Scandal Season 4 Premiere Review: We All Know How This Ends

Scandal S04E01: "Randy, Red, Superfreak, and Julia"

Few of this fall's returning shows are more anticipated than Scandal, but I was especially anxious going into the Season 4 premiere because I wanted to see how Shonda Rhimes & Co. would try to rebound from what a messy, disjointed, and frantic third season. And boy, did "Randy, Red, Superfreak, and Julia" rebound. If, like me, you thought Scandal took a bit of a dip amid Kerry Washington's pregnancy and Season 3's diminished episode order, this season opener had to be one giant breath of fresh air, a wonderful reminder of how fun the show can be without necessarily falling into a pit of stupidity. Most impressively, "Randy, Red, Superfreak, and Julia" 1) brought Olivia and Jake back from their self-imposed exile on the Remote Beach of Sex and Wine, 2) reestablished the handful of other key players, and 3) set the course for a seemingly thrilling (yet manageable) story arc without feeling overstuffed or rushed.

One of the challenges in sending characters away at the end of one season is that you almost always have to bring them back in the next season's premiere, and this episode smartly needled at that convention. The opening segment gave us just enough of Olivia and Jake on the beach, enjoying their lives away from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and B613, but then also constantly acknowledged that of course Olivia would choose to stay in D.C. once she returned. Numerous characters poked at Liv as she swore that her stint in the capital was just temporary, and that she'd be leaving once she helped bury the supposedly-now-dead Harrison (Columbus Short was let go between seasons). And what do you know—halfway through, she started to realize that all those people were correct. Similarly, over at the White House, both Cyrus and Mellie couldn't help but scoff at Fitz's assertions that he absolutely would not see his former flame.

Along with that, "Randy, Red, Superfreak, and Julia" examined, however briefly, the effects of Olivia's departure on everyone in her universe—the OPA team, Fitz, and heck, D.C. itself. After everything that's gone down over the course of the 47 Scandal episodes that aired prior to this one, it's hard to argue against her choice to run off, but it's not as if she and Jake left during the most stable time. Harrison was in quite the predicament, one that apparently only got worse as time went on. Huck's reunion with his family seemingly went about as well as you might imagine. Quinn sucks no matter what. Abby found a new job as the president's press secretary, but lost contact with her co-workers and can't seem to get it right with David.

Meanwhile, Fitz buried himself in the work, booting 12 of the 15 members of his cabinet and pushing a new—and, gasp, progressive—agenda. He also tried to kill himself at least once in the aftermath of his son's death (and Olivia's departure). In short, nobody's doing well. And for a few moments in "Randy, Red, Superfreak, and Julia," Scandal at least pondered what might happen if Olivia took the blame for it all. But after a few admittedly great and heated arguments between Olivia and the surviving ex-members of OPA, the episode instead took a much better route by giving her inspiration.

Best of all, that inspiration arrived in the form an external crisis, something that allowed Scandal to reengage with its procedural storytelling and reinstall Olivia as the magnificent fixer and formidable manipulator of the public discourse that she is. I said it time and again last season, but much of what made that stretch of episodes so wobbly was the lack of standalone story engine. The serialized storytelling grew to be far too thrill-seeking, consuming the show from within. But not here! "Randy, Red, Superfreak, and Julia" introduced a frothy scandal perfect for the show's tone, but also one that taps into our culture's current crisis regarding sexual assault. A female senator (True Blood's Jessica Tuck) pushed a leading male senator over a balcony after he reportedly assaulted her, only for Olivia (and Quinn, ugh) to discover that the female senator was actually covering for her aide—a young woman she'd dangled in front of the man in hopes of influencing President Fitz's equal wage legislation. If that's not messy politics, on both the micro and macro levels, I'm not sure what is.

With Olivia ready to defend the victim and women's rights altogether, Scandal has found a new thread that makes its lead character seem more heroic than she's been in ages. That's not necessarily a requirement for me, but it's still cool to see Kerry Washington have the opportunity to deliver moving stump speeches with a non-romantic undercurrent. And if that's not your bag, then take solace in the fact that Olivia's public show of support for women's rights dovetailed completely with Fitz's legislation, which means they'll be in one another's orbit sooner rather than later. For now, it's good to see both characters—and the show—succeed in their professional lives.

All that only covers about half of the episode—but even still, there was so much good stuff going on. Every series regular was well-served, though the winner in the clubhouse had to be Mellie, who after the death of her son rightfully decided to just traipse around the White House wearing PJs and eating Fruit Loops. Once the Great Woman behind the Great Man, she sarcastically told Fitz, "Good for you, fight the power" in response to his new, more aggressive policies, and later explained that she's given up shaving her pubic hair, so it's "like 1976 down there." I don't want to say never change because Mellie's clearly emotionally destroyed, but hey, maybe stay that way for a bit longer before seeking help.

Elsewhere, David was named the new Attorney General, which is the kind of promotion you recieve from Cyrus Beene when he probably knows you're thinking of investigating him and the nefarious B613. Chances are that David and Jake will try to make another run at B6 sooner rather than later, but considering Rowan's still around—and apparently still ugly enough to tell Olivia that he killed her mother, on Fitz's orders—that probably won't go too smoothly. But it'll be interesting to see what Scandal does with Jake now that he couldn't lure Olivia back to the magical beach with his, uh, impassioned speech about his sexual prowess. That character deserves better than to be the third leg of a creaky love triangle.

But those concerns are for another week. For now, it's time to celebrate. Scandal is back—like, really back. Of course this was just one episode, but it truly felt like a statement effort. Now let's hope that the coming weeks can follow through on all this promise.

NOTES

– Okay, time for a game of Are These Scandal Characters Really Dead?! Is Harrison really dead? Couldn't he come back at any time if Short got his act together? And hey, is Olivia's mom really dead? Probably not.

– There were so many great lines and monologues in this episode! I enjoyed Fitz's claim that Mellie was doing better simply because she's "washing her hair now," along with Olivia's dark response to Rowan's condolences over Harrison: "You lose people, whatever."

– Oh yeah, Portia De Rossi's here now, as a Republican National Committee leader. She's not into bipartisan politics.

– Did you catch the very brief appearance of Parks and Recreation's Perd Hapley in one of the newscasts? Talk about stunt casting.

– And did anyone else feel like the writers were openly trying to be more sexually explicit, given the show's earlier timeslot? Welcome to 9pm!

– This was a great episode, no doubt, but the show might want to stop trying to stage scenes that require it to use a green screen'd White House lawn. The outdoor scene with Fitz and Mellie was truly rough-looking.

What'd you guys think of the premiere? Did you love it—or did you love it?