As “Where the Sun Don’t Shine” begins, Rowan has gone off the grid following Olivia and company’s failed attempt on his life. Our intrepid heroes spare no effort in their attempts to find him; as Olivia so marvelously puts it, “As for my father, hunt him, find him and kill him.” But then Olivia is distracted, by my favorite case of the week of the season by far, and so it’s down to Jake to go on a solo quest to find and kill Rowan Pope.
There is an impressive, creeping sense of menace throughout this episode. Kudos to Shonda Rhimes and team, who create multiple instances of legitimate danger. There aren’t actually any casualties this episode, but that comes as a surprise, rather than a foregone conclusion. That kind of tension is difficult to achieve on television series, even ones as twist-prone as Scandal can be. So often characters are safe simply because they are the protagonists; we can always rest easy in the knowledge that nothing bad will happen. And if you do manage to achieve that tension, the quickest way to deflate it is to have everyone get away safely after all. “Where the Sun Don’t Shine” avoids both pitfalls, to its extreme credit.
But unlike the previous episode, this winter finale carries weight. These are not false climaxes, nor do they feel manufactured to create talking points. In fact, in focusing the episode on the intensely personal, rather than on spy games or sudden deaths, Scandal engenders a poignant, cathartic finale that, only in its final moments, becomes about the overarching conspiracies that make the series tick.
The episode’s biggest strength is in its focus on Olivia, as a woman on her own terms, but also as a reflection of the men she loves, and as a product of her parents. Now, common wisdom is that Maya Pope was a big drag on the final episodes of season three, but it’s easy to see why the writers would run away with the character in the first place. Khandi Alexander is really fantastic; not only is she impeccably cast as Kerry Washington’s mother, but she effortlessly provides a gravitas that puts Maya on par with Rowan.
Olivia has conversations with both of her parents tonight, and they are, at their core, conversations between a broken girl and the parents that broke her. She is a child of a broken home, a child without a mother and with a father she hates yet has more in common with than she can ever imagine. That’s why it’s so smart to bring Maya back into the picture at this juncture; she is a reminder to Olivia both of what her father could do to her, and of what she is becoming. His admonition to her as she points a gun at him is the most chilling, scariest thing he’s said to date: a simple warning, “Olivia. Watch yourself,” as though he is scolding an unruly child. Of course he is testing her, and of course he sees Olivia just so, as an unruly child who must be reined in.
This all is important because it firmly reframes (or, more accurately, it finally properly frames) these nine episodes as an inquiry into Olivia Pope’s character. It sheds most, if not all, concern for her love life. As she so triumphantly tells Jake, she’s not choosing him or Fitz; she’s choosing herself. This inquiry is why I’m so jazzed on the case of the week. The client is Cyrus Beene, and he needs Olivia’s help because Elizabeth North has leaked photos of him and Michael in flagrante.
Now on the one hand, this case is a way to bring Cyrus to rock bottom, only to reinvent himself, colder and more calculating than ever. But on the other hand, it’s a way to shed further light on Olivia, and her frequent inability to understand things in terms of romance—or, put another way, it highlights the considerable gap between her understanding of her romantic life and the reality of it. When Rowan accuses her of knowing nothing about love, that hits home. She’s caught between two men, and claims to love them both; she loves both of her parents, but they’re monsters. Olivia tries to be so many things with so many people, and along the way has lost herself entirely.
The best scene of the night does not feature Olivia, but it does set up an important character beat for her later in the episode. Cyrus’s resignation is touching, a really well-written, beautifully acted scene, some of the best work Jeff Perry has done on the show to date. He reacts with appropriate disgust at Olivia’s suggestion he fake a marriage to Michael (Olivia sees no problem with faking such a thing), and he’s willing to fall on his sword for the sake of Fitz’s presidency. It’s not until Olivia knocks some sense into him that he goes through with her plan. He values being Cyrus Beene, the man who tells the president of the United States what to do, over the condition of his soul.
But as Olivia is yelling at him she’s really shouting at herself, too, and we get the marvelous closing scene between her and Jake, dancing to Stevie Wonder. “I choose me,” is the perfect place to leave Olivia this season, a statement that not only wrests her from the control of either Fitz or Jake, but also frees her from the overbearing paternalism of her father. The montage toward the episode’s end, where Cyrus resumes his post, is bizarrely triumphant, with such upbeat music. Everyone is laughing, hard at work, having just the best time, and then Olivia looks in on Abby, Cyrus and Fitz in the Oval and sees a world that has gone on spinning without her. She’s lost herself over the past season or so, and tonight begins the process of finding herself again, not in relation to a job, nor to a man, nor to a family.
And so that cliffhanger ending is perfect. When Olivia untethers herself from everything in her life, she literally disappears. The plot question of where Olivia Pope is will mirror the character question of who Olivia Pope is. That’s brilliant, and it’s a wonderful note to end this half season on, adding context to what’s come before, and providing fertile ground for everything that is to come. I’m not sure that the specific plot machinations completely work—for instance I am not remotely convinced that the Winslow conspiracy leads to Olivia’s abduction here in any way that makes sense—but thematically “Where the Sun Don’t Shine” is as good as Scandal gets, and does the best work with Olivia specifically that the show has done all season.
Stray Observations
- Mellie’s putdown of Lizzie this episode is a thing of beauty, but overall she spends this episode on the sidelines, and that’s a shame. I really hope for Bellamy Young to get more to do in the back half.
- Huck gives his ex-wife the B-613 document (a gift from Charlie of all people) to help prove that he’s not a raving lunatic. This story has been stop and go all season, and even here it feels like an appendage to the episode, and the cliffhanger is not as effective here as it is with the episode’s main plot.
- Charlie and Quinn are gross.
Michael Wampler is a graduate of The College of New Jersey, where he completed both B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature. He currently lives and works in Princeton, NJ while he shops around his debut novel and slowly picks away at his second. Favorite shows include Weeds, Lost, Hannibal and Mad Men (among many more). When not watching or writing about television, he enjoys reading, going for runs, and building his record collection.