We are back at it again, ladies and gentlemen, and without preamble, let’s jump right into this recap review of “I See You”.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Starring Olivia Pope & Associates
This episode was one in which Olivia continued to be challenged by the characters around her and in ways that forced her to acknowledge the repercussions of her actions, reveal things about herself and which also showed that she is still working on trusting her instincts again. It was a cumulative display of Olivia’s strengths, vulnerabilities and progress.
The opening scene is of Olivia sitting around the dinner table with her father, Jake and his fiancee Vanessa. Olivia’s wearing her hostess persona like one of her pricey frocks, yukking it up with the others as Vanessa compliments her over the dessert choice. Olivia feigns being moved by Vanessa’s words and then launches into an extensive explanation of the crepe cake’s preparation. Jake appears amused by this uncharacteristic side of Olivia and Rowan tells her that he’s never heard her describe a dessert before. Ha!
Where and why before would Rowan (or anybody outside of the White House for that matter) had heard Olivia describe a dessert? Prior to her brief stint as fill-in FLOTUS (episode 509), did Olivia know anything about cakes, let alone speak about them in a manner that suggested that she even cared about this sort of thing? This is a woman whose cooking skills are limited to sticking some popcorn in the microwave. I guess one could say that her stint as “little dog” left an impression.
While Olivia is fake smiling and inquiring about the venue for Jake and Vanessa’s upcoming nuptials, Quinn and Charlie are elsewhere breaking into Vanessa’s apartment to plant surveillance cameras and copy computer files. Vanessa tells Olivia that Jake would like for them to get married at her parents’ property on Martha’s Vineyard “even though it’s the site of a famous shipwreck.” Shipwreck? You don’t say…
Jake chimes in to add that Vanessa is superstitious, and this prompts her to show everyone the cracked screen on her phone. She tells her audience that the crack happened when Jake bumped into her at the Shake Shack and the phone fell to the ground. Jake has asked her to fix it, but she has refused because it reminds her of the first time that they met.
Vanessa, if you don’t stop the stupid and go fix that mess. Secondly, who didn’t freeze when she said that her initial contact with Jake involved him bumping into her and causing her to drop her phone?
This statement does not immediately ring any particular bells for Olivia who is too busy playing at being the hospitable daughter of the host. Vanessa says that she surprisingly crossed paths with Jake again at some cafe in Georgetown and wouldn’t let him go after that.
As she is relaying this, Jake is watching Olivia to gauge her reaction and she looks to be in a bit of a struggle to keep the fake smile going. Vanessa goes on to tell Olivia that Jake “just thinks the world” of her, and then she turns to Jake to ask him for his particular phrasing, to which he describes Olivia as “the sister I never had.”
Errrrrr...what?
Olivia forces a smile on her face and is looking at Jake like this incestous sisterf*cker…
Just then, Olivia receives a text from Quinn alerting her that her surveillance is up and running. Oliva uses the interruption as an excuse for her to depart from the dinner, telling them that she has an emergency at work. We then see Olivia in her apartment and she’s on the phone with Quinn, who tells her that the feed is up and that Jake and Vanessa just entered the apartment.
Olivia immediately goes to her television, turns it on and then finds the channel on which the surveillance has been set. She is watching for a moment and rolls her shoulders as if in discomfort before her eyes narrow and she says, “I see you, Vanessa Moss.”
What exactly do you see, Olivia? Are you suspecting that Vanessa is in on this plot, too? Hmm. That wouldn’t be entirely outside of the realm of possibility.
The next day, we see Quinn meeting up with Abby who is in need of a favor. Quinn tells Abby that she’s unable to help her because she’s been too busy running OPA while Olivia has been occupied with spying on Jake and his girlfriend. Abby attempts to rationalize Olivia’s behavior by stating that what her bestie is doing is not stalking but focusing on something that she believes is important, but Quinn isn’t buying it. She tells Abby that Olivia is out of touch with everything that is going on around her and is focusing on something that isn’t her actual job.
Over at OPA, Huck is with Marcus and they are watching a feed of Javi playing soccer. The two men celebrate as Javi scores, and Huck is all smiles as he watches his kid run over to the sidelines. His smile soon fades when he sees that Javi has run up to his mother Kim and some guy. Marcus asks if the guy is Kim’s boyfriend and Huck at first says maybe, but then adds that he knows that she has a man but has never seen him before. Huck watches as the three embrace each other, looking like the family that he has longed to have himself.
Flashing over to Olivia, she’s in her apartment and she has photographs of Jake and Vanessa strewn all across her coffee table. She’s staring at one with intense concentration as if she expects to find the answers that she is looking for within its pixels. Her ringing phone pulls her attention away from the picture and she answers the call. It’s Mellie.
Before I continue on, did you notice that Olivia now has sitting on one of her side tables a framed photo of herself with her father? It’s a frozen moment in time that looks to be one from when she was much younger, maybe a teenager. As is the case with the record player and the vinyls, is this, too, further evidence of Olivia holding on to the only pleasant tether that she has to Rowan? That picture certainly wasn’t there before.
Back to the phone call, Mellie wants to know Olivia’s opinion about them changing “their” environmental platform, and Olivia immediately knows why Mellie is asking this. She says to Mellie that she hopes that she isn’t planning to meet with a certain someone, a someone that both of them know cannot be trusted. Mellie says that she isn’t, which is all of the different variations of a lie and Olivia knows it. Mellie has already set this meeting up and is now looking for Olivia’s stamp of approval in retrospect, but Olivia is still against her meeting up with this person. Mellie offers up that maybe he has changed and it is then that the subject of their discussion walks in the door. It’s none other than election rigger and oil tycoon Hollis Doyle. Olivia tells her not to promise Hollis anything.
Later we see Huck alone and he has screen captures of Javi, Kim and Kim’s boyfriend. Huck gets a close up image of the boyfriend and stares at it as if in recognition. Armed with a print out of the picture, Huck meets up with Charlie at a diner. He slides the pic over to Charlie as he tells him that he believes that the boyfriend is someone that they tried to kill and who is now seeking to exact revenge by targeting Huck’s family.
Charlie examines the photo and then says that he doesn’t recall the person. Huck urges Charlie to look again, stating that he is sure that the two of them definitely worked on him. Charlie picks up the photo once more, stating that the list of people that they let get away were short, so it should be easy to figure out. He soon says that maybe the guy is someone that they’ve dubbed “Six Toes” and adds that it could be hard to tell if that’s the guy given the boots that the man is wearing, but it could be him. Charlie tells Huck that he could find out for him if the guy has indeed resurfaced, and that if he has that Huck ought to get to the man first before the man gets to him.
Oh boy. Huck’s sobriety is about to be shot straight to hell.
Later that evening, Mellie calls Olivia back and tells her that things didn’t work out with Hollis, that he’s going to go meet up with Susan. Olivia is barely paying attention to the call for her eyes are on her screen where the surveillance feed is showing Jake making out with Vanessa. Mellie is on the other end of the line freaking out over having lost Hollis as a donor and Olivia distractingly tells her that there are other donors to be had. They are in the early days of the campaign yet. Mellie suggests that maybe Olivia could sit down with Hollis but Olivia shuts that down with a succinct “No.” That shit ain’t happening. With nothing more to say, Mellie thanks Olivia for “nothing” and hangs up.
Olivia’s attention then returns fully to the screen. This woman has literally been sitting in her apartment all damn day either looking at pictures or watching the feed, and I’m a little concerned. Is this an investigation or an obsession? And what was with the awkwardness of the make out between Jake and Vanessa? Their movements were stiffer than a man swinging about in a full body cast.
Did you guys peep the time in the corner of the video? 7:52pm. I see what y’all did there, Scandal folks.
At some point during the mechanized kissing, Jake turns his head to look directly at the camera that is feeding to Olivia’s television. Disturbed by the image and now made aware that he knows that she’s watching him, Olivia grabs her remote and turns off the TV.
Later that night, Jake covers over with the fire detectors in which Quinn and Charlie had hid the cameras. He tosses them at Olivia and tells her that the “show’s over” as he pushes his way into her apartment. He goes directly to her coffee table where she has the photos of he and Vanessa laid out. He’s shaking his head in disbelief and calls her actions “pathetic and sad.” He says that she has a number of detestable qualities, but he never thought that jealousy was one of them.
When Olivia says to him that she’s not jealous, he demands an explanation for what she’s doing then with the surveillance. He wants to know why it is that she’s holed up in her apartment like a crazy conspiracy theorist and spying on the head of the NSA. Olivia tells him then that she wants to know why it is that Jake chose Vanessa and how it is that she fits into whatever it is that he and Rowan have got planned. Jake sighs in response and says that “he really messed you up.” Olivia pops out of her seat then and starts to say something about her father, but Jake cuts her off to inform her that he wasn’t talking about her father. The “he” that he is referring to is Fitzgerald.
Taking a quick pause here to ask you to pay close attention to this part because it comes into play later on in the episode.
Jake says to Olivia that the reason why Olivia keeps leaving Fitz time and again is because she has always known deep down that if she said yes to being with him, that Fitz would own and consume her in a manner that would be no different than it was with her father. Jake goes on to say that over time, Fitz manipulated Olivia and made her feel as if she owed him. He says that this is something that Fitz is good at and that Olivia knew this to be the case and she still fell for it. He then says that it must burn Olivia to know that she went from being the smartest person in the room to being the biggest fool, and then adds that she’s come to realize that she is just “another textbook example of daddy issues played out on a national stage.”
Gatdamn it. Time out.
You see what Jake is doing here, right? He’s using his PhD in Olivia Pope to deflect from the issue at hand. Talk about pressing on all of her insecurity buttons! Play on her fears and bang against her weak spots. This is Rowan 101. The invocation of Fitz is a particularly favored tactic and we see Jake using it here as part of his “shock and awe” offensive.
What I find interesting is that Jake says sounds similar to the excuses Olivia has used in the far and not so distant pasts to justify her bad behavior when it comes to Fitzgerald. She has either voiced something along these lines to Fitz, such as when she blamed him for why she returned as his mistress (413), and also to her father when she claimed that Fitz tried to make her into someone that she was not (510).
Olivia is now sitting back on her heels as Jake says to her that he is in love with a beautiful woman who he is about to marry and who has the capability of loving him back.
Well, shit. Just punch her in the chest and leave her for dead, Jacob. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. You just called her a walking dead.
In response to him, Olivia says that Jake’s girlfriends are never just girlfriends. They are all marks. She adds that nothing Jake ever does is real. (Hey there, Julia Alex Baker. If I recall, you like to roll about in fantasyland, too, but I’m just gonna let you finish.)
Jake then sarcastically says that he must definitely be plotting something because Vanessa does normal stuff. He tells her that Vanessa’s normal is exactly what he wants in his life. He turns to leave, but then he circles back to Olivia. He’s got to get in his parting shot, asking Olivia if she enjoyed watching him and Vanessa together, if she pretended like she was Vanessa and if she “got off” at the same time that Vanessa did.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand this is reason number 7,520 as to why Jake Ballard deserves the shank.
UGH. The filth. If only there was a way for me to redact him.
The following morning at OPA, we see Quinn gathering photos from the conference table when Charlie strolls in. When she asks him what he’s doing there, he says that he’s looking for Huck. In response, Quinn asks if he sees anyone there except for her. She is clearly annoyed by this. Olivia isn’t there. Huck isn’t there either. Charlie points out her attitude and then she checks herself before she tells him that Huck had been there but only for a short while before he left out again. She asks him what he needs and Charlie explains to her all about the guy Huck came to him about and how they believe that he may be somebody that they had dealings with in the past. He slides the picture that Huck gave him over to Quinn for her to take a look at just as Marcus comes into the room and asks who Charlie is. “No one,” says Quinn. “Lover,” says Charlie. Haha!
Quinn asks Marcus if he’s spoken to Huck, but Marcus catches the photo on the table and poses a question of his own. He asks where it is that they got the picture from, and then he tells them that this is the guy who he and Huck saw hanging out with Javi and Kim and that he could tell that Huck was upset. This revelation causes Quinn to Charlie with a look that said “why didn’t you tell me this?” Marcus sees this exchange and wants to know what he’s missing. Quinn and Charlie quickly depart from the room and Marcus follows suit.
Elsewhere, we see the man in the photograph stopped on the side of the road with the hood of his car up. Conveniently, Huck (in some Clark Kent glasses) pulls up in his Jeep and asks the guy if he’s got a dead battery. The man remarks that he’s not sure what is wrong, that cars like this are meant to drive themselves. He then asks Huck if he knows anything about computers and Huck says that he doesn’t, that he’s old school.
Not only is the man’s car down, but his phone is also missing. (Huck, you ain’t right.) When Huck offers to drive him to a gas station so that he can make a call, the man is thankful and introduces himself to Huck as Sean. Huck in turn introduces himself as “Harold.” Ha! Lies.
Over at Olivia’s apartment, Abby is pacing back and forth as she relays to her friend what she discovered about Cyrus and Vargas. Olivia asks her if she believes the explanation that Cyrus gave her about considering and not actually working for Vargas, and Abby says that she doesn’t know since Cyrus is a pathological liar. If he’s breathing, he’s lying. She then stops her movement and smiles as she says that she’s finally got Cyrus before she resumes her pacing. This gives Olivia pause and she asks Abby if she now considers such a thing to be good.
Abby doesn’t answer the question and instead goes on about how she can see all that she has to do in order to make a particular outcome to happen. Olivia finishes Abby’s thoughts by saying what Abby isn’t directly stating, which is that she now has information that she can use to destroy Cyrus. Abby gleefully adds that she could slit his throat and bathe in his blood.
Lawd, what have y’all done to my Abby? She’s here sounding like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Olivia appears troubled by the transformation that she is seeing before her. Abby wants the Chief of Staff job, Olivia remarks, and Abby’s response is that she wants to run “that mother.”
Olivia then asks her if Abby doesn’t think that she should wait her turn. Abby responds that even though Cyrus has been a good friend to her, he is a despicable person. Olivia tells her that this fact doesn’t answer her question, but Abby says that it does because a good person would wait their turn turn, but someone like Cyrus would not. A true monster like him would never wait. They would instead cut in line and take what they want. Monsters are the ones who run Washington and are the ones with the power. Abby then asks Olivia how long it is that she should wait. She wants to know how long it will be before a “big dog” comes along and rips her throat out in order to take her spot in line.
While Abby is saying all of this, Olivia is looking at her as if she has been bitten by one of the big dogs for which she mentioned. A rabid one. You could see the telltale foam on the sides of Abby’s mouth if you looked hard enough.
Following a pause, Abby appears to be conflicted by this path that she is considering going down and she wonders aloud about how a “big dog” sleeps at night when they do such terrible things to get ahead. In response, Olivia says to able that she is a good person who happens to be standing too close to the ring….er, I mean, the Oval Office. Like everyone else who has been that close to the power source, Abby is feeling its pull and wants it. Olivia warns her against allowing the White House to corrupt her and tells her that once she crosses the threshold, that there is no coming back from that. Once the white hat is off, Abby will cease being herself.
Olivia then adds that, “And the thing is, being a big dog isn’t as great as it seems.”
Oh, it isn’t, Olivia? I thought life as a “big dog” is what you desired. What’s changed?
Olivia stresses to a conflicted Abby to choose to be a better person. Spoken like someone who has her white hat in the closet and not in the trash.
Her phone rings then. It’s Quinn. Off Olivia goes to OPA to join up with her and Marcus. It would seem that all Quinn has told Olivia is that Huck is AWOL, and when Olivia asks if she has any idea where he could be, Quinn tells her that she’s tracking his GPS and hopes that they can get to him before Huck gets to Sean Barton. Olivia doesn’t know who this is and Quinn give her the quick and dirty breakdown, indicating that Sean was Kim’s new boyfriend.
Marcus then tells Olivia that Huck saw Sean with Kim and Javi and that he knew that Huck was upset, but he didn’t think much else of it. Quinn says to him that he should have told her that Huck was spying on his family and Marcus hits back that Huck was watching his kid play soccer game. He didn’t think it was a big deal, but then again, he also wasn’t aware that Huck was a government trained assassin. Welp.
Can you imagine if you were at work and one day you found out that the dude that you’ve been trying to get in good with was a trained assassin? I wouldn’t know if I should quit that job for my safety or keep it for the same reason.
Elsewhere in the area, Huck is driving along with Sean who expresses his appreciation for Huck’s help and says that he is supposed to be meeting up with his girlfriend and her son. Huck uses the opportunity to ask if he and the girlfriend (aka Kim) have been dating long, and Sean says that it has only been a few months and that she and her son are great. Sean then turns to ask Huck if he has any kids and Huck says not anymore.
Well. That’s one way to kill the mood.
Huck is now notably driving faster and his jovial personality is gone. He zooms past the gas station, and when Sean informs him of this, Huck says to him that his name is not Harold and that his isn’t Sean. It is at this moment that Sean realizes that he’s in the car with a psycho and makes to jump ship, but soon sees that that won’t be happening because the door latch on his side of the car has been removed. Bruh, you dead.
Olivia and co finally find Huck’s car but he’s nowhere to be found and neither is Sean. Quinn wants to know what they are to do now and Olivia says that she doesn’t know. They are too late, Quinn says. She adds that Sean is likely “bleeding out on some tarp somewhere while Huck is eating a turkey sandwich and hums Army tunes.”
Quinn then snaps on Marcus, saying that she can’t believe that he didn’t tell her what was going on. Marcus in response tells Quinn that he didn’t realize that Huck ate people for a living (lol) since he’s the last one to know anything despite having proven that he’s a valuable member of OPA. Olivia interjects to say that Marcus is right and that Quinn needs to start treating him like part of the family because he is one of them now.
That right there was the wrong flipping thing to say to Quinn because the girl has been looking for the right opportunity to pop off all episode. Quinn is dumbfounded that Olivia would say such a thing to her about family with a straight face. Quinn says what she sees are three strangers standing on the side of the road with their fingers crossed and hoping that their coworker hadn’t murdered someone.
Quinn goes on to say that they used to be a family. All of them in their dysfunction, working 23 hour days. Her, Olivia, Huck, Harrison, Abby. She tells Olivia that she can’t honestly stand there and say that the family that Quinn just described is the same one that Olivia sees standing in front of her today. She then goes on to ask Olivia when she last asked Huck about Kim and Javi or if Olivia thinks it was cool that Huck recently begged her to kill him.
Olivia says to Quinn that she should know the answer to that, but Quinn says that she doesn’t. “Family doesn’t abandon one another,” she tells Olivia. She then accuses her of having abandoned them for Fitz and the White House, and that since Olivia’s been back, her head is not at all in the game. Instead, she’s spending all of her time spying on Jake.
Quinn turns to walk away from Olivia in disgust and this prompts Olivia to fire back, saying to Quinn that she has a job, she has the additional responsibility that she had asked for and Olivia takes care of her to boot, adding that she never claimed to be anybody’s babysitter. In response to this, Quinn speaks about the time when Harrison recruited her to OPA and how she had then been in awe of the woman that Olivia was, about how Olivia was the person who would breathe fire from her mouth and wither everything to dust.
Whatever else Quinn had to say, Olivia was not in the mood to hear it. She was over this conversation. She starts to walk towards their car while ordering Marcus to bring the keys. Quinn, however, is still talking. Olivia had been this fierce gladiator and yet she still managed to do something thoughtful for the people she cared about such as get a set of engagement rings for Stephen to pick from since he didn’t have the time to go out and do it otherwise.
Olivia once again demands the keys from Marcus, but the brother is hanging back. He’s smart enough not to get in the middle of this melee, seeming to recognize that this was something that these two women had to get off of their chests.
When Quinn yells at Olivia to explain to her why it is that she hates them, Olivia finally turns around and yells back at Quinn that all that she has done lately has been because she was kidnapped. For that one week, her freedom and her dignity was stolen. She says to Quinn that she could have laid down and played dead but she opted to stand up and take her life back. A year after that horrific ordeal, she found herself in the White House with the President and she was running the country.
Olivia lets Quinn know that she is selfish because she can be. She doesn’t owe anybody anything and states that it’s now her turn.
Shorter Olivia: I’m a survivor, bitch! Don’t come at me as if you know what I’ve been through.
Whew, chile. Now that we have cleared the air, I’m going to need Quinn Lindsey Dwyer Perkins to back up a little bit. It was great that she finally got to lay out her grievances about Olivia’s emotional and physical distance from OPA, but a lot of what she was complaining about was rather silly.
Olivia isn’t the person she used to be? How many metaphorical bombs have gone off in Olivia’s life since Quinn has been around? How does anyone remain the same person after finding out that their mother was really alive and is an international terrorist? Or that their father sent operatives to have sex with them as a diversion? Or whose father killed the child of their lover? Plays mind games with them to keep them in line? And this is all before we even get to the business of the kidnapping.
Quinn, go find yourself a seat and hush about Olivia abandoning her ragtag family in favor of doing something for herself. How long are you expecting her to carry you grown ass people on her back? She’s been slaying everybody’s dragons for so long that you forget that the woman is human and is also deserving of something for her. Instead of trying to understand what could possibly be going on with Olivia, you make this about you. Don’t make me return to wanting you dead, Lindsey.
While I somewhat agree with Quinn about how Olivia just up and left for the White House, I was pleased to hear Olivia vocalize the why of what she did. It’s rare to hear her externalize anything that is going on in her headspace, so I was glad that she responded with some truth of her own. From Olivia’s perspective, doing what she did and how she did it was a matter of survival. She had to keep moving and doing and performing. She may not realize it yet, but Olivia is still in survival mode with this business that she has going on with Jake and the embracing of her father. She has moved from one cage (kidnapping) to another (the White House)and yet to another cage (her father). Something has soon got to give.
Her argument with Quinn is eventually interrupted by Marcus who has just spied Huck. Both turn away from each other in time to see Huck dumping Sean’s body onto the ground as he is saying that “It wasn’t him.”
Huck was about to cross back over to the darkside had this man turned out to be who he thought he was. Did Huck truly believe that this man was “Six Toes” or was he just looking for an excuse to eliminate Sean from his family’s life?
Driving back in the Jeep with Huck, Olivia glances back at Sean who is still knocked out in the back seat and then she looks over at Huck, who explains to her that Sean will wake up with his hands behind the steering wheel of his car and won’t remember anything that happened to him. Olivia continues to stare at him and says nothing in response.
When Huck sees this, he goes on to say that he thought that Sean was this guy who wanted revenge for something that Huck did to him a long time ago, but he’s just Sean. He’s not Six Toes. He’s the guy who loves Javi and Kim. He’s been dating Kim for a while and he even has a ring that he intends to give to her. Huck says that Sean is good guy and good for Kim.
Huck goes on to say that he needed to be the hero and save Kim and Javi, but it turns out that none of that was even necessary because Sean isn’t the guy who he believed him to be. He’s just a regular guy. Huck adds that it is time that he let go of Kim and Javi and move on.
As Huck is speaking, you can see Olivia thinking. What he is saying is resonating with her.
The next morning, Marcus and Quinn are working in the conference room when Olivia shows up in office for the first time in how many days and heads towards her office without so much of a good morning to the two. Before she enters her space, she turns to face Quinn and says that Quinn is the reason why she is able to be selfish. Quinn after all is the one who held things together when she went off to the island with Jake, and when she went off to the White House, she didn’t have to think twice about leaving because she knew that Quinn would take care of things.
As she’s talking, Marcus does a slow turn to look at his boss from the corner of his eye.
Olivia goes on to say that no matter where she is or what she’s doing, she knows that Quinn will jump in and handle the situation. She then gives Quinn and small nod and Quinn nods back before Olivia then escapes into her office. That’s as close to an apology as Quinn is going to get. LOL! Not that she was exactly owed one, but she did deserve to at least hear this much from Olivia. She abandonment of OPA wasn’t because she didn’t care about them or how they fared in her absence. The truth was that she trusted Quinn to be the one to take care of everyone now.
Quinn was clearly moved by this admission and after a private smile, she gets back to the work that she was doing. Poor Marcus has just realized that there is yet more context that he is missing and asks Quinn about the island that Olivia mentioned. Quinn quickly explains the circumstances that surrounded Olivia’s departure and Marcus is left momentarily speechless. He follows up this up by asking Quinn if she has ever killed anyone, buuuut Quinn shuts down the Q&A for the day. That’s enough sharing for the time being.
Later that evening, we see Olivia at a restaurant with Jake. She says to him that she would like to call a truce to all of the crazy behavior. She admits that it was her who started all of this and says to him that he’s right on that count. She says to him that she misses him and that’s the reason why she’s been behaving the way that she has with the cameras and the stalking. After a moment, Jake accepts her explanation. Olivia then goes on to say that she knows how selfish it was for her to hold on to both Fitz and to Jake and to not choose between the two. She apologizes to him for that and before anything more could be said, Vanessa shows up.
Now before I continue on, I just want to say that I have no idea how to take this moment between Olivia and Jake because one part of me believes that she was being sincere, and yet another part feels as if she was bullshitting.
Actually, let me quit playing. I laughed like a hyena when I rewatched this scene because it seemed to me as if Olivia was pulling one of those moves that Fitz applied on Mellie in 503 where he was telling her all of the things that he knew that she wanted and needed to hear in order to get her to move in a direction that was in his favor. Why wouldn’t Olivia do the same here? Go with the truth (being selfish and unfair) and then toss in things that you know the other person wants to hear (admit to his rightness, claim to miss him, apologize). This woman has essentially taken what was said to her by Jake, Quinn and Huck and molded it into a weapon of manipulation to be used against Jake.
As Vanessa proceeds to take off her coat, her phone slips from her coat pocket and falls to the floor. This finally shakes loose something in Olivia’s brain and she finally puts the puzzle pieces together. She flashes back to the story Vanessa told about how she and Jake, which she now recalls is similar to how Jake bumped into her. Olivia also remembers the time that Jake detailed for her the manner by which he was able to ensnare her (421).
When Olivia finally realized that she wasn’t paranoid after all, her reaction was like…
There was no need for Olivia to remain and pretend her way through another dinner, so she tells them that she has to leave due to a work emergency. Again.
As Olivia is heading for the exit, she dials up Quinn and tells her that they need to step up their surveillance on Jake. Boom.
My interpretation of what happened in this scene may very well end up being completely off and it could turn out that Olivia was being truthful with what she said to Jake, but as of the moment of this writing, I don’t buy it. With her starting to trust her gut again, I’m finding it difficult to believe that she would suddenly dismiss her earlier suspicions about Jake and Rowan and sum it up as her being the stalkerish ex-girlfriend.
There is also the pesky business of Olivia’s wardrobe. In every scene that she has had with Jake in at least the last few episodes, she has been in red and/or black. This time, however, she is primarily in white with streaks of black and some pop of orange. Do you know what this says to me? Olivia is gladiating. And if that isn’t enough to sway you, consider the aria that is playing over the scene. It’s Aretha Franklin’s live version of “Nessun dorma” in which part of the lyrics translate into “I will win.” We shall see if she finally will.
Before I wrap up this section, I wanted to throw this one last thing out there. It may end up being one hell of a reach, but do you all remember the two women who Jake killed along with Jake Novak in 313/314? Do you recall their names? The NSA woman’s name had been Shelby Moss and the reporter was Vanessa Chandler. Now Jake’s girlfriend’s name is “Vanessa Moss” and Jake is the head of the NSA. Hmm. Coincidence or no? What’s going on here?
Money, Power & Respect: The White House Edition
Things are getting spice in the race for the White House, especially on the Republican side of things. We don’t see Francisco Vargas in the episode, but his presence was more than felt. Sally Langston spent a bit of time eviscerating the man on The Liberty Report for having stated during his appearance that he wouldn’t be running for president, only to later change his mind and toss his hat into the rase. Sally has now taken to referring to Vargas as the latest “snake oil salesman.”
Over at the White House, Abby is watching The Liberty Report and she dismisses Vargas’s viability as a candidate. Ethan comes into the room right then with an armful of binders that he proceeds to pass out to the other staffers present and he responds to Abby’s remark by saying that anything is possible. He adds that the same things were said about President Grant when he ran and that Vargas is polling better among women than Fitz was at this same stage.
This comment draws Abby’s attention away from the television and she looks at Ethan with suspicion. How would he know anything about Vargas’s polling and in comparison to that of the current president? Abby voices what she is thinking and says to Ethan that he’s about to jump ship and go work for Vargas. Ethan is like, no way. He would never leave Cyrus. Abby tells him that looking out for himself is okay, especially since he’s only got one more year left in the White House. To that, Ethan says that he would indeed jump ship if Cyrus were to run Vargas’s campaign.
Red alert! Abby pounces on this statement and asks Ethan how it is that he got the idea in his head that Cyrus would do such a thing. Ethan realizes then that he has said too much and makes like a banana and splits!
Now Abby needs to know more. She calls up Quinn for some assistance, but that’s a no go because Quinn says that she is too busy running OPA. With this avenue ending up being a dead end, Abby says that she’ll find someone else to help her.
Elsewhere in Washington, Mellie makes a call to Olivia (mentioned above) to ask about a possible modification to her environmental policy, which tips Olivia off to the fact that Mellie is about to meet up with Hollis Doyle, someone that neither should be involving themselves with at all. You would think Mellie would know better after what went down with Fitz’s first election and how slick (all the puns intended) Hollis can be. He has never been one to trust, but since Mellie is desperate for big money donors, she’s willing to rub shoulders with the smarmiest of them.
Having settled in a one of the many seats in Hollis’s office, Mellie accepts some scotch from Hollis as he tells her about how divorce suits her well. His statements, as usual, are laced with inappropriate sexual innuendo that leaves one to feel as if they are in need of a hot shower. Mellie meanwhile keeps her smile wide and bright and says to Hollis that she appreciates his (sexist) compliments.
There are just some things that I am unwilling to endure, but then again, I’m not nor will I ever be running for President of the United States, so...
Mellie positions herself in a manner that allows her to lean forward towards Hollis as he lounges back on an adjacent leather sofa. He says to her that he’s got lots of Republican money, but like a date, he wants to spend the money on a “gal that [he thinks] is gonna put out for me.” Mellie is momentarily caught off guard by the statement, but she quickly recovers and is back to smiling just as Hollis asks if she’s willing to be that “gal” or if they are “just going to rub jeans together and leave here frustrated?”
Christ.
Mellie nervously chuckles and doesn’t quite know how to respond to this, but she manages to pivot to something that she knows Hollis is looking to have happen. She mentions his desire to see the Environmental Protections Agency (EPA) cut back and Hollis interrupts to correct her. What he wants is to see the EPA gone. As a oil man, that agency serves him no good purpose. He wants Mellie to promise to get rid of the EPA. If she can make him that promise, he’ll write her a check for half a billion dollars.
He said half a billion. Five hundred million. Five times 10 to the 8th power in cash. $500,000,000. Gatdamn.
Mellie sits stunned by the offer, but she ultimately rejects it by telling him that she can’t make him such a promise. Hollis says that he’ll take his offer to the “other little cupcake” (aka Susan Ross) and “see how far up her shirt she’s willing to let [him] go.”
I shouldn’t be laughing at Hollis at all, but I can’t seem to help myself.
Flash over to the White House and we see Fitz in the Oval with Elizabeth, Abby and Cyrus. Fitz is rejecting Elizabeth’s proposal to bring Hollis in for a meeting with Susan. Fitz refers to Hollis as a “disease” that he won’t allow to infect his vice president. Elizabeth says to him that she understands that Fitz has a history with Hollis, but that they need Hollis on their side. Having Hollis as a financier would put them ahead of Mellie, whose current campaign finances is drier than the Sahara Desert. Getting Hollis to jump on the Susan bandwagon would make him unavailable to Mellie who is in desperate need of his cash.
It is at this point that Cyrus chimes in to say that it wouldn’t hurt for them to cripple the competition by embracing Hollis and Abby counters by saying that embracing someone like Hollis doesn’t hurt until it backfires. Hollis always comes with strings attached. Cyrus then opines that Hollis is worth the risk, and this causes Abby’s spidey senses to again get to tingling. There is more to Cyrus’s suggestion than meets the eye.
Fitz eventually capitulates and agrees to have Elizabeth set up a meeting. Off Elizabeth goes to do so while Cyrus sits there looking innocent and the wheels are turning in Abby’s head.
Abby turns to David for the help that she couldn’t get from Quinn and he comes through for her with lots of intel that shows that Cyrus has been in contact with Francisco Vargas many times, including a trip to Harrisburg two weeks ago. Armed with this information, Abby later goes to see Cyrus in his office. She says to him that she thought that he would be in the Hollis Doyle meeting and he says back to her that he thought that she would be in on it. To that she says that she was on something else instead, specifically Frankie Vargas.
Cyrus pretends confusion, acting as if he didn’t immediately recognize the name. Then he’s like oh, yeah. The “Capitol Tackle” guy. Cyrus says that he thought that Vargas’s 15 minutes were up but that he announced that he was running for the presidency. Abby confirms this while watching Cyrus carry on with his pretense. She asks him if they should release a statement on Vargas and he says that they shouldn’t since they are “out of the election game.” That gives Abby the opening to ask Cyrus if he’s indeed out of the game. The question startles him and he asks her what she is talking about, to which Abby says that she is referring to him working with Vargas. She shows him the folder she has in hand of the proof. Cyrus slaps down Abby’s evidence left and right, indignant that she’d call him a liar, that she’d investigate him, that she’d accuse him of working with a Democrat. He is seething and Abby is unperturbed.
All of his protestations come to a screeching halt when she presents photographic evidence of him together with Vargas and she says that she’s going to tell the President. When he has nothing to say in defense of himself, Abby scoffs and she turns to exit the room. Cyrus scurries from around his desk to stop her, and tries once more to downplay his involvement with Abby, but she again accuses him of lying. Finally he admits that she is right, but he, of course, feeds her some story that fails to cast him as the orchestrator of this whole thing. Abby suspects still that he is not telling her the truth and makes to leave, but he again stops her and promises to “make things right.”
Abby does not look at all convinced by anything that Cyrus is saying. Matter of fact, she looks like she’s enjoying having Cyrus at her mercy. Cyrus begs her not to tell Fitz about any of this and tries to appeal to her compassion, stating that he’s lost the job before and doesn’t want to lose it again.
Cyrus Rutherford Beene, first off, let me say that I am glad as a kid in a chocolate factory that you have finally been caught. I was starting to wonder how many more wins you were about to log before you were tripped up. It is real funny that you’re begging for Abby not to inform on you when you have since given up on being Chief of Staff to Fitzgerald Grant. I can’t even blame you for that, given the repeated freeze outs that he has subjected you to, but let’s not pretend as if you wishing to remain has anything to do with the President. One can’t possibly steer decisions that may end up being beneficial to your candidate from the outside now, can they?
Against what Abby knows to be her better judgement, she agrees to not tell Fitz about Cyrus and Vargas.
The next day, we see Fitz greeting Hollis in the Oval. Also present are Susan and Elizabeth. Fitz thanks Hollis for coming and Hollis cracks about how it isn’t everyday that one gets invited to the White House, at least not anymore. This was a clear reference to how things used to be and a reminder of their former association. Hollis then disengages from the President and goes to take a seat. He just so happens to plant himself in Fitz’s preferred spot before Fitz could claim it, leaving Fitz to find himself a seat elsewhere. Susan claims the space next to Hollis.
Elizabeth starts things off by informing Susan that Hollis was just in Virginia the previous week. He shares that his reason for being out there was because he was overseeing the completion of seven new oil rigs that he’s got out there and this prompts Susan to remark about the beauty of her state. Hollis says it would be even more beautiful if the EPA wasn’t “crawling up [his] tooter every damn minute with their so-called regulations.” HAAAAAAAAA!!!
Susan then uses the opportunity to share with Hollis (and with us) that she is a daughter of many generations of coal miners. Hollis is impressed by this information and tells her how much he loves a “country girl”. He says that when a country girl wants something she goes after it and works hard for it, “not like those out of touch rich folks born with a silver spoon in their mouth, never worked for nothing in their lives...right, Fitz?”
LMAOOO!! Needless to say, Fitzgerald was unamused. Hollis claims that he was really poking fun at himself, but Fitz remains wound up tighter than a guitar string. Matter of fact, Fitz looks like he wants to vanquish the man into oblivion.
Not one to let the moment tense linger, Susan returns to the subject at hand by saying that even though she is for the environment, she is also for the economy. Susan goes on to detail how oil drilling and natural gas development would lead to the creation of thousands of jobs and the addition of several billion dollars to the nation’s economy. Hollis remarks that these will also generate billions in government revenue.
Fitz interrupts at this point to say that all of this could happen provided that there are no accidents. Susan turns towards Fitz in surprise and when he continues directing his questions to Hollis, she tries to curb the obvious hostility coming from the President and fails. Fitz says to her that she doesn’t have to do this with Hollis if she doesn’t want to, that she doesn’t have to say the things that she believes that Hollis wants to hear, the things that he knows that Susan doesn’t honestly believe.
As he’s talking, it is clear from Susan’s reactions that Fitz is making a lot of unfounded assumptions and is treating Susan as if she doesn’t know what it is that she believes in. His disdain for Hollis is so great that he starts to act unilaterally and without regard to what Susan may want when he demands that they cut right to the chase of what it is that Hollis wants. Susan tries to stop the runaway train that the meeting has turned into, but she is unsuccessful as both men ignore her plea to pull back. It is clear at this point that Susan is upset as Fitz tells Hollis that “they” don’t need Hollis’s money to win an election. Fitz remarks about how he didn’t need his money to win, but Hollis is quick to say that Fitz must be referring to his second term because Fitz should recall how he won the first.
Whew. That’s certainly not a can of worms Fitz is willing to open, so out of patience and the sliver of courtesy he was able to muster up, Fitz calls an end to the meeting.
Later we see Hollis meeting once again with Mellie. He complains to her out the treatment that he received from Fitz, calling it “San Antonio rude” and says that he’s going to give Mellie one more chance to persuade him to back her. Handing her a glass of scotch, the both take a seat and Hollis wishes to start off by talking about those “freeloading illegals.” LOL! SMH
When we return to Hollis and Mellie, he’s restating what Mellie had said to him, which is that we should be embracing those who “wish to tear this country down” but Mellie says to him that what she is saying is that if we keep telling people that they don’t belong, how can we expect them not to hate us? Mellie remarks about this being a lesson that is taught in elementary school, to treat others in the manner that we wish to be treated.
PREACH! I don’t know who this woman is right now, but I’m in agreement. She’ll revert back to the Mellie who treats others like trash soon enough.
She uses this to transition over to her support for early childhood education. She wishes to not only support but to expand on existing pre-K programs. When Hollis asks her if she believes that voters will go for this, Mellie tells him that she’s making it the bedrock of her campaign. She even tells him her campaign slogan (“Embrace America’s Tomorrow”) and says that she intends to announce her candidacy at her old elementary school.
Hollis chuckles a bit at what she has just shared with him and then he says to her that he’ll have his people contact her people in the morning, and says that they’ll be embracing America’s tomorrow together. (Uh huh.) An elated Mellie happily clinks glasses with Hollis as it seems that she has succeeded in securing his support.
The next day at the White House, we see Abby entering the Oval. (Her conversation with Olivia takes place before this moment.) She has brought the draft of some statement that Fitz is to make. Fitz accepts the binder and says that he will read it later. He then asks her if there is anything else and Abby pauses before she says that there is more, and she proceeds to hand him the other two binders in her possession with an explanation of what each is.
Fitz asks Abby if Cyrus has copies of these documents, and when she says that he does, he tells her to get him copies. After a short moment of hesitation, Abby refuses his order which catches Fitz off guard. Abby then spills the beans about Cyrus working for Vargas. She assures Fitz that she knows this to indeed be true and says that she will give him the details if he so wants them.
Ut oh. Abby has decided to drive the stake through Cyrus’s heart. I suppose you could argue that she was doing the right thing. Keeping that kind of secret from the President was going to do no one but Cyrus any good. It’s just that exposing Cyrus had the added benefit of opening a door that had otherwise been closed to her.
Having received this intel, Fitz thanks Abby and then walks away from her. That wasn’t the response that Abby was expecting to receive. She wants to know what it is that he plans to do about Cyrus and he tells her that he doesn’t know. He sounds resigned as he claims a chair near the side exit of the Oval. Abby is meanwhile reiterating what she has already said to him about Cyrus and pointing out that Fitz’s Republican Chief of Staff engaging in kingmaking with the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, looking to create the next president for the otherwise from within the White House. She tells him that he can’t just let that stand.
While she’s talking, Fitz looks like he’s mentally writing over and over again on an imaginary chalkboard “FML.” Abby says to him that doing nothing is not how things are done and Fitz asks her how exactly it is that she believes that it should be done. What is he supposed to do? Announce to the nation that he’s firing his most trusted political advisor because Cyrus is working for Vargas? That’s not going to look good.
Fitzgerald is in a snit over this, pointing out its inconvenient timing and how it would affect his ability to help Susan become his successor. He’ll instead be wasting critical time explaining the debacle and looking for a new chief of staff. Fitz believes that he’s backed into a corner and that Cyrus once again wins.
Abby, on the other hand, knows differently. She says to Fitz that Cyrus doesn’t have him at all, that he is the one who Cyrus needs. Option 1 involves the President exposing Cyrus as a turncoat which will be a messy business, but it would also destroy Cyrus. Vargas wouldn’t taint himself by associating with a man who has been exposed as being disloyal. Option 2 requires Cyrus to resign on his own and leave the White House peacefully. Cyrus’s reputation would be in tact and the President wouldn’t have to suffer any blowback. Cyrus is neutralized and he can still get to work for Vargas. The optics would be in Fitz’s favor.
After putting some distance between herself and the President, Abby turns to him and says that he won’t have to spend any time looking for a new Chief of Staff because she is right there. She details for him all the ways that she will be beneficial to him as his Chief of Staff and then caps it off by telling him to fire Cyrus and hire her.
As one who respects the hell out of a woman who can stand her ground and not be afraid to challenge him, Fitzgerald is impressed by Abby’s grit. He tells Abby to fire Cyrus and let him know when it’s done. Abby certainly wasn’t expecting to be the one doing the honors, but if she wanted the job, she was going to have to kick out the person currently occupying the position.
Flash to a scene of Hollis who is on a stage with a racial mix of kids standing behind him and against the backdrop of a huge American flag. The breaking news is that Hollis is running for president!
Of course! What would Scandal (or real life) be without some outrageousness surrounding the presidential election? If we’re going to have Donald Trump in real life, may as well have Hollis Doyle in the fictional world.
As Mellie watches the announcement on television, she soon comes to realize that Hollis not only took her idea of announcing her run at her old elementary school, but that he also stole her slogan! Lawd, Mellie stay taking them Ls.
We next see Fitz coming into the Oval with Susan and Elizabeth following close behind. He is tickled that Hollis has thrown his hat into the ring and obviously doesn’t consider Hollis a real threat. Susan is the only one among them who isn’t at all elated at this new development. She points out that she’s the one who has to go out there and debate him, but Fitz tells her that nobody will take Hollis seriously. (Hmm...where have I heard this before?)
Susan at this point is yelling as she states that Hollis wouldn’t have been a problem if Fitz hadn’t gotten into a pissing match with him over EPA regulations, which turns out to be an issue that she actually does agree with Hollis about. Hollis could have been kept on a leash if Fitz had controlled himself, but instead now a circus is going to be made of the campaign. The entire strategy that she and Elizabeth came up with to use against Mellie is now out the window.
Susan is UPSET! When Fitz tells her that she is not allowed to yell at him in the Oval, she demands to know where it is that she can yell at him and says that she wishes to be taken there.
Fitz doesn’t do more than raise an eyebrow at this statement. At this point, Elizabeth tries to intercede to calm Susan down, but Susan barks at her to get out. This little thing has got the two taller people in the room shook. LOL! This Susan is a far cry from the one who snort laughs when she’s nervous. I dare say she has surprised both of them.
Once Elizabeth leaves the room and pulls the door closed behind her, Susan turns towards the side table and pours herself some scotch. After taking a calming sip, she turns back to Fitz who has now taken a seat behind his desk. She tells him that she respects him and his authority, but outside the gates of the White House, she is the candidate. Out there, unlike how it was to be within the gates, it is the Susan Ross show, not that of Fitzgerald Grant.
Okay now, Suze. You on ahead and stand up for yourself!
Elsewhere in the White House, Abby is entering Cyrus’s office. When she comes in but doesn’t at all respond to his comments about how well she handled the press corp, he asks her what’s going on. Abby finally finds her voice then and says to him that she needs his badge and that he should start collecting his personal effects. Cyrus realizes then that she has gone against her promise and told Fitz about his involvement with Vargas. He can’t believe that she actually did it.
Of course, he can’t believe it because Abby wasn’t expected to do something that Cyrus would have zero hesitation of doing himself.
Later Abby comes by the Oval to inform Fitz that she has dismissed Cyrus, but she finds that he is there chatting amicably with Susan. Abby nods to let him know that she’s completed the task and turns to leave, but she instead gets invited to join them and the three share a drink together.
Oh, the repositioning of the pieces. Cyrus is once again out on his ass and this time around, I suspect that he won’t be making a return to the White House. At least not in the capacity of Chief of Staff to the President. Cyrus was the last man standing of the old guard and it was beyond time for him to move on. Fitz is now on his third chief of staff (and second woman), and he and Susan seem to have to come to an understanding as to the line for which he shall not cross while assisting her with her campaign. Huck has given up his family and disconnected the feeds that he had to Javi’s soccer games. And Olivia has flipped the game on Jake and is now back on offense. What in the world is going to happen next week??
Tell me what your interpretations were of what transpired in the episode. I know you all have opinions, so share them in the comment section below or tweet me your theories. What was really going on with Olivia in that last scene with Jake and Vanessa? Has Abby really crossed over to the darkside or will be be able to keep from becoming corrupted by the Oval?
Thank you all for reading this recap/review of Scandal episode 514! See you in a week!
