Table For Two: Scandal‘s Brush With History

Spoiler Alert: If you didn’t watch last week’s episode of Scandal, do not read any further.

While Shonda Rhime’s “Scandal” has become a reliable source of Twitter water-cooler talk every Thursday night, last week’s episode especially touched a nerve, after this scene between our protagonist, high-powered problem-solver Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn):

“I’m feeling a little Sally Hemings-Thomas Jefferson about all this,” Olivia told Fitz, who looked about as stunned as many shows reacted online.

So what to make of this in a broader context? As the season finale approaches Thursday, Guest Contributors T.F. Charlton and Arrianna Conerly Coleman weigh in on this special Roundtable.

Arrianna: I am, admittedly, quite wary of the comparison between Oliva Pope and Sally Hemings — especially given some of the backlash against the New York Times piece about Thomas Jefferson’s cruelty and staunch refusal to abolish slavery. While it is important to examine the power relationships between Olivia Pope and Pres. Fitzgerald Grant, I think the comparison treads dangerous ground, especially as there is a tendency to perpetuate revisionist, ahistorical images of Thomas Jefferson.

I’ve also noticed that there is this tendency to misunderstand what consent is within relationships where there is a power differential. Olivia Pope can consent to her relationship with Fitz; Sally Hemings could not consent to her relationship with Jefferson. In fact, she was 12 when Thomas Jefferson “chose” her, AND she was his “property” (and his wife’s half-sister). By contrast, Olivia Pope is a free woman who has relative autonomy and class/social mobility. To posit a false equivalency between Hemmings and Pope is to ignore the very real questions of consent and agency.

T.F.: I really appreciate Arrianna raising this point. The discussion of Hemings/Jefferson as historical subtext for the show has mainly been between folks with a shared framing and understanding of that history – none of us are coming from the perspective that Jefferson was a great guy or that this was a grand romance. Given that it might be easy to lose sight of how the comparison between Fitz and Jefferson in particular takes on very different meanings depending on the perspective of the viewer. The implications are completely different if you think Jefferson and Hemings were really “in love,” or if you believe as some Jefferson defenders do that he had no sexual contact, coerced or otherwise, with Sally Hemings.

But that also raises a point about Shonda Rhimes explicitly invoking this subtext in this episode: not all viewers will be in on the reference she’s making. It’s an interesting choice to respond to a specific criticism of Fitz and Liv’s relationships knowing that some viewers may not understand why the reference is so racially loaded — why Olivia feels the way she does, and perhaps also why Fitz responds as he does.

Arrianna: Also, the dynamic of Fitz telling Olivia that she was not his Sally Hemings was … interesting. It’ll take more thought for me to unpack that.

T.F.: Yea, it’s not really his call to make, is it? I’m also intrigued that Shonda has Olivia be the one to invoke the Hemings reference. To be honest, her throwing Sally Hemings in Fitz’s face was the first time I found their romance remotely interesting.

Anyway, I’m not sure who we’re supposed to side with in Fitz and Liv’s exchange. Having the heroine of the show raise the issue invites viewers to identify with her to some degree, but I think we’re also meant to see Fitz’s side of things as well — that he’s in this untenable position of having found the love of his life, but being unable to act on it in any honorable way, and apparently also unable to not act on it.

Which personally I think is a load of crap. Sure, he’s in a tough position as president, but there’s very little about Fitz/Liv’s relationship that says “great love” to me. It may very well be that they can’t stay away from each other, but that isn’t necessarily love. More like toxic and codependent.

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