Scandal 2.04 Recap – Moving On and Cabal Clubs

Man, what the hell just happened on Scandal last night?!

I’m not talking about the awesome Scandal of the Week storyline, nor the epicness that was the Olivia/President Grant scenes. I’m talking about that final scene featuring Scandal‘s own Cabal Club with members consisting of Supreme Court Justice Verna Thornton, oil baron Hollis, Cyrus (?), Mellie (?!?), and Olivia!!!! The reveal was hands down very unexpected and exceedingly mind-boggling, but the question bothering me after the scene smashed cut into the Scandal title card was how in the hell will Shonda Rhimes pay this off at the end of the day? Also, is the President involved in any way with the Cabal Club as well?

Scandal of the Week – The Death of a D.C. Blogger Rocks The World of Scandal

Olivia does a favor for Senator Edison Davis by helping two of his constituents find their missing daughter. After Olivia sets up a media blitz for the couple to help get their daughter, Jenny, on the front pages and top stories of various media outlets, Harrison makes a surprising discovery: Sweet, innocent Jenny is actually the webmaster for Beltway Unbuckled, a blogging site that features a young woman’s sexual exploits with top D.C. politicians. Shut the front door!

While some of the media trashes Jenny, the crew of Olivia Pope and Associates are still searching for Jenny by using her blog as a map to piece together the last night she was seen. Once the group finds out that she was at a top event for politicians to secretly pick up hot young women, Quinn gets a lead from a hospital who has a Jane Doe that fits Jenny’s description. However, Olivia received a phone call that directed her to a crime scene where a body was found. That body turned out to be Jenny’s.

Later autopsy showed that Jenny was in a car accident and was actually alive when the person dumped her body on the side of the road, meaning that if she had have been taken to the hospital right after the accident, then she would have been alive. Olivia orders her crew to narrow down everyone in the Beltway area driving a Ferrari Spider and attended the same event as Jenny. They found a match in Alexander Lavich, a foreign diplomat who has immunity and can’t be touched by the American government. The only way anyone can get to the guy was if the President put in a special request to bypass that law. Uh oh…

Meanwhile, Mellie and Fitz are seriously at each other’s throats and Cyrus is about at wit’s end with the both of them. Mellie wants to be able to sit “at the adults’ table” and have a voice in a lot of the decisions going on in the White House. Cyrus and President Grant brush her off, ignoring her temper tantrums. Olivia stops by the White House and asked Cyrus to speak to President Grant, but Cyrus, already knowing that Olivia is there for Jenny, informs the fixer how messing with Levich’s government would be bad politically in case America needs to go to war with East Sudan. President Grant shows up and the tension got thicker than the gel in a meathead’s hair. He immediately made the situation about his and Olivia’s relationship, stating that Olivia knew good and well the specifications to such a request so she must be there for something else.

As the media circus and protestors begin to camp outside the White House by the hour, Mellie sees an opportunity and (surprisingly) calls Olivia over to formulate a plan, since President Grant and the White House weren’t budging on their decision to not interfere with the embassy’s laws. Later, Mellie and Olivia stage a media opportunity where Mellie, without the consent of the President, literally stood by the side of the Nashs’ in their crusade to get justice for Jenny. Mellie might be a snake at times, but that chick is ambitious and you can’t hate her for that.

After marveling over the fact that not only did Mellie and Olivia undercut him, they also worked together to do so, President Grant set up a meeting with Olivia where he informs her that he only could get Levich to be deported out of the country. Next the conversation turned to their situation, where President Fitz decided that he should let Olivia go, which would let the two of them move on. He also offered to drop the investigation on Senator David’s past. After President Grant left, Olivia broke down in the middle of the empty restaurant and I’m pretty sure more than half of America bawled along with her.

Huck Falls Off the Wagon

At the start of the episode, we see Huck attending one of his AA meetings where one of the female members mentions Huck receiving his sixth month sober token. Huck pretty much shrugs it off, but it works his nerve for most of the episode.

Later after Mr. and Mrs. Nash learn about Levich’s deportation, Huck stops and tries to talk some sense into a rapidly unraveling Mr. Nash, who has revenge and murder on the brain. The anguished father ignored Huck’s plea and plots to kill Levich later that night. However, while he was on his way out the door, a news report kicked in stating that Levich had died suddenly due to massive heart failure. Um, yeah right.

Sure enough, Huck returns to his AA group and announces how he has fallen off the wagon, and it’s a sad moment for Huck fans.

The Scandal Cabal Club

Olivia constantly checks in on Supreme Court Justice Verna Thornton, who secretly is being treated for chemo and doesn’t want the country to know. Throughout the episode, the two women bond over Olivia’s career and relationship with President Grant, which Senator Thornton admitted that she could see from a mile away. As if Olivia and Fitz didn’t have enough the Secret Service to possibly worry about.

On the other side of town, David Rosen and Abby are in the midst of post-sex cuddling and Abby brings up David never taking their trysts to his apartment, which sends a red flag to viewers. David gets a phone call from Alissa, takes it in private, and discusses how Abby still hasn’t budged on the information. He does assign Alissa the task of retrieving the phone records of Lindsay/Quinn’s ex-boyfriend leading up to the bombing.

Alissa comes with the goods, but doesn’t wait to tease David about his growing affection for Abby, who he claims that he’s only using. Alissa warns him that if he does have feelings for Abby, then she should never see his wall of conspiracy. Understatement of the year, Alissa.

After skimming through the call records, David is shocked to find that eleven phone calls were made between Hollis Doyle’s company and Quinn’s ex, which was weird since the Cintron (sp?) and Doyle’s company never did business with each other. David meets with Doyle, who plays dumb about knowing or having any contact with Quinn’s ex or Cintron. He does inform David that if he wants info, then he can get a warrant and to talk with his lawyers. Um, guilty much?

Later, Abby (feeling a bit self-conscious) decides to break into David’s apartment to see what is keeping him from bringing her over, making David seem a hell of a lot more sane in the process. Abby discovers the wall, but doesn’t tell anyone about it. She does, however, try to get Olivia to confide in her about what’s going on. When Olivia didn’t crack, Abby made her way into David’s shower (literally) where she agrees to work with David on finding out what Olivia Pope is hiding.

As David explains his theory on Doyle’s involvement with the bombing, we see Hollis Doyle chilling in his office and is joined first by Verna Thornton, Cyrus, Mellie, and finally Olivia! The scene sends chills down my bones as the last scene of the night features President Grant looking out of Air Force One at the D.C. night sky. Is he in on the Scandal Cabal Club or is he completely oblivious about what his close friends, allies, and lovers are steeply involved in?

And that, my friends, was another epic episode of Scandal and my mind is still blown. That reveal was a huge game changer and I’m wondering like hell how will I be able to look at some of my favorite characters again. But we have a lot to mull over and a lot of time to do just that. We have another two-week hiatus ahead of us and it will be torture trying to figure out exactly what the hell is going on at Olivia Pope & Associates.

So what are your thoughts about what happened? Do you think the President is involved? Is there someone higher in charge above the President? How far back does the secret club of powerful D.C. players go?

Photo Credit: ABC/Ron Tom