Scandal - The Key - Review: "A Stepping Stone Episode"

After last week's episode, the best of the season thus far, I have to say I didn't know what to expect, but I was hoping for things to ramp up, given the perfect launchpad was laid last week.

Written by Chris Van Dusen and directed by Paul McCrane, "The Key" was clearly a stepping stone episode, but for what exactly remains unclear.

The episode opened with Olivia and Quinn staking out an adjacent apartment when they witnessed a woman get murdered. That's a first for the drama, which immediately increased my level of curiosity. Simultaneously, Huck had resumed watching his wife, dying for a glimpse of his son.I was glad to see this part of the storyline show up again

Compared to previous episodes across the series, not a lot of progress was made with the central storyline. More emphasis was placed on catching up on some missed character interactions that had been put on the back burner for the opening few episodes. In hindsight this was needed, but it drastically reduced my preconceived excitement level. Examples include David and Abby's conversations - though the second one was progressive, the first one wasn't, and to be fair, Huck's adventures I just mentioned could have waited too.

We weren't left wondering what happened to Jake in the dying moments of last week's episode. Jake is already effectively sitting on death row, given Fitz's predetermined bias, and stood his ground right throughout. Even though Jake went on a hunger strike, mentioned the White Hat, and pleading to Fitz's emotions didn't buy him a get out of jail card.

Fitz was also on Mellie's case, and he may have finally snapped his wife out of her pyjama phase when he revealed why he had missed their regular graveside visit. Tony Goldwyn and Bellamy Young knocked it out of the park in this scene, by far the best scene of the episode. Mellie's phase has gone on long enough, as I wrote about last week, so fingers crossed for a change in Mellie's outfit at the very least next week.

Despite Fitz running the country, Rowan Pope continues to run Scandal. He has played his hand perfectly thus far he will be pleased with how his framing of Jake is proceeding. Surprisingly he's still none the wiser to the B613 files that Jake gave to David Rosen. I also said last week that Rosen has been stagnant but his slightly drunk state last night has paved the way for his level of influence in the story to pick up. I'm looking forward to that.

Abby and Olivia had a nice moment at the latter's home, and it was surprising to see Cyrus visit to reveal what was happening to Jake. This is the team of three that can help Jake, but how they go about it is anyone's guess, though we know Abby gets the ball rolling judging by next week's promo.

Lastly, that key Quinn extracted in the morgue. I wonder what's going on there.

Thanks as always for reading! Share your thoughts and theories on the episode below, and don't forget to follow Scandal's ratings on my website, www.seriesmonitor.com/scandal.
Jimmy

About the Author - Jimmy Ryan

Jimmy Ryan lives in New Zealand. He is an avid follower of drama television and has a keen interest for television ratings and statistics. Some of his favorite shows right now are Person of Interest, Scandal, House of Cards, Orphan Black, The Blacklist, The 100, and Castle. You can visit his television ratings website, www.seriesmonitor.com or follow him on Twitter, @SeriesMonitor.

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