'Scandal' Gave Us A Look At A Hillary Presidency And Twitter Had Feelings

Tonight, Scandal returned for its final season of Olivia Pope and company in Shonda Rimes' addictive soap opera about the White House. But after season after season under an Obama administration, and Season 6 ending with their Hillary Clinton type figure Mellie Grant winning the White House, Scandal has done a major about face into 2017's version of The West Wing. And those on Twitter watching were feeling a whole lot about Scandal's fantasy of a Hillary presidency.

During the George W. Bush years, liberals felt beaten down and lost, and the show The West Wing (which debuted only a year before the election of 2000) quickly turned into an escapist liberal fantasy, where an intelligent and sensitive president never plunged us into an endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and all thorny political issues could be solved with a few well written discourses and a speech with feelings behind it.

While many shows have found themselves accidentally timely in the wake of Trump's victory, none has been able to step up into that West Wing slot, until now. Scandal jumped in 100 days into President Grant's term, with Olivia as her Chief of Staff, and these women are fulfilling all the dreams of those who were "with her."

This season seems to have turned most of our side characters into Liberal Fantasy land. Even Cyrus, now ensconced in the Vice Presidency, turned down a offer he once couldn't have refused, one that would have led him to Mellie's desk. Instead, he spoke words that no one in Washington seems to do and mean it. He made choices that were for "the good of the country is to be valued over the good of his own party."

Talk about living the dream.

This doesn't mean all is joy and flowers in liberal fantasy land. Mellie, her VP Cyrus and Olivia are working hard to pass free college for all peoples across the land (much like Hillary incorporated into her platform.) But they're also at odds. Olivia now has the real power behind the throne, and as she's reminded that power is a thirst that's never quenched:

Rowan: You think you have all the power but … the lights are going out. You cannot have it all!

But let's be real. Twitter was far too deep in their first female presidency feelings to care right now.

Even those who are not big fans of Fitz's wife and her road to the White House were not immune:

Some were tuning in and hoping that what they saw on TV was finally the reality of 2017 that we've been looking for.

(Sadly no, my friend. If there's one thing we also know, it's that Twitter will remind us exactly who runs this country in the morning. As it does.)

Meanwhile, some thought that Hillary should have taken a page from Miss Pope.

Others on the other hand, saw the spat between Mellie and Olivia as proof that Hillary in the White House would have been... problematic.

But seriously, last time I checked all my favs were problematic. What's one more, especially if I never have to worry about her starting a nuclear war with North Korea?

Others just looked at the screen, with women running the country at last, promising Season 7 will be a the liberal fantasy we've all been needing to dive into this year, and saw the dream made real.

(Not that Michelle would ever be anyone's Chief of Staff. She is *so* done with being in the White House.)

Even though Scandal will probably not remain in this mode long, it was a bang up way to begin the finale run of, well, scandal, before we say goodbye to this world of Olivia Pope's for good.