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Justice for Mellie! "Scandal" Disappointments & Fitz Hatred

10/19/2014

4 Comments

 
PictureNo can do, Mellie (ABC promo)
WARNING: If you haven’t seen the October 16 episode of ABC’s Scandal, you might not want to read this ranting article.

Scandal, America’s favorite political drama, is back and off to an auspicious start, but this viewer is perturbed. At the close of season 3 last April, I expressed my grave disappointment in how the unmasking of First Lady Mellie Grant’s (Bellamy Young) rape by her father-in-law was written. In short, my opinion and grievance was that Mellie’s story was made about Olivia Pope (the lead character and her husband’s mistress) and that President Fitzgerald’s response was nonsensically contradicting and unfeeling. Given the sweeping finale (a lot went down), I had hopes that this plotline would be fleshed out in season 4, but after Thursday’s episode, “Like Father, Like Daughter,” I’m not as optimistic.

After the death of their son, Jerry Jr., both Fitz and Mellie suffered emotional breakdowns. Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) had a failed suicide attempt, but eventually buried himself in presidential duties to stay afloat. Mellie began over-eating, became an alcoholic and stopped showering, grooming and caring about White House affairs. She’d visit Jerry Jr.’s grave wearing a bathrobe and Ugg boots and lay in the grass. Their teen daughter, Karen, was quickly sent back to boarding school to resume her life. When Mellie tries to assert her position as a mother and fumes that Olivia (Kerry Washington) was the first called to handle Karen’s sex-tape drama, Fitz snaps, “I have dealt with drunk Mellie and smelly Mellie and screw-everything-to-hell Mellie and crybaby Mellie and eat-everything-that-is-not-nailed-down Mellie and I have not complained. But I will not put up with whatever righteous, history-rewriting Mellie you have going on…This is not your family, you are not the mother…since Jerry died you have abdicated your role; you have mothered no one…Olivia Pope is fixing this mess, this mess that you made…we made…I know I share some guilt in all of this, but you want to know the difference between you and me?...All day, every day…I’m grieving the loss of my son, but I am also running a country!”  

Fitz is such a disgusting, impudent, ungrateful creature with too much nerve. How dare Fitz go on about how he’s had the strength to continue running the country, when his wife is the one who got him in office, rigging elections and supporting his political career to the point of forfeiting justice for her rape and raising the child whom she thought was the product of said attack for 15 years. That same child died right before her eyes and instead of clinging onto her in his anguish, Fitz begged for his mistress. A mistress that Mellie had to sit back and let Fitz have because she knew she couldn’t stand to be intimate with the man she loved after what happened to her. She had to sit back, feel, breed and watch Fitz’s resentment of her unfurl and fester, while harboring a burdening a secret. She sacrificed her marriage, justice and sanity to preserve Fitz’s spirit and dreams. How dare he call her a “crybaby” and criticize her for crumbling; it’s a wonder she didn’t snap earlier! You want to know why Mellie isn’t holding it together anymore, Fitz? She’s been doing it for the last 15 years! That’s why, you piece of crap! How dare he ridicule her parenting when he has never parented his children! You didn’t have that very necessary and consoling talk with Karen about grief, notoriety and sexuality--Mellie did! “I’m running a country!” Oh? Well, who helped you run it while you were in a coma and sharks were circling to take your place? Mellie. There was a half-hearted, rushed scene where Fitz tells Mellie he knows about her assault in season 3. We have yet to see a thorough moment of acknowledgement, sensitivity or gratitude from Fitz. Don’t say, “What about his give-her-what-she-wants attitude?” He canceled all that out with his little “Smelly Mellie” speech and his tries at shirking responsibility. He had to correct himself when he said “the mess you made” and followed that with “I know I share some of the guilt in all of this, but…”

PictureYeah, but he doesn't care (ABC promo)
As usual, in the midst of all the chaos and Olivia informing him that the holders of the sex-tape wished to monetarily blackmail his family, Fitz focuses on his paramour. He cockily, no pun intended, does his typical “all I have to do is kiss and/or stick my hand down Olivia’s skirt and I can have my way” move. Since Olivia pathetically has no will-power (which is part of the reason Fitz is cocky), she admits she was with Jake Ballard, Fitz’s romantic rival, when she tried to escape her life to a hidden island to get Fitz to back away. Being the childish, hypocritical, fragile-to-ego-bruising guy he is, he instantly flips to detesting Olivia, roughly grabbing and shoving her arm away and dismissing her. No double standards or anything. 

With things being written this way, it adds to the continual and problematic practice of using rape as a quick, sensationalist plot device (especially to propel other characters), instead of something to help give a voice to the voiceless. These kinds of stories should be teachable moments to reduce the callous and avoidant ignorance on the topic that results in sexual attacks in the first place and lack of proper support for victims. It’s a disservice to our society when characters like Mellie are disenfranchised. There are hundreds of well-written articles and blogs describing the various ways in which media mishandles rape, from using it as a way to soften characters or make them more endearing, to explain brokenness, advance plots or gain ratings. Perhaps Fitz’s behavior and response, if you could call it that, is supposed to exemplify how much of a selfish person he is, but I doubt there’s a method to the madness of dropping this ball. Justice for Mellie!

4 Comments
Erica link
10/20/2014 02:24:42 pm

the day, back in season ONE i believe, when Mellie got mad because Olivia wasn't "doing her job" and keeping Fitz happy, OR the time she begged Liv to come back to the fold cuz HER husband couldn't deal (and neither could she because THAT'S how bad she wanted to stay in the White House), were the days that i wasn't here for the #TeamMellie brigade. she gave her husband up TWICE, but that's magically forgotten...hmm. Interesting.

as far as Fitz's attitude towards Mellie's rape, when he found out, he felt bad. he consoled her...what else could he do, dig Big Jerry up and kill him? the only teachable moment from her rape is that to get internal justice, get therapy; for external justice, she should have told her husband, who THEN would have rode on the white horse that you wanted him to be on now that MUTUAL resentment had set in and cooked for years...a rape or death of a son is not gonna wipe that away, no matter how much you want Fetch to happen.

the only things i wholeheartedly agree with is that 1) Fitz is a manchild, like a lot of men who have a wife and a mistress & get butthurt when the mistress has someone else as well. most un-upstanding men do that...Lord knows why; 2) Mellie sacrificed a lot, HOWEVER...SHE wanted that presidential life a WHOOOOOLE lot more than Fitz ever did, so whatever sacrifices she did make, were HER choosing (except for quitting her career to be First Lady and being raped...NO ONE asks for that, but she should've told Fitz and they would probably be a stronger couple WITHOUT Liv ever being involved)

p.s.: the kid was Fitz IV...or Little Jerry (since rapist granddaddy got dibs on what he'd be called)

Reply
Sinakat
11/3/2014 08:50:13 am

I so agree with this article it isn't even funny. I HATED they used Mellie's rap as a plot point. They still haven't fleshed out the rape. Yes we got the great short romance that was MEW but we still haven't really gotten into Mellie's head and heart. I have never liked raped as a plot device. The only time I found it fitting was on GH for Liz's rape. Her rape played all the beats and it was an umbrella story for Laura's rape. Mellie's rape was really over in one episode!

Fitz was sad for Mellie for that one day and didn't Olivia have to tell him? Then when he rape survivor wife was trying to find comfort in a man who truly loved her, he took that away from her. He whines all day about her when, as you stated, Mellie is the reason he's where he is and she gets no credit. I FLOVED Mellie who chastised Olivia for leaving and not "doing her job" and sexing Fitz. The Mellie who got pregnant to win an election. I love that Mellie because we knew who she was and what she was about. By making her this rape victim, they took away her power. And that's what I loved about Mellie was her power.

Don't forget after Mellie watched her son die in front of her, later that night when she needed to be consoled by her husband and the father of her child, he called out for Olivia! That pissed me off. I don't understand the writers anymore. How can they want us to cheer on Fitz and Olivia when they have made Fitz this spoiled brat with this funky attitude.

Reply
LeeS
11/10/2014 11:53:34 am

NONSENSE, Mellie is a whiny entitled IDIOT. She is a rich Ivy educated fool who has made poor life choices and sits around blaming EVERYONE (Fitz, Olivia, Cyrus even her damn kids whom she did not want) for her dissatisfaction with life.

Mellie needs to get a backbone and GET A LIFE. She is not a slave and Fitz is not holding her hostage.

All the other women on the show have suffered and moved on to have a life. Do you see Olivia, former VP Sallie, Abby, Quinn, etc, waiting for some man to save them? Why is Mellie clinging onto to Fitz when he does not want or need her?

The people who blame Fitz are ridiculous and have not lived in the real world. This is not some fairy tale. Most men would have already divorced Mellie's bitter ass for a marriage that has been dead for decades (way before Olivia came on the scene).

Mellie is a big talker but a real coward who is afraid to stand on her own to feet without a husband.

Reply
Moe
12/3/2015 07:59:54 am

Wow!!!! Wooooow!!! First of all, amen to EVERYTHING you said!

And second, how could anyone excuse Olivia being a home wrecking whore and Fitz being a cheating asshole! So what if your wife won't go near you? Get a divorce or get some help! If Fitz was a MAN he wouldn't go around screwing a woman while he was married. He would get a divorce and do things the right way.

Mellie just breaks my heart over and over again. What people don't realize is that she loves Fitz, and is the kind of wife to mean the words "Till death do us part". I agree to the fact that she should dump his whiny ass, but understand he predicament. She worked so hard to get here, she worried about the kids, she keeps making sure Fitz stays president. No wonder her soul was forgotten along the way.

I am so team Mellie, and she deserves someone a million times better than that ass Fitz.

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