Retcon - Scandal's Re-written Scripts

[Guest]

There have been so many examples in Scandal's 4 seasons of past storylines being re-written, ignored, or re-directed to suit current plot purposes. I thought it might be fun to discuss some of these.  Some things I know some people see as retcon whereas others see it as just fleshing out the plot, so there is definite ambiguity.

 

To me, one of the biggest ones has been Andrew's character.  When we first met him, he was a pretty nice guy. He was willing to take the fall for Mellie's drug abuse out of loyalty to Fitz/love for Mellie. Then suddenly he is the newest of Scandal's archvillains.

 

Another example (to me, I know opinions vary greatly) is Mellie's character. Was it just a political marriage? Was it love? Did things change after the rape?  Does she/did she ever love Fitz?  To me, it seemed they added the rape storyline to make her a more sympathetic character and add some love-triangle into the Fitz/Melly/Liv angle. I don't think it went with the Melly we had seen for the first 2.5 seasons of the show.

 

[CofCinci]

It has been 3 different shows in 4 years. This is one of the reasons I've stopped watching another show (Mindy Project).

[ParadoxLost]

To me, one of the biggest ones has been Andrew's character.  When we first met him, he was a pretty nice guy. He was willing to take the fall for Mellie's drug abuse out of loyalty to Fitz/love for Mellie. Then suddenly he is the newest of Scandal's archvillains.

 

I'm sincerely confused about the whole Andrew thing.  My initial read of the last arc was that there is a wide spread conspiracy to declare war West Angola for some reason and Andrew was a willing pawn.  Now it seems like Andrew did the whole thing himself and only recruited a couple secret service guys to make it seem real and his motive was to make himself sympathetic with the assassination attempt and get Fitz to do stuff that he thought would make him more electable?  I'm glad its not the former because I hated this arc and want it over but the latter just seems stupid.

[Good Queen Jane]

Another sea change has been the relationship of Fitz and Mellie to their older children, Early on there was no relationship; the kids were shipped off to a boarding school and rarely seen or heard from. Then the son is killed and Mellie  has a complete emotional breakdown and the thing that will make Fitz happy is his son being  alive. I can understand that the death might cause the First Couple to realize that they love their children but we haven't see any of that displayed toward the surviving two who have once again disappeared off the face of the earth with Cyrus's daughter.

[wanderingstar]

I can understand that the death might cause the First Couple to realize that they love their children but we haven't see any of that displayed toward the surviving two who have once again disappeared off the face of the earth with Cyrus's daughter.

 

 

Which is why the writers shouldn't have given the First Couple kids. The kids are pretty much just plot devices.

[Dizzychickstar]

Deaja,

I think Rhimes likes to hold the cards and lay them down when she sees fit. I didn't like the Mellie character first either and I do think we've been given much to paint her as less the shrew and more the sacrificial lamb...but in doing so, I think the show raises lots of interesting questions, like those you've mentioned. And while it does make her more sympathetic, I think it also shows how resilient and ruthless she is too. She's a complex character and one of the few truth tellers in the cast. She's a woman, when given the choice, will pick her ambitions over love. I don't know that Fitz and Olivia make those choices as decisively.

Do you think the Andrew character has been done a disservice?

[tabbybear]

I was just rewatching some episodes and came across something I found interesting.  In season 3 x3 Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington when Olivia survives the bomb scare Fitz finds Mellie drunk on hooch and thinks she is sad Liv survived.  Instead she says she is celebrating because if Liv had died she (Mellie) would have lost but since Liv lives Liv is still Fitz's achilles heal which makes her mellie's weapon.  She says if need be Liv is the tool that she can use to make her puppet Fitz dance.  Could they still be planning to make Mellie the brains behind this whole kidnapping to go to war arc?  Just a thought.

[allyw]

Another example (to me, I know opinions vary greatly) is Mellie's character. Was it just a political marriage? Was it love? Did things change after the rape?  Does she/did she ever love Fitz?  To me, it seemed they added the rape storyline to make her a more sympathetic character and add some love-triangle into the Fitz/Melly/Liv angle. I don't think it went with the Melly we had seen for the first 2.5 seasons of the show.

 

This is probably what has cause me to enjoy the show less and less with each passing episode along with the writing for Olivia. Mellie started out as an unconventional female character who was very enjoyable (to me) who didn't give a shit about Fitz or her kids other than how they could benefit her agenda to someone who constantly whined about Olivia and later written as she was a victim of big bad Fitz and Liv. It's like Shonda didn't really know what to do with her and of course wants to stretch out putting Liv and Fitz together so we get this mess of a retcon.

[Guest]

Deaja,

I think Rhimes likes to hold the cards and lay them down when she sees fit. I didn't like the Mellie character first either and I do think we've been given much to paint her as less the shrew and more the sacrificial lamb...but in doing so, I think the show raises lots of interesting questions, like those you've mentioned. And while it does make her more sympathetic, I think it also shows how resilient and ruthless she is too. She's a complex character and one of the few truth tellers in the cast. She's a woman, when given the choice, will pick her ambitions over love. I don't know that Fitz and Olivia make those choices as decisively.

Do you think the Andrew character has been done a disservice?

 

I wouldn't say a disservice per se.  I didn't care enough about his character to feel strongly about it either way.  I do feel he's been shown to be very inconsistent.  He's Fitz' best friend. He's in love with Mellie and has been for years to the point of taking the fall for her.  He's screwing Mellie while really being with Lizzie. He's a kidnapping mastermind. He's a pawn in the kidnappers game.  

 

It's like how B-613 changed from a spy organization of 8 people to the mastermind of the galaxy with a fake paper company hiding it while billions of dollars are funneled into it.

 

How James was the love of Cyrus' life... that he almost had assassinated on the street.  Who he was separated from in many months leading up to James' death.  Who he set up to have sex with Daniel Douglas so they could hurt Sally.  But now that he's gone, he wouldn't dream of dishonoring his memory by marrying the prostitute and James' death had to mean something.

 

It's just all too much.  It ruins my enjoyment of the show because I never know what version I'll be turning on each week.