slade3

Good point. Thanks for bringing it up. While I saw Rachel's reaction as over-the-top because I didn't think she cared for DeMario enough, I hadn't considered she was reacting to the producers decision to set her up, as well as being disappointed she wasted a rose on a guy with a girlfriend. While I was watching the episode live, I definitely thought she could have given that rose to Blake K, so I should have remembered that. And, yes, it was early enough in the filming that she would have been worried a couple of other guys were just there to be on screen.

I read that DeMario didn't go through the same process as the other contestants because he was recruited when a producer spotted him at a Chipotle restaurant. Since I think a lot of these guys come on the show to be on TV, the argument that he wasn't there for Rachel seems a bit weak to me. If you walk up to men and ask them to do a show like The Bachelorette, they will most likely say yes because it's flattering. No doubt he handled it poorly and should have broken up with his girlfriend, but it's the shows fault for recruiting someone without fully vetting them.

I liked it. It was entertaining and pretty. I agree it was a mistake to give the first 30 minutes of the pilot to the Romeo and Juliet backstory. For me, it's because I had time to realize I prefer the actor playing Romeo over the actor playing Prince Escalus. Lucien Laviscount (Romeo) seemed a bit sexier. For the critics, maybe showing so much of Romeo and Juliet made them judge the show in a harsher way than if it had started with the funeral, or post-funeral, so the show wouldn't be so closely associated with Shakespeare. I know they wanted viewers to understand how Romeo and Juliet came to commit suicide, but if you don't know the story, this show shouldn't feel the need to explain. Viewers can read the play, or the wikipedia page about it. I haven't read any reviews of the pilot yet, so I'm not sure why it's being panned. The acting didn't seem bad, and I thought there was decent chemistry between Benvolio and Rosaline. Enough chemistry for me to be looking forward to the moment they realize they want to have sex with each other. (I'd probably be shipping Rosaline with Prince Escalus, too, if they'd cast Lucien in that role.) I enjoyed Rosaline and Livia, and the hints of their story since who doesn't love a storyline about wicked relatives making noblewomen servants? I agree Livia will fall in love with Paris as she nurses him back to health, but she seems too young for him. I'm happy to see Anthony Head again, and I like Grant Bowler as Lord Montague. I also think Princess Isabella is interesting. My one complaint is the way the camera would pan over Verona as it moved from the Capulet's house to the Montague's. That was a bit cheesy. But this show does something only Kenneth Branagh used to do - cast actors of all colors as family members. I find that delightful to watch, so I'm here for this show and hope it lasts. Unless the next 2 - 4 episodes are awful, I don't see how this is the TVLine blind item.

I wish they had shown that, but maybe he requested they keep it private. He seemed very disappointed he wasn't chosen, but I don't remember much footage of him, so it would make sense that he wasn't there but returned for the rose ceremony. This was the moment my husband covered his face and couldn't watch anymore. We thought the date was cute, and we both liked Peter, but Rachel was really showing her cards. My husband kept saying, "She's the bachelorette! He's the one who should be working hard." And I agreed. Peter isn't going anywhere unless she boots him, so she didn't have to cling to him. (By the end, my husband decided he wouldn't be watching anymore It was his first and last time. Oh, well.) I agree Peter isn't the best looking man I've ever seen, but I liked the way he carried himself. I think both Peter and Blake K don't make for great television because they're so reserved, but it's good for them in the end. I'm not a fan of Peter's gap teeth (no offense), and I wish he would shave, but I think he has a great smile and a nice physique.

Yes, someone already told me. My response is directly above yours. But thank you.

Thank you! I had no idea DeMario was one of the guys Rachel met on that after show. I'd heard about it, but didn't see it. That makes sense, then.

I've never watched The Bachelor or The Bachelorette (however, I did watch the first 2 seasons of UnReal); I decided to tune in this season because of the significance of the bachelorette they've chosen. I mean, 13 seasons and she's the first bachelorette of color? I agree some of the DeMario stuff seemed staged. The girlfriend originally said DeMario was with her 3 days before she saw him on TV. When DeMario came out, she said she had seen him weeks before she saw him on TV. But how would either scenario be possible? Aren't we all seeing the show for the first time? And we know it's all been taped since Rachel keeps telling the media she made a choice. So DeMario's girlfriend must have been told about DeMario being on the show, right? Unless she meant she saw him in a commercial or clip? Does anyone know when this show was filmed? My favorites are Peter and Kenny. I think Dean is sweet. I was embarrassed for him when I saw the clip of him saying he planned to go Black and never come back, and it's clear he's still embarrassed about saying it. I think he wanted Rachel to stop bringing it up until he realized she was putting a positive spin on it. He also seemed surprised that she gave him the rose. I'm still sorry she sent Blake K home. What a lovely man. I wonder if he was too reserved/quiet and producers told her to nix him. He didn't appear to say much last episode, but seemed really sad about going home. Being my first time watching, I thought Rachel kissed too many of them. Do all the bachelorette kiss that many guys in one episode?

Thanks. I couldn't remember what day Crazy Ex-Girlfriend originally aired, but I thought it was Tuesday.

For a while I was hoping we'd see a scene with Michael shooting Frankie Vargas with Ella sleeping in a baby sling on his back. I definitely believe Luna was a last minute choice. I still believe they were going to make the Masterminds Rowan and/or Jake, but decided they couldn't count on the viewers to forgive them in season 7 after the real US election results.

I'm not sure if you meant to, but you responded to my comment and attributed to Dream Boy's name. In case you were responding to my comment: Get what? Olivia has a pretty terrific life. Until recently, she had her own company, and now she has a job she wanted, she has a fabulous penthouse apartment, she has a great wardrobe, she drinks wine that costs thousands of dollars. She is smart, beautiful, and she speaks several languages. She helps people. If those people treated her in a dismissive way, I might understand Maya's speech. But Olivia doesn't play nice with people. Everyone she helps pays her in some way. If they've hired her, they pay her handsomely, and have often been there for her when she needs a "favor". Her team has proven over and over that they will risk their lives for her. The two men she sleeps with are handsome, well-built and generally do everything she tells them to, and she isn't in a committed relationship with them by her own choice. Fitz has asked her to marry him, and Jake has asked her to live with him and raise three children. She said no. Who doesn't appreciate Olivia? What is she missing? And when has she played nice? ETA: I will also add that Olivia has always been unhappy. But I don't see her unhappiness stemming from the way "white people" treat her, which seems to be what Maya is saying. Olivia is unhappy because she was raised to believe she has to be Great, so nothing she attains is enough. She has to have more. Now that she "has the White House" and Command, I don't see her being happy. Who should take the blame for that? Maybe her father for emotionally abusing her all these years? Maybe her mother for being a terrorist and overall horrible human being? Maybe Olivia herself for not allowing herself to enjoy what she has and date a man who is attainable and really loves her.

Scandal's Kerry Washington: Trump 'Completely' Derailed Season 6 Plans From the article: “Our writers have really been challenged,” the actress told Trevor Noah. “[They] were actually going to end this season with the Russians hacking the election. And they were like, ‘I guess we can’t do that, because that’s a reality show!’ They’ve had to completely restructure the end of the show.” By making a Mexican American woman the Mastermind villain? (The Frankie Vargas wiki says Frankie was born in PA to parents from Mexico. So I assume Luna is also Mexican.) How ironic that Shonda and the writers were so broken up over Trump's win, that we've had Olivia do a speech about nasty women (that completely contradicted her character an episode earlier), and Maya do a speech about Black women and appropriation (that had nothing to do with the plot), but the finale ended up supporting Trump's racist thesis that all Mexicans are criminals by making Luna Vargas - a Mexican American woman - a criminal Mastermind who had her husband assassinated because Cyrus whispered something in her ear. They really should have kept the Russia story line. As a Black woman, I don't love the way Shonda and the writers address the issue of race with rants from Rowan and Maya that rarely have anything to do with the storyline, but happily make Maya an unhinged terrorist who seems to hate her daughter and ex-husband, and Rowan an unhinged merciless killer "for the good of The Republic" who has tried to have his daughter killed, and has pretty much mentally abused her for years because he wanted her to be better than "them". Not to mention the downward spiral Olivia has taken over the years. One of the reasons Scandal has kept me watching for so many years is the fact that I love that Olivia is formidable, elegant, intelligent, attractive and 100% flawed. I love that she has sex unapologetically and doesn't need a commitment on paper. But she has become incredibly unpleasant, shouting in everyone's face when they don't do what she wants, and demanding things from them that are emotionally trying or just plain life threatening. This is not progress and it makes me sad that Shonda may think it is.

Olivia looked fantastic in that last scene with Cyrus. Though I loved Olivia and Cyrus's final scene, I'm disappointed by just about every episode that came before it. I agree with those who feel Luna was a last minute villain. There is no way the show runners had Luna in mind when they were creating this convoluted mess. I wish they had just kept their Russia storyline because they clearly didn't have the time or interest in creating a new storyline that made sense. I can't stand Maya Pope, or the way Khandi Alexander plays her, but I thought she had some of the best phrases last night like "prehistoric penguin" and "big bobble head". I screamed. I was also happy she called Rowan crazy or mentally unstable. Finally, someone acknowledges that Rowan is insane. I mean, Maya is insane, too, but whatever. Her out-of-nowhere commentary on race in America had absolutely nothing to do with the plot as far as I could tell, so I was baffled about that. This season was a huge mess and feels especially heartbreaking because we only have one more season left. I think last night's finale established that there will be a Scandal spinoff after the season 7 finale. My guess is that it will focus on Quinn Perkins & Associates: Quinn, Huck, Abby and Charlie. I think Jake and his NSA crew will also be involved - I don't know how this will come about, but I suspect the men in Jake's office last night will be part of his team: Jake, David, Rowan. I also think we'll see Cyrus become VP, so that will be the White House aspect of the spinoff: President Mellie Grant, Vice President Cyrus Beem and Chief of Staff (Abby? David? Marcus?) As much as I hate to write this (as a Jake and Olivia shipper), I think season 7 will end with Olivia realizing she hates being Command and leaving DC with Fitz. Unless, of course, Scott Foley isn't moving on to a spinoff. If he's leaving Shondaland, Olivia may still end up with Jake.

Jane the Virgin moves to Friday. Are Fridays still considered the stop before cancellation? Since the show is being paired with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, maybe it will be a good fit?

Maybe? The episode before, Jake called David to a wooded area to discuss Liz. David said "Where is she?" and Jake said, "You're standing on her." And then Jake said he thought David might want to say something. I don't remember what was said, but David didn't really have words and Jake just said "Yeah she didn't care about anybody" or something like that. David did note that she cared about her daughter. So David didn't say anything outright trashy, as far as I can remember, but he and Jake weren't exactly respectful.

It bugged me when Jake said "So Peus and Ruland are working for someone else" when he was in that control room with Abby and David. It reminded me of last week, when Olivia was on the phone with Peus, staring at the breaking news drone story on TV, and said "You're behind the drones?" These people seem to know what restaurant you're going to dine at before you've even decided to go out for dinner, but it didn't immediately cross their mind that Peus had sent those drones out last week, and that Peus and Rualnd were working for someone else? Not to mention Ruland confirmed she was working for a larger organization last week. I didn't enjoy this episode. It felt off. It felt too much like Shonda and the writers were speaking to us through these characters. It is a mistake to try to write about real life events when you haven't given yourself the time to step back, take a breath and approach it all as a writer, not an emotional citizen of the world. I get that the election upset them, but this is very sloppy.

This bothered me, too. He was just standing on her "grave" in the previous episode, trashing her with Jake.

My question is, why did Rowan keep opening the boxes? Whenever one arrived, why didn't he just call Olivia to make sure she was alright? (I posted this on reddit as well in case someone sees it there and thinks I'm repeating someone else.) This scenario with the boxes would have made much more sense in season 4, when Olivia was actually kidnapped and they had no idea whether she was okay. Here, Olivia was jut a phone call away. And if she didn't answer, he could have said it was urgent. Only a couple of episodes ago, Olivia left Luna Vargas and a film crew just before they were going to do an interview, because Rowan called Olivia to his office. She would have answered the phone. This is a big reason I'm still leaning toward Rowan being behind all of this. It would be incredibly convoluted and ridiculous, but it would explain his theatrical reactions each time the boxes arrived. Did Fitz explain how he knew about the boxes? I haven't rewatched the episode, soI don't remember the last part of their convo. I just remember Fitz finishing Rowan's sentence as if he had experienced getting boxes like that before. Also,

I stopped watching then, too. I returned for season 5, but gave it up again when Olivia left the White House - not because I wanted her with Fitz, but because it was the 900th time they broke up and it felt like I was watching a show written by 10th graders. Unfortunately, I can no longer see what Olivia offers that makes Jake and Fitz keep coming back for more. And before anyone asks, I keep watching because I still have hope she will change and become season 1 Olivia again, and I like Scott Foley too much to stop watching him on TV. I loved Joe Morton on the TV show Eureka, but I don't like Rowan, or the way Joe Morton plays him. I love seeing positive depictions of Black women on my screen, but not Jada Pinkett-Smith's Nurse Hawthorne kind of positive (which was Mary-Sue to the point that you wondered if the show was a sequel to Touched by an Angel); I like my characters flawed and morally ambiguous, so I thought Scandal/Olivia was the perfect show for me when it started. What made her a positive character for me was, as you wrote, her power and intelligence, but also her confidence and unapologetic view on sex. As each season passes, I become more and more baffled. I have no idea what Shonda and her team are doing to Olivia. To me, Rowan has always been awful, and I'd like some confirmation that he's mentally ill, but with Olivia, I just don't want to believe that Shonda thinks she's presenting a tolerable character. I know KW has said Olivia is not a role model. I don't want (or need) her to be. I just don't want her to be a wishy washy abusive monster.

This! I couldn't believe the things the writers had Olivia saying last night. I understand they wanted to throw in the "nasty woman" reference, but these people are professional writers; they should know one should never use real-life events in their fiction at the expense of character/plot consistency. They should have scrapped that whole scene between Mellie and Olivia and found a different way to use "nasty woman." Even having Rowan go on his rant about Fitz not knowing what it's like to be Rowan, only to have him answer Fitz's question once the rant was over, was ridiculous. I hate when the writers insert themselves into the characters' monologues, especially when the message doesn't move the scene forward. Despite my frustration, I enjoyed the episode. I enjoyed Jake's scenes with Ponytail, and also enjoyed David's "Am I twitchy now?" This could be a good show, but it's just too messy. Everyone's asking the million-dollar question, which is "Why didn't they just shoot Peus and Ponytail in the first place?" All of this convoluted storytelling for 10 - 11 episodes made no sense if it doesn't add up to something else next week. Why did they need Jennifer Fields? Why did they need Rowan to kill Vargas if they were just going to frame it on another guy? Why did they involve Abby and Huck? Why were they threatening to behead Olivia? And so on. I don't believe the threat is over. There has to be someone else behind all this. From the promo,

Thanks! I thought Leo dumped her. Either way, I wonder what happened. She was being snippy with him in bed, but the last we saw of them, she had grabbed her clothes and stormed out of the bedroom. LOL! I think drinking wine while watching the show is a smart move. I may be out of town for the 2 hour season finale, but if I'm able to watch it live, I will probably want to watch with a bottle of wine.

I was enjoying the episode a lot until they chose Luna Vargas. Is that even possible? But I'm okay with it now because Scandal is a fantasy, and the ultimate political fantasy for someone who wants the country to change for the better would probably be Democrats and Republicans running the country together, as a team. And Shonda has now created a show in which 3 women are running the White House. This will never happen in my lifetime, so I'm going to sit back and enjoy it for however long it lasts - since I don't think Olivia will stick around as Chief of Staff. She has OPA to run and I don't see her walking away from that again.

I know you didn't say there was, but statements like "maybe Fitz had a fetish" can lead to the belief that there is. I probably would have commented differently if you had originally specified "racial fetishism". I still wouldn't have agreed, but it would have made me feel differently. Thanks for the link to Maiysha Kai's piece. I thought the scene between Angela and Olivia had more to do with the writers trying to portray "sisterhood" in the "work place." This show is never subtle and Shonda very clearly has certain agendas she tries to push forward that include diversity, body image equality and friendships between women. In a perfect world, women who know each other would never date each other's former flames without consulting each other first. Here, I assumed, the writers were showing us that a Black woman in such a high profile position as FBI Director would never pursue a man (PotUS, no less) without consulting the other Black woman he dated, especially since they know each other. She would not want her to be blindsided. I don't think their scene had anything to do with Fitz. I think that scene was also necessary because Olivia was keeping Angela busy while Jake interviewed McClintock, but I believe Abby would have asked for Olivia's permission to date Fitz if they had gone that route, too. Jake, for sure. But Fitz is the President. Presidents, I've heard, tend to exude a power and charm, no matter how horrible they may be. But I meant that the way Gabrielle Union would have carried herself would have been more like Kerry Washington, and I could see Fitz noticing her.

I definitely didn't get a sense that Fitz has a fetish because he slept with Angela Webster. That implies that Black women aren't human since the very definition of "fetish" is an object or bodily part whose real or fantasied presence is psychologically necessary for sexual gratification and that is an object of fixation to the extent that it may interfere with complete sexual expression. Nothing is psychologically wrong with a person who is attracted to more than one Black woman. I think Shonda and her team used to be better when it came to putting together couples that other TV shows would stay away from. Now it feels like they put people together just because no one else would like David Rosen and Liz North, Cyrus and Tom, and Fitz and Angela. The problem with doing that is the characters coming together should be believable and the actors should have some chemistry. This. I didn't buy Fitz and Angela together because Angela didn't seem like his type. I think Angela was supposed to be Olivia's age (did they go to school together?), but she seemed older. Or more matronly. Fitz doesn't do matrons. One of Angela's last lines to Fitz ("Boy, I am the director of the FBI") was an indicator that Angela would not be up for games/angst, late night phone calls and unannounced visits at 2AM. As far as looks, from what I remember of the women Fitz has slept with, they were all slim. Angela had big breasts and her clothes did not flatter her body type at all. She had a pretty face, but there was nothing about the way she carried herself that indicated Fitz would be attracted to her. This has nothing to do with her race. She didn't seem to have the same self-involved confidence Fitz's other women had. (I would also argue that season 1's Amanda Tanner didn't seem like Fitz's type either, but we never saw them together, so it mattered less. I always thought casting Liza Weil as Amanda Tanner was a mistake because she looked so young and unsophisticated. I've never been able to shake the feeling that Fitz is a perv because of Amanda. Just imagine him feeling up on her, calling her "sweet baby". Like a high school teacher and a cheerleader.) I've read some thoughts about Olivia's hair on a Tumblr page that had nothing to do with Angela Webster, but Jake vs. Fitz; I think those thoughts can be used on Angela vs. Olivia, too. Olivia never wears her natural hair with Fitz. She has worn it with Jake on the island, and she has imagined herself being rescued by Jake in season 4 with her natural hair. She also let Jake see her with natural hair when they were both living at her father's house. But the only time Olivia has worn natural hair with Fitz was when they showered together (season 2?). And then she was right back to having straightened hair in the next scene when they were in bed together. That may be because Fitz would have asked her what was up with her hair if she had walked into a room with him with the kind of hairstyle Angela Webster sports everyday. I'm not sure if Angela's look is retcon on Shonda's part, or if the writers are trying to let us know that it was never Fitz who couldn't handle natural hair, but Olivia's assumption that Fitz couldn't. I've read a lot of comments about Fitz and Angela not working together, which I agree with, but very little about Fitz's type. I'm curious how Gabrielle Union, Sanaa Lathan or Nia Long would have played as Angela. I would have even found Abby a more believable hook up for Fitz.

I edited this part of my post about 15 minutes before you posted this to write that I'd rewatched the episode and realized I'd made a mistake about Mellie. Maybe you didn't read my entire post. In any case, I agree that she didn't know. I had forgotten Olivia showed her their pictures earlier in the episode.

Does anyone know what the point of the Jake/David scene was in the beginning? Jake told David to ask Ruland to leave, but was that because Jake wanted to tell David about what was going on? Because why couldn't he do that after Ponytail left on her own? Part of me thinks the only reason that scene took place was so they could use that clip of Jake holding his hand over David's mouth in the promo.