In honor of their 100th episode, Scandal took viewers on a time-travel trip to an alternative reality.
As fans know, the series started five years ago when Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) first took office and his love affair with Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) fully bloomed. As we’d later discover, he wouldn’t have won the presidency if not for faulty voting booths in Defiance, Ohio.
But in “The Decision”, Pope envisions an entirely different existence where Defiance never happened and Fitz isn’t in the White House.
Their love affair remains just as intense, he leaves Mellie and they marry in a beautiful ceremony, but losing the election weighs on Fitz. Eventually a life of being a political pundit kills his career passion, and ultimately affects his alternate life marriage to Olivia.
Love, marriage, divorce, secret kisses, Common’s “The Light”— Shonda Rhimes had it all.
Fans also reacted to Mellie kissing Cyrus, after Fitz has left her in the alternative world. In either existence, Cyrus is still gay, so it threw viewers off.
“I don’t think I’ve really thought about it until we were standing there at the 100th episode celebration with the cake and everything,” Rhimes told The Hollywood Reporter about taping the 100th episode.
“I truly didn’t realize it. I don’t know if it’s a milestone because I’m a woman or a milestone because I’m an African-American woman — it’s America, so everything is a milestone if you’re an African-American woman it seems. But it does feel fun that we get to do these shows and get here and the fans are following.”
Scandal comes on Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.