It looks like Scandal fans are about to see a lot more of the Olivia and Fitz romance, whether they like it or not. At the Television Critics Association panel this week, Shonda Rhimes revealed a few spoilers about the show’s upcoming season — including more on whether Olitz, as we know them, will actually stay together this time around.
As Rhimes revealed, Scandal will pick up almost right where it left off. “The world had been fairly blown apart for everybody except Olivia and Fitz,” she said, per Entertainment Weekly. “That was a pretty harrowing place where the world had been blown apart for everybody except for Olivia and Fitz, who were left on the Truman balcony … doing some kissin’.”
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“Blown apart” is kind of an understatement. As Gladiators will remember, Cyrus lost his job, Quinn was thinking about killing Huck and Mellie was kicked out of the White House. That last event left Fitz with plenty of space to (of course) reignite his romance with Olivia. Based on Rhimes’ description and the new teaser from ABC (see below), it looks like Olitz will not only still be going strong at the beginning of Season 5, but that their relationship will also be a major focal point this season. To which I have only one response: Ugh, nooooo.
The Olitz relationship has divided Scandal fans throughout the entirety of its four-season run. While some can’t get enough, others — like myself — are firmly #TeamJake. But the truth is, my reasoning for being anti-Olitz has less to do with me being infatuated with Scott Foley (although that counts too) and more with the fact that the show gets so boring every time they focus on the Olivia-Fitz drama.
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I mean, come on…how many times have we seen this play out already? They make up (read: hook up). They get back together. Suddenly, both Olivia and Fitz lose all common sense and turn into insecure whiners, despite the fact that she’s usually an extremely powerful and intelligent woman and he’s the freaking president of the United States. One of them usually makes a poor decision that the other one finds out about. They break up. Seriously, been there, done that too many times to count.
Obviously, the Olivia-Fitz romance is a huge element of the story line and the show probably won’t ever get rid of it completely (despite the begging of all my fellow Olitz haters). But while their affair may have served as the core of the first season, the show has since evolved enough that it doesn’t need to keep reiterating the same drama over and over again. At this point, all their relationship serves to do is detract from the good stuff, like the semi-weekly cases that Olivia and company help deal with.
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In fact, Season 4 already proved that Scandal can make magic without the whole Olivia and Fitz shtick. Last season, the show made a point of touching on several timely social issues and ended up delivering some unbelievably powerful episodes — particularly “Lawn Chair,” which dealt with police brutality and institutionalized racism. Why can’t we see more of that kind of great storytelling and less of this truly bad romance?
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