Entertainment

7 Reasons To Worry About Olivia Pope

by Emma Cueto

It's no secret the men in Olivia Pope's life are not what you'd call reliable. Cyrus is power-hungry and diabolical; David Rosen is annoyingly convinced of his own morality; Harrison is great but can't play at the level he clearly thinks he's at; Huck is damaged, to say the least, and this episode proved he's even more unstable than we suspected all along; and Fitz is a whiny man child whose primary talents are moping, screwing things up, and getting in the way of the real power players. Like I said, the men her life are kind of not the greatest, and last night's episode spent some quality time exploring Liv's relationship with her newest and oldest disappointing man: her father.

In case nobody guessed from his frankly uncomfortable rant at the opening of the season premiere, Eli Pope is 7 kinds of creepy. In fact, we can mine 7 creepy things about him from this episode alone.

1. He Imprisoned Huck. Twice.

Unstable though he may be, we all love Huck. How can you not, after all we've seen him go through? Not to mention how loyal he is to Liv. And people who hurt Huck, not once, but twice, are evil.

2. He Hurt Some Other People, Too

Frankly, I like Jake and Eddison, but not as much as I care about Huck. Still, hurting Olivia's boyfriends = bad, bad, thing.

3. He is Way, Way, Way Too Controlling of Olivia's Love Life

As if his abusive rant in the airplane hanger from last episode wasn't enough, here we see how Eli forced his young daughter to break up with her boyfriend (after having said boyfriend roughed up). Plus, all his meddling in the presidential affair saga.

4. He is WAY Too Comfortable With His Cover

The man is a super spy who sends his days brokering secrets and torturing people and being creepy about his daughter's sex life, yet when young Olivia asks him about his job as the Smithsonian, not realizing he doesn't work there are at all, he can just rattle off stuff about Mastodons with just enough of a predatory grin to make us shudder.

5. He is Not Controllable

As aggravating as it is that Fitz, by simply existing, gets to be more important than everyone else in the power game and gets to play basketball with the Dalai Lama, it is kind of comforting that "all roads lead to Fitz" and that somebody around here gets to be commander-in-chief. But it turns out Olivia's father is outside even presidential jurisdiction. Which is alarming.

6. Who Knows What His Agenda Is

Even though he gave a very nice/creepy rant about democracy and freedom, his agenda isn't really clear yet, which makes him the ultimate wild card.

7. He Keeps Trying to Touch Olivia When She Doesn't Want Him To

Whether it's putting his hands on her cheeks or reaching across the table to touch her hand, it is painful to watch Olivia react when he tries to have physical contact with her, and the fact that he just seems to keep on doing it. So creepy, and so not okay.

Moral of the story? I want this man as far away from Olivia as is geographically possible. But it doesn't look like that is the way the season will unfold. May the great and powerful Shonda Rhimes preserve us all.

Image: ABC.com