I won’t even lie to you. I’ve never been so in love and yet so equally frustrated and traumatized by a television show ever. I am still in relative shock from all that transpired in this episode. There was Mellie taking a stand for Planned Parenthood. Then there was Olivia playing FLOTUS, the discovery of who was behind the initiation of Lazarus One and finally the implosion of Olitz.
Whoops! Should I have said “spoiler alert” with that last one? You did anticipate that something was going to go sideways with the lovebirds, yes? And I haven’t even mentioned the abortion of a pregnancy that we didn’t even know existed!
I can’t begin to adequately express how unprepared I was for the end of this episode. The pain and sadness that hit me was as surprising in its magnitude as it was in its unexpectedness. I literally shed tears and then I sat in dazed silence in the same spot for an hour after it went off.
A TV show shouldn't be capable of doing this to a person. It shouldn't have rendered me insensible. It shouldn't have made me feel as if I was slapped with a hot slab of concrete. But it did. And I dementedly loved it while simultaneously wishing premature death upon it.
I’m not going to regale you again with the many ways in which Kerry Washington is a riveting human being to watch on screen. Nor will I bother you with talk of Tony Goldwyn’s ability to effortlessly shift through a slew of emotions within a 5 second span. Nor will I mention how fab Bellamy Young was in conveying a determined, yet exhausted Mellie Grant. I’m not going to do any of that because as I said last week, we’d be here for days.
What I will do instead is talk about this episode. Before I dig in, I’d like to recall you to two episodes from earlier this season, “Heavy is the Head” (501) and “Paris is Burning” (503). Think specifically about the conversation between Olivia and Fitz on the balcony (501) and the one that occurred between Olivia and Mellie in the closet (503). If you can’t remember specifics, take a quick look over the recaps for those episodes here and here.
From POTUS to First Girlfriend in Chief
“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” opens up by introducing us to Olivia Pope, First Girlfriend in Chief, and my immediate question is: how did this happen and why are we here? Some time has obviously passed since we last saw Olivia, but how much time is unclear. What is clear is that the space that she used to occupy in the White House has changed to one that is visually anomalous. Instead of the role she had previously played as advisor to the President (or shadow president as Cyrus considers her), Olivia is now playing the Stepford wife as part of a “charm offensive” to help raise the President’s/their poll numbers and get a spending bill passed.
Olivia is shown giving a White House tour to young girls, receiving a giant Christmas ornament from a group of women, and being featured on the cover of magazines. (How long has Olivia been playing at this to have landed several magazine covers?) At one of several holiday parties that the White House hosts, we see Fitz entertaining matters of substance while Olivia is relegated to handling the frivolous such as cookie recipes!
What in the world is happening here? Was Olivia’s release of Rowan responsible for this? Charm offensive or not, something has shifted between Olivia and Fitz, and not in a good way. While she served in a FLOTUS-like capacity last week as co-host of the Bandaris, Olivia was still able to maintain her identity as head gladiator and do what she does best. Whatever this was now? It was weird.
This is further supported by their manner with each other the following morning. As they are dressing for the day ahead, Fitz relays to Olivia that her help will be needed in deciding plate settings for the Cabinet holiday party. Olivia’s response is terse as she tells him that she is aware of the schedule and has a functioning brain. She even remarks under her breath that his spending bill is “crappy” and refuses to repeat herself when Fitz queries her about what she had said. He hadn’t heard her and she certainly wasn’t going to enlighten him.
Now since when does Olivia withhold her opinions from Fitz, let alone mumble under her breath? That’s uncharacteristic of her. Verbally sparring with Fitzgerald is one of her favorite past times. What gives?
Mellie Grant: Woman’s Warrior
Senator Grant gets her first experience with the good old boys club as she enters their domain to discuss a particular item within the spending bill that they are about to pass that she believes has been erroneously moved to the discretionary column. This item is funding for Planned Parenthood (PP). The atrocious Senator Gibson tells her that PP would still be fully funded, but Mellie points out that placing it in the discretionary column means that funding isn’t guaranteed and can be stripped away at any time. Mellie indicates that if PP remains as it is within the bill that she cannot vote for it, but Gibson isn’t at all worried about that. The bill will still pass without her vote.
Mellie is surprised to hear this. Surely there are others who would be as concerned about this as she was, right? Nope. Gibson boasts that before he brings any bill up to the Senate floor, he already knows how many votes he has in order to pass it and that this particular bill was no exception. He tells Mellie to get with the program if she wishes to be as successful as he in the Senate and vote yes on the spending bill. Doing so would allow them all to go home for the holidays. His buddies derisively laugh at Mellie’s naivete and I feel a capillary pop in my eyeball.
The next day, Gibson is introducing the spending bill to the Senate. He eventually yields the floor to the Senate president, who then asks if anyone wishes to be recognized prior to the bill going to vote. He is set to move on to the voting portion when Mellie states that she would like recognition, surprising her fellow colleagues. She goes up to the podium and presents her case about PP. She tells them that even though the bill will fund the organization, it also gives the Senate the power to strip them of its funding should the government go over budget. She then details a scenario where funding for PP is decreased every year until the organization is no more.
So Mellie is going to take a stand. She’d love to go home just like the rest of them for the holidays, but she won’t be doing it at the expense of women’s health. Mellie proceeds to grab a super thick printed out copy of the bill in question and drops it atop of the podium she was standing behind. She intends to read the thousands of items within the bill that are not discretionary, prompting her colleagues to groan in unison. Senator Grant is filibustering!
Go Mellie!! (BTW, where did this feminist side of you come from? Asking for a friend.)
Do you know what’s disturbing about these inane items that were included in the budget to receive guaranteed funding while PP is relegated to discretionary? It is that items like these actually do get included in the real spending bill. Travel stipend for the Alabama watermelon queen? Excuse me?
Mellie’s stunt has captured the attention of the beltway media. It’s being reported that Mellie’s filibuster of the congressional spending bill could lead to an “untimely government shutdown” if the bill is not passed by midnight. Untimely because it would be occurring during the holidays and could potentially affect the pay of all government workers.
Fitz, Cyrus and Abby are watching this development on TV. Cyrus doesn’t believe that Mellie will succeed with her filibuster because it requires that she stand up at that podium for 16 hours without a break. She can’t lean on anything for support, leave to use the bathroom or get something to eat. Cyrus acknowledges that others have been successful in filibustering before, but they had prepared in advance for it whereas Mellie had not.
Fitz wishes to know what Abby thinks and she tells him that any talk surrounding Mellie and this situation will eventually come around to him. If Mellie seems desperate or unstable in this moment, Fitz would be blamed for it. People would say that it was because he kept her down for years that she is doing what she is doing now. Cyrus suggests that they leave Mellie to hang herself, but Abby is of the opinion that they should bring Olivia in to handle the message outside the White House by having her work some of her media contacts.
If you were expecting Fitzgerald to be in agreement with this plan, you’d be disappointed because he tells Abby that Olivia is busy. (Busy with what, pray tell?) When Abby asks if Olivia can be freed up to handle this matter, Fitz responds with a flat no. Abby is as stunned by his answer as I am. No?! At this point, my eyes have narrowed to slits and there is this uneasy feeling crawling about in the pit of my stomach. Olivia is banned from assisting in the Oval now? Hmm. Definitely trouble in paradise.
Meanwhile, Mellie is still going strong with her filibuster. She is detailing facts about PP and its provision of contraceptive care to millions of women who cannot get it otherwise because they are living below the poverty line and/or are under the age of 20. Should these women be turned away and Congress is asked why, they’d have to say that it was because they chose to allocate the funds to something far more important like tree snake control in Guam or to the study of “hangry” individuals. Not hungry. Hangry. As in hungry + angry.
I shouldn’t be laughing at the absurdity of the things that are in this spending bill, but come on, man. Tree snake control? Funding for a hangry study? And WTF are “talking urinal cakes”? These are things that are going to get guaranteed funding, but not Planned Parenthood?!
Speaking of hangry, Mellie at that moment spots a food bar of a fellow Senator and goes for it. Gibson starts to protest her act, but Mellie cuts him off to let him know that she knows what the rules of the filibuster is. She may be unable to leave the floor to get food, but nowhere does it say that she can’t have food that’s already present.
Haha!! Again, I say: Go Mellie!! I hate that Senator Gibson with a hardcore passion. Beat him at his own game, girlfriend!
When Senator Moskowitz shoots Gibson a look over his failed attempt to waylay Mellie, I am reminded that I despise this woman almost as much as I do Gibson. Moskowitz was all about standing up for women when it came to impeaching Fitzgerald for not keeping his snake caged, but she can’t do the same when it comes to ensuring that women who fall outside of her tax bracket get basic medical care? Care that most likely doesn’t equate to the one that Moskowitz is afforded as a United States senator but which is still better than having nothing at all? And she’s a Democrat?! Eww.
Not much aggravates me more than a woman who is selectively for women’s rights.
As Mellie carries on with her reading of the various incomprehensible items that are include in the bill, we see that Olivia is in the Residence watching the situation unfold on TV. At some point during her viewing, Fitz joins her and is going on about how Mellie is trying to sink the bill not because she believes anything that she is saying, but because she is trying to use this to raise her profile and maybe pull a Sally Langston and switch parties.
Olivia says nothing to this as her eyes remain on the television. Her silence is remarked upon by Fitz who says to her that he’s talking about how Mellie is trying to undermine him and Olivia’s not even listening. Her eyes still locked on the TV, Olivia tells him that she heard everything he said, to which Fitz remarks that it was hard for him to tell.
I swear this man doesn’t know when he’s standing on a landmine and is set to be blown to bits. That’s the only reason why he was caught off guard when Olivia snapped back at his flippant remark with a “fool, not everything is about you.” That’s me paraphrasing, but that was pretty much Olivia’s message. Mellie standing for Planned Parenthood may not be about you, Fitzgerald. Ever think of that?
Whew. Olivia was in a mood and Fitz was not helping matters with his man pain bs.
Later we see Olivia meeting up with Mitchell to iron out details for the Cabinet holiday party. She wraps that up and sees Abby standing in the doorway as she turns to leave. Abby observes that Olivia is good at this FLOTUS business and Olivia replies as confidently as ever that she knows. Obviously. What would Olivia Pope not be good at?
This is a rhetorical question. Please don’t answer because…..yeah, I know.
As Olivia leaves the room, Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” starts to play. We next see Olivia delivering cookies to the office of Senator Harding that is to be given to his wife. The Olivia Pope is delivering cookies. To the wife of a senator. And she doesn’t even recall what type of cookies they are until the very last second. Snickerdoodles! That’s what they are!
Why in the world is Olivia subjecting herself to this mess? Did her move into the White House mean that she couldn’t continue to do her actual job where her mental engagement extended beyond decor, place settings and cookie recipes? Why is this happening?
On her way out of Harding’s office, Olivia is drawn back to the television where Noah Baker and another analyst is discussing Mellie’s filibuster and giving viewers details as to what can and cannot happen in order for the filibuster to be sustained and eventually successful. They are talking about how if another senator stepped in to briefly take over the filibuster, Mellie could duck out and take a quick bathroom break or even eat. Olivia’s white hat light bulb goes off in her head. Here is something that she can actually gladiate!
Flash over to the floor and Mellie is fanning herself like crazy as she continues to read from the bill. While she is doing her thing, a congressional page walks by and continues on to Senator Moskowitz. He hands her a note, which leads to Moskowitz exiting from chambers. Outside, she meets Olivia who is asking her to assist Mellie, but Moskowitz refuses. She says she is unwilling stay all night and watch a “sad, broken woman make a mockery of the US government.” Olivia is taken aback by this response and steps in Moskowitz’s path as she makes to exit.
“Wow. A liberal, female Democrat who thinks defending Planned Parenthood is a mockery?” -- Olivia Pope
Olivia, girl, you and I are looking at this chick all kinds of sideways. All kinds of sideways. This woman isn’t willing to attach herself to Mellie Grant because she didn’t want Mellie’s taint to pull her down. Ain’t that about a bitch…
But Olivia doesn’t give up. As she likes to say, she’s never out of options.
Over the Justice Department, Susan Ross arrives at David’s office. David was watching what was happening on Capitol Hill, but quickly turns off the TV upon Susan’s entry. She’s got a gift for him. Some nice scotch that she says he can add to his eggnog. After a moment, David tells her that he has a gift for her, too, and he goes and retrieves the bracelet that he had intended to give to Elizabeth. At least Susan would appreciate the gift, right? If only David knew how much. He clearly fails to see the heart eyes that Susan makes each time that she gazes up at him. She didn’t even blink it away when he looked up from hooking the bracelet around her wrist to point out that her phone was ringing.
Flash back over to Mellie and at this point, it is obvious that she is in some serious distress. She’s doing the pee-is-about-to-involuntarily-shoot-out-of-my-urethra dance that we all do when we’ve had too much to drink and make a mad dash for the ladies’ room only to discover that the line is as long as the Earth’s circumference. Mellie’s speech is slower, she’s sweating and she looks set to pass out. Her fellow senators suddenly perk up at this, likely believing that maybe the end is near. Finally this filibuster nightmare will be over!! These people are horrid.
Fitz is watching all of this on TV with Cyrus and he’s wondering why it is that Mellie won’t just stop. He looks to be truly confused and maybe even a tad concerned. Cyrus was all like Mellie’s always wanted to make history and she’s about to go down as the first person to piss themselves on the Senate floor. LOL! I hate Cyrus sometimes.
Just when you think Mellie is about to truly pass all the way out, the Vice President of the United States is announced. The doors to the chamber opens up and in walks a smiling Susan Ross, looking as innocent as she please. Now Fitz is having a real WTF moment as he wonders what is Susan doing there. Cyrus seems to be thinking on what may have led to this development.
Susan makes her way up to where the president pro tempore of the Senate is sitting and kicks him out. As Vice President, she is President of the Senate, so he needs to move over. He obliges and Susan takes a seat. She then asks Mellie if she would yield the floor to her and Mellie is like WHAT? Mellie must have thought that Susan was about to cut off her filibuster, but no, no. Susan intends to ask a lengthy question about the services that Planned Parenthood provides.
It is at this moment that Mellie realizes what is happening. Susan was there to give her a break! Mellie yields the floor for the question and then makes out of that room fast, but carefully. Running on a bladder ready to pop is torture and could very well lead to the whole unfavorable pee-involuntarily-shooting-out-of-the-urethra bit.
As Mellie exits, Susan tells the Senators that she won’t ask them about abortion since that only makes up 3% of the services that Planned Parenthood offers, so instead she’s going to ask about gonorrhea.
Susan to the rescue again.
When Mellie comes rushing out of her bathroom stall, she discovers Olivia waiting for her. She quickly makes the connect being Susan’s appearance and Olivia, and she thanks her for the intervention. She goes over to wash her hands and then says to Olivia that she doesn’t think that she can continue with the filibuster and that she doesn’t even understand why she’s doing this at all. She points out that she’s a Republican and that her main motivation was not liking Gibson telling her what she couldn’t do.
In encouraging Mellie to continue on with her stance, Olivia tells her that she’s the “biggest bitch” she knows and that as such, she can do this. She has just a couple more hours to go. Mellie asks if Olivia wishes to come watch, but Olivia says that she has to be somewhere. Mellie is like, oh yeah...the Cabinet dinner. Have fun with that.
Are they about to make Olivia and Mellie besties? There is a shift that has been happening with Olivia and Mellie that goes back to the end of 506 when Mellie referred to Olivia as her freedom. The manner by which Mellie believed Olivia would factor into her rise to the top was rendered null and void in the previous episode, but it would appear that Olivia will have some hand in helping Mellie find her own voice. How that will happen is beyond me, but this moment here looks to be the start of it.
Over at the White House, members of the Cabinet are seated and chit chatting with each other when Mitchell comes over to the President while checking his watch. He asks if dinner can start now. The cook is concerned about his ability to synchronize the courses if the dinner doesn’t start soon. Fitz glances over at the seat that is supposed to be occupied by Olivia and then tells Mitchell to give the cook to the go ahead to begin.
So where in the world is Olivia if she’s not at the Cabinet dinner?
Back over at the Capitol, Mellie is seconds away from having successfully filibustered the spending bill. She thanks the Vice President and the Women’s Caucus and the pages and all of the Senate staff. She acknowledges that many of them missed their holiday travel plans, but that because of their sacrifice, many women will enjoy their holiday without having to worry about whether they will have access to proper healthcare in the coming year.
Mellie then checks her watch and sees that she has succeeded! She wishes everybody in the room a Merry Christmas and then yields the floor. And the crowd goes wild.
Alright, Mellie. Show them how all how functional you can be. Be proud of what you did, mama.
And can y’all believe that Moskowitz had the gall to come up to Mellie with her hand out in congratulations? I’m so glad that Mellie swerved her behind. Now that Mellie made it to the very end, Moskowitz has no problem associating with her, huh? Girl bye.
Hard Decisions
Finally we get to see where Olivia disappeared off to. She is sitting in the lobby of a reproductive health clinic (as the pamphlets on the reception desk seem to indicate) watching the coverage of Mellie’s successful filibuster. I’m not sure if she’s really paying attention to what is being said or if it was serving as white noise for her at that moment. She appears to be in the grip of some internal turmoil, her face an outward display of heartbreak. She does manage a weak smile at the news that millions have rallied behind Mellie and have started the hashtag #IStandWithMellie. It is at this moment that a nurse comes out to ask Olivia if she’s ready.
Ready, I ask myself. Ready for what? And why’s she at a reproductive clinic at that time of the night? It was past midnight!
But it dawned on me too late, y’all. Next thing I know, Olivia is in a hospital gown and putting her legs up in stirrups. The doctor picks up some pointy tool and heads straight into… Then that suction instrument goes on and Olivia grips the bed rail. We see some in and out motion by the doctor as Olivia is shown staring up at the ceiling. Her face is devoid of any of the emotion that it displayed moments before when she was in the waiting room. She looked to have detached herself from what was going on.
I, on the other hand, was not okay. Olivia was getting an abortion! WHAT?! When did she discover that she was pregnant, let alone decide that she was going to terminate?
Abraham on the cross. Could this (partially) be why she had been uncharacteristically snippy with Fitz all episode? Hormones plus the stress of an unexpected pregnancy plus the change in her relationship with Fitz plus the change in her status at the White House plus her inability to gladiate makes for a really, really bad mix. How it all culminated to her being at that clinic has not yet been revealed, but we can speculate.
My immediate thought: Bad time. Wrong time. And completely unplanned. If there is any other reason beyond that, I’m certainly hoping that Shonda and co enlighten us. This moment is no doubt the start of whatever bit of story that the writers intend to tell in the backend of the season and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with it.
Back at the Residence, Fitz is sitting in wait on the sofa when Olivia finally returns. He’s still dressed in his tux from earlier in the evening when she bursts into the bedroom. She tosses her purse onto the bed and strips herself of her coat as she heads towards the closet. Fitz gets up and follows her. There, Olivia is searching about in in drawers and cabinets for something that isn’t immediately known. Fitz wants her to tell him what’s going on, but she’s too busy with her desperate search to pay him any mind. Fitz asks her of where she had been just as she finds what it is that she was looking for. Some of Mellie’s hillbilly hooch!
Ah snap. OIivia is about to imbibe on some hundred proof alcohol. Oh yeah. Her earlier moment of detachment is over. What was it that Mellie said to her about why she drank the hooch?
“Living here in this prison. That’s what makes you feel numb. This is what makes you feel alive.” -- Mellie Grant (503)
In Olivia’s case, living in the White House wasn’t the only thing that was making her feel numb in that moment. When Olivia triumphantly finds the stash of hooch, she grabs the jar and continues out of the closet. Fitz can’t believe what he’s seeing. Has the ghost of Mellie invaded his girlfriend?
He quickly follows her out of the closet and back into the bedroom. Olivia is unscrewing the jar of hooch and is heading for the exit when Fitz remarks that he’s trying to talk to her. Olivia turns around and tells him that she tried to make it to the dinner and thought that she would make it back in time, but…. But she ain’t got no answer because she’s lying through her teeth. She takes a sip of the hooch and Fitz sighs as he again asks her of where she had been. Olivia tells him that something came up and then THAT set Fitzgerald the hell off.
His order to her to not to lie to him ripped through the room like the crack of a whip! I tell ya, it had me sitting straight up. This fight has been brewing all episode. Matter of fact, it was poised to happen since episode 506. Lord have mercy.
Fitz’s anger succeeded in getting Olivia’s attention. She says to him that she doesn’t know what he wants her to tell him, and Fitz says that he wants her to admit that she was running. It doesn’t matter where she was tonight because she wasn’t there at the White House. He’s about to share with her why he thinks she didn’t make it to the Cabinet dinner, but Olivia cuts him off and says that it is because she didn’t want to go. Why would she want to go to that dinner when she would be relegated to sitting in the corner with the housewives while she is forced to watch him roll with the big dogs? Olivia then says, “Well, guess what? I am a big dog, so I didn’t want to go.”
Remember that landmine that I said Fitzgerald wasn’t aware that he was stepping on? Yeah, well, he’s just lifted his foot off the trigger.
In response to her statement, Fitz says that he knew that moving her into the White House in an attempt to give them a real shot would lead to this. Olivia doesn’t see him moving her in in the same light that he does. She feels like he’s been treating her like she’s some kind of hostage, that he moved her in as some kind of punishment for her releasing her father. (Whoa. This was my initial thought during the live tweet of 508!)
Fitz is floored that she would even think this. He tries to tell her that him moving her in had nothing to do with her father, but she cuts him off and says that it does. She argues that she helped get Rowan released and tried to help and save him, but nah. Fitzgerald is like hole up, pahtna. You didn’t do any of that for me. You did that for yourself because you didn’t want to marry me.
Ah shit. Let me just hunker on down here for this because this should be good. Let’s rewind on back to that proposal fail.
Olivia is silent for a bit before asking Fitz what bothers him the most: her letting her father go or her asking him not to kill him. With deprecation, she asks him if she owes him now for his sacrifice and if she’s supposed to subject himself to cocktail parties and housewives and the cage that is the White House for him. She asks him to tell her what it is that she must do to show that she is forever indebted to him for saving Rowan’s life.
I’m going to pause right here to point out that Olivia Carolyn Pope is so far out of pocket here. The girl is straight tripping! Fitzgerald would have been more than justified in following through with his plan to have Rowan killed. More. Than. Justified. Fitz didn’t have to honor her request. Her father killed his child! Fitz didn’t even have to spring her ungrateful behind out of federal detention for her part in setting a criminal free, and yet here she is lamenting about being put in a cage. Girl bye. Her inability to communicate with Fitzgerald is the reason why she’s in that cage in the first place! And whoever said that she had to remain at the White House? He can’t force her to stay there. Fitz has hardly ever forced her to do anything.
Olivia tells him to think about everything that she’s been through and all that she’s told him, and figure out what why it is that running away from it all would be a tempting option. She then picks up her hooch and starts for the exit again, but it once more stopped when Fitz starts to speak. He asks her to try to understand what he’s telling her and why he moved her in. Fitzgerald makes the mistake of saying that he asked her to go all in because that sets Olivia off again. She’s like, asked me? WTF asked little ole me anything? To this, Fitz says that he tried to ask her when he proposed.
And this is me groaning. That proposal was him asking her to go all the way in on them? Really? Is Fitz experiencing selective memory syndrome? Does he forget the circumstance that led to him putting forth that lame ass proposal in the first place?
You ever been in a situation where no matter how rational you think you sound, you are always saying the wrong thing? That’s Fitzgerald right at this moment. Just be saying some dumb shit.
Olivia tells him that what he did that night on the balcony wasn’t a proposal. That was him trying to manipulate her into marriage. Fitz now comes back with accusations of her engaging in manipulations of her own, stating that she’s been strutting about the White House with her “power capes” and wielding her undue influence as if she runs the place.
Pause. Fitzgerald *le sigh* … she can only do what you allow her to do. Undue influence? Whose fault is that? You were basking in her glory when she was doing all of these things and on YOUR behalf and now you’re bringing that up as a weapon against her. Sir, have a seat.
Olivia had the best comeback for him tho.
You have no idea how loud I hollered! LMAOOOOO!!! This girl then goes on to call him an ain’t shit president, asking him if he’s suddenly realized how ineffectual he is at his job.
Damn, Livvie. Talk about aiming at his insecurities. She knows darn well that this man isn’t ineffectual. He might be a little obsessed with her and at times distracted by all that she is, but he does his job and for the most part does it well.
Now if you thought that was below the belt, they were both just getting start. In response to Olivia, Fitz remarks that she is worse than Mellie! Whaaaaaaaat. He says that unlike Olivia, he’s always known what Mellie was like. Then he says some sideways stuff about knowing where she came from, and Olivia jumped on him real quick. She was like, where I came from? In comparison to your ain’t shit father, I came from a gatdamn palace. Then she tops that off by saying that at least her daddy loved her.
Oh my damn. And Livvie, we’re gonna have to talk about your definition of this love that you say your daddy had for you. Quiet as it’s kept, Eli “Rowan” Pope has been as destructive to your life as Big Jerry was to Fitzgerald’s, but I’ma let you finish. You’re too busy cast barbs to recognize your own foolishness right now.
Fitz then comes back around to answering the question she posed to him about running. He tells her that someone capable of being in a relationship and being normal wouldn’t run the way the way that she does. YIIIIIIKES! Olivia hits back by saying that if he was someone capable of being alone, he wouldn’t have tried to suffocate her.
Pause again. Is Olivia seriously accusing Fitz of being incapable of being alone? She who has bounced between Fitz, Edison, Fitz, Jake, Fitz, Jake, Russell and then back to Fitz over the course of the last three seasons? She is accusing him of being incapable?
Fitz tells her that he wasn’t trying to suffocate her. He was trying to save them. In response, Olivia yells:
“There is no us! There is no this! There is no Vermont! There is no jam! There is no future! Not anymore.” -- Olivia Pope
Kerry Washington's delivery of this whole thing broke me, man. I was so caught up in the majesty that is her and Tony Goldwyn in this scene that I had almost forgotten about the abortion. The way she delivered that last line brought it all back. The emotions were so raw and I just couldn’t deal all over again. I was verklempt.
At this point in the scene, you can hear a pin drop. Fitz stands stunned by her outburst. Olivia meanwhile is fighting to rein in her emotions. The room is heavy with shattered dreams.
Sigh. Why can’t these people fight like regular human beings for God’s sake? How did we go from zero to a hundred this quickly? We start with a disagreement over things that you should have long since talked about prior to this very moment to end with you calling it quits? What TF is wrong with y’all?
Finally venturing to break the silence that engulfed them, Fitz says to Olivia that what she needed was time to get used to how things worked with them in the White House bubble, but Olivia points out that they weren’t given time. She recalls him to what she had said about them needing time (501) to figure them out, to fix themselves before going public, but they didn’t get to have that. As such, they never had a chance.
To this, I call bullshit. Olivia projected this failure from the onset. And if you were following this argument closely, you would see that she was the one who proclaimed that there was no longer a them. She is the one who has shut the door. Again. Were these problems of theirs really insurmountable? Is their relationship being public truly the contributing factor? Yes and no.
Olivia is still talking about how they needed time before they went public when Fitz interrupts her to point out that before their relationship was exposed, he was still married. Fitz then comes to the realization that Olivia liked him when he was still unavailable. Olivia doesn’t deny this as she turns to face him and says that she doesn’t know him available. Before, Mellie was still present to deal with this other side of him (FLOTUS responsibilities and how that factors into helping smooth things over for him as president). Before, she didn’t have to be everything for him.
After all of that back and forth, we finally get to heart of the matter. This was not what she signed up for. Great. This could have been communicated a long time ago and in a much less painful manner. Instead, Olivia carried on as if she could deal when she couldn’t. As for Fitzgerald, he knew that she hated doing this, but as it can sometimes be with him, he fails recognize the toll that his presidency takes on those around him. Placing Olivia in this box with him was never a good idea to begin with, but she bears equal responsibility in this.
With the truth laid bare between them, the anger that had permeated the room is no longer present. It is instead replaced with an air of resignation. Fitz utters something that Mellie had said to him when they were signing their divorce papers (506) and Olivia is at a loss until he enlightens her. Mellie had said that if it wasn’t for her spending all of her time propping him up and doing all these things that she hated doing on his behalf, she could have been done something with her life. It would seem that in this moment with Olivia, Fitz finally understands what it was that Mellie had been saying to him then.
Olivia steps over to the bench at the end of the bed and takes a seat. She takes a sip of the hooch and then extends it out to Fitz as a kind of peace offering. He needs the liquid gold as much as she does. He accepts the jar and then takes a seat next to her. He takes a sip of the hooch and as usual, is hit by the potency of the concoction.
I always crack up whenever Tony is acting this out because he depicts it as if the thing is quite literally seering him on the inside when he’s probably only drinking water.
Fitz hands the jar back to Olivia and tells her that he hates that she’s always right. She concurs and then he says that at least they tried.
Tried? No, Olivia and Fitz. You did not try. You hit a pothole, got a flat tire and then instead of fishing out the spare from the trunk, you decide that the car is no longer functional and abandon it on the side of the road. That’s what you two just did. I’m sick of y’all and you’re damn near close to being dead to me. So very close, but me and the two of you are on a timeout. Until February.
This is the first time that we actually see Olivia and Fitz mutually agree to call it quits. Usually, Olivia is the one heading out the door and Fitz doesn’t get to have any input in it whatsoever. Now here they are sitting side by side and their Vermont fantasy has been dismantled. It is especially important for this to have happened for Olivia who had once dreamt of this simple Vermont life with Fitz where he wasn’t the president (410). All of the complicated things that are a part of his life was missing (the chaos of the presidency, Mellie, his children), but so were all the sullied details of her life. If they truly intend to have anything, they have to traffic in the reality of their lives and not in the fantasy of what could be. If they can’t do that, it’s best that they remain broken up for good. Nobody has time for this continued back and forth.
Would Fitz consider selling their Vermont home now? I’m betting that at this point, he probably would. He’s got to be tired of this. He has been through this with her how many times now? It’s always something. But you know what? I feel like this had to happen. Fitz went from freeing himself of his 20 year marriage to trying to start up a full time relationship with Olivia with no break in between. There are things that happened within that marriage and which ultimately lead to its failure that he still has to deal with. He’s got baggage that he’s trudging around with him. He can’t go about comparing Olivia (or any other woman who he may end up dating) to Mellie whenever she does something that isn’t to his liking. Every woman isn’t Mellie. And it may do him some good to try to mend his relationship with Mellie in some way in order to get some resolution for himself and better the chances of him being able to see his kids. That marriage was his failure as much as it was hers.
As Olivia? Sigh. I’d love to see this woman put the brakes on relationships for a while, casual or otherwise. Make friends with a vibrator or something because her vag seems to do things to these men that has them acting all kinds of crazy after they’ve had a taste. How about we ice that for a the time being? Between being kidnapped, taking down B613, jailing her father and then starting a relationship with Fitz, Olivia hasn’t had a chance to really breathe. Maybe she can finally navigate her relationship with her father from a position devoid of fear. That relationship has singularly been a source of harm when it comes to her other relationships, namely the one that she keeps attempting to have with Fitz. Focusing on getting OPA back in working order would also be an awesome use of her time.
Regardless of what Shonda decides to have these two do during yet another one of their interim breaks, I’m going to need for Olivia and Fitz to stay in their respective corners for a minute. After all the ruckus those two caused for themselves and others in an attempt to be together, they just upped and called it quits, and so they are dead to me. Until February.
Over in the White House press office, we see Abby addressing her people, telling them that there will be no briefing tomorrow, but that immediately gets turned on a time when she is alerted to Olivia departing from the White House with her bags in tow. Olivia was moving out.
We next see Olivia in her apartment. She appears to be deep in thought when her phone rings and she invites the caller up. Turns out that the caller are some guys who are delivering her new sofa. On Christmas Eve, Olivia? And who exactly makes this kind of special delivery on the day before the holiday?
Olivia got an abortion, broke up with her boyfriend, moved back into her apartment and finally got herself a new couch. I’m assuming that the latter didn’t happen in the middle of the night. Is that silly of me to assume that? Given the timeline of the….you know? Nevermind. Sometimes the timeline on this show makes not a lick of sense, so I’ma just leave that alone.
Nevertheless, Olivia has herself a new couch and she’s taking comfort in it and in her staple red wine and popcorn. She smiles briefly at the sight of snow falling from her window, but there seems to be more going on in her expression as her smile fades away. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Fitz meanwhile is spending Christmas by his lonesome by the Oval office fire and Mellie is with Karen and Teddy.
Rowan and His Sons
This was separated from the above in order to keep everything together and not have it interweaved as it had been in the episode.
Huck has returned to the place he is holding Rowan at with sustenance from Gettysburger. Rowan wants to complain about the food option that he was given, but Huck ignores him as he digs into his own meal. Rowan then decides to quiz Huck about why he is holding him captive. He knows that Huck wants something, otherwise he’d have already been skinned alive. Rowan is babbling on about how if he were Huck, he’d take advantage of the “kindness” that he is showing because while he is the bad guy, there is someone worse out there.
Huck is successfully ignoring him until Rowan refers to him as “son.” Oh boy. Huck straight up tells him that Rowan is no one’s father and that he is definitely not Rowan’s son. Huck then instructs him to eat his burger and returns to his, but Rowan instead chooses to knock his food to the ground.
Across town, we see Jake sitting in his car watching a building that was on the other side of the street as Tom Larsen emerges. Tom looks about before continuing on his way. Once he walks past, Jake puts his car in drive. The scene then flashes over to both men in a parking garage, but in separate cars. Tom is waiting in his and Jake is parked in a manner that allows him to see Tom from his rearview mirror. Soon another car pulls up to Tom’s and Tom hops out of the car. Who’s the driver? None other than Franklin Russell.
Dude, why aren’t you dead? Rowan, you’ve got some explaining to do because I could have swore that you said that you killed everyone who had known you were Command, and yet…
Tom exits from his car to join Russell in his. Jake sees this and promptly has his listening device at the ready. Russell wants to know why Tom isn’t with Rowan and Tom lets him know that Rowan had been snatched. Russell then berates Tom for having lost Rowan, especially since Tom had agreed with him that Rowan was a problem. After all, Rowan was the only person who could stop Lazarus One from happening and now he was in the wind. Russell instructs Tom to find Rowan or Tom will soon meet his maker.
So when Rowan said all his sons have turned against him, he had no idea that it also included Tom, huh? And Russell is the mastermind behind Lazarus One? Holy f-balls!
Back over to a captive Rowan who appears to struggle with wanting to ask something. Huck senses his fidgeting and asks him to state his question. Rowan wants to know why it is that Huck snatched him. He points out that Huck knew that he was marked for dead and that Jake was closing in, so why save him? Rowan is truly perplexed. Huck meanwhile continues to type on his laptop and offer no response.
Rowan proceeds to taking guesses as to the why of his present situation and wonders if maybe Huck is working for someone, Olivia maybe. He then seizes on this and goes on about how he’s Olivia’s father as well as Jake’s and father to many other sons.
Alright, pause. Is he really sitting here and talking about Jake being one of his sons? Is Olivia and Jake like sister and brother in your mind, Rowan, because if so, what you did to your child by sending not only Jake, but Russell as well, to sexually distract her is even doubly abominable.
Rowan just keeps right on talking, waffling on about how there is no gratitude in parenting, and uses this angle as a way to draw Huck into the conversation by mentioning Huck’s son Javier. And he’s successful for Huck now is no longer typing and appears to be struggling to remain calm. Having found Huck’s Achilles heel, Rowan continues to push on that button by saying all the things he knows will get a reaction out of his captor and this time, Rowan manages to get Huck out of his seat. Huck warns Rowan to not speak about his family, but the man continues to do so anyway. He then goes for the jugular by bringing up the dalliances that Huck’s wife Kim had had in his absence.
Now this pushes Huck over the edge and Rowan is yelling out gleefully at Huck’s loss of control. This is the man that he is familiar with! The animal, the one who will tear a mofo limb from limb and then take great pleasure in chopping them up into bits. Rowan encourages Huck to do what he is tempted to do (which I assume is to kill him), but Huck gets himself under control and removes his grip from around Rowan’s neck.
Rowan is as surprised by Huck’s restraint as Hucks seems to be at having succeeded in pulling back. It was now Huck’s turn to play psychological mind tricks with Command. He asks Rowan if he had a TV in prison and if he was able to see all the horrible things that they had been saying about Olivia, if he had seen how his child was characterized as a slut and homewrecker who slept her way to the top. Huck says he doesn’t agree with them obviously, but if Olivia was his child, things like that being said about her would hurt him, especially if she was the only thing that he had left in his life. We see that Rowan is shook by this, but Huck isn’t done. He twists the knife some more by saying that now Rowan doesn’t even have Olivia anymore because she’s now Fitz’s. She chose him over her own father. He then poses the question to Rowan if he believes that Olivia really loves Fitz or if she’d rather be miserable with Fitz than to be with Rowan. He follows this up by asking Rowan if he prefers Jake and questions which of these white boys does Rowan prefer be inside of Olivia.
Yooooooo!!! Damn, Huck. You. Went. There. You know what buttons to push with Rowan, too. This is cruel and unusual punishment, but I like it.
Rowan’s out here talking about how he’s a father with ungrateful children without acknowledging the shitty ways in which he has conducted himself against said children, and Huck wasn’t going to let him get away with that. Huck reminds Rowan that it is he who took Kim and Javi away from him, but that despite this, he has a good son who will grow up to be a good man, and that by him choosing to stay away from Javi, Huck is being a good father. No need to bring the crazy around his very normal child, ya dig? Huck is doing what he can to provide the best outcome for his child. But Rowan? Huck tells him that he failed Olivia as a father and what’s sad is that Rowan knows that he failed and has done nothing to rectify that. Wow.
Huck then says that he knows that Rowan wishes to die, but that the knowledge of this alone is better than actually killing Rowan. Rowan is then left to wallow in his misery alone. Welp.
Later that night, we see that Jake has tracked down Russell in his lair. Jake has his gun trained on him as Russell gets up from his desk. He tells Jake that he’s been waiting for him to show up. Jake orders Russell on his knees. Russell starts talking about how Lazarus One needs Jake. They are taking control of things and putting the agency back together in the manner that it was meant to be, what it had been before Rowan went and lost his damn mind.
It is at this moment that Jake realizes that it was Russell who killed Elise. Russell blames Jake for that because he had promised to take care of Olivia (421), but hadn’t. Instead, look at where Olivia ended up. (What the heck is up with these dudes and wanting to protect Olivia as if she’s this fragile egg?) Russell goes on about how he and Jake are brothers, but Jake ain’t tryna hear any of that. He shoots the man right in his noggin and Franklin Russell is no more. Jake has gotten his revenge for Elise, but has he also stopped Lazarus One?
Flash over to Huck and Rowan, and Rowan says to Huck that him holding him there wasn’t a test for Rowan. It was actually a test for Huck. Rowan states that Huck believes that he has recovered from his addiction to killing, but couldn’t know for sure unless he tested himself, faced the drug directly. Rowan is that drug. Since Rowan is still alive and breathing, Huck has passed his own test and now believes that he can have the one thing that he wants more than anything in the world: his family.
Rowan says all of this mockingly, but Huck is unaffected. He actually seems to be at peace. He tells Rowan that he’s going home to his family now and explains to Rowan that family is the only reason why Rowan is still alive, that Olivia is the only reason why Rowan still breathes. Rowan counters by saying that Olivia is also the reason why he is still shackled to the chair, that family is a burden yada yada.
Much later, we see Huck dropping Rowan off at his home. He wishes him a Merry Christmas and drives off. Rowan is heading up his porch when Jake emerges out of the shadows and says to Rowan that he had been right about him not being the one who was behind Lazarus One. That’s as close to an apology as Rowan was going to get from Jake, who turns around and starts to leave, but Rowan calls him back and says, “Welcome home, son.” He then welcomes him into the house for them to send Christmas together.
Well then. Talk about a turn of events. What in the world could this mean? Does Jake no longer wish to kill Rowan? Does knowing that he wasn’t the one behind Lazarus change things for him? And look at Huck! He actually gave Rowan a friendly ride home and managed not to kill him. Has Huck finally found peace? And where the hell is Tom?
I know that there is some yet to be known shoe that’s going to drop with this shift between Rowan and his sons.
Briefly on other happenings in the episode...
Looks like the triangle between Susan, David and Elizabeth is about to heat up. Earlier in the episode, David presents Elizabeth with a gift for the holidays. She scoffs at it and rejects the gift. As I mention above, David later gives this gift to Susan when she comes to present him with the gift that she had gotten for him. Elizabeth sees the bracelet that David had intended for her on Susan’s wrist when Susan presents her with a scarf as her gift, and Elizabeth is stunned to learn that the bracelet that had been intended for her as now Susan’s. Do I sense some jealousy forthcoming from Elizabeth? She did after all make David feel like an idiot for even deigning to purchase anything for her.
Over at OPA, nothing much is happening other than Marcus trying to bring some Christmas cheer to the office with some poinsettias. Quinn is a total scrooge about it, but Marcus isn’t deterred. He asks what it is that OPA typically does for the holidays and Quinn says that they just pass around a bottle of vodka while sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and then get back to work. Later when Huck doesn’t show up to the office, Quinn looks to introduce Marcus to this vodka drinking tradition, but Marcus says that he’s got plans. He’s going over to his aunt’s place. Quinn is like, oh yeah. You have a family, don’t you? You’re like a normal person, but I totally have plans, too. Quinn’s plans end up being her drinking the bottle of vodka alone at her apartment. That is until Charlie comes by with some Christmas items that he had shoplifted from some store. Quinn is so glad to see him because now she doesn’t have to spend Christmas by herself. It’s a very sweet moment. Charlie tends to bring out the happy in Quinn sometimes and this was one of those times.
Well, guys and gals. I thank you for reading this recap/review of Scandal episode 509. This season has been one hell of a journey, hasn’t it? And how brilliant was this episode?! Or did you find it to be not so brilliant? Sound off in the comment section below and let me know what you think, and what you hope to see addressed or hope to see when the show returns on February 11, 2016.
I’ll see you all on the flip side! Best wishes to you during this holiday season! XO
