‘Scandal’s” Olivia Pope might be a gladiator in a white, perfectly cut suit and the most legendary fixer in all of Washington, DC — but she sure has man problems.
Her longtime on-again/off-again tortured love affair with President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) has become the most tedious element of an otherwise gripping show, and I’m really hoping that their current romantic status (it’s off . . . for now!) will remain permanent.
The outlook, however, isn’t good.
With the recent news that Kerry Washington, who plays Pope, is pregnant, we can only imagine what this will mean for the storyline of “Scandal” — we’re just praying it doesn’t translate into a baby bundle of Grant. For a man who suffered under a cruel father, President Grant isn’t winning any Dad of the Year awards himself with his three current children.
Like a loser ex-boyfriend who lives in his parent’s basement, Grant just keeps coming back for more, phoning at inopportune times, professing his love, making things awkward for other suitors, and being generally unwilling to move on. More scandal, more dramatic promises, more crazy. He might be the most powerful man in the free world, but as a date, he is spectacularly bad news.
It’s bad enough that he’s cheating on his (admittedly evil) wife Mellie, but in Season 2, he also killed a supreme court justice with his bare hands. He’s dishonest and cold, and doesn’t seem to spend much time actually being the president. We should have known we could expect as much from Goldwyn, aka the Bad Guy from “Ghost”; at the end of that movie, he was dragged down to the underworld by small demons. It’s too bad something similar couldn’t happen on “Scandal” — that’s the only way he’ll stop calling Olivia.
Pope has plenty of connections, but she doesn’t seem to have any female friends — a real shame, as she needs one to come over to her apartment with a nice bottle of red, sit her down and say: “Get over him. No, I mean it. This time, for good. You’re a smart woman, so start making smart choices. Stop taking his calls, relinquish the psychic weight he takes up in your life, and move on.”
While many in the blogosphere applaud their chemistry and wonder when the two will finally be brought together for good, I, for one, hope the answer is “never.”
Grant drags Olivia down; she is her weakest self when she’s with him, questioning, doubtful and afraid, not in control of the situation. And the “best case” romantic scenario — them ending up together, either in the White House or as private citizens — would pretty much sound the death knell for her high-powered career, which depends on her connections and knowledge of the DC political scene. The First Lady doesn’t get to be a fixer, and the woman who was the president’s mistress will be tarnished forever in the DC scene.
This is one Shonda Rhimes character who could really use a McDreamy. Or, better yet, no McDreamy at all — the show is at its best when Olivia and her team are left to solve their cases, and too many suitors distract from the show’s real tension point — whatever case needs solving. Less flirting, more fixing.