Scandal, if you were were a real person, I would hunt you down and kiss you for being so freaking good! I don’t know how it is even possible that these writers (and the cast and crew, of course) are able to deliver to the masses yet another amazing episode. They are 5 for 5 now!
So the Senate Judiciary Committee is going full steam ahead with the investigation into President Fitzgerald Grant. The end of the previous episode (504) pretty much ensured that this was going to happen, what with Fitz publicly claiming Olivia and deciding not to kill the Brandon Bill. This move not only gave Senator Gibson Fitz’s answer to his proposition, but also prompted Mellie to give her approval to the women’s caucus of the Senate.
This episode opens up with haggard-looking Cyrus camped out in front of the TV with a plate of brownies cradled close to this body. His eyes are glued to what is happening with mistress gate and the political ramifications that are unfolding because of it. His husband Michael tries to get him to get up and live away from the television, but Cyrus would have none of that. This was the kind of once in a lifetime event that he lived for. He wasn’t going to miss it for anything.
Announcement of the investigation is made by Head Lady Senator (I never caught her name) with that snake Senator Gibson by her side. The purpose of the investigation is to be sure that there were no laws broken by the President because of his relationship with Olivia, and if any are found, then they will pursue impeachment.
This is the third time that Fitzgerald has been under the gun. The first time was back in S1 with Amanda Tanner. The second time was in S2 when it was suspected that his signature was forged on the letter of reinstatement. Both of those times, he had been saved by the bell, but that won’t be the case this time around.
We flash to Olivia and Fitz leaving their date. It isn’t made clear, but I assume that this is them from the same night of the previous episode. They both have smiles on their faces as they walk past windows that are filled with photogs that are snapping away, capturing images that are to be plastered all over the morning papers. Their happy facade holds until they get past the windows and their smiles collapse. Olivia looks overwhelmed by it all--almost dazed--and Fitz gives her a reassuring squeeze once they are in the clear. The press are going nuts.
The next morning, we see Fitz in the Oval with Abby, Elizabeth and David. David is informing Fitz that he needs to get a lawyer. Fitz says that he hasn’t done anything that constitutes an “impeachable offense”, but David says to him that an impeachable offense is anything that Congress deems it to be. There is no concrete definition as to what that may be. Since this is a political trial, Congress serves as prosecutor, judge and jury. They make the decision as to what is to become of the President. David again stresses that Fitz get himself a lawyer. Fitz asks David who he thinks he should get and David says most would recommend a guy named Raymond Williams. Abby had the foresight to ask him who he would recommend to recommend himself and David says the unconventional Patricia “Patti” Snell. Before he leaves, David reminds the President that he cannot speak to Olivia about the case at all. Doing so could be considered perjury, witness tampering and obstruction of justice, all of which could land him in jail. Yikes!
Flash over to Olivia at OPA. Her conference table is littered with the various headlines out there about her. She carefully places some of them on the wall and then stands back and looks at them.
Grant’s Jezebel
Seductress-In-Chief
Pope is No Saint
Mistress of Foreign Affairs
The Tramp of Pennsylvania Avenue
President’s Paramour
The majority of these headlines define Olivia within the context of her relationship with the President and involves no small amount of slut shaming. Olivia appears to be unmoved by the salacious headlines, choosing instead to approach this situation pragmatically. At some point, she moves into her office to make a call to Abby and asks her for a loan.
Olivia returns to the conference room to find her gladiators waiting for her. Quinn wants to know what their plan of action is to be and Olivia lets them all know that she’s not going to use OPA to combat this because (1) a Congressional investigation is as serious as it gets and (2) she didn’t want to divulge anything to them in the event that they should be called up to testify. Instead, she was hiring someone from the outside to help handle the situation. Right on the heels of her saying this, in strolls Leo Bergen. He is the loan that Olivia had requested of Abby and Quinn is less than impressed.
What happens next is a picture of hilarity. Leo greets Quinn and Huck as “Thing 1 and Thing 2” and then makes a quip about Marcus being the new addition to the “bestiary.”
More headlines are revealed once everyone but Leo is settled in at the table.
Grant’s Groupie
Side Piece-In-Chief
Olivia Poke
Here We Ho Again
I shouldn’t laugh, but LMAO!!! Clearly Zahir McGhee (the main writer of this episode) was having a grand ol’ time coming up with these headlines.
Leo takes a moment to have a bit of fun himself by detailing all the many ways by which Olivia is being referred by the press. Quinn impatiently interrupts his rambling to get him back on track and asks him if he has a plan to fix the situation. Of course, he does, says Leo. This plan of his involved spinning what the public views as a tawdry affair into one that presents it as some fairy tale romance. He even gave it a name: Olivia and Fitz - A Love Like No Other. Sounds like a fan fic…
Olivia immediately says no to that plan. Leo is confused because this is a page right out of The Olivia Pope playbook. This was the very same spin that she used to get Cyrus out of trouble when his involvement with then prostitute Michael was discovered by the press (417). “Everyone loves a love story” is what she had told Cyrus then. Leo was trying to use this on Olivia now, but that was a nonstarter. Quinn offers a few suggestions and Olivia immediately likes her “Olivia Pope: Woman of the People” one. Leo says that he can work with that.
Now that they’ve settled on an angle, they had to do a few things in order to sell this idea that Olivia is an everyday woman. The first required that Olivia leave her designer duds in the closet and switch to wearing things that anyone can purchase at the mall. Next, Leo asks if there is anything else about her relationship with Fitz. He wants to know if there have been any gifts, if he had ever paid her rent, and Olivia tells him that Fitz has never given her anything.
Sigh… Why have you got to tell a bold-faced lie, Olivia?
Leo is next looking into her refrigerator and finds it empty save for a bottle of sparking water and one other item, and Olivia defends her empty fridge by saying that she’s too busy to shop. We learn from Huck that Olivia doesn’t even shop for her stable wine and popcorn. She has that delivered! Leo has to fix this too. Place Olivia in non-designer clothes and send her shopping for her own food like a regular person.
I hate to think of what became of all that food because we know she’s not going to cook any of it.
Next step in the plan required Olivia to now have somebody who knows her well to vouch for her. It has to be someone of impeachable character, someone who the public can trust. Quinn and Huck know of the perfect person and it takes Olivia a moment to catch on, but when she does, she’s like HELL NAH! But she does it anyway. Off she goes with her tail between her legs to see none other than Senator Edison Davis!!! Yes, that Edison. The one she had been engaged to once upon a time. The one who she was about to be engaged to again before she broke up with him to be with Fitz. That Edison. Yiiiiikes.
I had a feeling this man was going to make an appearance. After they mentioned him in that Franchesca Hunter piece, it only seemed fitting that he’d show up. Plus, Norm Lewis asked if people were ready for the season to begin.
Edison lets her into his home, but the moment is awkward. They are sitting in silence for a moment, and Edison is playing with a ring on his….wait! Is Edison married now!? He is playing with the ring on his ring finger as he watches Olivia squirm in discomfort. He remarks about her looking uncomfortable and has no pity for her when she confirms that her being there is difficult. Edison knows that she’s come to him because she needs his help. What makes her presence all the more galling is the fact that he correctly guessed some 4 Scandal years back that she was indeed the President’s mistress (211), but Olivia had deftly deflected by accusing him of being everything short of a murderer. She dressed him down in a backwards countdown so epic that it deserves to be chiseled into marble and given its own monument on the Washington Mall.
Despite all the time that has passed, Edison has not forgotten what she said to him then. She accused him of calling her “a criminal, a whore, an idiot and a liar”, which also happens to be the title of episode 211. In this present scene, Edison repeats this phrase three times. It’s clear that the man is a bit upset over the deceit that Olivia subjected him to then, by how she had made him feel like he was in need of psychiatric attention because he had been right on the money. He even came back later in that episode and apologized to her!
Olivia was going to have to sit there and take the heat he was unleash because it was her just deserts. If she wanted him to help her, she was going to have to tell him the truth for once and that included admitting that she never loved him and never intended to marry him. Damn.
Nobody likes to be made to feel like a fool. Olivia really did do that man wrong. So very, very wrong. I don’t blame him at all for making her work for that favor she wanted out of him.
Later that evening, we see Edison giving an interview on TV. He’s saying everything that needs to be said in order to portray Olivia as a loving and caring individual who doesn’t deserve the racist and sexist coverage that she is being subjected to. The part that was the most hilarious to me? Him saying that Olivia is “honest, forthright; a person of the highest moral conviction.” I mean, come on, Ed. LOL!
Olivia and Fitz are watching the interview together at the Residence. These two are chilling as if it’s just a regular evening in their life. Olivia has her shoes off and one foot tucked underneath her while Fitz has his big ass hand on her thigh. Olivia doesn’t look to be happy as Edison weaves his tale about her character. He must have extracted quite the emotional price in order for him to go in front of the cameras and lie on her behalf. After a bit, Fitz turns of the TV and remarks about how it must have been difficult for her to had gone to Edison for that favor. At this point, his hand has moved to rub along her back in consolation. He tells her that what she got Edison to do was good because it changes the conversation and may have just saved both of them. He then gives her a kiss, which Olivia returns, but she still looks so drained by the ordeal.
The intimacy between these two is simply amazing. Their nonverbal cues is what makes Olivia and Fitz a joy for me to watch. They feel so damn real.
The next day, Fitz meets up with Patti Snell and David isn’t at all lying about her being unconventional. I don’t think any of them were quite prepared for Ms. Snell. Right out the gate, she teases the President about lying when he tells her that it is nice to meet her, directs Abby to go out and repeatedly tell the press that the President intends to fully cooperate with the investigation, and then she ridicules Elizabeth as if she is someone who is slow to comprehend when she states that the President has “executive privilege” and doesn’t have to testify at all. I don’t know who this actress is, but she has me HOLLERING!
She says that the President will be testifying and Fitz agrees to this edict. Elizabeth is against him doing any such thing, but her opinion has been overruled. She doesn’t think that the President ought to be bending over for these people, but Patti has a plan. They are going to do a document dump, which will include even the silliest of things like lunch menus. Everything goes. The idea is to overwhelm the investigators with so much information that it’ll slow them down. The Judiciary Committee has requested digital documents, but they received everything the old fashioned way: on printed paper.
Flip over to the Capitol where all those documents have been delivered. There is Head Lady Senator, Gibson and Mellie. Gibson knows that the documents were sent over in this manner as a way to stall the investigation, and Mellie chimes in that it also means that the White House has something to hide.
Now let me pause right here for a second. What is wrong with Mellie Grant? She tells her fellow Senators that she is coming at this as a Senator representing the state of Virginia, but I really do wonder if she understands how this investigation could potentially affect her. Anything that Fitzgerald is hiding, she could likely be implicated in. Unless it has anything to do with B613, Mellie is as tangled up in any improprieties as her husband is. Thankfully, she gets kicked off of the committee. You know, conflict of interest and all. With her on the verge of divorcing the man that they are investigating, anything they do that includes her could be called into question. Can’t have that now.
Later that evening, Leo shows up at Abby’s office. He instructs her to go upstairs and get Olivia out of the “presidential spoon” that she is in because they have a problem. The press is running a story that Olivia received a ring from the President! Oh boy…
“As it turns out, the President liked it and he did indeed put a ring on it.” -- Noah Baker
Noah’s got jokes. And we have yet another call back to another previous episode (“Put A Ring On It”, 417).
With Olivia now down in Abby’s office, Leo goes in on Olivia for violating her very own first rule which is to not lie. This is what she demands of all of her clients. If she is to effectively do what she was hired by them to do, she was not to lie. Well, here she is on the flip side, not having followed her own rule and Leo is livid! All the work they put in to present her as “Olivia Pope: Woman of the People” is now out the door. They were now to revert back to his original plan of having Olivia present herself as a lovestruck teenager. Olivia says that she can’t sell that, but Leo doesn’t want to hear her objections now. She has no choice. She lost that privilege when she lied about the ring that she received from the President. This was the way they were going with it and that was that!
Over at Cyrus’s home, we see Mellie enter. She’s dressed down in jeans and sneakers. She arrives to find Cyrus still watching news coverage. He says that he doesn’t know how the press found out about that ring, but then Mellie admits that she was the one who leaked it to them. Say what?? Who even knew that Mellie knew about the ring?! But of course, she’d know about the ring. It was a family heirloom. Fitz has had it for years before he ever met Olivia.
I can’t even imagine the pain Mellie must have felt when she first saw Olivia wearing the ring. Did she feel pain? She must have. Did she care about the ring or did she look at it as some worthless, sentimental trinket? Regardless of what she thought about the ring itself, some part of her must have died seeing it on another woman’s finger.
Cyrus remarks that in 48 hours, Olivia has managed to go from being a slut to an every woman to Mellie’s sister wife. (I hate everything right now. LOL!) Mellie admitting that she was the source of the information impresses Cyrus. No surprise there. Throwing monkey wrenches at Olivia and Fitz at every turn is what they both seem to thrive on at the moment. Realizing also that Mellie’s been thrown off of the Judiciary Committee, Cyrus invites Mellie to join him in sharing his many treats. They can sit in front of the TV, stuff their faces and be miserable together.
On the other side of town, we see Head Lady Senator and Gibson rolling up at a crawl as Marcus is emerging from some building. They want him to serve as a spy for them at OPA. They want to know if Olivia and her crew have engaged in any illegal activity and if they are obstructing justice. Marcus tells them that he’s only been working at OPA for two days and so he has no information to give them. When he tells them that he can’t be bullied into cooperating, Gibson threatens to go after Marcus’s family and friends and leave his life in a shambles.
Geez. What’s a new gladiator to do?
Here we are at yet another morning. Olivia shows up at Jake’s new apartment--Nice digs, homeboy--but he doesn’t immediately let her in. He tells her that it’s not the best time, but Olivia needs to talk and she really wants to be let inside because she has a trail of paparazzi on her tail and she’d rather disappear into the safety of his apartment before they show up. She’s going on about the composition of the people who are after her when she spies Elise over Jake’s shoulder. Seeing that Olivia has seen why he was hesitant to let her in, Jake steps aside and finally asks her to come in.
I am of the opinion that this scene could have been cut and it would have had no effect on the rest of the episode, but I believe it has included to serve a number of purposes. The first was to have the audience witness the moment when Olivia met Elise. The second was to show Olivia’s reaction to Jake’s “old friend”, and the third was to further highlight the shift in the Olivia and Jake relationship.
When Elise excuses herself to afford the former friends with benefits some privacy, she kisses Jake on her way out the door and Olivia display nothing more than mild curiosity and amusement. I had seen some predictions that Olivia would be extremely jealous when she learned about Elise, but that doesn’t at all manifest itself here. Frankly, that prediction was a rather odd one considering everything that has transpired since the last scene in 422, but I digress.
As has become the usual with Olivia, she turns to Jake whenever she’s feeling that fight or flight response, and it always without fail is related to Fitzgerald. In this instance, she is feeling some anxiety over what she is expected to sell to the public with regards to her relationship with Fitz. Jake doesn’t initially understand the problem. He gets Olivia to confirm that she loves Fitz and he also reminds her that it was she who stood in front of the press and admitted to a relationship with the President. If telling this fairy tale is going to get her out of this mess, he doesn’t see what her problem is, but he’s soon able to pinpoint what was truly bothering her.
Going with this plan of Leo’s required Olivia to present herself (and her relationship with Fitz) as something that she is not. The idea of doing this interview must have also made her feel cagey. Publicly sharing her feelings about Fitzgerald would be akin to her making a commitment to him, and Olivia doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record on that front. Even with her on and off relationship with Fitz, there was always a means by which she could exit. His marriage provided that means. She could safely love him and dream of a life together with him, but she could still get away whenever she wanted. There was also the fact that they operated in the shadows. For someone who has always had an exit strategy, going all in without her usual safety nets must be scary as hell.
When Jake hits too close to what it is that is troubling her, Olivia makes to leave. Before she can go, Jake tells her to just tell the truth and tell the world how she really feels about Fitz.
Thank you Jake “Iyanla” Ballard for those words of wisdom and for continuing to give this girl a listening ear when she needs to work out her inner emotional turmoil. I still feel that this scene could have been cut, but whatevs. It wasn’t completely pointless.
Over at OPA, Marcus arrives to discover Quinn and Huck huddled together. He is invited to join them and Quinn fills him in on what they were talking about. They need to come up with another plan because the one that Leo came up with is too unreliable. Quinn and Huck intend to find some way to turn the Judiciary Committee to Olivia’s side and they are willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. Huck asks Marcus if he’s down with the plan, but we don’t get to see his response. Instead, we cut to him visiting with the two shady senators and he tells them that he’s willing to spy of OPA for them.
Over at the BNC, Olivia is being prepped for her interview with Noah Baker. Leo is trying to coach her on what she needs to do, instructing her to smile whenever she says Fitz’s name, but Olivia looks at him like he’s lost his mind and asks him to quit his demonstration of what he wants her to do. Ha!
Now the interview. This to me was the big moment of the episode. It was my favoritest moment!! Kerry Washington knocked this scene out of the park.
Olivia starts off by following the Leo plan. When asked about the ring, she affects this girlish tone in an attempt to come off as one who is lovestruck and in awe of the gift that she received from the President. Olivia had indeed been moved when she was presented with the gift, but it isn’t at all in the manner by which she is currently telling the story.
As one of the reporters said when the existence of the ring leaked, only Fitz and Olivia know its true significance. When Fitz presented her with the ring (417), he had described it as rare and one of a kind. Interestingly enough, this is similar to the way that Olivia described the flag pin that she presented to Fitz on his first Inauguration Day (208). It had only 48 stars on it and was the very pin that Eisenhower had wore on his Inauguration Day. This therefore made that particular pin, not only rare, but the only one of its kind. Just like their love is. Just as they are to each other. GAH!
When Noah points out that there are photos that show Olivia wearing the ring in Mellie’s presence, you see that there is a shift in her response. Olivia becomes serious and says that she regrets having done that. Noah’s follow up question of whether Olivia also regrets getting involved with the President further obliterates the lovestruck persona that she had taken on. After a moment, Olivia finally provides her answer. She shifts to telling the truth her way and it is a thing of beauty!
“I wish I never laid eyes on him. … I wish we never met.” -- Olivia Pope
Olivia goes into detail as to why she wishes this were so. She speaks about how difficult it is for her to watch how this ordeal has affected her friends, her loved ones, her clients. They are being investigated and harassed by the media all because of her. If she hadn’t laid eyes on the President, none of these people would be going through what they were going through now.
Olivia then shifts to talking about how this situation has affected the successful business that she had worked her butt off to build; a business whose only goal is to help her people be the best version of themselves, one that helps them stand in their respective truths and face the consequences of their actions in order for them to gain forgiveness and move past their mistakes. She stresses that this business of hers is something that she is proud of, but that it could all be destroyed because she laid eyes on a married man. At this point, you hear music cue up to alert us to a shift in what she is about to say next.
Olivia continues by saying that if she hadn’t laid eyes on Fitz, she wouldn’t have fallen in love and he wouldn’t have done the same. It would have prevented a lot of the pain and destruction that is happening right now in the lives of many, including that of Mellie and the Grant children, her loved ones, the country. She asks if the love that she and Fitz have is really worth all the attention and the damage that it was wrought. She then asks, “If it were a choice, who would choose this kind of love?” If it were a choice….
While she continues to say that she wishes that she and Fitz never met, Olivia states that the reality is that they did. She says that despite her many attempts to fight and hide from this love that she has for him, she has repeatedly failed. She refers to herself as being weak in this regard and says that she hated herself because of it. She tells Noah that she wears the ring as a reminder of this weakness. (I’ll address this in a minute.)
Olivia goes on to say that once their affair had been exposed, she had to follow her own advice and stand in her truth. She had to own the person that she is and accept her faults. She says that she won’t ask for forgiveness (and she doesn't apologize), but also says that no one should ask her to undo the past or ask her to fall out of love with Fitzgerald Grant because if she could, she would.
Jaaaaaysus! If she could do it, she would. If she had a choice, she’d had fallen out of love with Fitz, but since she doesn’t…
Upon the quick collapse of her execution of Leo’s plan, Olivia not only managed to pivot back towards the plan that she had wanted to go with in the first place--which was to present herself as a driven, altruistic, successful woman of the people--but was also able to paint herself as someone who is a victim to love. Despite being formidable, Olivia Pope is still human. She has flaws and she has moments of vulnerability. That ring is the embodiment of this vulnerability. It reminds her that no matter what she tries to do, she will never overcome being in love with Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III. Succumbing to it was her only option.
Wow.
The scene cuts to Fitz watching the interview in the Residence and he appears to be an affected by her answer as she seems to be by giving it. It is unclear what may be going through his mind at that moment, but I’m going to guess that he was probably empathizing with Olivia because he, too, feels as she does. Both of them were at love’s mercy and it was taking no prisoners.
Over at Cyrus’s place, we see he and Mellie still camped out in front of the television. They had apparently just watched Olivia’s interview and were now watching some post-interview discussion. It would seem that even they were moved by Olivia’s interview. Mellie remarks that she and Olivia agree on one thing, which was that she also wished that Olivia and Fitz had never met. Cyrus apologizes to Mellie because it is he who brought Olivia onto the campaign and so it is his fault that all of this happened in the first place. He says that Olivia and Fitz might not have met if it weren’t for him. In that vein, we may as well count down all the other things that would definitely not have happened had Olitz never met.
- Fitz wouldn’t currently be President
- Cyrus wouldn’t have been Chief of Staff
- Mellie wouldn’t currently be Senator Grant
And that’s just the big stuff. No need to name all the countless people who would still be alive, including Jerry Grant and all those jurors and Britta Kagen and James Novak…. Lots of bad, bad things have happened because those two laid eyes on one another and I really do feel for Mellie, but let’s not pretend as if Olivia’s presence in both her and Cyrus’s lives haven’t also been to their benefit.
Olivia returns to OPA after her interview to find her gladiators sitting about looking tense. When she inquires as to what is going on, Marcus shows her the photo that he took of the Judiciary Committee’s evidence log. Marcus snapped it on his phone when he went over to Head Lady Senator’s office. He informs Olivia that the Senator had asked him to serve as her spy and report back to her any intel that he gets from OPA. He says that he played along, let her think that the threats had coaxed him to her side, which in turn allowed him to get intel on what it was that they had on hand. (So Marcus, you sly dog. You let Huck and Quinn in on what was going on. I think I may like you, but the jury is still out.)
Quinn points out that the evidence log is comprised completely of CIA documents, which includes notes between the President and the CIA director, but before Quinn can finish what she is saying, Olivia quickly turns to head back out of the office. She tells them to have that log forwarded to her, and she refuses to tell them where she is headed.
We soon see that Olivia went to see David. She goes straight to the point, looking for David to confirm what she believes is true: the Committee has the video of her kidnapping. That would be the tape of her reading off of a script that says that the President needs to declare war on West Angola or she will be killed (411). David doesn’t initially intend to confirm her suspicion, but she reminds him that he will also be implicated. After all, he signed the warrant for the raid on the warehouse where she was being kept and he provided favors to her terrorist mother in exchange for gain access to the auction that Olivia had concocted to have herself sold to the highest bidder (412). David still hesitates to confirm if the tape is in the Committee’s hands until Olivia demands an answer.
He finally tells her that some aide was able to find an email exchange between the President and the CIA director about a meeting they had to discuss the “OP matter.” This discovery led to the Committee requesting to receive all documentation related to that meeting, which in turn led to the unearthing the video. David says the good news is that unearthing the video means nothing unless someone can corroborate that the President actually watched it. Ut oh.
At this, Olivia abandons the file that she was reading to dash out of David’s office. She had to get herself over to the White House ASAP!
Before continuing on, I just wanted to note that Olivia obviously knows an inordinate amount of detail about her kidnapping. It would appear that she has had conversations with a number of people who provided her with information on all that had transpired in her absence and who all the key players were in the attempts to rescue her. It was made obvious in the previous episode that she has had such conversations with Fitz, in which she shared her shooting of at least one person (she shot two, killing one) and the PTSD that was triggered by her abduction.
In any case, over at the White House, we see Fitz enter into his bedroom. His eyes are focused on the material he is reading and so doesn’t immediately notice that he isn’t alone in the room. He has taken off his jacket and is in the process of taking off his shoes when Olivia alerts him to her presence. He turns towards to bed to find her perched there, dressed in nighty. There is a record player on the nightstand and Fitz asks if they are going to listen to some records. To this Olivia says, “We are listening to records. Hopefully, that’s not all we’re doing.”
What song does Olivia start to play? Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” Real subtle, Olivia.
Fitz didn’t need to be told twice. He makes quick work of the buttons on his shirt as he approaches her. The shirt is sliding off as her hands go to handle his belt. Before you can blink, the man is down to his skivvies and is climbing into the bed. (For the record, I am totally here for any moment that requires Tony Goldwyn to take off his shirt. There is absolutely no reason why this man should have the body that he does at his age.)
Lots of kissing ensues. Soon, Fitz is heading south--as is his wont--but Olivia pulls him back up before he could get to the cookies. (The hell, Liv!?!) She was quickly getting lost to his ministrations and that just could not happen. Not at that moment.
There is a lot of acrobatics going on in this here bed, given the lack of intercourse that was going on. Olivia maneuvers herself so that she is able to straddle Fitz, and she reaches over to increase the volume on the record player. It is at this point that Olivia relays to Fitz the information that she has learned from David. The Judiciary Committee knows about her kidnapping and they have the video of when she was taken. Fitz doesn’t believe her, but she tells him that they found something in the documents that he sent over that lead them to the video. He wants to know how she knows, but she tells him that it doesn’t matter. What does it that she knows. Olivia says that him going to war for his mistress is an impeachable offense and that video is all they need as supporting evidence. Fitz counters by saying that he never saw the video. The war waged against West Angola had nothing to do with her. This is correct, at least from the public’s point of view. They believe that the country went to war in retaliation for the supposed attempted murder of former Vice President Andrew Nichols. As long as no one can corroborate that Fitz had indeed looked at the video, they were home free. The only problem is that someone can corroborate that he saw the video and that person is Cyrus Beene. *deep groan*
To note, this entire conversation between Olivia and Fitz is happening in between kisses and tumbling into different sexy positions. One moment Olivia is on her back, the next Fitz is on his, then the next they are in a lotus position. This has got to be the hottest serious conversation known to man. It also recalls me to a similar instance in episode 211 when Olivia was trying to convince Fitz to allow his father to come campaign for him. While she was talking, Fitz had been working to get her out of her pants so that he could have his way with her.
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| The more things change.... Then (211) and now (505) |
Fitz succeeded then where he did not in the present day. The realization that Cyrus could very well be his undoing coincided with the record hitting a scratch and replaying the same part over and over and over again. Fun time was over. It was now Fitz’s turn to humble himself (as Olivia had done earlier with Edison) in order to protect himself and his presidency.
While this sexual interplay was fun, I got the sense that the music and the act in itself was Olivia’s way of fooling potential spies into believing that all she and Fitz were doing was getting in some loving. She was, after all, discussing the case after they have been instructed not to. The information she relayed to him shouldn’t have even been known to her and her passing it on to him would be considered as her engaging in obstruction of justice. Can’t have both of them going to jail now, can we?
Back over to Cyrus and Mellie. Both are drunk and having a grand time. Cyrus’s phone begins to ring right after Mellie asks him to come work for her and it’s the President’s secretary. Charlotte tells him to hold for the President. When Mellie asks Cyrus who is on the phone, he waves it off as just some “friend” as he gets up and leaves the room.
Olivia has headed back over to OPA where Jake has just arrived with some Gettysburger. The gladiators are now gone. Jake remarks about how he had seen Olivia’s interview and commended her on her stellar performance. Olivia responds with a small smile before she then asks him about his “old friend.” She queries about how Jake and Elise know each other and Jake matter of factly drops the bomb that Elise is his wife. Olivia is surprised by this information, and when she says to Jake that he never mentioned a wife, Jake says that she never asked.
What kind of relationship was Olivia and Jake having where he never mentioned that he was married (or was once married since he believed his wife to be dead) and where Olivia never bothered to ask him of his past relationships? It reminds me of that moment in 411 when Huck found Olivia’s ring in her neighbor’s apartment and Jake had to ask if Huck was sure that it was hers. She never took that ring off during their entire stay on that island alone and he couldn’t recognize the ring?
I was willing to give Jake the benefit and say that he didn’t divulge information about his wife because it was related to his spy life, but that wasn’t even it. He didn’t share because Olivia didn’t ask. And Olivia didn’t ask because she didn’t care enough about Jake’s life to even want to know. How sad is that? The relationship between these two really didn’t go very deep. There is a friendship there, but there is far too much about Jake that Olivia does not know and hasn’t bothered to even find out. What was it that Fitz had said to Olivia in 406? “You don’t know him the way you know me”? Yeah, Olivia truly doesn’t know a damn thing about Jacob Ballard.
*aims cannonball at the raft that their ‘ship resides on*
I’m tempted to say that this scene could have also been cut--alright, I’ll just outright say that it really didn’t add much to what was going on in the larger plot--but like the other scene featuring Jake, this one also served to show the audience some things. These two as a supposed “alternate ship” had been as deep as the shallow end of a baby’s bathtub. A paper boat couldn’t even float in that realm. At least they’ll always have their Gettysburger.
This following scene is another favorite of mine. Jeff Perry and Tony Goldwyn were simply brilliant in it.
Cyrus has arrived at the Oval and meet up with Fitz. (I highly doubt that he shared with Mellie where he was headed.) Cyrus is at a loss as to why he was summoned over and at that time of the evening. Fitz tells him that he wants him back at the White House. Not in the position of Chief of Staff since he already has one, but in some other high level position as senior advisor. Cyrus wants to know why and Fitz goes on about how he could use Cyrus and how the country could use him as well.
What Fitz forgets is that Cyrus is not easily manipulated and he knows and understands Fitz probably better than anyone. Cyrus knows that something has prompted Fitz to reach out to him. It had to be something big, too. He asks Fitz about what it is that the Judiciary Committee has on him, and Fitz is taken aback by the question. He says he doesn’t know what Cyrus is talking about, but he does.
Cyrus runs down the different things that it could possibly be. He starts with the ring, but then dismisses that because Olivia had effectively handled that and that wasn’t big enough to have Fitz try to woo him back to the White House. He lists Amanda Tanner, Remington, Rowan (and B613), Defiance? Nope. It’s none of these things, but Cyrus figures it out. It’s the video of Olivia when she was kidnapped. He also figures that Fitz trying to get him back on his team is Olivia’s idea not Fitz’s. Welp. LOL!
Cyrus says it’s a smart plan given that only himself and Andrew can corroborate that Fitz had indeed watched the video of Olivia demanding war be waged or she will be dead. Since Andrew is stroked out, that leaves Cyrus as the only witness.
Upon receiving confirmation from Fitz that the job is only being offered because he needs Cyrus to cover his ass when question of the video arises, Cyrus sets out to make it a point to show Fitz that he has never truly appreciated having Cyrus in his life. Fitz, from Cyrus’s point of view, has always taken him for granted. He doesn’t realize just how much he means to Cyrus. Cyrus feels that he is merely the man that Fitz can use, abuse and toss out whenever he is done with him, but now he is trying to reel him back in in a desperate attempt to save himself from impeachment.
Cyrus then accuses Fitz of not knowing much about him beyond what he can do for him and that Fitz couldn’t even tell him his mother’s name. He sounds insulted that Fitz would try to bring him back on by offering him some job only because he was trying to retain his position as president. As such, he rejects the job offer. He tells Fitz that he no longer needs him and then gets up to exit the room.
Before Cyrus can make an exit, Fitz surprises him by relaying a story of his own. It is a surprise because Cyrus really did believe that Fitz didn’t pay enough attention to him and therefore knew nothing of importance. This, of course, is silly, but Cyrus was in his feels. The story that Fitz relays is about packages that Cyrus would receive while they were on the campaign trail. The packages had come from his mother and they were the only things that made him smile. Fitz also revealed that he did indeed know Cyrus’s mother’s name and said what it was: Helen.
Fitz apologizes for being an asshole. The man has tears in his eyes as he’s offering this apology! Honestly, Fitz wasn’t in the wrong for firing Cyrus’s behind. The man had gone too far (as he had in the past) and a message had to be sent. Enough was enough. That said, I can also see how and why Cyrus would consider his ousting a stab in the back after close to 20 years of loyal servitude.
Fitz proceeds to shoulder the blame for everything that went wrong with between them, a responsibility that surely does not fall solely on his shoulders. Cyrus is responsible for his share part in this, but I get it. Fitzgerald is doing here the same thing that he did with Mellie in 503. He’s taking on all the real and imagined ills that the other party feels that he has committed against them and is absorbing it all in order to get to his end result. In this case, it is to get Cyrus back on board.
Fitz admits that he cannot do the presidency by himself. He needs to have his guy back on his team and pleads for him to return. Cyrus considers him for a moment and then says that the job that he wants is Chief of Staff. Elizabeth gets fired, but Abby and Ethan stay. He says that Fitz is going to have to issue a full presidential pardon for any and all crimes that he has or will commit in service to him as president. This pardon will be sealed and irrevocable. Oh and he wants new carpet. Should Fitz agree to these terms, Cyrus will keep secret that Fitz had watched the video.
Well damn. It isn’t like Fitz has much of a choice but to accept his conditions. Cyrus then takes a seat on the sofa across from Fitz and details how he intends to answer anyone who inquires about the war in West Angola. He intends to say not only that not only did the President not see the video of Olivia, but that he didn’t know a damn thing about the kidnapping. I haven’t a clue how they intend to pull that off, but alright. Mellie can’t talk and neither can Andrew. That would leave Huck, Quinn, Abby and David. Jake also, but what are the odds of him being subpoenaed?
This is one hot mess waiting to explode all over everyone’s face.
Fitz and Cyrus shake hands in agreement and as Cyrus is leaving, Fitz asks Charlotte to have Elizabeth called to his office. Homegirl is about to be fired. Ha! I knew her butt wouldn’t last long in that position.
That’s all I’ve got folks! Thank you for reading this review/recap of Scandal episode 505. Be sure to share your thoughts about what you loved or didn’t love about the episode in the comments below. See you all next week!
