Anyone who wants a love story between Olivia and Jake does not love Olivia, and has not been paying attention to Scandalâs narrative...
Iâm free-wheeling here.
Iâm truly sorry for people who think O[redacted] is âonâ and that includes the shallow media because the show isnât selling that. Yes, Olivia having sex twice on a Sunday with [redacted] is trite, boring and gross. Itâs kinda supposed to be the latter. There is nothing empowering, desirable, or âgrownâ about that nolationship. Their fluid exchange, lack of intimacy and future reflect the choices Olivia has made for herself. Those choices? Giving up on living in the light. Â And since she is the sun (407), light itself, Olivia has given up on herself. Thereâs no more light in her apartment (not a coincidence that in the midst of this dark lair she finally invited daddy over for Sunday dinner); her clothes are predominately not white. Sheâs not even practicing white knight-hood at work. She is impotent in every way, and this is reflective in the substantive conversation she has with Huck in 512. She tells him the only winning move is not t play. Thatâs giving up; thatâs not taking command of her lifeâwhat (to me) the S5 poster eventually signifies for her.
So, Jake is a manifestation of all the dark and nasty inside Olivia. The Olivia who thinks she is so profoundly skewed, that she would not inflict her fuckedupedness on new dick. (after all, she didnât leave Fitz because he wasnât enough; she left because she wasnât enough). This is why she reaches for that same old comfort blanket with whom she doesnât have to try; who will accept her ill treatment because he has committed worse against her. The one who has a PhD in her psychoses, as trained by the same man who programmed her. And since Jake is a profoundly monstrous person is the umbilical cord to her father. This is why she keeps âforgivingâ him (508), and casting him in the role of victim, as she most recently did (512), and has done ad nauseum before. Because so long as she believes Jake isnât making the choice to do the things heâs done, so long as his misdeeds are just programmatic damage, then she has someone to rescue.
âThe secret to you is that you always have to save everyoneâ (410).âIan
When she doesnât have that, she doesnât know who she is and she feels a profound loss of control due to that loss of identity anchoring. That rescuing forms the substantive basis of her identity, which Iâve written about since S4 (I know itâs tacky to quote yourself but itâs also very efficient):
âFor nearly 15 years (sheâs almost 35), Olivia created an identity for herself as âThe Protectorâ (newspaper clippings, 308). A protector depends upon objects that need protecting. If nothing and no one needs protecting, does she cease to exist as a person? Who is she outside of that superhero persona? Recall that on an African island with Jake (401), with no one to save or protect, âOlivia Popeâ ceased to be. She became âJulia Bakerâ⊠After all, for so long, indeed, it was like father like daughter. Rowan derives his whole identity from being the protector of the Republic, and Olivia was an extension of that.ââKP
The show has made it unmistakeably clear for those who did not get it in seasons 2, 3, and 4: there is no substance to Olivia and Jake. They will never be a couple. Nor is Shonda trying to sell one. They will never be a love story. Never. Be mad about it.
I hear you: but when will this end? Iâve had enough of this dysfunction! I want better for Olivia!
I want it to end and I want better for her, too. Iâve had false starts before, but I now see that Shonda needed to eliminate all of Oliviaâs excuses. She needed to try and fail at the relationship with Fitzgerald so she could see that his love canât fix her. Her love of self needs to do that. The good thing about whatâs happening now is that as Olivia is purposely deluding herself about her father (heâs the lynchpin to her formation; the man who makes chaos normal), she is also surrounded by people who are tired of her antics and have begun to see through her. They calling out her denial (Abby in 510, Mellie in 511, Huck in 512). Huck however, is best placed to call Olivia out. Not only has he suffered the most from being an adopted family member, but he has also achieved something Olivia has not: he worked at overcoming his mental trigger and he won. Of Huck in 509, I wrote:
âOliviaâs only excuse is herself. I wonder if Shonda will now allow her to seek therapy, though itâs hard to imagine. Huck managed to confront his greatest trigger: Rowan. He tested himself and he prevailed. Before that, however, he spent time working on himself after looking to others to fix him proved fruitless (501, 502). Olivia has the same trigger, and I want her to prevail.  Season 5 is the season of Olivia Pope putting love on top, and that includes love of herself. I still believe sheâll put in that work, even though sheâs hit a hurdle. Weâre only nine episodes in, so thereâs plenty of time for the confrontational work she needs to do. If Olivia does not deal with the spectre of her dysfunction, which is the legacy of her father, she will forever remain stuck in gear. Whoever she is with, she will always be there.  She cannot be happy alone, or with anyone else until she confronts herself.ââKP
The incestcapades with Jake have to stop for Olivia to begin moving on. Sheâs the only gladiator who isnât trying to move on at this point and seek some normalcy. The only one who no longer has a future in mind (âThere is no futureââ509). The dysfunction she has come to know isnât normal, itâs just familiar. Familiar and empty because sheâs certainly not happy. What the hell is the point to life if you canât be happy? The naked quest for power is not going to bring her that, and I know sheâll figure that out.
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