Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself (Scandal)

"Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself" is the twelfth episode of the seventh season of the American political drama television series Scandal. The 118th episode overall, it was written by Raamla Mohamed and directed by Tony Goldwyn. A crossover with legal drama series How to Get Away with Murder, the installment aired on March 1, 2018, on ABC, before "Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania", the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of Murder.

"Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself"
Scandal episode
Episode no.Season 7
Episode 12
Directed byTony Goldwyn
Written byRaamla Mohamed
Produced bySarah Rissmiller
Kerry Washington
Severiano Canales
Featured music"In My House" by Mary Jane Girls
"Hung Over" by the Martinis
Cinematography byOliver Bokelberg
Editing byChristal A. Khatib
Original air dateMarch 1, 2018 (2018-03-01)
Running time43 minutes
Guest appearance(s)

In the crossover, Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) team up with Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) to work up a class action regarding the mass incarceration of black people in the United States, whilst Annalise faces her own trauma. Murder actress Aja Naomi King guest stars in the episode alongside Davis.

Plot
See also: Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

After her dismissal from the White House, Olivia serves as a guest lecturer at a local university. Annalise Keating, a defense attorney, asks for her help with her class action. At first, Olivia turns down the offer due to the questionable reputation of Annalise, but softens up shortly after. The duo get in touch with Fitz in order to gain mileage. Meanwhile, Mellie and Jake try their best to postpone if not sabotage the case through QPA, leaking the reason Olivia lost her post as Chief of Staff. With everything seeming to hit a dead end, Olivia and Annalise decide to work by themselves without any help from the White House. After watching a televised interview of Olivia and Annalise, Quinn has a change of heart, offering the "dirt" she has on Justice Spivey and prompting her to persuade (possibly blackmail) the judge into changing his vote. The class action suit is added to the court docket, much to Mellie's dismay.

Production

On January 3, 2018, Kerry Washington tweeted a photo to How to Get Away with Murder star Viola Davis of herself in a "familiar" setting, that being a courthouse used for the set of Murder.[1] Fans began to speculate a possible crossover episode being in the works, which was only heightened when Davis tweeted out a photo in response, that being her on the set of the fictitious Oval Office from Scandal.[2] Later that day, the crossover was officially confirmed through a tweet by Scandal creator and Murder executive producer Shonda Rhimes.[3] How to Get Away with Murder creator Peter Nowalk later went on to share in an interview with Deadline:

At the beginning of the season, my writers and I were planning out Viola's entire arc and something in her story organically came up that was very appropriate for Scandal. When I went to Shonda, she heard it. I said, we don't have to do it, Viola's arc doesn't need this, but it's possible that their stories could cross really organically. She actually pulled up a clip of something from Scandal and their side of the story coalesced perfectly. So it was one of those serendipitous things where we both realized it was good for both characters, and it almost felt like we had been planning it since last season.[4]

"Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself" was written by Raamla Mohamed and directed by Tony Goldwyn.[5] It featured the songs "In My House" by Mary Jane Girls and "Hung Over" by the Martinis.[6] Liza Weil, who portrayed Amanda Tanner on the first season of Scandal, is also a series regular on How to Get Away with Murder, playing Bonnie Winterbottom. Nowalk said that he and Rhimes decided to ignore the continuity error and hoped that audiences wouldn't be confused and able to separate Weil's performances as both characters.[7] Winterbottom did not appear in the Scandal half of the crossover, and Weil did not appear as Bonnie with any Scandal characters on-screen during the Murder half, ultimately not making any confusion moot.

Reception

Viewers

In its original American broadcast, "Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself" was seen by an estimated 4.95 million household viewers and gained a 1.2/5 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research.[8] This means that 1.2 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 5 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it. This was a 7% increase in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 4.64 million viewers with a 1.1/4 in the 18-49 demographics.[9] The installment attached 2.73 million DVR viewers, summing up 7.70 million viewers.[10]

Critical response

Joshua Alston of Vulture praised the episode, complimenting the well-done mixing of both series' mythologies. He asked for a crossover season and wrote, "[the episode] doesn’t feel nearly as much like a stunt as it actually is. It has strong thematic links to both shows and never feels like it’s playing fast and loose with Scandal’s mythology to accommodate the new guests. Honestly, neither Scandal nor HTGAWM has been this fun or felt this vital in a really long time."[11] Ashley Ray-Harris of The A.V. Club called it a "fun fanbait episode".[12] Writing for E! Online, Lauren Piester declared the crossover "felt just right", commenting, "In the end, it's kind of a shame this didn't happen earlier and that it can't happen again. Annalise and Olivia are strangely natural together, and that girl power is pretty undeniable."[13] Refinery29's Ariana Romero noted the importance of two black actresses sharing television screen time and praised the dynamics between Olivia and Annalise.[14]

gollark: It seems like one of those things which can never actually work as long as someone cares enough to break it.
gollark: I see.
gollark: Or you could end up with a seizure or something because a buffer overflow in some random driver code caused the neural interface to crash in some weird way.
gollark: Or you might end up getting viruses overwriting your belief system or something. Fun!
gollark: I mean, I read about new !!FUN!! vulnerabilities in stuff every week, and these things will probably be running rather complex software.

References
  1. Washington, Kerry [@kerrywashington] (January 3, 2018). "Hey Ms @violadavis ❤️ check it out. This spot look familiar?! Where are you?" (Tweet). Retrieved January 3, 2018 – via Twitter.
  2. Davis, Viola [@violadavis] (January 3, 2018). "Hey @KerryWashington, guess where I am?!" (Tweet). Retrieved January 3, 2018 – via Twitter.
  3. Rhimes, Shonda [@shondarhimes] (January 3, 2018). "People. It's happening. @petenowalk, you ready for this? #TGITCrossover #HowtoGetAwaywithScandal" (Tweet). Retrieved January 3, 2018 – via Twitter.
  4. Andreeva, Nellie (January 3, 2018). "'Scandal'/'How To Get Away With Murder' Crossover: Get Details On Big Shondaland Event From 'HTGAWM' Creator – Q&A". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  5. "(#712) "Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
  6. "S7 · E12 · Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself". TuneFind. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
  7. Turchiano, Danielle. "'How to Get Away With Murder' Boss Previews 'Wish Fulfillment' of Crossover With 'Scandal'". Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  8. Porter, Rick (March 2, 2018). "'Superstore,' 'SWAT,' 'Scandal' and 'AP Bio' adjust down: Thursday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  9. "Scandal: Season Seven Ratings". TV Series Finale. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
  10. Porter, Rick (March 15, 2018). "'Agents of SHIELD,' 16 other shows double in week 23 broadcast Live +7 ratings". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  11. Alston, Joshua (March 2, 2018). "Scandal Recap: Introducing Pope and Keating". Vulture. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
  12. Ray-Harris, Ashley (March 1, 2018). "Scandal focuses on fanbait in a well-crafted episode". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
  13. Piester, Lauren (March 1, 2018). "The Scandal and HTGAWM Crossover Felt Just Right". E! Online. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
  14. Romero, Ariana (March 2, 2018). "Here's Why The Scandal–HTGAWM Crossover Was Truly So Special". Refinery29. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
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