1. When Scandal Season 4 began, it was two months since Jerry Grant Jr. (Dylan Minnette) died. And Mellie (Bellamy Young) was grieving.
Look at those pained eyes. :(
2. She didn't care what anyone thought about her not changing her clothes or eating cereal out of the box in the Oval Office in her PJs.
Most of the time, she was drinking hard liquor or eating. Or both.
3. And when someone did try to question her, she shot them down. HARD. Even if it was her husband, President Grant (Tony Goldwyn).
4. She was who she was. And she OWNED it.
5. She was just completely raw.
Like the time she laid down on her child's grave.
6. And she was direct.
7. She practically became a super sleuth.
Like the time a woman was accused of pushing her husband off a cliff and Mellie became obsessed with proving he had slipped.
8. But when she couldn't be of help, she was heartbroken.
She basically called the entire Cabinet together, only to find out the police had already come to the same conclusion on the cliff case that she did.
9. She sat and ate chips with her dead son.
10. She spoke her mind.
11. And when Fitz really needed her to show up at the State of the Union address and look composed, she did it (even though she broke down).
12. She was confrontational.
"Yes, I can run in these Uggs. What's it to you?"
13. And quick with comebacks.
14. But she was also strong enough to find a way to comfort her daughter, Karen (Mary Mouser), when she needed it.
Even though she'd just made a really dirty sex tape and ran away from her security detail.
15. And in Season 4, Episode 5, she found a way to rationalize her son's death and begin to move forward.
16. And then "Smelly Mellie" washed away her sorrow.
