Basically the entirety of Season 6, which revolved around the murder of President-Elect Vargas. The whole season has the writers creating and blaming new and different Big Bads. First it was committed by a random lone gunman, then by Cyrus via Tom, then by Eli (who did it to protect a never-before-mentioned love of his life), then by a shadowy organization more powerful than both the President and the former leader of B613, then by Olivia's Mom, and finally by the President-Elect's own widow. And even then, they have to take it a step further/backwards, as it's shown that it was in fact Cyrus who influenced the widow to do it in the first place.
David Rosen's death. It makes no sense that he would take anything from Cyrus, especially when the entire season has been spent hammering on what a treacherous snake Cyrus really is.
By the end of season three, the fanbase has split two ways. The first group believes that Scandal is as addictive as ever. The second group still enjoys the show, but they think season three's heavy focus into the spy thriller genre with B613 has degraded the political drama elements, they found the Mama Pope plot to be extremely cliche, and the season significantly weakened Olivia's character.
Season 4's "The Lawn Chair." While fans and critics agree it was well-written and superbly acted (especially by Courtney B. Vance), many are also uncertain if an episode about police brutality and racial injustice "fits" in a series that shifts from political drama to spy thriller and back.
Cargo Ship: Mellie and the Fried Chicken. It turns out it was special vegan "fried chicken" made for Bellamy Young.
In season 2, all of "Quinn's" trial and the aftermath. Since the majority of the evidence seems to come from the fact that she ran, it's never clear why Olivia didn't discreetly help get her off earlier instead of moving her. Further, she's only charged with the 7 murders as far as we see, and never identity forgery or terrorism, so it's not clear why a US Attorney is prosecuting her instead of a California DA. Even after the trial, she continues to use the name Quinn Perkins and appears to have no difficulty, for instance, booking a flight under that name. Even if acquitted for murder it is doubtful the DOJ would have let her continue under a fallacious identity.
It's possible she had her name legally changed offscreen. After all she'd been through, it would make sense if she didn't want anything to do with her old identity. Season 4 reveals Quinn still has to pay "Lindsay's" student loans.
About a month after an episode aired depicting a cop planting evidence on an African-American teen he had murdered, video footage of a cop doing exactly this surfaced in real life. The episode was deliberately made to be topical, and was based on a number of similar real-life events that had occurred over the years, but it was nonetheless frightening to see the scenario repeat itself yet again.
On the same note, after Sally makes her presidential bid official and leaves the Grant-Langston ticket, Fitz's first pick to replace her is a Republican governor from CA, a move Olivia rejects because running against the first female presidential candidate from the two main parties on a white male ticket could potentially hurt Fitz's electoral chances. Fitz rejects this and sticks with his choice. And they win. A similar conversation happened within the Republican party after the 2012 presidential election (the Republican candidate lost); a party wide report stated that the Republican party should look to diversify its base in order to remain competitive nationally. Then 2016 came, Donald Trump ran with Mike Pence as his VP pick against the first female candidate from either of the two main parties, Hillary Clinton, and won.
He Really Can Act: Guillermo Díaz has spent a lifetime playing gangsters and criminals and comedy roles, but now plays the deeply wounded Huck very convincingly.
Jerkass Woobie: Vice President Sally Langston veers into this territory in season three.
Les Yay: Mellie Grant and Olivia Pope, aka the President's ex-wife and the President's mistress. Despite what some shippers believe, Mellie never had a problem with Fitz's affair with Olivia — in many ways it was a relief to her, as their marriage had been dead for years and she didn't have to worry about acommadating Fitz romantically or sexually. She only took issue with it when it threatened her own political ambitions (i.e., possible exposure sullying their reputations and/or threatening to push her out of Fitz's inner circle). Outside of the affair, Mellie actually had a very high opinion of Olivia and her abilities, and whenever the Grant administration faced a problem they couldn't fix on their own, her first suggestion was always to ask for Olivia's help. Seasons Five and Six ramp the Les Yay up a notch, as Olivia becomes Mellie's campaign manager and the two start forming a genuine friendship, with Olivia even becoming Mellie's Chief of Staff.
Love to Hate: Former Vice President Sally Langston, particularly in later seasons after the writers make the inspired choice to have her become a political talk show host and just drop any and all pretense of her being a nuanced character.
The President murders Verna Thornton in order to maintain his hold on the Presidency after he learned of the election rigging that put him there, because she was going to speak to a federal prosecutor and completely expose Defiance. Granted, she did hire an assassin to murder him earlier in the season, and had weeks to live at most.
Huck's murder of Susanne Thomas probably qualifies. Before then, all the questionable things he did could at least arguably be defended as serving some greater cause, at least insofar as the show's storytelling logic went, but his motivations in this case were entirely self-interested.
In the Season 4 finale "You Can't Take Command," An entire Bus Full of Innocents are killed. The bus had the grand jury for David's case against B6-13. Rowan had them all killed, including the driver and the security guards. The Reveal at the end of the episode ups the stakes: Huck killed them all at Rowan's behest.
Olivia's murder of Luna Vargas. Admittedly, Luna masterminded the conspiracy that dominated Season Six, including her own Moral Event Horizon of assassinating her own husband, President-Elect Frankie Vargas, but the way Olivia went about it was just plain cold (she forced Luna to commit suicide and staged it as a heart attack), especially since it became increasingly clear that Olivia did it both to maintain her own power over Mellie and to get back at Luna for trying to one-up her. Compare this to her murder of Andrew Nichols, who had her kidnapped by mercenaries to force her lover into declaring a war, the experience of which has left her traumatized, possibly for life, and then taunted her with the possibility of doing it again. The latter is sympathetic and understandable, the former is not.
"Are you a little bitch baby, Cy?", "Im not a bitch baby!".
In "Where the Sun Don't Shine", it's impossible not to giggle when Olivia keeps calling Cyrus a "bitch baby" to keep him from resigning.
The constant references to Vermont and especially jam just get cringey after a while, especially when Olivia screams "THERE IS NO JAM!" at Fitz in the middle of an otherwise well written and well acted breakup argument and scene.
"I WANT MY BOOOOOOOOOOONES!!!!"
One-Scene Wonder: Fans loved Courtney B. Vance’s work in "The Lawn Chair," and they were also impressed with Michael Welch's scene where his character, Officer Joseph Newton, rants to Olivia about the difficulty he has as a white police officer in a black neighborhood. It would edge close to Strawman Has a Point... if Newton hadn't killed a black teenager and planted a knife on the dead body.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Vice President Susan Ross. Fan forums are filled with posts from viewers pleasantly surprised that a character they thought they were going to dislike based on her first few appearances turned out to be one of their favorites. Credit to the writers for quickly turning her annoying quirks into character traits that refreshingly make her seem like a real person.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: John Barrowman got a bit of attention when he was cast as a guest star. When he showed up in "Any Questions?" as a fixer Mellie hired, he didn't do that much. The character wasn't even named.
A growing risk as the second season progresses. Of course, some of the rotten things done are to save the more sympathetic characters from Hollis Doyle.
By Season 4, more than half the cast has orchestrated or outright committed coldblooded murder, and those with clean hands are only a little better. Interestingly, the character with probably the highest body count (Huck) coupled with evident psychopathic tendencies is one of the most sympathetic (and beloved by fans).
Season 7 makes it even worse. At this point, Olivia is fine with murdering an innocent, teenage girl for political purposes.
The Woobie: The layers of bitch for Mellie Grant fall away every now and then, especially once it was revealed she was raped by Fitz's father (which also made her detached to her marriage with Fitz, who blamed her for his interest in other women) and attempted suicide over it a year later, before being saved Andrew Nichols, Fitz's lieutenant governor at the time. She and Andrew start having an affair during Fitz's reelection as POTUS, which Fitz forces Andrew to end because of his sudden (and erratic) jealousy. At the start of Season 4, the death of her son has absolutely shattered her. She can keep it together for the State of the Union, but not for long. That actually brings her and Fitz closer together, but he kicks her out of the White House.
