LOOKING FORWARD FROM FINALES OF CASTLE, CHICAGO FIRE, ELEMENTARY, GLEE, NASHVILLE, REVENGE, SCANDAL and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – PART IV

Final installment: SCANDAL season two & THE VAMPIRE DIARIES season four

SCANDAL season 2 finale

When it comes to pushing the envelope with regard to how gray characters can be made, SCANDAL overdoes it. Even with gray characters, there has to be empathy, which is an integral part of telling any story. In SCANDAL, I don’t care for any of the characters. On the contrary, I want Olivia, Mellie, Cyrus, Hollis and Fitz to get caught for rigging the election, I want Mellie to actually have some integrity and make good on all the threats she made to Fitz, I want Fitz to grow a pair and stand by the woman he loves or cut her out of his life for good, and I seriously want Cyrus to go to hell. I understand that politics is a dirty game and people do horrible things to get ahead, but the way that these characters act as though that the wrongs that they’ve done is for the better good of the country, or whatever, is infuriating. I like gray characters, but I like them to be conflicted, struggling with their conscience, or at least show some sign that they aren’t pure evil deep down. The season two finale started on a promising note, with Fitz standing up for Olivia and telling Mellie off with a plan, which would make for a really interesting pushing-of-the-envelope storyline, ended right where things had begun. Defiance was covered up. Fitz went back to Mellie with his tail between his legs. Olivia decided to stick with her team (am I the only one that still thinks that calling themselves ‘gladiators’ is ridiculous?). What else I found ridiculous was Cyrus’ speech to Olivia about candy and bubbles and Romeo and Juliet and made-for-each-other. It was terrible, but not worse than Cyrus himself. He’s probably the worst of them all, and when he had the heart attack or whatever, I really wanted him to die. Even David Rosen, who I thought was the only one left with some integrity, when it was uncovered that he was shacking up with Pope & Associates for ulterior motives, turned out to be the biggest opportunist of all. And then there was Jake, who was locked away by Rowan for disobeying orders. And then Rowan turned out to be Olivia’s dad. That was a surprise, but not necessarily a good or an exciting one. But the questions that I do have are: What were Rowan’s true intentions behind killing the Fitz-Olivia relationship? (It was definitely not simply to protect his daughter. Also because Roman seems like the most likely person to have leaked to the press that Olivia was the president’s mistress.) If it wasn’t Rowan, who was it? And what was Rowan’s whole mission with Jake actually about anyway? What will Governor Reston’s next plan of action against Fitz be? How will David Rosen’s character be explored further, now that he’s the US Attorney? One thing is for sure, if the show is actually never going back to its original premise—that of being a crisis-management procedural—the writers really need to move on from a lot of things that they unraveled this season. And they need to put an end to the Olivia-Fitz back-and-forth. That has becoming very tiring and annoying. 

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES season 4 finale

In true TVD fashion, the season four finale had a lot of stuff happening throughout, and all in fast-paced storytelling. From the ghosts making a comeback to Bonnie’s death, from Damon fighting with his life to the whole passing-the-parcel game they were all playing with the cure, from graduation to final goodbyes, from Elena choosing the one that she loved to Klaus letting Caroline have the one that she loved… What I liked was that Elena actually chose Damon, even after the sire bond was broken, because them coming together earlier was kind of ruined because of the sire bond factor. So now we can truly appreciate them being together, which we’d been waiting for (but I doubt it’ll be as exciting now). I liked that Rebekah and Matt kind of got together. They have a good connection and even though I admired Matt for standing by certain principles and not giving in to her, she’s pretty awesome, and I think someone like Matt will make her even better. On the other hand, Klaus coming through for Caroline and letting her have Tyler was sweet, especially when he tells her that Tyler was her first love, and he intended to be her last. Meanwhile, Alaric, Jeremy and Elena had some quality time together as a family, saying their final goodbyes. Little did they know that Jeremy would live, while Bonnie would die! I don’t know how they’re going to stick with that development. I mean the show needs at least one witch, right? And Bonnie was the only one; even though I don’t really care about her being around, as a character. And that brings me to the Silas part of it all. Silas is now Stefan, while Stefan is buried alive. That makes things a little exciting or the season five premiere. However, how they’ll manage to make Silas a more exciting adversary in the longer run is yet to be seen, especially with Klaus (and Elijah) off in New Orleans for THE ORIGINALS. Now that Silas has assumed Stefan’s identity, was his whole game plan to kill his shadow self? And what’s his plan of action now? If he still wanted the cure, like he said he did, to be reunited with his eternal love (although I doubt it), he’s going to be pretty pissed off that Elena made Katherine take it. Speaking of, the idea of Katherine as human is probably the most exciting development in the season finale for me. Since they all went on that mission on the island to find the cure, I was wondering who would take it, and the way it eventually happened, so swiftly, took me by surprise. However, it made a lot of ironic sense for Katherine to be the one who was forced to take it, considering that her motive in this whole game was to become immortal. In a way, Elena got the ultimate revenge and now, Katherine will have a serious bone to pick with her. But what will she do, now that she’s human? A lot is going to change next season, with the primary focus completely off the originals, and no more pre-established mission, with Silas as Stefan and his next step a question mark… I’m not sure how excited I am about season five, but I’m intrigued.