Are you Team Jake, or Team Fitz?

It’s a classic love triangle that complicates the narrative and makes the protagonist more complex in ABC’s Scandal. Personally, I’m team Jake. In fact, he’s one of very few characters I actually “like” on the show. But, if I’m really being honest, no matter how intriguing Fitz may be or how handsome and brooding Jake may be, Olivia simply shouldn’t end up with either of them. She has to end up alone.

Kerry Washington, who plays the female protagonist, says “‘I’m team Shonda Rhimes! […] Whatever she writes is what I’m rooting for. And I guess I’m for Team Happy Olivia. I just want Olivia to be with the person who is right for her, and I guess we’ll have to see how that unfolds.’” But here’s the thing, if she really ends up as Happy Olivia, it just isn’t authentic. Viewers can’t possibly be satisfied with her flying off into the sunset. In fact, I think that’s why this last season ended the way that it did. Great season finale, but good to know the show is coming back in the Fall so that the story can continue.

So now you’re wondering, “Why can’t Olivia just live happily ever after with one of these men?” The answer is simple. She’s the “anti-hero,” and the best anti-heroes just don’t get to have a happily-ever-after. Sam Adams argues the case that Olivia Pope is indeed the “female anti-hero” in his blog post, “Scandal and the Year of the Female Antihero.” Adams is right. Viewers have become accustomed to the male anti-hero in television, but Olivia has her own moral code, and “demands that the [viewer] think about issues and ask difficult questions” (torture and election rigging anyone?)

Adams also questions Olivia’s likeability altogether. So do I. Quite frankly, I find her to be insufferable. Just as Adams points out, Olivia has hired help to do her dirty work, which is “why we’re meant to accept the fact that Liv employs a psychologically unstable, government-trained killing machine to do her dirty work, and is just shocked every time he breaks down and tortures or murders someone.” And my god, that face she makes when she’s shocked. Regardless, though, we’re invested in her story. We’re invested in her love story, in her daddy issues, and in her imperfect moral compass. We never know what family member with a secret life might show up next, or what flashback might shed more life on her relationship with the President of the United States. We simply must know what happens next, and most especially, we want her to catch a break for five minutes (whether we “like” her or not).

This is why the Season 3 finale of Scandal is so smart. Viewers get to feel good about Olivia making a choice to *try* to be happy with Jake. They fly off into the sunset, leaving Fitz to cry on the floor of the Oval Office. It’s just enough that she gets a happy ending, at least for a few minutes, but in the end, viewers won’t be able to accept a white picket fence or the making of jam as the conclusion to our female anti-hero’s story.