#for context this is the kind of guy who starts plenty of racist comments with the typical 'now im the least racist guy you've ever met'

[worthyking]

talking to my white grandfather about Palestine ohhhhh where's my noble peace prize

[ot3-watch]

Episode 5: The Mile High Job

WHY IS THIS EPISODE 8

FUCK THE NETWORK I’M VERY TIRED

So we’re starting on a client testimony. Which is sad because I kind of like the context establishing scenes

Sophie being French is hilarious

I’m not saying Hardison shouldn’t be able to take off when he needs to. I am saying that MAYBE THEY SHOULD PLAN HEISTS FOR DAYS WHEN THEY ARE A MEMBER SHORT?

Also, why does Hardison not put his food on a plate before he puts it in the microwave. That spinning plate does not get washed nearly enough for that to be sanitary

OK wait did Hardison just flake out? THEN WHY DID THEY NOT POSTPONE?

THEY SHOULD HAVE PLANNED THIS MUCH BETTER

I love Parker being magic and teleporting

The security guards always seem like idiots and tbh, working where I work with the security guards being who they are, I feel like it’s all bullshit and a disservice to security guards.

I love the Doctor WHo references. TOM AND SARAH JANE BAKER YES MA’AM

But also did no one make a Doctor Who comment? Like really. I know Tom Baker is probably a common name but I really want to know what happens when they get a whovian checking their IDs

THe poor flight attendant. That sucks. Can you imagine getting a COMPLETELY fake call that your cat might be put down? I’m sorry, I can’t. Completely innocent people get screwed by them sometimes and I feel bad

Eliot remembers everyone he’s slept with I love him.

THIS POOR FLIGHT ATTENDANT? WHat happens when she comes back and everyone is side eyeing her and being bitchy?

I hate the trope of girlfriends or love interests being overly sensitive about people remembering tiny details. Especially when they aren’t actually together. Especially when it happened years ago. Especially when they hold it against them for the whole episode.

SOME PEOPLE HAVE TERRIBLE MEMORIES OK

Also, this is Nate. It’s a shock he has any brain cells left with how drunk he is 99% of the time. Get OVER yourself Sophie.

PLACE YOUR MASK OVER YOUR MOUTH AND NOSE ok Leverage predicting the future…

Parker being a terrible flight attendant is hilarious

Did I like her in this episode? I think I liked her in this episode

Eliot suffering through economy I can’t

I feel bad for the woman, but like… stop pushing? I know she’s nervous but the flight attendant is trying to do her job. I mean, it’s Parker, but in any normal situation…

Hardison pulls the same “You’re such a racist” bit every time he gets in a sticky situation, and it always works? Can you imagine if he tried to pull that on an actual racist?

Do planes have bars like that? I’ve been on plenty of planes and i’ve never seen a bar like that

Im never in first class though so whatever

OKAY GUYS THE IN-FLIGHT MOVIE IS ONE OF THE LIBRARIANS MOVIES

Which means noah wyle exists in the leverage universe.

HOW IS THAT GOING TO WORK WITH THE REBOOT THOUGH?

Unless they just… expected no one to notice? To be fair, it’s not like they focused on it

They probably just needed a movie they could use without securing rights first or running into copyright issues

But still… paradoxes

Eliot just going through a bunch of random people's bags…

HE AND PARKER MOVING AROUND EACH OTHER SO COMFORTABLY THOUGH

THIS IS SEASON ONE WHY ARE THEY SO GOOD TOGETHER ALREADY

I LOVE THEM GUYS

Parker. That’s not reassuring Parker. Parker that’s just terrifying. WHY WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT PARKER?? pARKER?? i’M CONCERNED PARKER!

I really hate Sophie getting mad at nate for this shit. It’s not funny. It’s not cute. It just makes Sophie seem unreasonable and bitchy

OK BUT Hardison and the woman bonding IMMEDIATELY over nerdy gaming is so great

Also i like that they made the other nerd a woman is great

OK but he is not talking nearly silently enough for the ONLY other person in the room to just stop listening to him?

Could you imagine the person you were talking to randomly stops talking, looks upset, and then sticks his head in the cabinet? And starts muttering to himself?

LIKE EITHER HE CAN’T TELL REALITY FROM FANTASY OR HES A SPY

WHY ARE YOU NOT SUSPICIOUS??

He really does pull this shit off really well.

The amount of men in that conference room is oppressive and very realistic ina very sad way

Parker must be in a thief’s paradise

OKAY I REMEMBER NOW AND I DID LIKE PARKER IN THIS EPISODE

“Nobody tells me anything”

THAT’S SUCH A MOOD

Literally the job I’m working in right now is exactly like that

My job is literally to know things and help people and provide them with the information they need

AND STILL I’M ONE OF THE LAST TO FIND THINGS OUT

IT’S VERY FRUSTRATING OK

WHy can I not remember why they’re going after genegrow? Someone died I think? But i cannot remember

“The guy in 1D wants to kill you. Ginger Ale?”

Why is it that all i can think about right now is harry styles and niall horan

I mean I KNOW why but like… why

I LOVE them but why?

WHAT IS THIS OFFICE WOMAN’S NAME I LOVE HER

How does no one question Hardison showing up out of nowhere though?

Im just saying… supposedly it’s “Dave’s” birthday, and they think they should have already known about it? He just started that job on that day?

Unless he’s pretending to have been there forever but even then…

This makes no sense? I’m so confused?

Eliot beating a guy up in an airport bathroom is fantastic

But also you can’t fit one person in a airport bathroom, let alone two

THe view from the top is much smaller than the shots from the side

Parker: the guy we just took out? Eliot: -_- Parker: The guy Eliot just took out?

Sophie always seems so shocked by the inhumanity of some of these people they interact with. Nate’s like “Yeah, people are awful” and Eliot’s like “I see worse all the time” and Parker’s like “Is this meant to be weird or something?” but Sophie’s like “WHAt? Someone wants people DEAD? And might KILL US IN THE PROCESS?”

Is the art theft world just not so violent?

Even hardison doesn’t seem shocked, just upset and offended. Sophie’s always like OoO though and it gets weird?

Now both Eliot AND Nate are fitting in the bathroom? With an already unconscious guy? I’VE BEEN IN AIRPLANE BATHROOMS. THEY AREN’T BIG ENOUGH FOR THAT.

Unless i’m just fat. Which is an option.

Why do people have random wires in their luggage? Who travels with a giant bundle of wires in their luggage?

Oh look. The red head was right. There is a tailwind

OK But THE OXYGEN MASKS CAME DOWN AND NO ONE IS TRYING TO PUT ONE ON?

I know they’re panicking but still

Nate really does just throw things at hardison and then Hardison goes like WHAT I CAN’T DO THIS and then he does it.

HOW is Hardison THAT talented it’s ridiculous

WE all talk about Eliot being hyper-competent in everything when Hardison is literally right there

Not to say that eliot doesn’t deserve attention because he does and I love him

I LOVE ELIOT OKAY

I’m just saying Hardison deserves more credit

HOW DID THEY NOT HIT ANY CARS WHEN THEY WERE LANDING? THERE ARE CARS RIGHT THERE? ANd then there’s suddenly no cars in font of them when they land ? It’s all deserted?

HARDISON IS SO GOOD THOUGH

How did they set up a party for “Dave” so quickly?

WHY DOES NO ONE LOOK TO SEE WHO DAVE WAS YELLING AT?

Everyone is so done with Hardison and honestly? Fair. He might’ve saved them, but he also screwed them over earlier. It came in handy, but still.

I really could not give less of a shit about the Nate Sophie storyline in this episode. In most of season one really. It’s all shitty and annoying

FINAL THOUGHTS: 8/10. Points off for people not acting like people. Points off for the shitty Sophie/Nate stuff. Extra points for Eliot being Eliot. (There will always be extra points for Eliot being Eliot). Extra points for Hardison’s badassery. Extra points because I liked Parker in this episode. Extra points for nerd girl. You go nerd girl. Points off because I literally remember nothing about this episode except for Hardison being awesome, the office scenes, and the fact that there was a plane crash. Why were they on the plane? No idea. Can’t remember.

Sam count: 3/5

IYS count: 2/5 (Am I remembering this wrong? I felt like there were more? Then again, I’m only 5 episodes in)

[believerindaydreams]

the one that happens after the Baker one

"We're going to be okay," Tuco promises Angel Eyes, as he shuts and locks the broom cupboard. Wishes he had a name to call the man, that wouldn't sound so stupid to say aloud in public.

(trigger warnings: in which various racist comments are made, and Tuco is bratty and unwoke on the subject of feminism.)

He ought to have known better than taking Angel to such a questionable joint- but a part of him had already been itching to get back to a place like this, sizzling neon lights and watered beer, girls who'll spit in your eye once they notice who you're with and why. Living at the hacienda's so safe. And Angel had been the one to suggest it.

"Blondie told me stories. But countrified, prettied up for my benefit-" this with a sardonic look in his eye, the one Tuco used to think was bitter but has since decided is Angel's idea of humour. "I wouldn't mind getting a notion of what the scene looks like to you."

"You promise not to talk too much?" Anybody else, he'd be on pins and needles, ready to cringe at an overplayed hand (it's different for him, that's the whole shtick). But by now they've gotten to know each other; Tuco has a rather definite idea that if he told Angel to shut up, he'd actually shut up. At least in this particular context.

"Easily done. Lay out any ground rules that make sense to you."

Simple as that, eh? "If I say we leave, we go and no argument. Let me take the lead unless some damn cowboy decides that beating me to a pulp sounds like a fun Friday night out, then you do whatever makes sense. Even if that's just leaving, I don't want to look after somebody in a fight when they don't want to be there. And since it's your idea," Tuco had said, drawing just enough irony into his voice- "I'll let you stake us out for it."

"Fine," Angel had said. Before adding, "Anything you win, keep for yourself."

Now that's where the trouble had come in.

Being so broke they'd started dipping into the stake for tequila money, that had not been a good state of affairs. Not that the best room and board he's had since leaving Brooklyn is anything to sneeze at- who's he kidding, the hacienda's way better than that rusty tenement. But there hasn't been a word about the green stuff since meeting Angel, and while that's strangely reassuring, it also worries him what'll happen if the bubble bursts. (How the hell is Blondie managing alone, with only half their cash? Maybe his partner will come back when he gets hungry enough).

Tuco knows better than to stare and lick his lips, watching Angel count out enough money to keep him and his partner for months- but the notion crosses his mind, to just grab the cash and run. Not gonna happen. It's a bank, and there's such a thing as cops, and he could confidently set his life expectancy at three days pus or minus a couple, after a play like that. Doesn't stop him thinking about it. It's a free country.

"We're not doing the hustle, obviously," he explains once they're on the street. "I only do it with Blondie, and anyway we'd have to split up for that. And I'm not dressed for it."

In lieu of his usual eye-catching gear, he's plumped for the skirt-chasing outfit: khaki pants and matching drip-dry jacket and a shirt with just two colours in it, something Angel's been giving him weird looks for ever since they left the house. It's slightly uncomfortable, wearing it for a night like this. Somebody who looks too crazy to fuck doesn't have to worry about anybody trying. Not like Blondie, fending off the offers with a stick whenever people notice he's pretty.

(In a way he's always been jealous of that. But also, it'd just be another problem, make him more vulnerable than he is already, and he'd just as soon give that a miss.)

"Then what did you dress for?" Angel asks.

"A few drinks, a few hands of poker, nothing too messy- I guess you're not looking for a girl at the end of the night, huh? So we won't do this by the book."

"Certain companionship wouldn't necessarily go amiss," Angel Eyes says, taking him by the hand. Thin white gloves for a change, suitable for cardplay, and he's guessed that someone must be getting fairly horny in his partner's absence, but this is almost comical. By Angel's usual standards, they’re practically fucking in the street. He should have gone with that blue-toned Hawaiian shirt after all.

Then again, Baker finally getting the hint and going yesterday means that he's fresh out of options again. And deprivation always gives him an appetite.

"...see how the night goes," Tuco mutters, in a deniable fashion; and then takes his hand away because there are about fifteen good reasons for them not to be seen like this. "And we'll have a few drinks, like I said."

"I don't often drink in public," Angel Eyes says. There's a vibe of transgression there, that he would expect, but maybe not with that much wryness to it. As though it's a private joke instead of a statement of fact.

"Why, you want people to think you're on the wagon?" Plenty of good reasons for that. He's done it himself with girls a couple times, if he hasn't ordered yet and it looks like that'll impress them. "I know you're not a teetotaler, with all the red wine that goes into your soups."

"Believe it or not, the way I cook them burns the alcohol content off. There's no risk of intoxication from my venison stew, I can assure you."

"Oh. That's a little disappointing, I thought it made it more fun...well, if you don't want to, you don't want to. I can fix you up, there's a couple tricks so nobody will know the difference."

"Just the one...shouldn't hurt. No."

Cue a sudden warmth washing through his gut. The tense, attractive quality of that rueful craving- somebody who knows better, not even trying to resist temptation- that doesn't sound like buttoned-up Angel Eyes one little bit, that sounds like him. Or somebody who's been listening to him an awful lot, the last couple months.

Skirt-chasing gear, yes. The clothes he wants other people to see him in, when he wants to fuck them. Damn his instincts.

And damn you too, Blondie. I hope you get back soon...

Which had been the last thought he'd spared for his partner that whole evening, two bars and three nightclubs and a few hands of poker. That he thinks had gone a little better than usual, without having to juggle the hustle and betting and trying not to drool over Blondie looking zesty, although Angel Eyes proves more of a distraction there than he'd like to think. Angel’s certainly never going to cut it as a cardsharp; he’d easily been the weakest player during that Carson foursome, and calling his playing tonight desultory might be kind. Too busy staring at the room, like a wet-behind-the-ears tourist. 

Him ordering the expensive mixed drinks, the ones he'd never had the money to risk trying before. Angel had held off for a while, until they'd accidentally landed up somewhere halfway clean, with a bartender willing to open a new bottle of whisky on request, and had downed the shot in one.

That had been a good two hours ago, but if Angel's not drunk enough to be desperate now, Tuco's at a loss for what's wrong with the man. The moment there’d been a crash on the door downstairs,  Angel had grabbed him and made for an exit as though he’d be rehearsing. 

"Look, these police raids happen all the time. They round you up, you're in the slammer for a night, all a man like you has to do is pay bail and get out." He glances at the door again. Sooner or later somebody's going to look in here and then they're going to be in for it.

"I am not going to let anyone take me anywhere," Angel says, flipping a gun out from somewhere under his coat. No doubt it's loaded. Tuco's positive he knows how to use it.

"You said you'd listen to me, huh? You gonna break a promise? Right now it's just a raid. The cops shove some people around a bit, somebody gets beaten up, they'll survive that. You start shooting, they start shooting, people end up dead. And I'm the kind of guy who's ready made for a target."

"If I have to, I'll use it," Angel says stubbornly; but he shoves the gun in his pocket, and actions always matter more with him. "I can't afford a run-in like that."

"Okay. I said to trust me, I'll get you out of this."

His mind's been working on it, while his mouth's been busy; there's shelves of cleaning products, buckets, a mop cart. Too bad he didn't bring his Duluth- damn it, this is exactly what's wrong with wearing something too stylish to pair with a canoe pack. "You see any rubbing alcohol?"

Wordlessly, Angel takes a bottle down from a high shelf, wraps his fingers around it when they won't cooperate. It occurs to Tuco he might be drunker than he realised.

But the basic idea's solid, he just has to make it work. "Now- um. We take everything off the cart, put it back on the shelf, you hide inside under the tablecloths. Pour some alcohol on me, I'm going to be drunk."

"You are drunk."

"I know, I want to look it. Make me messy."

There's something much too sexy and familiar at once, about the way Angel Eyes almost chokes in disbelief- Blondie ought to know better but still does the same thing, when he's caught off guard. There's something even worse about how fast Angel intuits what he wants, mussing up his hair but good and trickling alcohol down his shirt and adding an artistic scruff of dust to his collar. Fuck it, he's getting a hard-on like nobody's business. Tight pants too, that's not going to help.

"If I were a janitor," Tuco says, with what he's aware is a slightly exaggerated dignity. 

Glances around, paws hopefully at the ventilation duct. Out comes- yes! a beat-up but serviceable edition of Playboy, two of them in fact, and it's not quite what he had in mind but maybe the detail will sell it even better. "Now Angel, you hide yourself in the cart, and for the love of- of somebody or other, don't sneeze."

"You're sure you know what you're doing."

"I better be sure, or with a trigger-happy idiot like you I'm dead. Get movin'," and the last sentence sort of slurs into a yawn, but Angel must get the idea because he disappears from sight.

Now all he has left to do is dab on alcohol like a 'specally good cologne, arrange the magazines in a convincing position and fall asleep on top of the cart, his legs dangling down. Easy.

So easy, in fact, that the next thing he knows is a click of a door unlocking. He snuffles noisily, inches his position slightly so his face lies against the cart's hard plastic; it's easier to fake sleep that way. His breathing's nice and loud when the door opens.

"Hey, you. You work here?"

He keeps snuffling away, happily enough. Two cops, maybe? Not more than that but there must be more around within earshot.

"I guess this idiot's been snoring his way through the whole raid. Stole a magazine to look at the dirty pictures- well, he probably can't read."

"Lusting after them white women," somebody else says, in a mock high-pitched tone. "All right, get him cuffed and bring him down to the station, we're done here."

"Fine. Wake up, you-" at least he's not being handled too harshly, the cop doesn't seem to want to touch him. He sits up after a bare minimum of shoving.

"What's your name, bud?"

"Janitor! Janitor- comprehende? Americano," Tuco says with considerable eagerness, and offers up his stupidest smile. It's one he's practiced in mirrors. "No speaka English."

"Oh christ, you're one of those...."

They take him out to a squad car, him blathering cheerful Spanish for every step; shove him inside. Could be worse, Tuco figures; he's done Angel Eyes enough of a favour that he can probably count on a bailout. He listens to the engine start up with no small satisfaction.

He's just settling against the seat to recommence that nap, when a familiar voice pipes up.

"All right. If you're here, where's Angel?"

"Baker?"

"One and the same. Now think about that question very carefully, because if you don't have an answer by the time I round this corner, you won't live long enough to worry about getting arrested."

"Back inside," Tuco says immediately. "I left him in a broom cupboard."

"Right. We're going back to get him."

"...so, you were a cop all along?"

"Good lord, no," Baker says. "I'm only borrowing this squad car. We'll use mine for the real escape."

The fact that they get away with the operation scot-free says more about the damn improbability of anyone stealing a police car and then giving it back inside of two minutes than Baker's street smarts, Tuco figures.

************

"You were following me," Angel says, once they're back at the house. He looks dead on his feet and Tuco doesn't blame him. "Baker, if you ever do anything like that again, I will-"

"You'll what?" Baker asks, in a jaunty, top-of-the-world fashion. His enthusiasm fades at Angel's frozen glare; Tuco finds himself watching the interplay with genuine curiosity.

Angel turns his head, glances at him. "I will never go on a hunting trip with you again. Ever. Understood?"

"Angel, you wouldn't- would he?"

Now they're both staring at him. "Yes. I think he would," Tuco says.

"Okay, okay! I promise. But you have to admit, I came in handy."

"You were not, and I don't owe you a damned thing. You're needlessly theatrical, it's going to get you killed one of these days, and as for Tuco, my partner and I had it under control."

(He doesn't like the notion, that he might be claimed as anyone else's partner; but he does enjoy the way the words make Baker droop in his tracks.)

"...understood."

"Good," Angel says, casually wiping his knife clean on the cuff of his shirt. "Now go away. Don’t call me, I’ll call you."

"I still say you need a better bodyguard."

"I'll take your opinion under advisement."

"You really are awfully happy together, eh?" Baker asks. "Well. I guess I'd better just go and tell that sweet Blondie he ought to take up with me, since it looks like you two won't be needing him any time soon..."

Tuco eyes Angel; Angel eyes him back.

Baker's bluffing.

He doesn't know what brought Angel to that conclusion, but to him it's obvious enough- Blondie's pushing up their value a little, reminding Angel the two of them have other options. They know each other well enough to trust the other's play, even at a remove.

It's a smart thing his partner's doing, a good move. Maybe he wouldn't have thought so this morning, but that'd been before realising he was still this desperate, that the mere chance to grab a little hard cash had made him stupid enough to stick around in a place long after his instincts had told him to leave. If they'd been smart and kept moving, they never would have been at risk in that raid in the first place.

Then again, he wouldn't have found out that Angel is a gun-happy maniac, and that's worth knowing. And Blondie's coming back. He's bound to.

"Give him my best regards," Angel Eyes says, languidly. "He's welcome to a bowl of soup here whenever he likes."

Tuco opens his mouth. Shuts it again. Years of habit are strong; they don't tell people they're partners, or the whole hustle doesn't work...so he'd better not say anything. Blondie's the one who's always the most worried about secrecy, anyway.

"I'll let him know," Baker says.

He looks rather hurt when he goes.

***************

"Here, you'd better take this back," Tuco says at dinner, pulling the remains of Angel's stake from his pocket. So much for turning a profit; he'd blown through it rather freely, what with drinks and tips and prairie oysters.

"You might keep it for next time," Angel says, in a distinctly abstracted way. Twice already, he's dipped the spoon into his coffee cup instead of his soup bowl, sipped it without apparently noticing the change in flavour. 

"No, no." If this is the way Blondie wants to play it, this is the way they'll play it.

Though it proves an awfully hard thing, to sleep alone that night.

[emilywatchescursedshow]

Ep 13 - Route 666

Director: Paul Shapiro Writers: Eric Kripke, Eugenie Ross-Leming, Brad Buckner

Honestly I just... What was this episode.

Hokay so there’s a lot to unpack here and a lot that I’m not very qualified to unpack here. Let’s start with the stupid: the monster is the melted combination of a giant truck and it’s shitty racist owner. So literally, the monster is the ghost of a racist truck. I sort of love how campy and ridiculous this is, particularly because although I’m not an expert on cars I would be Very Surprised if that kind of monster truck was even manufactured during the 1960s when the historical events that are described in the episode take place. The twist at the end that it’s not just a ghost of a person but also the ghost of THE LITERAL TRUCK I guess helps to set up why the Impala ends up in heaven with Dean at the end of the show so that’s some pretty big foreshadowing. Honestly, kudos to whoever had the balls to pitch this concept, I don’t know if the world is a better place for its existence but it’s here now.

Onto the race stuff. The person ghost (not the truck ghost) is of a dude who was killed in self-defense by a Black man who was marrying the White lady the racist dude wanted to marry. Apparently after the White lady and the Black man got together the racist went on a killing spree that wasn’t really followed up with by the police officers because it was the police in the 1960s. The story-telling of what life was like for Black people in the town back then didn’t seem to pull many punches - it was pretty up front about how they were subjected to pretty brutal treatment. Sort of like in Bugs, I was actually pretty surprised by how up front they were about the severity of the violence.

I was a little.. weirded out by the way the episode communicated race relations in the present day. They say that Black people couldn’t rely on the cops “back then” and they do this weird fake out to convince you that the mayor is racist (and also evil somehow) because the mayor is skating over/being weird about the deaths of Black men in the town - and then it turns out that no, the mayor is “one of the good ones” (gross) because he let Cassie’s dad (the Black man from before) get away with killing the racist. The plot points with the mayor are never followed up on because he ends up getting killed by the monster. There’s a sort of minor scene where Dean and Sam are talking to two blue-collar men - a Black man and a White man - and the Black man intimates (to the surprise of the White man) essentially that the police were not friendly to Black people “back in the day” and I was like.. really? Just back in the day? Because based on how the murders of these Black people are being handled in the show, and you know, from living in the world, I can tell you that this is not a “back in the day” kind of issue.

Also we get to watch two Black men die on screen and basically no one does anything about it which is......... frustrating.....

The only other thing really worth talking about imo is the relationship between Dean and Cassie. I think it’s really stupid that they essentially broke up by accident, but I guess that Says Something about how communicative Dean is with his romantic partners. I also think we are told a lot more about Cassie than we are shown. I think she’s a reporter and is well known in town, but she doesn’t really get to do much? Or have a voice of her own? I don’t know I felt like she was written in a very passive way and her main role in the episode was to be an emotional link for Dean into the events of the episode. There’s also a really stupid scene where they forced her actress to run around the house all scared because the truck is just revving it’s engine outside and flashing its headlights. I really wanted the truck to just like crash into the house bc like, what else could it possibly be threatening to do. (Also I know from being alive and having a friend who watches the show that Cassie ends up dying so I know she comes back and I know they kill her off and frankly I’m not looking forward to having to watch the show bend around to that happening.)

There’s plenty more to say about these theme’s that I’m not going to here. All in all, I’m putting this episode in the same category as Bugs in terms of: ok handling of the racial themes in a historical context, very questionable handling of the racial themes in the present day context of the show. Also very stupid supernatural threat.

Onto the live comments! - Uhoh big truck chasing this guy back and forth - Uhoh I hope that guy’s ok - Oh it was a ghost truck - We're meeting Cassie i guess - The car driving effects are a lot better now - No driver whoooowooo - Uhoh the evil truck got the newspaper guy - Are we gonna find out why the truck is targeting Black people - I see so racism is a thing of the past.. or not? - Wow I sure hope Cassie doesn't die - "are we done with this metaphor" (oh right this was when Cassie and Dean were fighting it was great in context) - Time for some smoochies - This song is a lot - Oh i thought the mayor was evil but the truck just killed him - I think its probably her mom - Dean using a computer - Uhoh its gonna just destroy Cassie's house?? - What is the goal for the truck here just chase her around her own house from the outside?? And then the scene cuts? - I was right it was the mom - Did Cyrus kill himself ? - Oh no Cyrus murdered a bunch of children and then Martin killed Cyrus - But then why are the attacks starting again now - Ah yes why didn’t the Black man who killed a White man call the cops in a rural town in the 1960s - That was a pretty quick drag the truck out of the swamp process - Idiots you have to burn the truck - ... fused with the truck..? - You're too good for him Cassie

Final thoughts are... this episode is definitely Not Good, but I would hesitate to say that it’s the worst episode of Supernatural that I’ve seen so far. I think that Bugs is worse, and Home might be worse just from a storytelling perspective. It’s definitely Very Weird and Pretty Stupid for the writers to handle intense racial themes in an episode where the supernatural villain is extremely stupid and campy. I think that contrast is definitely very jarring, which makes it easy to overlook some of the more interesting meat on the story’s bones. I think the past vs present handling of racial theming (as in, racism is a thing of the past) is now a worrying two episode trend that now I will be on the look out for. At least this time the villain of the episode wasn’t the racial minority, unlike in Bugs.

I also think that the brothers had the least role in this episode of all of the episodes we’ve seen so far. You’ll note that except for Dean’s relationship with Cassie, neither of them got mentioned in my episode thoughts. Overall, they basically just receive the episode’s story and then have a brief action at the end. We get the character beat that Dean sucks at communication and that’s about it.

[katrinapavela]

#Scandal 601-604 Thoughts: Can You Pay Your Bills?

It’s been a long time. I shouldn’t have left you without a dope review to step to

Real life got in the way.

Anyway. Let me start by saying how much I am enjoying the season so far, thanks in no small part to the lack of Jake and Rowan on my screen.

The episodes sing so much more when their shenanigans are in the background. I needed a reprieve because the daily gas lighting from Mango Mussolini and his staff are too much. I can’t take the kind of season we got in 5B—when I hated everybody. I know Jake and Rowan have been conspicuously absent, and I’ll be tortured with them in the next two episodes, but I’m prepared.

Sigh. Their absence was good while it lasted. 

The other thing I am enjoying is the murder mystery of Frankie’s assassination. The individual character focus is a great way to handle Kerry’s pregnancy, as it puts less demand on her, but makes complete sense for the arch of the characters. This is an improvement over the S3 story lines.

I am going to frame this review within the context of relationship dynamics seen in 604. Based on that, plot points and conversations from 601-603 will be incorporated. I am interested in any productive comments you have to add.

Fitz, Angela, Olivia and the Los Angelitz dinghy:

Los Angelitz:

Ahoy, mateys! Enjoy your peanuts and cocktails while aboard because this journey will be very short. But it matters not the length (that’s what she said), but that the journey is taking place. Yes, it hurts my little Olitz Stan soul to actually see Fitz doing homework in bed with Angela while she wears his work shirt over her tig ol biddies.

I mean, it was all just a year ago that we had this:

Yes, I am treating Los Angelitz like vegetables I gotta eat for good health and regular bowel movements. This seems healthy, until it proves otherwise with Angela (more below). I shan’t be referring to this little situation as ‘fauxlitz’ because I don’t think they are an imitation or replacement for what we ache for. It’s a bridge to where we will end up. 

Fitz:

The most important point is that I’m happy Fitz is attempting an actual relationship, a pivot from being THOT-THOT-Tholicious as he had been just a year ago with thirst buckets galore. He’s sown his royal oats. Fitz seems like the type of guy who likes himself best when he is in a relationship. At this point, the majority of his life has been spent in relationships with women more than it has been single. Based on 602, Angela asks him out. He’s got to be flattered that a beautiful, self-assured, successful Black woman choosing him as worthy of her time. He was famously left by another one just two years ago. Why wouldn’t he go out with Angela? 

Another thing: spare me the shit about him being her boss because

Mmmhmm. Ok, then. 

Olitz is more of an ethics violation that Angelitz because Angela’s position is confirmed by the Senate, and there was no conflict of interest at the time she was confirmed. Also, based on the ‘ethics’ logic, Fitz shouldn’t have fucked the woman who was writing an article about him (Lillian, 512), the journalists on WH detail, Lisa from Treasury, etc. Fitz is just looking for some drama-free normal. I ain’t mad at him. He and Angela look hella normal. It’s refreshing. How many times must he not be chosen by the love of his life for him just let things be? This isn’t on him. It’s on Olivia. I do not want to see a romantic attempt at that relationship again until Olivia can be a woman she is proud of. Her journey is more than Olitz.

  Angela:

There are a couple of things I like about just Angela,  and also Fitz and Angela together. I like that Angela is dark skinned; sports her natural hair professionally and casually; has some thickness on dem bones. Those aesthetics are important because they are markers of her blackness. It’s important to see such a coveted white man as Fitz showering Angela with compliments on her beauty and holding her close---in the presidential bed no less. We’re shown this scene wherein they are being playful, romantic and supportive partners rather than some love making scene to make it clear that Fitz is not sexually fetishizing Black women, as so many of the Ankh-right and ash-adjacent academics accused in the first two seasons of Scandal, with regard to Olitz. Clearly we saw plenty of evidence regarding Fitz’s love for Olivia as a person. We are not going to get a bunch of Angelitz scenes, so the point is being made early that Fitz cares for Angela, not that he necessarily loves her. Which leads me to…the compliment.

Fitz to Angela: “You are beautiful, you know that? absolutely stunning.”

Fitz to Liv:

If we go back to Liv’s dream about Vermont (410), we hear Fitz calling Liv beautiful, which is likely based on actual memories of him saying these things. She imagined Fitz calling her beautiful while they are in the shower together. She’s free of all Olivia Pope armor, her hair is natural and flowing, she’s wearing no makeup, and she’s completely vulnerable. That dream contrasted with the reality of a filthy Liv lying on a dirty floor, thinking she was going to die. She transported herself to a beautiful place.

Y’all really think Fitzgerald Do-Too-Much Grant never called Olivia beautiful just because you didn’t see it? Y’all assume so much else about their relationship outside of what we have seen, so I don’t know why this would be hard to believe. Shonda prefers showing over telling, and Olivia has been established as a show-don’t-tell person when it comes to her relationship with Fitz (220). With Los Angelitz you are not going to get the depth of the Olitz relationship wherein Fitz shows Liv how beautiful, smart, and talented she is rather than telling her that. Fitz looks at Liv like she hung the moon, so that when you look at her face, you know she feels she is beautiful under his gaze.

We need to hear Fitz say it to Angela in order to gauge where he is in this two week young relationship. It’s not a man in love, but one who clearly cares for the woman he’s in bed with.

 Quick PSA to white women about Angela: if you are disparaging her black features (skin, hair, body type) as reasons she is unsuitable for Fitz, you are being text book racist. Comments like those have nothing to do with being an Olitz Stan. Don’t make me revisit specific comments about Edison from S2.  Just because Olivia’s aesthetics make it easier for you to project yourself into her place next to Fitz doesn’t mean you ‘love’ Black women.

Quick PSA to Black women and POC about Angela: Period if you are disparaging her black features (skin, hair, body type) as reasons she is unsuitable for Fitz, you are being anti-Black. Period. If you weren’t talking about the features of Fitz’s white girls in 5B, then think about that. Denigrating Angela’s appearance has nothing to do with being pro-Olitz. 

Now that I’m off that particular soap box let me say a couple non-aesthetic things about Director Webster. The woman obviously doesn’t feel like she is professionally compromised by love. It is not a one or the other game with her, the opposite of what Olivia has imbibed and is now passing on to Mellie (602). However, I can’t help thinking maybe Liv’s little dig at the FBI was right because this investigation into Vargas’s assassination and Jenny’s death seem less than thorough, bordering on incompetent. Why is OPA the one putting these links together? How was Angela so sure there was nothing found at cabin site when they hadn’t even examined all the taken from the site? Does she just want the easy White supremacist option in McClintock, and now the confession from Tom? She needs to pull her people together. Secondly, erm, I noticed how slick she was with working in that tattletale on Abby while being supportive of Fitz’s feelings about Cyrus. I’mma keep an eye on Ms. Angela.

Olivia:

Los Angelitz is great for Olivia! She just doesn’t know it yet. Angela is a successful and beautiful Black woman who went after the man she thought would suit her. She took the initiative. And Angela is not shying away from the messiness of it all because there’s still something valuable in caring for another person and allowing yourself to be cared for. When Liv returned to Washington she saw that life moved on while she was sunning herself for two months. Fitz, too, can and will move on. If and when she is ready face the wounds that relationship exposed inside her, maybe Fitz will still be there in the future. Tom told her in 407 that Fitz revolves around her. They broke up, at her suggestion, and now she still wants to be the sun in his solar system in the form of the adviser who knows best. The only one who has his best interest at heart. Nah, B.  You want it to only be one way, but it’s the other way right now.

Fitz has been trying to fight his implicit trust that Olivia knows best and is always right, but from 602-603 we see that it takes very little for him to reinstate trust. I cannot wait to see how their working relationship changes now that Olivia is so strong and wrong about Cyrus. Fitz is going to look foolish and he will have to contend with his decision to follow Olivia down this rabbit hole. She is literally the only reason they went looking in Cyrus’ direction. Scratch that, Rowan is (601). Then again, it’s so hard to tell the difference these days between father and daughter.

I shake my head at Olivia a lot, and it’s because I love her. I’ll talk about my sympathy later in this piece, but for now let me shake my head. My homegirl needs to see that although she is the love of Fitz’s life, the world does not revolve around her--as her mama said (422). (Mama Pope! I need you back this season. Stat!). Liv only wants Fitz when he’s not there (509), so enter Angel with the kinky hair. What burns her most is that Liv only suggested Angela “go for it” with Fitz because she didn’t think she would be Fitz’s type, or that Fitz was still on his THOTin’ for the USA tour. Angela hits too close to home for Liv. The former’s blackness and familiarity are specific parts of that jealousy. Here’s a Black woman I actually know doing the things I told myself were not possible, or too compromising. This brings me to another topic…

Ghost’s of Olitz past:

Have  y’all noticed the interesting ways in which the writers have manifested back at us this season specific fears Olivia and Fitz’s relationship presented, and how Olivia is re-interpreting her past through a more tawdry lens?

Mellie and Marcus:

Liv tells Mellie it would be unwise to get involved with a young staffer who works for her because conflict of interest.

Later, after Mellie tells her the sex with Marcus was bomb.com, and that he made her see baby Jesus, Liv looks like she can remember that feeling.

Feeling further threatened, Liv then sews the seeds of the ambitious slut card against Marcus. This is the same one played against her by the media just last season (504). If we recall, it was initially her PR call to go that route (503) via Abby.  And it was Brothe Marcus who swooped in, got the Gladiators together and did a media blitzkrieg to defend her good name.   Worse is that she specifically noted the PR-tanking implications of Marcus’s Blackness should the relationship be exposed. It made me sad because that means Liv, PR maven, held inside her those same thoughts and fears about how her relationship with Fitz would be viewed. The Sally Hemmings/Thomas Jefferson comment from 208 was not the end of her considering the public implications of Olitz. We have heard such critiques echoed through Cyrus (212) and Senator Gibson (504) with regard to Liv’s “hue” and the Republican party. It’s as if she’s seeing her past self from the outside, as a threat to the Oval that should have been eliminated. Just like she eliminated Abby and David from getting too close to Defiance. Now Marcus is a threat to—not Mellie’s presidency, but what Liv blindly thinks of as her Oval. This path she’s on has stripped away more and more of the person we’ve known because it’s not the right path. Liv is barely acting like a human.

 Quinn and Charlie

I maintain that she show has always used Quinn as a conduit to Olivia. Never forget that it is through Quinn’s admiration that we meet this incredible black woman. We hear about her greatness from Quinn first. Anyway, Liv projects onto Quinn many of the things that held her back from a productive relationship with Fitz, aggressively urging the latter to stop making excuses because she’s scared (602). Quinn is being offered a chance to live and share her life with someone, so she should take it. All the things Liv won’t let herself do, and for the same goddamn reason. She really does think she’s a special snowflake. Is it a coincidence that Liv’s spiel comes on the heels of thinking she lost candidate Mellie? Was the love talk a consolation from a woman who thought she’d lost the Oval. I’m keeping this scene in mind for the future.

Jenny and Francisco Vargas

Liv looked at 2.5 seconds of footage with Frankie and Jenny, after which she concludes they were obviously sleeping together (602). Both she and Cyrus come to the same tawdry conclusion, based off of a cheap idea that did not apply to Olitz.

In all three cases Liv is strong and wrong. But because of paranoia from the past, Liv (and Cyrus) are pre-emptively eliminating the kind of threats with which they have experience.

Hello From the Other Side:

The phone call between Cyrus and Olivia broke my heart, and angered me at the same time. Very similar feelings I had—but less intense—during a way back Olitz phone call. Many of you noticed that the same music (or very similar) used in the Olitz call from Top of the Hour (216) featured in the Cyrus-Olivia phone call. That is purposeful. But why? Here’s a run-down on the parallels and differences I detected between the two relationships:

Unexpected phone calls from men Liv has ruined: 

Funnily enough, when Fitz calls Olivia, from the White House, in 216, she answers the phone thinking it’s Cyrus. In 604 it is actually him. Both Cyrus and Fitz call Liv when they are at emotional rock bottom, living in their personal version of hell. Olivia has ruined both men: Fitz with fixing the election in Defiance, and Cyrus with digging up evidence to place him in jail. Both times Olivia stood to gain. No one wanted to discuss with me back in 2B when I realized that love for Fitz was not Liv’s only motivation for Defiance: she stood to gain from the win herself. A plumb job in the WH is a sure bet for most winning campaign staff. Recall from a video of a young Olivia in law school that the White House has been her goal for a long time. She wanted to change the world. She turned her unexpectedly short tenure into social capital to launch OPA. The emotional ruination was not supposed to be part of the bargain. The reward in the case of Cyrus is the same, but this time it’s the ring of power she wants to command again, just as she had before:

That power, as she told Abby in 514, is intoxicating and corrupting. But what’s good for the gander never seems to apply to the goose.

Pleas for honesty and belief: to be heard

Olivia is expected to be, in many ways, the emotional receptacle into which both men unburden themselves. They feel she is indebted to them in this way because she is the reason they are in their present predicaments. As such, both Fitz bemoans Liv’s lack of honesty, and the fact that she did not believe him. Otherwise, she would not have fixed the election. For Cyrus, he needs Olivia to believe that he is telling the truth about his innocence. Olivia does not want to face culpability in either instance. With Fitz she reminds him she is victimized by what she has done, including the outcome of their relationship. With Cyrus, she dismisses her belief in his innocence as unimportant.

Tattered relationships

At the point when Fitz (216) and Cyrus (604) call Olivia, their relationship with her is in tatters. Olivia and Cyrus have been rocky since S4, when she took up house with the man (Jake) who killed Cyrus’ husband. This is the woman who saved his job as CoS by fixing a marriage for him and Michael (409). The woman who gave him a locker room speech about not being a bitch baby who gives up when it gets hard (409). The three of them together represent ‘the band’ that Cyrus was so stoked about being back together (101). Cyrus and Liv’s relationship has been through its own roller coaster ride, just as the Olitz one has.

Hangs up for self-preservation

It hurt me to hear Fitz tell Liv that he didn’t care she was ruined by Defiance, just as it hurt me to watch Liv refuse to be drawn in by Cyrus’s plea for help. She reaches a point on both phone calls where the pain inflicted by both men, and the implications thereof are too much to bear. She hangs up on both. It’s self-preservation. I get it.

 Questions:

What’s interesting in both instances is that Liv is sorry that both men are hurt by what has happened, but she is not sorry for the actions that caused the pain. After the 216 phone call, Liv implies, via a conversation with her client Lisa, that she is not sorry for Defiance because Fitz should have been President. She is not sorry for having Cyrus go to prison. Not yet, anyway, because she didn’t know how wrong she was about Cyrus. Olivia never works quite as hard as when she is trying to ignore the truth. She was overtime on the call with Cyrus. I do remain thankful that I saw some genuine, sustained emotion from her this season. It’s been lacking, and I know that is purposeful for where she is right now.

What I am left to wonder is whether Liv has just been doing as taught her father all along, before we even knew this to be the case. Was Defiance just more of daddy. The mantra, as we heard in 419, is that Liv will look at a thing from all angles and make a decision based on what needs to be done to protect the country. She will pick a side. This is Rowan’s manipulative rhetoric, and certainly doesn’t happen in all instances, one of them being now. This time, Liv has behaved carelessly—blinded by the quest for the shiny Oval—that she’s gonna be at the centre of another chaotic mess, left holding the bag. She did not look at all the sides. Or, if she did, she picked the wrong one out of greed.  

One potentially positive thing came from Liv and Cyrus’ call, but it’s hard to be sure. Is Save-A-Heaux, Inc closed for business, or is she being more discerning with the clientele? It was a mere few months ago that Liv agonized over saving Jake (again!) from Rowan. In the absence of knowing what transpired between the Liv and Jake after she told him to shove his mediocre dreams up his ass,

am I supposed to believe that Liv has turned over a new leaf? That not everyone is worthy of being dragged into the light (314)? I would support that if it is applied to her pseudo incesting “brother” and her manipulative, controlling father. But, in the case of Cyrus, is her refusal purely based on him standing in the way of her Oval.

Lastly, the most important thing Olivia said on that call to Cyrus has greater implications:

Olivia: “At some point the bill has to be paid. Your bill is due. Your time is up. Do what needs to be done. Do it right. Stop being a monster and be a man. Be a man you can be proud of.”

Where is the pot? Because they kettle is talking a whole lot of jive. 

Olivia,

Girl. When are you gonna be a woman you can be proud of and stop trying to be a woman your daddy can be proud of? Stop being the fucking predator he’s groomed you to be—especially since you left the White House—and start being a woman who figures out, for herself, what she wants. Your daddy is the whole fucking reason you are on this vision quest (510), and Mellie is just the horse you are dragging to the finish line. You didn’t even think about creating a president until daddy told you to “get some real power; 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue power” (510). I bet you don’t want to pay too much for the slaughtering of Andrew, do you? I bet that’s completely justified. You fixed an election with Cyrus, but it’s cool for him to pay for the “too much” that has happened, no matter what the facts are. Cyrus is a bastard. And the reason I stomach him is because he knows it, and readily admits it. But Mellie No-one-deserves-anything-more-than-me Grant is somehow entitled to the Oval, despite all of her white woman-ing exploitation of you during the Fitz years. Just because you wanna rule the roost again.  Olivia, do you think that being kidnapped absolves you of your past wrongs? That because of that, it’s now you time (514) to act in ways that eschews guilt over the consequences? After all, Cyrus has been operating in this way. Mellie certainly did. Her father does. Jake does, too. The latter have been her circle of influence, almost exclusively, for well over a year. When is your father going to pay HIS bills, Olivia? With all the pain that he has caused you, is the power you can derive from the grooming enough to sustain you? When is Jake going to pay HIS bills for his role in hurting, destabilizing, lying and manipulating you? When are you going to pay YOUR bills Olivia?

Moving on…

 A Girl Has No Friends

What is very apparent this season is that Olivia is no one’s friend. She and Angela go “way back”, (602), but they seem more frenemies than actual friends. When Olivia told Marcus, in 601, that she was there as his friend, he looked at her as if she were absurd. Olivia Pope is Olivia Pope.

Dassit. In all of her relationships, Olivia is primarily there in the capacity of Olivia Pope[TM]. Let’s think about this:

Cyrus: See above. Also, the flashback conversation from the night of the VP debate shows how out of touch Cyrus and Olivia are as friends, more so on Liv’s part. When Cyrus said he missed her, Liv did not reply. It reminded me of when Fitz told her the same and she deflected (521). Liv reluctantly acknowledges that Cyrus had change and evolved, but she also thinks it’s a bit of a gimmick. People who are stuck in the same place hate to acknowledge things like this. Think about when Mellie pouted, in 503, that everyone had gone and changed on her. It was more beneficial for Liv to believe Cyrus was monstrous enough to eliminate Frankie, than to believe he had changed. Why? Because she’s trying to compete by out-monstering everyone else.

Mellie: I have written elsewhere why I don’t see it for this relationship on any deep level. I understand that I am still bitter about the ways in which Mellie colluded to hurt Olivia in the past on some petty shit, but was happy to accept her labour when it benefitted her. I think Olivia crossed the line in Mellie’s relationship with Marcus, but Mellie intruded herself plenty of times. I know it’s different because Fitz was her husband. But

The point is that Olivia’s strategic move showed that getting the Oval on Mellie’s back was more important to her than any friendship with Mellie. The photo of Rowan and 12-year old Liv featured prominently when Liv manipulated Mellie into thinking Marcus was a social climber. Those are clues that Liv is not in this for friendship. That was a predator move. We literally know nothing else about this relationship other than their quest for the Oval. When these two women still meet up for drinks after the EC votes for president, then I’ll recognize it as a friendship. Until then, it’s a convenient work relationship. Mellie pays her. Secondly, Mellie is not a good role model for Liv because all Mellie cares about is getting some of that white male power for herself. That’s her type of feminism. As a Black woman, Olivia cannot take that same path, as it is more dehumanizing to her. 

Abby: Liv and Abby still seem friendly sometimes, but whenever they are on opposing sides, the necessity of guarding their respective future casts doubt on their friendship. Maybe I’m just supposed to accept that’s the way it is. But when an unhinged Olivia tells Abby “never cross me again” (517), that tells me that Olivia Pope [TM] will always come first. And if Abby puts CoS first, then they are at an impasse. We shall see where this goes once the next president is decided.

Fitz: I have wanted Fitz and Olivia to be friends for a really long time (since S4). Their relationship looks like it has progressed on friendlier terms since being on the Trail together with Mellie. However, I’m not sure if that’s Olivia the adviser, though. How will their friendship be impacted by this road to wrong Olivia has taken, and Fitz has agreed to travel on? This is a huge fuck up for the end of his administration. I don’t wish him to be mean to Liv, as it is his responsibility, but I wonder if he’ll be less quick to think she’s “always right”. Because she isn’t, and the argument that ended their relationship is one of those times.

If Olivia is no one’s friend, then she is essentially alone. That’s different from being lonely, as she’s told Abby (510). I fear that a Liv who follows the predatory example, for which her father has groomed her, will end up exactly like him:

Olivia: The only life you have is the sad, twisted one you built here. The one where you lurk in the shadows, pull puppet strings and pretend the world couldn’t exist without you. You can’t disappear, become a normal person because, dad: you are not normal. You’re a sick, lonely man who only knows how to lie and call it love (409) .

Remember when Huck told Rowan that he is no one’s father (509)? Olivia is no one’s friend in exactly the same way. We have to ask ourselves why is it that we don’t see Olivia with friends, especially Black women friends. I always wondered that about the lack of influence in her life.  You can see how damaged this woman has become from walling herself off from nurturing, all while operating in a high-stakes world that require too much of her just to compete. Maya has to come back. 

 When an Oval isn’t an Oval:

When I think about Olivia in a broader context, I have much sympathy for her. Has the game changed and no one told Olivia? White, patriarchal supremacy loves moving goal posts for us. Just yesterday, some hatin-ass woman who believes Black Studies should be eliminated wrote an article about Beyonce, declaring that pregnancy is not a miracle and being a mother doesn’t make you a goddess .

Cool. When white women level these accusations for other white women, in the name of feminist equality, then maybe they can be taken seriously. Until then, shut the fuck up.

But the point to be made here about Olivia is: have the rules of the game changed on her, or did she change herself to play the wrong game? Unlike some who think Shonda hired a black actress to do a role that could have been done by any white man, I actively think about Olivia as a Black woman. I can see how the brutality and violence of the political world in which she inhabits has taken its toll on her labour and her person. Too often, I see Black people go practically out of their mind, steeling themselves and hardening their hearts to world hostile to their presence. I think of Olivia in that context: a woman who has redefined power according to someone else’s exacting definition. We can say they are those of her father, but he merely did the same thing to escape the hardships of Detroit. Both have been playing this game according to rules devised by white patriarchy. Audre Lorde tells us that, as women, the belief that suppressing the erotic within us in order to display strength is an illusory thought that is anchored in male models of power. She cannot see this yet.

The Oval Olivia is so desperate to have is more about proving that she is a ‘winner’. I wrote last year about wanting Olivia to be a ***flawless loser, in the Beyonce sense: putting her all into something, losing, and then realizing that it is not the end of the world. I still do not know what this woman wants. The White House is a ruse, and further path to being a monster, not a woman she can be proud of. In other words, the Oval is not Olivia’s Oval. I think she’s still trying to figure that out.