Scandal: White Men Can Jump and Your Olivia Pope Moment of the Week

If you missed Scandal last night, you missed Scott Foley and Tony Goldwyn playing a sweaty, homoerotic game of one-on-one in the shadow of the über-phallic Washington Monument.

Did show creator Shonda Rhimes intend for this scene to cause a person to cackle out loud and say IS THIS REAL so loudly it scares the dog? Unclear. But it was riCOCKulous and delightful and absurd and fun and funny.

Unfortunately, Your Olivia Pope Moment Of The Week is not funny. This season has seen Liv topple from her confident, badass superwoman pedestal, an in this episode, she fell all the way to the floor and into a trashcan. Just for the Secret Fitzfone™. While it really sucks to see this powerful woman down on her knees digging through the garbage because her married boyfriend is calling, it’s obvious that Rhimes is doing this on purpose: Showing us a different side of Olivia Pope. Do we want her to be fierce all the time and never in a weak, desperate, vulnerable state? Yes. Is that realistic? Probably not. Still: This humanization of Olivia is painful to watch.

But it would be even harder to watch a character who doesn’t change. Without a character arc, there’s no story, no drama, no depth — Liv would just be a shallow cartoonish caricature of a powerhouse bosslady getting shit handled. By giving her daddy issues and the inability to deal with her love life as well as she can with her work life, Shonda Rhimes adds layers to Olivia Pope.