Being the type of show Scandal is, you'd expect a season finale, even if the season was shortened to accommodate Kerry Washington's pregnancy, to be explosive. And while, yes, bombs go off, people die, and political maneuvers are done, when the credits roll, you get a sort of "That's it?" type of feeling. But, considering the episode at least does the job of wrapping up loose ends and giving us things to get excited about, it wasn't a total bust.
Topic 1: Loose Ends – Fitz, Harrison, and Maya
Let's just begin by saying that the bomb threat is averted, thanks to Jake, but it still does go off. With this, Cyrus hopes of Sally being caught in the explosion backfire for Leo, decides that the situation is perfect for Sally to show her leadership skills. Thus leading to her helping the wounded and her numbers piking to the point Olivia and Cyrus are ready to begin packing Fitz's stuff, well until something tragic happens. More on that later.
If just because, post-explosion, there lies the question: What about Maya and Adnan? As we know, Adnan was with Harrison around the time the bomb was going to go off, and seemingly he was about to be killed for he knew too much. However, with some semblance of feelings still between them, his word on not snitching allows him to live. But, with Maya seemingly killing her, he decides to join Rowan and Fitz in their revenge.
You see, that aforementioned tragic incident is Maya seemingly killing Jerry, Fitz's son, and considering Rowan was stabbed within an inch of his heart, he has a bone to pick with Maya too. But with only Harrison knowing the details Rowan needs to get revenge, partly on half of the president, he had to show Harrison Maya killed Adnan, and with this, the ever formidable Maya goes from world class terrorist to prisoner in the matter of minutes.
Mind you though, she says, like Rowan, she did what she did for Olivia. For while Rowan would rather send Olivia away, Maya wanted to give her a fresh start by getting rid of the temptation. Unfortunately though, she failed.
Topic 2: New Beginnings – Olivia, Huck, and Rowan
With all that happens though, the question becomes: what's next? In order to answer this though, it seems many character look toward their past to decide on their future. Olivia takes a look at her career, and personal life, and thinks about all she has gone through. And in these moments, you begin to see that as much as Olivia was supposed to be the one to drag everyone into the light, there remains this darkness unaddressed. Said darkness reveals itself when her first thought after hearing Jerry died, is that his death will likely win Fitz the election. With this, as well as Cyrus confession of him admitting to willingly trying to allow dozens of people to die so Sally would be out the race, Olivia seems to have had it. She has spent too many years threatening lives or ruining them, just to produce results, and what has she to show for it? She put a president in the White House, and helped probably less people than she destroyed. So, she decides, rather than continue on this path of destruction, she takes Rowan's offer to leave and, after some whining, Jake ends up going along for the ride.
Next character worth noting is Huck. After the discovery of him and Quinn, Charlie decides to walk away, but not before bestowing a gift. What is said gift? Well, with B613 apparently dead, Huck now has less reason to hide from the one thing which used to matter the most to him: his family. Now, strangely, Quinn seems a bit quick to give him this gift from Charlie and this leads to many conflicts within Huck. Most of them seemingly deal with his baggage and the threat his presence could bring them, but after a talk with Olivia, and some soul searching, it seems he realizes the only threat, as of now, is his baggage. And being that his wife loved him before, and Liv is on her way out, the monster looks for who he used to cozy up to.
And I personally liked that they brought his family back, for it really does push the idea I've said for so many episodes. Said idea is that, the one thing which seemingly all B613 agents seek out, is some idea of family and affection. Jake does that with Liv; Charlie did with Quinn; and Huck found some stability in Liv's kindness, Quinn's admiration of him, and may find love once again with his family. Hell, even when you think about Rowan, he has now captured Maya twice, and still can't bring himself to kill her, even for the republic.
Oh yeah, Rowan catches Maya, and his reward is being reinstated as command. But, this was a long ingesting journey. Be it through Leo/ Sally, or Fitz, Rowan was going to get his baby back. So, being the brilliant man he is, he used Maya to get what he desired. He let her run wild on the streets; let her take the fall for Jerry and Adnan, which lead Harrison to revealing Maya's information; and then got Maya so quick that it almost erased this persona they built over the last few episodes. Leading to one loose end which could have ruined his grand design: Harrison. The young man has an epiphany and puts the pieces together, and be it Shonda's way of writing Harrison off, for Columbus Short's personal issues, or just a way at pulling at some fan's heart strings, seemingly Harrison is killed by the man who killed Adnan and Jerry: Secret Service Agent Todd.
Topic 1: Loose Ends – Fitz, Harrison, and Maya
Let's just begin by saying that the bomb threat is averted, thanks to Jake, but it still does go off. With this, Cyrus hopes of Sally being caught in the explosion backfire for Leo, decides that the situation is perfect for Sally to show her leadership skills. Thus leading to her helping the wounded and her numbers piking to the point Olivia and Cyrus are ready to begin packing Fitz's stuff, well until something tragic happens. More on that later.
If just because, post-explosion, there lies the question: What about Maya and Adnan? As we know, Adnan was with Harrison around the time the bomb was going to go off, and seemingly he was about to be killed for he knew too much. However, with some semblance of feelings still between them, his word on not snitching allows him to live. But, with Maya seemingly killing her, he decides to join Rowan and Fitz in their revenge.
You see, that aforementioned tragic incident is Maya seemingly killing Jerry, Fitz's son, and considering Rowan was stabbed within an inch of his heart, he has a bone to pick with Maya too. But with only Harrison knowing the details Rowan needs to get revenge, partly on half of the president, he had to show Harrison Maya killed Adnan, and with this, the ever formidable Maya goes from world class terrorist to prisoner in the matter of minutes.
Mind you though, she says, like Rowan, she did what she did for Olivia. For while Rowan would rather send Olivia away, Maya wanted to give her a fresh start by getting rid of the temptation. Unfortunately though, she failed.
Topic 2: New Beginnings – Olivia, Huck, and Rowan
With all that happens though, the question becomes: what's next? In order to answer this though, it seems many character look toward their past to decide on their future. Olivia takes a look at her career, and personal life, and thinks about all she has gone through. And in these moments, you begin to see that as much as Olivia was supposed to be the one to drag everyone into the light, there remains this darkness unaddressed. Said darkness reveals itself when her first thought after hearing Jerry died, is that his death will likely win Fitz the election. With this, as well as Cyrus confession of him admitting to willingly trying to allow dozens of people to die so Sally would be out the race, Olivia seems to have had it. She has spent too many years threatening lives or ruining them, just to produce results, and what has she to show for it? She put a president in the White House, and helped probably less people than she destroyed. So, she decides, rather than continue on this path of destruction, she takes Rowan's offer to leave and, after some whining, Jake ends up going along for the ride.
Next character worth noting is Huck. After the discovery of him and Quinn, Charlie decides to walk away, but not before bestowing a gift. What is said gift? Well, with B613 apparently dead, Huck now has less reason to hide from the one thing which used to matter the most to him: his family. Now, strangely, Quinn seems a bit quick to give him this gift from Charlie and this leads to many conflicts within Huck. Most of them seemingly deal with his baggage and the threat his presence could bring them, but after a talk with Olivia, and some soul searching, it seems he realizes the only threat, as of now, is his baggage. And being that his wife loved him before, and Liv is on her way out, the monster looks for who he used to cozy up to.
And I personally liked that they brought his family back, for it really does push the idea I've said for so many episodes. Said idea is that, the one thing which seemingly all B613 agents seek out, is some idea of family and affection. Jake does that with Liv; Charlie did with Quinn; and Huck found some stability in Liv's kindness, Quinn's admiration of him, and may find love once again with his family. Hell, even when you think about Rowan, he has now captured Maya twice, and still can't bring himself to kill her, even for the republic.
Oh yeah, Rowan catches Maya, and his reward is being reinstated as command. But, this was a long ingesting journey. Be it through Leo/ Sally, or Fitz, Rowan was going to get his baby back. So, being the brilliant man he is, he used Maya to get what he desired. He let her run wild on the streets; let her take the fall for Jerry and Adnan, which lead Harrison to revealing Maya's information; and then got Maya so quick that it almost erased this persona they built over the last few episodes. Leading to one loose end which could have ruined his grand design: Harrison. The young man has an epiphany and puts the pieces together, and be it Shonda's way of writing Harrison off, for Columbus Short's personal issues, or just a way at pulling at some fan's heart strings, seemingly Harrison is killed by the man who killed Adnan and Jerry: Secret Service Agent Todd.
