of us just how much of a monster Cyrus has become. The fascinating this is that he did so slowly, without ever realizing it, but also, really, it happened all at once. In a way he has always been this way.

Obviously the other big flashback is to Olivia and Fitz on Cyrus's second wedding day, when Fitz literally gave Olivia a ring, one she wears at episode's end to Cyrus's third wedding day. The look of wistful hope that Olivia gives Fitz at the end of the episode is sad more than anything, because we've just spent forty-five minutes explicating the idea that marriage isn't something that will work for any of these people or for the lives that they've built. But damn it if separating these characters hasn't revitalized their romance in a major way. When Olivia visits Fitz in the Oval, pointedly not wearing his ring, there's a real weight to her decision (and some great decisions by director Regina King to show the naked hand multiple times—Fitz may be an ass, but he notices right away).

And yet rom all that comes a mostly pleasant, mostly hopeful episode. Cyrus's speech to Michael at the end, after an episode of calling him “whore”, is oddly sweet, in a way that only Cyrus can be. Of course he feels sympathy for Michael after meeting his heinous (if cartoonish) parents, but it's not that he changes his opinion of the man. He still won't love him. But he doesn't have to hate him. He can engage him on his own terms, as a tool, as a means to an end, and they can build a life from there.

Which brings us, inevitably, to the friendship between Olivia and Cyrus, so often taken for granted, but which is so excellently highlighted in this episode. Even with the horrible things they've done, for each other, to each other, with each other, they still communicate with a wordless efficiency. They still understand each other, and their world, fundamentally. It's why Cyrus can call Michael “whore” and still marry him and still fashion a version of happiness. It's why Olivia can hate Fitz for saving her life. They just get it. They are one and the same. If ever there was a time to highlight this, it's now, when the characters are still so scattered from each other in the wake of Olivia's kidnapping.

“Put A Ring On It” is another one-off episode to be sure, but it's a hugely enjoyable one. Stripped down, character-focused Scandal is ultimately the one I prefer. As we continue to figure out exactly what this show needs to be, now and going forward, I hope some of this episode's DNA stays in the mix.

Stray Observations:

• OF COURSE Sally Langston is a Faux News (pun not entirely intended) correspondent. Cyrus: “No one's going to take her seriously, she's a grown woman who thinks angels are real.”
• That said, I don't believe that Olivia, or Fitz, would name Sally as Secretary of State for any reason, ever. Sally is nuts.
• Bellamy Young is on fire this episode. Mellie gets some choice moments, whether it's her catty dismissal of Liz North or her brilliant mimicry of Olivia in the wedding war room.
• I'm still furious about the way James was dispatched, in the midst of one of the stupidest stories Scandal has done, but Dan Bucatinsky's reappearance here tugs at the heartstrings nonetheless.