Since we didn’t have a first-run episode of Scandal last week — something about a holiday? — this is a good time to stop and cast our best guesses for this coming Thursday’s mid-season finale. A few questions to get us started, based on our last visit with our group of antiheroes and villains:

We got the first glimpse of the reunion between Olivia and Mrs. Pope. Will we finally get to hear what she could have done to “merit” being thrown in a secret underground prison — by her husband?

Cyrus’ plan to offer up James as bait for a scandal seems to have worked too well. Even if James didn’t fall into the arms of Daniel Langston, what’s the fallout likely to be? And how much does Sally know about her husband’s activities?

Quinn earned her burn notice less than a week after becoming a spy. Worst of all, now she’s apparently going to be on the wrong end of a Huck interrogation. What’s the odds Charlie intercedes and sets up a fight for the soul of “Robin”?

To the chagrin of most of America, Fitz made his biggest pitch yet for keeping Olivia — her own White Hat House out in the boonies. Problem for him is, Mellie knows (if not about the house, then about their latest tryst). How willing is Mellie to upend his re-election bid by arranging for Olivia to join the team?

Who’s the clubhouse favorite for the death pool this season? My money’s still on Harrison, given the sudden amount of attention he’s been getting, with Jake a close second; somebody will have to “pay a price” for all this B613 business.

Racializens, the floor is yours. How do you see this show taking us into the winter break?

Olivia (Kerry Washington) and Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) indulge in a shared future for one night.

Score this round for the (relatively) good guys.

In the last episode before the winter finale, we saw the pieces begin to move. While Olivia and Fitz’s dalliance in the house revealed just how far Fitz’s obsession flame went — not to mention how badly he seems to want out of politics — the duo also came to an understanding, if not an outright alliance. Each would do what they had to do to unravel Eli and B613.

It’s possible Shonda Rhimes, writer Peter Nowalk and the Scandal creative team intended for Mellie to dominate the water-cooler talk after this episode, and explicitly set out to “out-do” not just Quinn’s descent into B613’s clutches, but the confirmation that Olivia’s mother is still alive and Fitz’s realization that Olivia’s father is the man atop B613.

It’s also apparent that they succeeded. But not without going to a highly questionable place.

Unbeknownst to her, Young Olivia (Yara Shahidi) bids her mother Maya (Khandi Alexander) her final goodbye.

The thing is, Cyrus is almost right: This season is shaping up to be Scandal‘s version of “a Greek tragedy in the making.” He just doesn’t realize how far that could spread. He also forgets to mention that in the story that gives this episode its’ title, Icarus didn’t meet his fate entirely on his own — he does so with the tools someone else provided for him.Continue reading →

The Road to the White House now appears to literally go through Olivia (Kerry Washington) on “Scandal.”

Give writer Jenna Bans credit: “More Cattle, Less Bull” justified its’ rather fast clip by successfully showing why this show’s distaff circles have no choice but to stick around each other. It also delivers a major reversal of fortune for Olivia’s career, just in time for what will probably instigate the final battle with her father.Continue reading →

With the combined fire power of a few cute empire waists, boxy tops, and racial stereotypes, Kerry Washington became one of a handful of Black women to host Saturday Night Live in its 30+ year history. Given the recent controversy surrounding the lack of color in the SNL cast, its understandable that the show would be eager to face the topic head on. Asking Washington to host was a nice first step, but they seem content to stop there.

Scrolling text in Kerry Washington’s SNL cold open, via Mashable

Sure, SNL addressed their lack of Black women directly in the cold open, but joking about the glaring absence really loses all effectiveness if you don’t take steps to fix it immediately after. Addressing your own racist casting practices as a joke makes you seem less like a writer’s room full of subversive humourist savants than it does a room full of white privileged writers. The screen caps above represent a joke that could only retain legs if at the end of the show they’d announced the addition of a full time Black female cast member.

Of course, after seeing the sketches Washington was thrown into –especially in the first half of the show– it’s probably worth wondering how well a Black woman would fare in this era of SNL. With a sketches that included a mouthy, angry Black girlfriend, a BAPs style Black ghetto girl, an Ugandan beauty queen who reeked of Eddie Murphy’s “what have you done for me lately” bit from Raw, and the best Angela Davis impression she could muster, Washington and the SNL writers were one weave joke away from a stereotypical Black woman full sweep.

Washington put her all into everything she was given (as did Jay Pharoah, who was in all but 2 sketches on Saturday night, “because,” said the writer’s room, “if they want Black people then, goddamnit, we are going to give them black people! Take that, critics.”) but surely there have been several other hosts from popular breakout television shows who’ve knocked their hosting nights out of the park without relying on racial humour to take them through. Jon Hamm comes to mind. Unfortunately, where someone like Jon Hamm seems to inspire new, original material, the SNL writers room looked at Kerry Washington and clearly decided that with the plethora of jokes people have been making about Black women for years, they already had all they needed.

The only sketch that seemed as if it had any input from a non white writer included the Angela Davis impression mentioned above. I really do wish my white friends would stop telling me to watch The Wire. But for the most part, I still have to disagree with Kenan Thompson’s recent comments about there being no Black female comedians who are ready for SNL. It’s the SNL writers who aren’t ready for Black women.

The rest of Saturday night’s sketches are underneath the cut. What do you think, readers?

Race, Culture, and Identity in a Colorstruck World

About This Blog

Racialicious is a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture. Check out our daily updates on the latest celebrity gaffes, our no-holds-barred critique of questionable media representations, and of course, the inevitable Keanu Reeves John Cho newsflashes.

Latoya Peterson (DC) is the Owner and Editor (not the Founder!) of Racialicious, Arturo García (San Diego) is the Managing Editor, Andrea Plaid (NYC) is the Associate Editor. You can email us at team@racialicious.com.