We’re meant to be scratching our heads and wondering whether Amanda Tanner is on the up-and-up, what with her mysterious phone calls to someone, including the one in the latest episode where she said: “I’m done. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t lie anymore. I’m out. I’m gonna tell the truth.”
What’s the lie? What’s the truth?
We know that she’s pregnant, after Olivia made her take all those pregnancy tests to confirm that she’s with child, unless Amanda brought her own pregnant-woman urine samples with her.
We know that Amanda had an affair with President Fitz “Sweet Baby” Grant, because he has copped to it. Plus, after his chief of staff Cyrus Beene spooked him with all his talk about resigning because of the scandal, Fitz asked his wife whether it’d be “so bad if this all ended.” He wouldn’t have asked had he not been concerned. (Mellie’s response was an eyebrow raiser, that it’d be “catastrophic” if he stopped being commander in chief. Is this meant to raise suspicions that she knows all about Fitz’s messing around but doesn’t care because she just wants the power of the office?)
So what’s Amanda hiding? That’ll likely come out soon, likely as a result of the investigative prowess of Olivia’s gladiators in suits, now that she’s been abducted, not so coincidentally after Fitz told Cyrus that the “real problem” is Amanda Tanner and that without her, there’s no evidence of an affair.
“The president of the United States sent me here,” Cyrus told Olivia, as he announced that Fitz had “declared war” on Olivia and that they’d use the “legion” of people who work at the pleasure of the president to crush them. Perhaps Cyrus should’ve declared war on Fitz’s fly before going after Olivia & Co., but it’s a little too late for that. Abuse of power, table for two. …
Then — poof! — Amanda’s taken. Gone. No primetime interview. No blabbing about a presidential fetus.
This is where we delve deep into the David and Goliath aspect of this tale of a powerful man and his minions who’re willing to go to any extreme to preserve his power. But there’s got to be more to the story. If Olivia’s our hero and Fitz is the villain, then Amanda must be the wildcard who’s partly telling the truth (about the sex) but not about the baby daddy (I’m guessing here). Then Olivia will be left in the murky ethical middle where no one’s hands are clean.
This is where I think Scandal will either establish itself as an intelligent, fun romp through the corrupt corridors of D.C. power or debase itself with camp. It’s tricky business, deciding whether to make the president’s men attempt to destroy Olivia’s character — as members of the Clinton administration did during the Lewinsky scandal — and then take it a step further, to abduct and possibly murder a presidential mistress. With all the outlandish real life stories that have unfolded in American politics (Bill Clinton notwithstanding) — such as the tweeting Rep. Weiner, John Edwards’ love child vs his cancer-stricken wife, the prostitute-frequenting ethics crusading New York governor, the wide-stance senator from Idaho and the lovesick South Carolina governor who said he went “hiking” on the Appalachian Trail when he was rendezvousing with his lover — trying to sell the president’s men as kidnapping and potentially harming the presidential mistress is going to be challenging if they want to make the scenario seem realistic. That abduction scene was very Jack Bauer-esque and made me worry about the longevity of the series. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that Scandal is going over a cliff.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Apr 27, 2012 @ 14:02 EST5EDT
