Scandal 5.3 & 5.4: Attacking America’s Mistress, Jake’s Not Jake, and Papa Pope Returns!

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NGN Team member Laura is back today with her thoughts on the last two episodes of Scandal!

Thanks to a bout of strep throat, you get two episodes of Scandal in one blog post: both last week’s episode “Paris is Burning” and this week’s “Dog-Whistle Politics.”

By far one of the funniest dialogue exchanges occurred in last week’s episode, when Quinn asked Huck, “You were gonna turn off the Internet?” And he calmly replied, “Well, no, I was going to erase the Internet.” If only dealing with a scandal like being the president’s mistress was that easy.

So let’s take a look at how Olivia’s simple “Yes” has changed things for everyone, and what this might mean for the upcoming season.

Olivia Pope and Associates Has a New Member
Jake forced Quinn and Huck to face reality with his brilliant arrival at O.P.A. last week, reminding her two associates of exactly who Olivia is and always has been: “Liv did not ask for your help. She does not want your help. She did this. You know why you don’t know about any plan? Because you are not part of any plan. The plan already happened. The plan was Olivia Pope standing on that sidewalk and with one word obliterating any life she’s ever known. The plan was Liv requiring the same thing of herself that she requires of her clients. Standing by the one thing, following the only rule that matters to her, and what is that? Do not lie. That was it. That was her plan. The plan is done. Liv finally stood on her own, and we are done.” When they ask him what he plans to do next, he says with his usual calm demeanor, “My plan is to sit here and drink the majority of this vodka and get remarkably wasted and watch the world end. Care to join me?”

This also led to one of the cutest moments in the two episodes, when Quinn confessed to her love for martinis, and Jake reassured her, “Every new spy does it. I did it.” It’s always nice when the super spies show their human side, especially after some of the more violent rampages we’ve seen them all embark on.

This week, with Jake off fighting a different battle, Quinn and Huck tried a different tack: hiring a new gladiator in a beautiful mirror of the pilot when Quinn first joined the team. Only instead of eagerly accepting the job like Quinn did, Marcus Walker adamantly refused and walked away, at least at first.

Fortunately, Marcus proved his worth before the end of the episode, refusing to listen to marching orders and instead fighting back with his “dog-whistle politics” strategy, leading to…

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TV Time: Once Upon a Time 5.04

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For future reference, I’ve decided to start referring to Hook by his real name (Killian) in these posts. It feels right to stop calling him by his more villainous moniker now that it couldn’t be clearer that he’s the romantic hero of this arc. In the same way I refuse to call Snow “Mary Margaret” and I tend to favor “Charming” over “David,” I want to use “Killian” to reflect who I think this character is at his core. But feel free to call him whatever name you feel most comfortable using in the comments!

Source: avclub.com

Source: avclub.com

Title Broken Kingdom

Two-Sentence Summary In flashbacks to Camelot’s past, the truth of the legendary Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot love triangle is revealed, shedding more light on Arthur’s obsession with finding the Dark One’s dagger. In the more recent past, Snow and Charming face a challenge when they don’t know who to trust, and Emma and Killian work to fight the darkness in her together.

Favorite Line “You tried to trick me with a catchy title and a comfy chair.” (Charming, to Arthur)

My Thoughts “True love isn’t easy, but it must be fought for. Because once you find it, it can never be replaced.”

Those words from Charming all the way back in Season One of Once Upon a Time were on my mind throughout much of “Broken Kingdom.” Once Upon a Time has always focused on the “true” part of “true love.” It’s something that cannot be faked; it must be chosen by both parties from a place of trust, hope, and belief. Love is a choice, and the truest love is chosen and fought for even when it’s hard—especially when it’s hard. That concept—fighting for love instead of taking the easy way out, accepting the imperfect realities of love instead of living with a façade of perfection—was at the heart of “Broken Kingdom,” which was my favorite episode so far in this stellar fifth season.

I’ll get this out of the way now: Yes, the timeline was ridiculously confusing in this week’s episode, and I hope one of the writers decides to address it at some point to clear things up. How could the Dark One appear to Guinevere and Lancelot when Rumplestiltskin was in Storybrooke five years ago? And even stranger, how could he just get possession of the gauntlet five years ago when he had it in flashbacks with Belle over 30 years ago? My explanation is that Camelot has always been considered a land outside of time, so maybe the passage of time is different there. But it would be nice to have an official word on that. However, I am more than willing to forgive inconsistencies like that if the story keeps me emotionally engaged, which this one definitely did.

This episode told the story of four romantic relationships: Arthur/Guinevere, Lancelot/Guinevere, Charming/Snow, and Killian/Emma. The way the writers created parallels and direct foils between those relationships was brilliant. It seems that one of the major themes of this season is “Love is a weapon,” and it’s clear that love is a weapon for good when the love is pure, true, and healthy. But it can be used as a weapon for evil when it’s twisted by darkness and manipulated by a desire to control rather than truly love. The same can be said of Excalibur, I think. It seems the Dark One wants to wield it for evil purposes—to snuff out the light and free itself from any ability to love. But there’s also the idea that Excalibur could defeat the darkness once and for all, which is a truly heroic goal.

Excalibur has always been associated with a worthy hero, and it was clear in this episode that Arthur is not worthy of wielding the re-forged sword. In order for the sword to become whole again, light and dark have to be combined, which I think is an interesting metaphor for heroism. A true hero is someone who understands darkness and light and knows that both exist in every person. A true hero chooses to be their best self and not their worst with full knowledge of both. While Arthur seems obsessed with maintaining the façade of perfect heroism and the Dark One seems to believe it can create a hero with Rumplestiltskin, I think Excalibur will only be able to be re-forged and wielded by someone who accepts their own capacity for good and evil and wants to wield the weapon for the right reason—as a weapon of love and light and not one of darkness and destruction.

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The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (10/11 – 10/18)

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I apologize for the fact that this post was missing last week; I was busy recovering from my amazing New York Comic Con trip, which you can read all about here! 

This week in television kicked off with another emotional hour of Once Upon a Time, which featured twist after twist and revelation after revelation. Also on Sunday, Brooklyn Nine-Nine highlighted Jake and Boyle’s friendship, and The Good Wife introduced a new man in Alicia’s life, played by the ever-charming Jeffrey Dean Morgan. On Monday, Dancing with the Stars switched up the partnerships with mixed results; Jane the Virgin premiered with so much humor and heart; and Castle continued to explore Kate and Rick’s new dynamic, as well as how it affects Ryan and Esposito (and Martha, too). Tuesday gave us a karaoke-filled episode of The Muppets; another look into modern parenthood on The Mindy Project; and the introduction of two great new characters on The Flash. On Wednesday, Nashville continued to break our hearts with even more depressing drama. And Friday and Saturday gave us the first two parts of Girl Meets World‘s Texas adventure, which highlighted just how talented the young actors on that show are.

It’s no secret that this has been a pretty heavy start to the season for many of the dramas I watch: Emma is the Dark One on Once Upon a Time, Castle and Beckett are in the middle of an unnecessary (in my opinion, at least) separation, and literally everyone is struggling to find happiness on Nashville. So lately, I’ve been incredibly appreciative of the shows I watch that are designed to do nothing but make me smile.

That’s why I loved the season premiere of Jane the Virgin so much: It had its moments of tears, but they were quickly followed by moments of pure joy and warmth. And that’s why I still smile when I think about Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Jake and Boyle’s “My Hunch” dance. And more than any other week so far, this week I found myself truly appreciating all the moments of silly fun The Muppets gave me.

Was the karaoke scene on The Muppets the deepest or most interesting thing on TV this week? No, but it wasn’t supposed to be. It was simply supposed to be fun, and that’s exactly what it was. It made me laugh from start to finish, and with so many TV shows breaking my heart lately, I love knowing that I can put on The Muppets and find so many reasons to feel nothing but joy.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

Don’t Stop Believing: A Letter to Rachel Berry

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This is the latest addition to my collection of letters to female characters who’ve inspired me throughout my years as a fangirl. If you have a letter (or letters) of your own you’d like to share, check out this post to learn more about the book of letters I’m compiling, and send your letter(s) to nerdygirlnotes@gmail.com!

Source: glee.wikia.com

Source: glee.wikia.com

Dear Rachel,

When I first started watching Glee in 2009, I was struck by more than a few similarities to my own high school experience, which had ended three years before. I had been a theater kid, a member of my school’s show choir, and far from what anyone would call popular in high school. But the thing I related to the most was a line you said in the eighth episode of that first season:

I want everything too much.

In you, Rachel, I found a reflection of the ambition I often keep hidden in the deepest part of my heart, because too often I’m afraid to tell people how much I want my dreams to come true. What if they laugh at me? What if they tell me I’m not good enough? What if they think I’m ungrateful with what I already have for wanting more?

You didn’t care. You owned your big personality, your big dreams, and your big plans for achieving those dreams. Confidence radiated from you like sunlight, inspiring others to be their best just to keep up with your glow. And what was so important about your confidence was that it wasn’t delusional. Your theatrical personality and your over-the-top methods for getting what you want were things characters and the audience were supposed to laugh at or roll their eyes at, but your belief in yourself wasn’t a joke. And for a young woman who still—now a decade removed from high school—wishes she had your confidence, that matters immensely.

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10 Things I Learned at NYCC

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This year, I had the pleasure of being a part of the biggest gathering of nerds on the East Coast: New York Comic Con (NYCC). After hours spent waiting in a virtual queue last spring for tickets, months of extensive trip research (aka asking people where the best place to get cheesecake is—for the record it’s Junior’s in Times Square), and a very early flight from Buffalo to NYC, my equally nerdy best friend Mary and I finally made it through the doors of the Javits Center and into fangirl paradise.

I’d never been to a real convention before NYCC. Star Wars Weekends in Walt Disney World is similar in some ways but very different in others, so this was an entirely new experience for me. And it’s one I hope to have again as soon as possible. The early mornings, long lines, sore feet, and big credit card bills were all worth it when I look back on the experience I had. To be a part of an environment that isn’t just friendly toward nerds but created specifically for people like us was incredible, and it’s something I think every fangirl and fanboy should experience at least once in their lives.

I expected to have a lot of fun at NYCC, but I didn’t expect to learn as much as I did—not just about the con-going experience but about my own relationship with fandom and my place in it as a writer (forgive me for getting a tad bit introspective/sentimental). So here—in no particular order—are 10 things I learned during my time at NYCC that I wanted to pass on to my fellow nerdy girls (and nerdy guys).

1. It pays to be patient.
The theme of much of my NYCC experience was “Hurry Up and Wait.” Thankfully, years of Disney World trips have taught me how to handle waiting in crazy lines, but there were still more than a few moments at NYCC that tested my patience. Lines to get into panels felt like they went on forever, and the line to get into the convention on Friday morning wound around entire city blocks. For rooms that weren’t cleared between panels (anything besides the Main Stage), you needed to get there at least one if not two panels before the one you really wanted to see to ensure a seat. But I learned you can use that time to have fun chatting with people around you, to catch up on the eating/drinking you will inevitably forget to do during the day, and to enjoy some quality people-watching. And at least from my experience, once the lines start moving, they move very quickly; while it may feel like you’ve spent so much time at the convention standing in line, it was actually a small fraction of your day. So if you ever find yourself faced with a crazy con line, just remember that the experience waiting at the end of that line will be worth it. Patience is a virtue, fellow nerds.

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TV Time: Once Upon a Time 5.03

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Source: ABC/Jack Rowand

Source: ABC/Jack Rowand

Title Siege Perilous

Two-Sentence Summary Secret motivations are revealed in both Camelot and Storybrooke as Charming and Arthur team up on quests in the past and present. Meanwhile, when Hook refuses the temptation of the Dark One, Emma is forced to find someone else to pull Excalibur from its stone.

Favorite Line “I don’t want to only be remembered as the man who kissed a sleeping princess awake 30 years ago.” (Charming)

(I would also like to use this section to mention the perfection of the “Doctoberfest” pun, possibly my favorite Once Upon a Time pun ever.)

My Thoughts Before I begin this week’s episode analysis, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the environment I got to see “Siege Perilous” in. I had the pleasure of watching it in a room full of Once Upon a Time fans at New York Comic Con (NYCC) on Friday, and it was (pun intended) a truly magical experience. (If any of you reading this were there, I was the girl in the navy blue Granny’s Diner t-shirt!)

If you ever get the chance to watch an episode of your favorite show with a bunch of other fans, do it; it’s so much fun. I’ll have more to say about my whole NYCC experience later this week, but for today I’ll try include some notes about the audience reaction to particular scenes, because it’s fun to know what others experienced while watching this crazy rollercoaster of an episode unfold.

Once Upon a Time is a show about fairytales, which makes it a show about heroes and villains. While the line between those two archetypes has grown increasingly blurry over the seasons, what has grown clearer is the idea that those labels don’t define a person so much as the choices they make define them. You can call yourself a hero all you want in this show’s universe, but it ultimately won’t mean anything without making heroic choices. And on this show, a heroic choice is a choice to love others more than your own selfish desires. Darkness on Once Upon a Time comes from hurting others and closing yourself off to love for selfish reasons—whether it’s vengeance, jealousy, ambition, or lust for power. And that darkness is contrasted by those who’ve chosen to fight for the people they love, even when it gets hard—especially when it gets hard.

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TV Time: Once Upon a Time 5.02

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Before I get started on this week’s post, I wanted to take a moment to offer my condolences to the family and friends of a fellow Oncer who passed away over the weekend. Adri, you are loved and you will be missed. 

Source: mashable.com

Source: mashable.com

Title The Price

Two-Sentence Summary As flashbacks to Camelot reveal that Regina pretended to be the Savior for Emma’s safety, Emma in all her Dark One glory puts the full pressure of being the Savior on Regina in Storybrooke. This involves coming up with a plan to save Robin from being taken to the underworld after Regina asked Emma to save his life using her new dark magic in Camelot.

Favorite Line “I spent over a century trying to kill the bloody Crocodile. I can spend at least that long trying to save the woman I love.” (Hook)

My Thoughts “All magic comes with a price.” This is one of the founding principles of Once Upon a Time. But like all good fairytales, this theme is actually about so much more than magic. All actions have consequences. All choices have ramifications. And the question becomes, what price can we live with?

There’s a defining line on Once Upon a Time between the heroes and the villains in terms of how they handle people who make choices that hurt them. The heroes choose to forgive and to move on. Villains revel in doling out punishment, in making people pay for their choices. There’s a reason “All magic comes with a price” is attributed to Rumplestiltskin at his darkest. And whether it was Regina’s desire to ruin Snow’s life after Snow told the secret that got Daniel killed, or Hook’s quest to seek vengeance for Milah’s death (which led to him trying to kill Belle), we’ve seen time and again that darkness often manifests itself in a desire to hurt those who hurt you. We even saw that last season with Emma, who turned her back on her parents as a way to punish them after learning that they transferred her darkness onto Lily before the girls were born.

Thematic continuity is a beautiful thing, so I’ve loved that Emma’s version of the Dark One is an extension of the darkness we saw in her when she learned her parents’ secret last season. Emma is the most empathetic character on Once Upon a Time; at her best, she understands the reasons people made the choices they did, and she doesn’t hold those choices against them. But at her darkest, Emma wants to make the people who’ve let her down pay. There’s a righteous anger to this version of Emma that’s fascinating. And that righteous anger is allowing those who love her to confront their own missteps and become better versions of themselves in the process, as they work to rectify the mistakes they made in the past—even if they can’t remember exactly what those mistakes were.

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The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (9/27 – 10/4)

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This week in television brought us more returns of beloved shows, which started on Sunday night, with Once Upon a Time‘s season premiere jumping right into the quest to save Emma from the darkness; Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s season premiere giving us a look at Jake and Amy’s new dynamic after their game-changing kiss; and Quantico‘s pilot providing us with plenty of questions to keep us coming back next week. Monday’s Dancing with the Stars honored classic TV theme songs, and it was followed by a controversial episode of Castle that shook things up for the show’s central marriage. On Tuesday, The Muppets introduced a new love interest for Miss Piggy (Josh Groban), and The Mindy Project tackled the topic of new parenthood. Wednesday’s Nashville was filled with heartbreaking drama—from Juliette’s deteriorating mental state and Luke’s decision to cut Will from his label to its fatal final moments. Finally, Saturday gave us the return of Saturday Night Live, which will be remembered for Hillary Clinton’s impression of Donald Trump and her sing-along with Kate McKinnon.

In a week filled with captivating moments, none made me hold my breath like the climactic scene in Once Upon a Time‘s season premiere in which Emma’s loved ones reached her just as she was about to crush Merida’s heart. There were plenty of reasons to love that scene: Jennifer Morrison’s brilliant performance, Colin O’Donoghue’s ability to emotionally destroy us all with his sincerity, the way the scene made Emma’s inner darkness feel visceral and exhausting and real rather than some overly dramatic struggle against evil…

But the thing I loved most about this scene was that it was all about Emma’s ability to save herself. As Hook said, fighting the darkness has to be Emma’s choice. Only she can save herself, but that doesn’t mean she has to do it alone. Watching Hook get through to Emma and support her ability to choose to overcome the darkness in her was beautiful, and it seemed like a great piece of foreshadowing for how this whole arc could play out. Hook didn’t force Emma to do anything; he simply reminded her that everyone has demons that can be overcome, and she’s strong enough to overcome hers. The decision to put Merida’s heart back was Emma’s; she saved herself in that moment, with the support of someone who loves her helping her find the strength to save herself. That’s something I hope we see play out as this arc reaches what we all hope will be a happy conclusion. That scene (including the fact that the darkness seemed to disappear when Emma hugged Hook and Henry) gave me so much hope for the rest of the season, and that’s exactly what I needed in what was a very heavy and sad week for a lot of the other shows I watch.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

Scandal 5.2: Deeper Into the Scandal of “America’s Mistress”

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Let’s all welcome back our newest NGN Team member, Laura, who returns this week with thoughts on the latest episode of Scandal!

Source: ABC/Eric McCandless

Source: ABC/Eric McCandless

As a member of Team Jake, this episode was the ultimate tease! And I don’t mean that in a good way. Still, I have to give Scandal credit—it was compelling TV, as always. The photos stir up the predictable media madness. While Fitz wants Olivia to stand by his side to make a statement, Olivia would rather get the hell out of town. And Liv usually gets her way, as her friends in lighter moments at various times point out. Abby explains to Elizabeth North, “The president’s about to get Poped,” and Quinn (when answering to Jake why she let Olivia take a case) said, “You don’t say no to Liv. And, besides, she took my car keys.”

Mellie Grant
Mellie has, by far, the best speech of the episode when she goes to see Fitz in the Oval Office. Her take on living in the spotlight that is the White House is a brilliant piece of both writing and acting:

“You placed Olivia in a dangerous position. You outed her. You thought by throwing me out of the White House and moving her in you’d be making this grand gesture. Finally she wouldn’t be just a mistress anymore. But the minute she stepped through these doors, the minute she moved in here, she became what we all become when we live here. And what is that? Yes. A statue, inhuman, viewed from every angle, discussed, exposed. She’s not just a mistress now. She’s America’s mistress. History will preserve her as such. Oh, honey, you made a horrible miscalculation, an error in judgment. You didn’t realize, which is why I’m here. You can apologize, I can accept, and then I’ll take care of everything.”

Mellie probably could have put all the rumors to bed, if Fitz (and then Olivia) had let her. Whether she should is an entirely different question.

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Fangirl Thursday: A Matter of Trust

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Source: Fox.com

Source: Fox.com

OUAT

Trust is always a tricky thing to earn. It’s even trickier when you’re talking about the trust between a creator and the fans of whatever it is they create. One wrong move, one misstep in how a character’s arc is handled, one bad interview—and that trust can be easily damaged, if not completely destroyed.

However, there are still those creators we trust—the ones whose beliefs about what makes good literature, films, or television align so closely to ours that we seem to nod along with every interview they give. Those are the creators we’ll follow to the ends of the Earth, trying new books, movies, or shows we might never have been interested in had we not known they were created by someone we trust.

That’s exactly what happened with me and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I don’t regularly watch a lot of comedies. I wasn’t the world’s biggest Andy Samberg fan. The idea of a comedy set in a police precinct wasn’t something I knew I’d love immediately. However, it had Mike Schur’s name attached to it. And I trust Mike Schur.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine has done nothing but increase the level of respect I have for and trust I have in Mike Schur. When people act surprised by the show’s diverse characters, its inherent warmth, its successful risk-taking in terms of its central romance, and its well-developed female characters, all I can do is smile and say I’m not surprised at all. This is what Mike Schur does. This is who he is. And this is why I trust him.

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