So Scandal happened last night

They understand the dangers that await, and thus strive to make every present moment count. This is a show that traffics in the familiar beats of epic emotional drama, yet takes place in a world stripped of all romanticism. There’s sound and fury, but only second-hand melody carried over from another, distant era. Olivia and President Fitzgerald Grant play the parts of star-crossed lovers, but it’s not clear how much of that is based on their actual chemistry versus their desire to take part in a mutually destructive relationship. The line between actual desire and staged psychodrama is constantly blurred whenever one enters the other’s orbit. It’s unclear if they crave love or punishment from the other. For all Olivia knows, Fitz killed her mother. But he also built her a house in Vermont. One seemingly cancels the other out in the moral universe of Scandal. The moral quandary that defines Olivia and Fitz in Scandal has an epic and universal ring to it: They know what they should want, but aren’t able to either grasp it, or run away from it.

Work helps. So does exercise. Stuff that numbs you, keeps you from thinking too much. Dating also helps, but, it also helps to remember that he hates you and it helps to try to hate him too.