Scandal was a force to be reckoned with tonight as Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington, and crew dropped enough emotional grenades and plot twists to eradicate ABC’s entire schedule (except it’s Sunday night lineup and Nashville, of course). Out of the nine episodes in the series so far, this was one of the best episodes of Scandal ever written and the cast and crew might want to use this one as an Emmy reel for next year’s nominations.
The episode was titled, “The Other Woman,” and that moniker took on various meanings as the most of the leading ladies – and guest stars – wore the dreaded outfit in their respective stories of the night. In short, everyone killed it in the performance department.
The Other Woman… in The Bedroom
This week’s scandal involved the death of unfaithful pastor (we’re talking on the level of Rev. Jesse Jackson or Rev. Al Sharpton), which set off a tidal wave of trouble for the pastor’s family, Olivia, and Olivia’s crew.
After getting word that Pastor Drake was missing, Olivia and crew checked all the pastor’s usual haunts with no results. But after a quick hack by Huck, the group found Pastor Drake in a compromising position: dead on top of a hand-cuffed prostitute named Anna (Elise Neal)… or who they initially presumed to be a prostitute. After Olivia has Pastor Drake’s body moved to his actual bed where his wife Nancy (Lorraine Toussaint) stood waiting to follow Olivia’s instructions on how to help preserve the good pastor’s legacy. Later, Olivia and crew finds out that Anna is actually a top lawyer in D.C. and Pastor Drake’s mistress of 15 years!
Anna wanted $6 million dollars to sign a confidentiality agreement that would prevent her from tarnishing everything the pastor had worked for in the last 50 years. Olivia denied the high price, but once Anna revealed that her son was the love child of Pastor Drake, Ms. Pope knew that it was time to play hardball.
After plenty of deliberations between Anna and Nancy, the two women came to an agreement that Anna would get $2 million up front, $2 million for her son’s trust that he could use at 25 years old, and an additional $2 million the kid could get access to at age 30. But nothing is ever that easy on Scandal as the next roadblock that falls in Olivia’s path comes in the form of David Rosen, who orders an autopsy on Pastor Drake, which could undo everything Olivia had worked on in the past few days. David claimed that he knew something was fishy when Olivia called him for help to look for the “missing” pastor, who was found in his own bed dead. Uh oh…
After a hot and cold discussion with President Grant, Olivia managed to take care of the autopsy (which David blew a gasket over) and got intel that Mellie would be visiting Nancy the next day before the funeral and to be on her P’s and Q’s. Before the funeral, Olivia was prepping Nancy to respond to Mellie by saying ‘thank you’, but it was clear that Nancy was an emotional wreck and way too high off sedatives to pay attention. Once Mellie arrived to talk, Nancy, intoxicated and on the verge of a breakdown, let slip that Pastor Drake had a mistress. Dun, dun, dun!
Mellie, knowing full well what the implications of such a reveal could do, asked for everyone (including Olivia) to leave the room to she could talk to Nancy. Once the room was clear, Nancy spilled the truth and her pain of her husband’s betrayal. Knowing Nancy’s pain about dealing with, and being, ‘the other woman,’ Mellie gave Nancy advice on how to handle her situation with forgiveness, and not anger. She goes on to say that at the end of the day, Pastor Drake was still the man Nancy married and that Nancy should still be his wife in the end. And mind you that Olivia was on the other side of the door listening to the entire conversation. Wow…
Just when you thought nothing else could go wrong, Anna decided to not sign the confidentiality papers and demanded more money, yet didn’t have one sum in mind. Olivia, feeling Anna’s pain, explained to Anna that no amount of money will pay for the 15 years of the life Anna wanted with Pastor Drake. After Anna mentioned that she had always thought when Pastor Drake’s time came that they would at least be able to say goodbye. Ding! Ding!
Olivia then brings Anna to the funeral, which is broadcast all over the news. Nancy vehemently refused to let Anna step foot in the cathedral, but Olivia warned her of the implications if Anna isn’t allowed to say goodbye to her lover. Later as the funeral commences and the Drake family makes their way out the service, Nancy stops at Anna and her son’s pew and welcomes them to walk with the family, while the entire funeral service looked on in bewilderment. Did I mention how much I wanted to cry like a fool at this faux funeral?
The Other Woman… in The White House
A restless Olivia got a phone call in the middle of the night and of course it’s from Fitz, who she berates for having 23 people of his staff to stay late so he can call her. After some banter between the two of them that went from funny to painfully serious, Fitz asks Olivia if he wants her to hang up or top calling her. 
Olivia never answered his question so Fitz said he would call her later.
When Pastor Drake passed, Mellie decided to deliver the news to Fitz himself, and before she can get to the news, he chews her head off. After Mellie gave President Grant the news, in a tone that made Fitz look like a jackass, she immediately left the room for him to stew in his own ‘jackassery.’
President Fitz called Olivia again and after they had a laugh about the absurdity of Pastor Drake’s sexually related death, the conversation got serious quick as Olivia mentioned Anna being the pastor’s mistress. Fitz asked Olivia what did she want. Her response? To let her go. Fitz said he could do anything else but that, and Olivia then angrily asked for the autopsy report to be eradicated. Fitz promised to take care of it and they both hung up just as frustrated as about their situation as the day before.
After Mellie gave Nancy the speech on being the good wife, Mellie took her own advice as she and President Fitz were on their way home in their limo. She asked Fitz for forgiveness after recounting their earlier years when they were partners and friends, a time when things were right for them. Fitz realized that his wife was hurting, hugged her and forgave her. Then he promptly slid back into his side of the limo as she looked on in a dazed stupor. Can we say it got cold as Mt. Everest in that limo?
The Other Woman… on The Run
Quinn still didn’t trust Olivia in tonight’s episode and was visibly frustrated about Olivia’s orders to stay put within Olivia’s apartment. However, Quinn skipped town the first chance she got to go home and see her father, who she hadn’t seen in years. Her father looked happy to see her, but Quinn immediately deducted that their reunion might be too little, too late. Her father confirmed her fears slightly by admitting that his life had started to find peace once he hadn’t heard from Quinn, but that has all changed as of late due to the trial.
After that heart wrenching reunion, Quinn made her way back to the hotel where her abduction took place. She was surprised to find that Huck had caught up with her (on orders from Olivia, of course). The two share a moment where I thought Huck was going to spill everything to the hapless Quinn. However, it was the other way around as Quinn spilled her guts on how her father, who raised her alone since she was 7 after her mother’s death, viewed her as a completely different person after not seeing her for so long. Huck, who looked equally haunted himself, only replied that ‘Lindsay’ will never be the same after what happened to her. He also added that it actually 8 people who died in that fateful office explosion that day, insinuating that the life Lindsay Dwyer had died that day too.
Who is Quinn Perkins? – Take Two
During the episode, a Supreme Justice member named Verna Thornton was constantly mentioned throughout the episode, but didn’t show up until the last scene. Just when you think she’s another client of Olivia’s, it is revealed that she too is in on the cover-up surrounding the bombing and Quinn Perkins! After Olivia informed her that Quinn tried to move back home, Judge Thornton declared how they should have let her hang in the courtroom. Olivia countered how Quinn is innocent, but Judge Thornton worried how Quinn could easily topple their government if they are not careful. Damn! It’s that serious?!?!
The Push for an East Sudan Conflict Heats Up
The conflict in East Sudan heated up as President Fitz and Cyrus awoke to a photo featuring a field of dead Sudanese children, who were brutally murdered by the East Sudan government. The intel came from the director of the C.I.A. and his employee, who looked rather nervous to Cyrus. The picture gave the President the reason he needed to take action on East Sudan, and he asked for intel to be on his desk immediately.
Oil Barren Hollis returned to the White House to ask Cyrus how far was the President on moving in on East Sudan, which would help boost oil business for Hollis. The (greedy) oil barron kept mentioning how the photo should be enough incentive for President Grant to go to war, but Cyrus declared that not everything the Grant Administration does goes toward President Grant’s re-election campaign.
After mulling over the nagging feeling he’s had about the photo, Cyrus presented his qualms to Fitz and the two paid a visit to the C.I.A. employee, who confirmed that not only was the photo indeed a fake, but that the Director of the C.I.A. was behind its creation and leak. President Fitz promptly fired the C.I.A. director and released to the media of the photo’s inauthenticity.
Meanwhile, Cyrus was bombarded by his lover James with baby talk. Cyrus informed James that due to him already having a child in the form of the President of the United States, he will not be able to pay attention to an actual baby in the house. Awww…
Who is Huck?
When we first saw Huck in this episode, he was attending an Alcohol Anonymous group. Later Pope and Associates were discussing how to handle Pastor Drake’s body and Olivia asked Huck what did he need to get the job done. Huck, like a gun nut in an ammo shop, started listing off a number of tools and materials he would need to hack up Pastor Drake’s body for transportation. Um… Okay.
Olivia, rightfully worried, asked the resident techie/tormentor if he was okay and he of course said he was fine. But when we last see Huck, he’s at the AA meeting again, using whisky as a metaphor for his blood lust being resurrected again. Lord, help this man…
Who is Olivia Pope?
After being bested by Olivia, David Rosen had his world rocked again when the head D.A.demanded for Rosen to not go on with Pastor Drake’s autopsy. Then the D.A. order for Rosen to take a mandatory leave of absence after Rosen began questioning how Olivia Pope managed to dupe him not only once, but twice. At the end of the episode, Rosen had already begun a conspiracy theory wall that centers on one Olivia Pope and her connections in Washington, D.C. In other words, David Rosen is officially off his leash and is ready to attack.
Whew!
In closing, Scandal simply owned tonight in every aspect of the word. Toussaint and Neal took their characters and transcended them into something higher than your standard guest-starring roles. Plus, their scenes with Kerry Washington were beyond explosive and its sad that their characters are possibly not going any further than this episode. Spin-off anyone?
But I’ve taken much of your time already. What did you think about this episode of Scandal? Are you gagging about the two-week hiatus that’s been imposed upon us? Speak out below and in our forums!
Photo Credit: ABC
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Great recap! I thought it was an incredible episode. “Scandal pace” is no joke! All of the Mellie scenes were memorable and that limo scene, gosh, that was tough. Mellie’s trying to get her marriage back on track but it’s obvious Fitz has already permanently checked out of the marriage.
So happy that Cyrus got Fitz’s back with that CIA intel. But regarding Hollis, he wants his business to boom, not “to bomb” which is what you wrote.
The Huck situation gives me chills, the idea that he’s addicted to torturing people. Definitely going to pose a problem down the road.
This show is so good!!! I wish more people were watching it.
Thanks for the excellent recap!
Thank you for spotting that grammtical error and I’m changing it as we speak. I’m beyond thrilled that you loved the review, because I thought I was being a bit long-winded with it. Yall have made my day! lol!
SHOW=AWESOME
YOUR REVIEW=AWESOME
Reading your review was like looking at the show again, it had me in suspense like I didn’t know what was going to happen. Damn, I will probably read it again..lol!!!LOVED IT!!!!! “dun, dun, dun!!!lol”
Love, love, love your review. It was spot on, and I totally agree with you that tonight’s episode ruled the Thursday night line-up. The cast brought their A game tonight, the Scandal writers as always blew me away with the dialogue, and every time I think I have figured out where they are going with the story line they do a 180. Of course, the angst that is Liv and Fitz breaks my heart every time. You know that Shondaland has truly created something great when I find myself rooting for two people to be together who I shouldn’t want to be together. Don’t know if I can make it 2 weeks without my Scandal fix. Gladiator for life.
Awesome detailed review!! I was too tired to watch last night. Saw up to where they moved Drakes body back home. And to think I thought the episode started off boring. I can’t believe all that happened in one episode!! That show needs an Emmy! Thank you for a great recap.
Excellent overview to an excellent show. I rarely watch network TV and not really a Rhimes fan, but Scandal has me hooked. I think its just because its darn good storytelling. And last night proved how good the story can get. The first epi of this season was so-so, but this one rocked the house. What was brilliant was how the story of the week was a metaphor for one of the core strands of the series – being the “other woman”. Even Cyrus’ refusal to adopt was because he already had “another child” in his care echoed this line. The underlying message was you don’t always get what you want no matter how much you want it and try to have it, in the end the fall out makes losers of everyone. And Huck’s use of AA to confess his addiction was chilling, just chilling. All in all I agree this should be put up for an Emmy – everyone was pitch perfect!
What had Mellie done that she needed to be forgiven for? Must have missed it last season. Thanks.
I think Mellie was just asking for forgiveness to either a) being a bulldog in the marriage, b) for overstepping her boundaries as First Lady, or c) just wants to be forgiven for whatever it was that she done for Fitz to wander away from the ‘thing’ that they had.
I think Mellie was accused of having an affair during the primary campaign for President by Fitz’s opponents campaign manager.
Again, thank you all for the love for this review! You all have seriously made my day!
Gladiators in Suits Forever!
Well I had planned to watch it over today but your recap was so good, it transported my right back! That was some episode, man. Kudos to the writers. I hope Shonda and team gets it together in Private Practice-major snooze fest now.
Love the recap. Gladiator in a suit for life! LOL.
i bet she tastes delcious !
great review – love this program abc needs to advertise more can’t believe more people are not watching this. one of the best shows onj