S07.E18: Over A Cliff

[thewhiteowl]

Series finale.

[Ohwell]

I'm surprised that it's only a one-hour finale.  All I know is, there'd better be some dead bodies.

[WhineandCheez]

Well I'm watching it live for the first time ever.  Hope some of you live post here!! I've got my Vermont Country Jam all ready!!

Edited April 20, 2018 by WhineandCheez

[Spartan Girl]

NOOOOOOO NOT DAVID!

Dammit why the hell would he meet with Cyrus alone even if he did want to deal?! JFC everyone on this show is so stupid it's unbelievable.

Jake and Cyrus had better be dead and/or prison bitches when this is over!

Edited April 20, 2018 by Spartan Girl

[Mierin]

Poor David.  Though really a blind person could have seen that coming.

[WhineandCheez]

Quote

Poor David.  Though really a blind person could have seen that coming.

PUTZ. PUTZPUTZPUTZ.  Yes, let's go ahead and kill the only decent person besides Susan Ross ever to appear on screen.

Rowan's Final Soliloquey in 3...2...1....

Edited April 20, 2018 by WhineandCheez

[phoenics]

I don't GAF about anything right now except that EPIC ASS READ Rowan put on that committee!  Do it for the culture Rowan!  I LOVE Shonda for that parting shot - it made me jump up and down screaming and clapping at Rowan for reading them SO hard and then because NO ONE would believe (or the nation would fall apart) that a black man had held up the republic for 30 years (heh), he gave them a villain folks WOULD believe in.

Yes Papa Pope - GO AWWWWFFFFFF!!!

My only pain is David.  Poor David.  Bless his heart.

[phoenics]

Meh - the ending was lacklustre, so I will have to carry Papa Pope's read as my biggest moment from the finale.  And I guess I have to imagine in my head that Olitz went off to Vermont to make jam after this?

[TigerLynx]

David's dead and Jake goes to prison.  That's it?  I kept hoping that Huck would at least kill Cyrus.

[Spartan Girl]

And so the series ends with Fitz and Liv running off to Vermont. No, they didn't show it, but come on, we know it happened.

Pissed Cyrus got off so easily. 

Whatever. Smile, everyone, we're finally free!

[phoenics]

I am kinda mad Cyrus ain't dead.

[nilyank]

WTF?

David was killed and all those horrible people got to live their twisted little lives together.

Eli? Why did you save these stupid, evil people.

I don't even want to know what that stupid potrait of Liv means.

[KaveDweller]

So Jake goes to jail, but everyone else gets away with their terrible crimes? And the one semi-decent character left is the only one to die?

I expected a bit more drama. I also don't know why I'm supposed to believe Olivia and Fitz have a shot at a happy ending in Vermont, when we saw them as a couple they weren't happy together. Whatever.

[jschoolgirl]

Well, whatever.

[wanderingstar]

Damn, Scott Foley is still hot.

Quote

I am kinda mad Cyrus ain't dead.

Same here. I'm deeply annoyed that David died at Cyrus's hands. While I'm at it, I'm irritated that Huck survived to lay rocks on David's grave. 

If I ignore everything that ever happened between them on this show, that Olivia/Jake scene was nice. 

Edited April 20, 2018 by Gillian Rosh

[RedSoxRock]

Why was there a portrait of Olivia in the gallery?

[Empress1]

35 minutes ago, Mierin said:

Poor David.  Though really a blind person could have seen that coming.

I was like, "You're gonna take that drink? REALLY? When you know he's treacherous as fuck?" Do better.

I wish Cyrus had gotten killed. Other than that, it was a solid finale. Eli - excuse me, Rowan - telling all those white men about themselves was the best part.

[jenifaohjenny]

Bleh...that was just okay. I know it’s hard to pull off a satisfying finale but it can be done (see Breaking Bad). Was the final portrait in the gallery of President portraits? Like are we supposed to think Olivia ended up back in the White House as President? 

[reggiejax]

6 minutes ago, RedSoxRock said:

Why was there a portrait of Olivia in the gallery?

Because at the end of the day, this show was really nothing but a whole bunch of Shonda Rhimes wish fulfillment bullshit. 

[WhosThatGirl]

Well. That happened. Seriously. I’m bored.

im upset about David and kind of Jake too, who somehow took the full for EVERYTHING? All because Papa Pope did a really long monologue about something that I completely had no idea what it meant? 

I want the last hour and five years of my life back. Five because the early seasons of this show were awesome. I would also take Olivia coats and call the whole thing a wash though.

[nilyank]

1 minute ago, WhosThatGirl said:

im upset about David and kind of Jake too, who somehow took the full for EVERYTHING? All because Papa Pope did a really long monologue about something that I completely had no idea what it meant? 

 

Basically the white men on that committee didn't want to admit that a black man was the real power behind the country for decades, so they put all the blame on Jake.

Seriously, why couldn't they just say Cyrus was Command and send him off to prison forever. It is what he totally deserved.

[UGAmp]

I too assumed the portrait was implying she became president one day. They wouldn’t put a (disgraced) chief of staff’s portrait up. This show has had my suspended disbelief before but that’s wildly unbelievable. She still killed people even if it was all “okay” in the end. 

HUGE misstep to not give the audience the satisfying conclusion of Cyrus’s death. And how did NO ONE in the government/law enforcement question David’s death? That had suspicious written all over it especially when Cyrus went the extra mile and suffocated him with a throw pillow. There would have been some evidence. 

I guess it’s somewhat impressive the show withheld the final shot being Olivia/Fitz in Vermont making jam.  Good job, I guess? 

Y’all. We did it. We survived all the way to the end of this show. Especially after this absolute dumpster fire of a final season. Congratulations, everyone!

Edited April 20, 2018 by UGAmp

[ZoZose]

32 minutes ago, RedSoxRock said:

Why was there a portrait of Olivia in the gallery?

It's supposed to be a look into the future I think. She stopped fixing everything for others and became President.  The portrait itself is gorgeous though.

 

Edited to add: I just Googled and the National Portrait Gallery doesn't only have president's portraits. Maybe it's her stellar public service contributions as Fitz's campaign manager, Mellie's Chief of Staff and influential Washington lawyer. 

Edited April 20, 2018 by ZoZose

[Bubbles]

I actually kind of liked Cyrus' ending. It felt like poetic justice that the guy who fancies himself an evil genius puppet master had to do his own dirty work for once and couldn't really handle it, and now he has to has to live with that. 

[Dee]

So, they didn't end up riding off into the sunset together, or together at all, but Master & Madame Evil (Eli & Maya) both remain alive and, relatively, happy so that's pretty much a win imo.

[WhosThatGirl]

24 minutes ago, ZoZose said:

It's supposed to be a look into the future I think. She stopped fixing everything for others and became President.  The portrait itself is gorgeous though.

 

Edited to add: I just Googled and the National Portrait Gallery doesn't only have president's portraits. Maybe it's her stellar public service contributions as Fitz's campaign manager, Mellie's Chief of Staff and influential Washington lawyer. 

I mean.. I feel like it was meant to be open ended.. ? Who knows? The only thing that made me happy was that we really didn’t have to watch Fitz and Olivia make Jam in Vermont. 

I’m.. just over it. This was a boring but episode. Although I’ve been really disappointed with series finales as of late. But this show.. I thought it would at least make me feel something, I was just looking at the clock constantly.

[Guest]

That was completely unsatisfying.

Rowan gives yet another speech and as a result all these terrible, felonious murderers get off scot-free. No accountability at all for all the evil they’ve done from murder to election stealing. 

[vibeology]

45 minutes ago, RedSoxRock said:

Why was there a portrait of Olivia in the gallery?

Because Shonda and her team saw the Michelle Obama story in the news and were relieved to lift it because they didn't have a fucking ending figured out. 

I know David is stupid but even he isn't that stupid. 

I've seen worse finales but this wasn't good. It certainly wasn't memorable. 

[Athena5217]

42 minutes ago, RedSoxRock said:

Why was there a portrait of Olivia in the gallery?

My guess is that it was supposed to remind people of this real-life event: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-moment-of-awe-photo-of-little-girl-staring-at-michelle-obama-portrait-goes-viral/2018/03/04/4e5a4548-1ff2-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.225e9ac1423c

If so, I’d say it was a bad choice. Olivia Pope is no Michelle Obama. For starters, I doubt Michelle Obama ever anyone’s ordered death, and she has much better taste in men.

Of course the most moral character on the show gets killed. Very unsatisfying ending.

[FiveByFive]

1 hour ago, KaveDweller said:

So Jake goes to jail, but everyone else gets away with their terrible crimes?

I was annoyed by this and then I thought about it: technically they all confessed their crimes -- but the government didn't do anything about it so what can you do? They would have also had to of admitted that Rowan played a part in making every government decision for the past few decades and they were all unwilling to do that. That's on them. 

And as much as I liked David: you met a man who you knew was a murderer, at his home, alone, in the middle of the night and then accepted a drink from him? Sorry but that was incredibly stupid and I do not believe that even on his worst day, David would ever be that stupid. 

37 minutes ago, ZoZose said:

It's supposed to be a look into the future I think. She stopped fixing everything for others and became President.  The portrait itself is gorgeous though.

It was supposed to be left up to you: either A) you believe she became President at some point in the future or B) it was for getting two Presidents elected, being incredibly influential in Washington as a lawyer and exposing a shadow government that ruled Washington for decades. When combined, those three things make her pretty important. I'm sure Mellie and Fitz would have supported that. (I'd also stretch and guess even Sally would have.)

I also wish I had a clear shot of that portrait to make my iPhone wallpaper. It was beautiful. 

Oh, and hi Shonda's daughter in her special cameo appearance at the end! 

Edited April 20, 2018 by FiveByFive

[bobbyjoe]

The only reason I’m glad they didn’t kill Cyrus is because this show has been seriously bad in having its characters torture or kill LGBT characters a lot and get away with it— Jake kills James, Sally kills her husband, Liv and Jake kill Rashad’s lesbian daughter, Huck tortures Cyrus’ boyfriend, etc.  Sure a lot of people die on he show and it wouldn’t be so much of a issue if there were any less problmatic LGBT characters on the show more along the lines of straight “good”or at least “better” characters like David, Abby, or even Mellie, but the only surviving gay characters on the show were Cyrus, a guy the show— out of all their choices— weirdly decided to make their final big villain, and a not very developed character of a prostitute who we haven’t seen in a while.  So while Scandal likely pats itself on the back for being socially progressive, for LGBT characters it’s always been like the bad old days of old gay stereotypes when gays in film and on tv were pretty much entirely either villains, hookers, or dead by murder  or suicide. (Cyrus still ends up alone, unredeemed, and miserable, another of those old stereotypes).

Even if a lot of the characters had died in this finale and Cyrus had been one of them, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but had they singled out and killed Cyrus as the “big death” in the last ten minutes and left objectively worse characters like Jake and Rowan alive and, in Papa Pope’s case, free and happy, it would have been a big ugly cherry on top of the show’s overall crappy approach to gay characters.

[JessePinkman]

So let me understand this.

David not only goes to the home of the man he knows had him ordered to be killed earlier that day in the middle of the night. He accepts a drink from said man.

That is just about the dumbest thing I've seen on a show...possibly ever.

This episode was so boring. So so boring. It didn't feel like a mid-season finale much less a finale of the entire series.

[WhosThatGirl]

5 minutes ago, JessePinkman said:

So let me understand this.

David not only goes to the home of the man he knows had him ordered to be killed earlier that day in the middle of the night. He accepts a drink from said man.

That is just about the dumbest thing I've seen on a show...possibly ever.

This episode was so boring. So so boring. It didn't feel like a mid-season finale much less a finale of the entire series.

Yeah.. and Abby letting him go? The hell? If anything, Abby would have been right there with him. I mean.. huh? Why would she let him go by himself?

Also I know the last scene was supposed to be moving in some way. And maybe it was for some people. But yeah like others posted it was clearly a reference to what happened with that little girl and the Michelle Obama portrait. Which did move me. The portrait was lovely and Kw looks beautiful but it just left me being like “meh”. 

Im just mad David was killed and that Jake becomes the only bad guy. Yes he is a bad guy but so is everybody else. And sadly the character deserved a bit better than sitting in a jail cell and remembering Olivia and him on some beach.

[rhondas ghost]

I did get a chuckle when Liv sashyed past the phallic Washington monument to meet up

with her f...buddy Fitz.

[ForeverAlone]

Seriously show? You kill off one of the only two people I wanted to actually survive this mess? And everybody else gets to go live their lives (except for Jake in prison)? Whatever. 

 

And apparently this was Cyrus's fate in the original script. Probably only cut for time. Can't say I am surprised, because that is the way the show would end.

http://www.ew.com/tv/2018/04/20/scandal-series-finale-deleted-scene-cyrus-fate/

 

And a little bit more explanation (though not a full one) about Olivia's picture in the National Portrait Gallery at the end.

http://ew.com/tv/2018/04/19/scandal-series-finale/

Edited April 20, 2018 by ForeverAlone

[sweetandsour]

Wow wow wow.  At the awfulness of this finale.  I was expecting it to be terrible, and I'm not hating on the show just to hate on it, but wow.  I don't know if that was "the best Shonda could write" after the complete deterioration of the show, but I somehow feel that she and her team think this was an amazing script and ending.

After all of the power plays of the past, we're to believe that Jake and Cyrus just fold like that?  Yeah, I know, it's the finale, but good God.  What the hell was that small smile from Jake as he lay alone in his supermax cell?  I'm pissed that all Cyrus lost was his VP position.  Dude killed David in cold blood.  Sure, that might have been the tipping point that led to him recognizing he should just take Liv's resignation offer, but what I would have liked to see, if he really did have to kill David in the script, is the inability to handle what he'd done led him to have a real (non-poison-induced) heart attack and he died.  Was David's death supposed to be a true emotional moment for the viewers?  Because it was surrounded by so much lunacy that it's impossible.

UGH.  Of course end montage has to give us multiple (MULTIPLE!) power sashays from Olivia.  I laughed so hard when the camera zoomed out so you could really see her sashaying down the street bc it really highlighted how ridiculous and unrealistic her walk is.  If you saw someone doing that in real life, you would assume there was something wrong with them.

That shot at the end of Mellie after she signed the gun control bill (yeah, I'm sure that was really easy to get passed) and she shook hands with Marcus.  I'm sorry, I'm not familiar enough with general conduct when bills get passed - is that showing us that she chose Marcus as her chief of staff, or that Marcus is her VP?  Having typed that question, I also realize I'm not familiar with how a new VP is chosen if the existing one resigns - if it automatically goes to the #3 person or there's room for other options.  (EDIT - I just read the ew.com article linked above that clarifies in the cut scenes that Marcus is a senator.)

I guess the Rowan testimony was a "good" moment but I still hate his pompous lectures, no matter who the audience is.  Why couldn't he have screamed about his bones one last time?  That would have made me enjoy it.

I think the only thing I did enjoy, and I rewound this five times to watch it over and over, is when Quinn and Charlie (Bernard!) reunited at the end and they both kissed baby Robin's cheeks.  The look on that baby's face said everything I've ever need to know about life!!  Baby Robin, you are the only character that I like.

Edited April 20, 2018 by sweetandsour

[Mysteyman]

3 hours ago, ZoZose said:

It's supposed to be a look into the future I think. She stopped fixing everything for others and became President.  The portrait itself is gorgeous though.

 

Edited to add: I just Googled and the National Portrait Gallery doesn't only have president's portraits. Maybe it's her stellar public service contributions as Fitz's campaign manager, Mellie's Chief of Staff and influential Washington lawyer. 

She could be President or First Lady.

[TheOtherOne]

I honestly don't understand why they wrote David as stupid enough to accept a drink from Cyrus. They could have had Cyrus come up behind him and inject him with something. Going to meet him would still have been stupid, but it wouldn't have been as stupid as going to meet him AND accepting a drink. Or they could have had Cyrus ambush him at home and inject him. If they wanted to kill David, fine. But having it unfold that way was really terrible writing.

2 hours ago, ForeverAlone said:

And apparently this was Cyrus's fate in the original script. Probably only cut for time. Can't say I am surprised, because that is the way the show would end.

http://www.ew.com/tv/2018/04/20/scandal-series-finale-deleted-scene-cyrus-fate/

If that was cut for time, it's egregious. Huck arriving to torture Cyrus was sorely needed for some kind of justice in the end. It's bad enough Jake got off too easily. There had to be 10 seconds elsewhere they could have cut.

[tpplay]

I - well.

It was so beyond terrible.  

David's death was just bullshit (I don't want a drink.  Oh.  Well, yeah.  I do remember that you threatened me but this has been a BAD week so yeah sure, gimme that drink.)

The writing of this finale was AWFUL!  Can't we have Abby go after Cyrus???  

And Rowan.  PLEASE.  Just.  Really, Sondra?  Your idea is hooray - a Black man got to secretly run the country for 30 years because first of all - secretly? - we've had a Black president.  That president I'm pretty sure didn't torture and kill innocent people in order to do - whatever?  What was Rowan claiming so much credit for?  "I killed lots of guys and tortured lots of  guys and therefore I saved the Republic"?  WHAT THE FUCK?

And Jake lies contentedly in his jail cell remembering the time he was fingering Olivia?

I HATED this finale.  I can't imagine how it could have been worse.

[WhineandCheez]

Quote

 HATED this finale.  I can't imagine how it could have been worse.

It also felt like it was written in 10 minutes by somebody who was over it.  David, never overly sophisticated has his legacy (after having been in relationship with that horribly acting character that was Cyrus' real life daughter) now dies like a dumb stupid dog. And I STILL don't understand why no one goes to jail since Jake was arrested.  Why??

[TigerLynx]

I still want them all dead.

If they were going to have Rowan lecturing congress instead of just I've been running things for 30 years I would rather have him say:

"Every time you idiots let the financial sector run amok and then bailed them out with taxpayer dollars, I instituted counter measures that actually worked."

"Every time you morons sent our soldiers into a third world country without an exit strategy, I figured out how to end things."

"Every time you fools propped up a dictator and their fascist government because you were afraid the communist would take over, I covered your tracks."

They could have all the characters make more pointless speeches, but they couldn't include a few seconds of Huck torturing and killing Cyrus?

I did laugh when Huck told congress he had killed a lot of people, and when Charlie was, "You all are here because I'm going to be executed.  Oh you told congress about B613?  So all of you are going to be executed."

[vibeology]

Thinking on it more, I think what ultimately feels so disappointing is how passive Liv was. She didn't do anything that swayed the outcome of this story. Lonnie killed himself, Cyrus killed David, Papa Pope delivered the important testimony. You could take Liv right out of the story and it barely changes. Same with Quinn, Abby, Mellie, Huck or Fitz. So much of that story was driven by just a few characters. It's why that ending montage didn't land for me at all. It didn't feel earned because we didn't spend time with those people in this episode. Liv is our hero and she decided to have sex with Fitz and not to take a job with Mellie. That's not enough.

[Chaos Theory]

Well this show certainly went over a cliff.   The only thing I really liked was Quinn and Charlie getting their happy ending.  What?  I always liked the pairing.  Plus I plan to steal Quinn’s vows.

Are we supposed to agree with Rowan on B316?  Even if you agree with him on his basic premise that white people suck his secret paramilitary organization killed ALOT of people.   And I really hate that his speechifying  saved everyone.  Hate it. 

Killing David was bullshit but the show needed a “shocking death”

I don’t really mind that Cyrus lived because I think his conscience had finally caught up with him and I don’t think he will have a very good time of it. 

Edited April 20, 2018 by Chaos Theory

[ChuckWagon]

6 hours ago, WhosThatGirl said:

Yeah.. and Abby letting him go? The hell? If anything, Abby would have been right there with him. I mean.. huh? Why would she let him go by himself?

 

This.  Exactly this.

And my befuddled mind kept waiting for David to jump up....shot to Red holding a decanter in her hand, that smirk on her face...pan to Cyrus falling to the floor, not broken.  Totally defeated. A defeated, no an annihilated, Cyrus is much more satisfying than a broken Cyrus. 

 

I'll live, in the alternate ending world, where a literal broken Cyrus is pretty darn satisfying.

[wanderingstar]

5 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

I guess the Rowan testimony was a "good" moment but I still hate his pompous lectures, no matter who the audience is.

Yes, another dumb lecture from Papa Pope was a nice reminder of why I stopped watching this show in season 4.

[Empress1]

6 hours ago, ForeverAlone said:

And apparently this was Cyrus's fate in the original script. Probably only cut for time. Can't say I am surprised, because that is the way the show would end.

http://www.ew.com/tv/2018/04/20/scandal-series-finale-deleted-scene-cyrus-fate/

They really, really should have left this in.

[Guest]

I’m so glad the finale was only an hour. I can’t imagine how many weird Olivia struts and Rowan speeches we would have had if it were longer.

So basically, everyone got a happy ending except the two “big bads” (eyeroll that Cyrus and Jake have been written as monsters compared to Olivia who did so much wrong and the gang of happy torturers) and two of the only halfway decent people on the show. Abby and David are the only non-murderers of the main cast, except Marcus. Yet they’re the ones with the sad ending.

Overall, the finale wasn’t good. It was just.... boring and had huge plot holes.

[nilyank]

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

I don’t really mind the Cyrus lived because I think his conscience had finally caught up with him and I don’t think he will have a very good time of it. 

He will get over it as he is an amoral monster. He engineered for a pregnant woman to get murdered and schemes to have Frankie assassinated despite adoring the man who valued him so much and gave him a second chance.

When David actually talked Jake out of killing him, I had the mistaken hope that Jake faked David's death in order to trick Cyrus and get him blamed for everything. But Cyrus using the pillow ended that. 

Why did Jake stick around after deciding not to kill David? He would know how to literally disappear where no one except maybe Eli could find him.

I also thought after last week that Eli would help Jake escape.

I do like that Charlie and Quinn got a happy ending. I always liked them. If only Abby and David were given that chance.

If they wanted to have a shocking death, they should have "killed" Liv and then have Eli rain down vengeance on everyone as he reveals everything about b613.

Have them flashed to all the other characters as they did last night.

Then flash forward a few years more to small town in Vermont where a not really dead Liv is living in witness protection.

Making jam.

Alone.

Edited April 20, 2018 by nilyank

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, nilyank said:

He will get over it as he is an amoral monster. He engineered for a pregnant woman to get murdered and schemes to have Frankie assassinated despite adoring the man who valued him so much and gave him a second chance.

Yeah, I realize this was the first time he did it himself, but come on. He has been behind so many deaths over the years. We’re supposed to believe this one broke him?

[Free]

3 hours ago, TheOtherOne said:

I honestly don't understand why they wrote David as stupid enough to accept a drink from Cyrus. They could have had Cyrus come up behind him and inject him with something. Going to meet him would still have been stupid, but it wouldn't have been as stupid as going to meet him AND accepting a drink. Or they could have had Cyrus ambush him at home and inject him. If they wanted to kill David, fine. But having it unfold that way was really terrible writing.

If that was cut for time, it's egregious. Huck arriving to torture Cyrus was sorely needed for some kind of justice in the end. It's bad enough Jake got off too easily. There had to be 10 seconds elsewhere they could have cut.

Yeah, the writers had no problem with letting all the other killers get away in this series, so...