Scandal has become defined by its twists, turns, and the questions it leaves the viewer with each week. There’s never any time to take a breath during the political drama, thanks to the relentless pacing and onslaught of shady D.C. figures, secrets being held by the highest governmental officials, and citizens seeking the aid of Pope & Associates. While the show has managed to increase its pop culture visibility thanks to its “go big or go home” attitude, it’s always nice for the storytelling to ease off the gas pedal ever so slightly in order to wrap a few things up before going full speed ahead once again.
Water Water Everywhere
Acting President Langston wants to announce the capture of the man believed to have shot President Grant, but she has to wait, as Huck has not given up any information nor has he confessed to the crime. Enhanced interrogation techniques have been applied to the former spy and even after going through a rough series of beatings and waterboarding he’s not cracking. David Rosen attempts to intervene on his behalf, but he gets shut down by one of the presiding CIA Agents, leading to Olivia and the rest of the cabal club banding together to take Hollis out and free Huck once and for all. Verna, responsible for Huck’s arrest after being blackmailed by Langston, mentions that Hollis has been getting comfortable at the White House and that he has a burner phone; Harrison and Abby team up to distract a flirty friend of Hollis’ in order to get the number to the burner.
Once David told her where Huck is, arguably to clear a guilty conscience, Olivia finally lands a meeting with Langston and convinces her to let Huck go due to his reputation (and resumee) from being a tracker. Rosen takes the order to the basement where Huck, who is bloody, naked, and terrified, has been held and gets him in an unmarked black car that drops him off to Olivia. She gets him a phone (with the number from Hollis’ burner) and the weaponry needed to finish their plan.
With Hollis getting anxious, he calls Becky to finish the job that she started and kill the President. She makes it to the top of a nearby building and aims her gun at the hospital, looking to take out the President before they can move him to Camp David. Only there is no Camp David plan – Huck appears on the roof, gun pointed at her, and plans to give her five shots, one for each member of the family she slaughtered. Before he can pull the trigger, the police rush onto the roof and handcuff the both of them; while they’re both on the ground, Becky reveals that her real first name is Kate. To the sounds of Langston’s statement on catching the gunman (Kate), Huck is brought into the office of Pope & Associates and released into their custody. Free at last.
Write This Down
While at Olivia’s, Edison receives a letter from Fitz, who claims to want his powers reinstated now that he’s awake. (The other person who needs to receive the letter so the process can work is the Speaker of the House.) However, once Olivia and Cyrus get into the hospital room, they see that Fitz couldn’t have written the letter – he’s not awake nor has he been. Instead, Mellie wrote the letter and forged the signature in a bid to get the White House back from Langston, out of guilt from her association with Hollis. The problem is that it’s a federal crime to forge the President’s signature and that in drafting a letter like that, there’s nowhere else to go, evident in her quick disconnect once Langston calls looking to schedule a visit. Fitz could wake up anytime in the next 72 hours and conceivably, they could pull this off, but keeping the dogs away for that long will be pretty darn difficult.
Langston does know that they’re lying and wants to expose it, but if she does, there’ll be accusations that she’s only doing it to further her own political career. Hollis suggests leaking it to the press, who will have to ask all the questions of the letter’s legitimacy and what it means for the country; Langston leaks it, though it doesn’t get much traction before Pope & Associates jumps on top of it. They manage to get to coverage more about how positive the President’s progress is, including having a veteran nurse refer to the case as a miracle and getting Mellie to do an interview where the tone was lighter and content full of marital anecdotes and belly hugging.
Mellie visits Langston in the Oval Office and is still sticking with the lie that Fitz is in good condition, prompting Sally to inform the First Lady about graphology, or the study and analysis of handwriting. A right-handed person, she argues, crosses the T’s from left-to-right, while a left-handed person does it the opposite way; she then pulls out the letter that Mellie forged and notes that while Fitz is right-handed, Mellie is left-handed, making the signatures easy to tell apart and catching the First Lady in her lie. After mentioning having an affidavit from a hospital employee stating that the President hasn’t so much as opened an eye, Langston blackmails Mellie into retracting the letter before it becomes something even bigger.
Quinn is upset with Olivia for not doing anything about Hollis Doyle and demands to know the answer as to why the man who she believes killed her boyfriend is still walking free. Before she can begin talking to Quinn about everything that has been going on, Olivia gets a phone call from Cyrus, who tells her that Fitz is awake – for real. Cyrus passes the phone over and Fitz simply says hi. But that’s all Olivia needed.
Goodbye Edison
Edison then confronts Olivia at the hospital, after she didn’t come home or return any of his phone calls for the past two days, the same Chinese Wall issue that’s been following them around for a few episodes. Olivia argues that she’s working and that she did answer every third time he called, angering Edison and leading to him implying that Olivia and the President are more than the friends she claims them to be. He warns her that anyone caught staging a coup wold be considered a domestic terrorist and he’d no hesitate to prosecute any person involved, including her. Olivia looks Edison dead in the eye and tells him goodbye before walking away from him.
Baby of Mine
After getting restless about the progress of David Rosen, still-employed James confronts Cyrus about the story coming from Camp Fitz and the “miracle” that saved the President. Irritated, Cyrus threatens to not go through with the adoption of their baby, who is being treated for jaundice. Later, James visits the baby and, though at first hesitant, holds her, which makes him change his mind about the direction he and Cy are headed. That night, Cyrus finally admits to James that Fitz’s still in poor condition and hasn’t woken up, displacing him as Chief-of-Staff due to his strained relationship with Langston. James tells Cyrus that he officially quit his job at the Times, but before they can go to get their baby, Cyrus receives a call and heads to the hospital to be with the newly wakened Fitz.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-The waterboarding scenes were pretty tough to watch, right? Kudos to the show for being able to go there without it feeling exploitative or merely ornamental.
-I’d love to see Olivia, Verna, Mellie, and Cyrus team up to really nuke Hollis and Langston, but are the four of them up to tangling with two people like that?
-Although the shocking endings and elaborate twists are a fun part of the show, I adore storylines like the Mellie/Langston showdown – Scandal can be very visceral, but there’s nothing wrong with a little psychological warfare.
-Harrison defending Olivia once again from Abby. Sign of an impending blow-up?
-Perd Hapley, everybody. Perd Hapley.
-It was interesting how they did the Olivia/Fitz scenes in the hospital. They mirrored their interactions before the shooting, in that all Olivia wanted to do was be with him and she couldn’t. Then, due to the relationship with Edison and Fitz’s guilt; now, Fitz’s coma. Watching her climb into the hospital bed and touch his face was quite sad.
-Next week on Scandal, there’s another flashback to the election, while Edison makes a shocking accusation against Olivia.
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