This episode picks up shortly after the events that transpired in “They All Bow Down” (605). With the context of Rowan’s role in the demise of Francisco Vargas, we now get to look a bit closer at a few other characters and how they fit into the bigger picture.
“A Traitor Among Us” follows Huck this time around. While I don’t feel that the episode moved the arc forward much, it was another solid one and it did give insight into Olivia’s present mindset and (hopefully) what is to come for her moving forward.
“A Traitor Among Us” follows Huck this time around. While I don’t feel that the episode moved the arc forward much, it was another solid one and it did give insight into Olivia’s present mindset and (hopefully) what is to come for her moving forward.
Fact or Fiction
The episode starts out with Huck sparring with Meg the Strange One. Her lesson continues here, and it is soon made clear that she has learned a bit since the first time she started off this training. They eventually get to making out when they are interrupted by the arrival of Quinn and Charlie. They have been looking for him everywhere because Olivia was supposed to meet back up with Quinn after Jake and Vanessa left The Liberty Report but she can’t be found anywhere.
Huck quickly climbs out of the ring and retrieves his phone. He gets to tinkering with it as Meg also exits the ring and squeaks a greeting at Quinn. Staring at her a moment, Quinn is finally able to figure out why Meg had looked familiar. She’s Jennifer Fields’ best friend. Of course, Charlie had to say something inappropriate about Jennifer being the person whose hand Quinn had chopped off.
Meanwhile, Huck does something on his phone, seems to listen to it for a bit and then grabs his bag. He’s got to go. While ignoring Quinn’s questions about where Olivia is, Huck apologizes to Meg about having to cut their session short. He’s set to leave the gym but turns back around to give Meg a key to his place. He tells her it is so that they can see each other whenever they want. Meg is excited at that idea as Huck kisses her cheek and is out. Charlie looks confused and Quinn is stunned. What just happened? Hahahaha
Next we see Huck approaching what looks like a small town diner by the side of the road. There is nothing out there but a pickup truck when he pulls up to the front to find Olivia sitting outside all alone. She appears to be cold and a bit disoriented. Huck gets out of his Jeep and cautiously approaches as he attempts to coax her into the vehicle. Olivia instead ignores his direction and instead gets to rocking slightly as she rubs her hands together. She tells Huck that she needs him to do something for her.
At that statement, Huck quickly whips out his gun and gets in a defensive stance. He asks if “they are still here.” Disoriented, Olivia asks him who he’s speaking of and Huck says the men who brought her to wherever the hell she was and left her there. Olivia doesn’t exactly correct his assumption and tell him that it was creeper Jake who brought her out there. She opts instead to say that she walked her way there with those stilettos of hers.
Why was she sitting out there by herself anyway? Where was Jake? Did he really leave a fancily dressed black woman to wait it out on the front porch of some closed diner alone along the highway out in God only knows what part of the backwoods of the DMV in the dead of night!?
Really?
Huck completely bypasses her sarcastic explanation as to how she came to be in the boonies and asks if the people who took her had hurt her in any way. Olivia impatiently cuts him off to tell him that she is fine, and then she once again states that she needs him to do something for her. Now that he’s listening, she tells him that she needs him to kill Rowan. Whaaaaah?
It is then that Olivia finally gets up from her perch and heads for the vehicle. The request renders Huck immobile for some seconds as he looks to be processing what his boss had just said. She wants Rowan dead? Here we go again.
Now back at her apartment, Huck is seated in a chair in the living room as Olivia paces left and right in front of him. He’s trying to get her to sit down, but she’s too busy trying to work through the information that she had received about Rowan assassinating Vargas. (For those not up on the Scandal cues, pacing back and forth/left and right for Olivia is how she processes things.) She says that her father wanted her in the Oval and would have done anything to see that happen.
Huck wants to know who it is that gave Olivia the information, and when she tells him it doesn’t matter, he says in turn that it does matter since she is asking him to kill her father. Upon Huck’s insistence that she tell him who informed, Olivia finally shares that it was Jake and breaks the news that Jennifer Fields is alive. Jennifer was made to place that call to the tip line, Olivia continues, and Rowan ordered Jake to kill Jennifer.
I’m going to briefly pause here to point out that Olivia in her present state of mind isn’t factoring in a number of different things. The biggest one of them all is Nelson McClintock. He was the guy that was initially arrested for the murder. Then Jennifer’s call implicating Cyrus in the attack was deleted from the tip line’s server. There is also the issue the story Tom told authorities about having shot Vargas himself on Cyrus’s orders, but OPA has since proved that to be a lie. To top it all off, there is a Swiss bank account that ties Olivia to Tom, which would suggest that it is she who paid to have Cyrus set up.
Given all of that, Olivia has now been told that Rowan is actually responsible. So how does she reconcile all that has transpired before this moment into something that makes sense? As usual, Olivia is running off half-cocked in some attempt to right some perceived wrong.
When Huck questions why it is that Jake did not kill Jennifer, Olivia opines that it is because Jennifer is an “innocent victim.” (LOL, girl bye.) Huck points out that a target being an innocent has never stopped Jake before. (It surely has not.) Olivia says that Jake explained that he kept her alive because he thought that Rowan had something bigger planned and he hoped that Jennifer would be the key to figuring it out.
So Jake then hid Jennifer and assumed that Rowan was the one behind Vargas’s assassination? And this is based off of Jennifer telling him about the call she made? Rowan actually told Jennifer who he was? Is this hiding of Jennifer why Jake was late to coming to the Situation Room the night of the election? Is this suspicion of Rowan that why he was looking into Olivia and hence why he found the Swiss account in Olivia’s name? None of this explains whatever happened in the interrogation room with McClintock. WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS?!
Huck seems to be having doubts about what Olivia is saying regarding Rowan because to him it makes no sense. Olivia is taken aback by his skepticism, but Huck points out that Command has always been about protecting the Republic (true) and that killing Vargas runs counter to that. Vargas was a good man who would have been good for the country. Huck says that something about this feels off.
At that point, Olivia loses her damn mind and yells at Huck that her father killed Vargas. Huck in this moment is the very picture of…
Realizing that she dangling off the cliff of sanity there, Olivia modulates what she says next. She states that if there was anyone else that she could ask to handle this for her, she would, but Huck is the only person that she can trust. Huck repeats to her what it is that she is asking of him and he asks if she remembers what happened to him the last time that she asked this. He recalls that the last time, he ended up peeling the skin off of an innocent man.
Um, pause. When did Olivia before ask Huck to kill Rowan? I’m drawing a blank. Huck tried in S3 to kill Rowan after learning that Rowan was Command and instead ended up instead killing Pete Foster. Olivia definitely didn’t send him then. If anyone can recall the moment, leave a comment below because I am drawing a serious blank.
In any case, Huck stresses to Olivia that she has to be absolutely sure about this. There can be no doubt in her mind. He tells her that he will do it for her if it is indeed what she wants, and she says that it is.
And here is where I get upset with Olivia. She knows that Huck has been walking the straight and narrow for some time now, doesn’t she? Was it not Huck who was holed up in her apartment (501) after killing all of those jurors because he needed her to help him hold his “guy” in?
Huck has since been able to rein in his thirst for the kill, and here Olivia come asking him to forsake all of that to murder Eli “Rowan” Pope. Her own father. The same daddy that she was crying over when her mother left him near death (317). Same daddy that she convinced Jake not to kill despite the fact that he had Jerry Grant killed (408). Same daddy who she let out of prison when she thought his life was in danger (508) despite him having been behind the deaths of the grand jurors. If this girl doesn’t sit down...
I swear, when it comes to Rowan, Olivia goes from 0 to 100 in a flash in either direction. One moment he’s the daddy who loves her and the next he’s the enemy. Can she find an in between and stay there please? I’m experiencing whiplash.
Having been given his orders, we see Huck the next morning grabbing his favorite red toolbox. He is then seen waiting in his vehicle for Rowan to emerge from who knows where. His fake job for the private collector? Rowan likely already knew that Huck was around. He didn’t survive nearly 40 years as Command without having an instinct for this.
Huck follows him down into the subway station and loses sight of him among the other commuters. He is searching through the windows of the train on the platform when Rowan alerts him that he is behind him. Huck slowly raises his hands to signal that he has nothing in them, but when Rowan announces that he himself is unarmed, Huck turns around while pulling out a gun and training it on Rowan.
Rowan is utterly unimpressed by the display as he checks his watch and tells Huck that he has two minutes and some seconds until the people following him get back. Huck doesn’t believe that anyone is following Rowan, and Command tells Huck that he is using up the little time that he has to ask him questions, but Huck has no questions. He came solely to kill.
Rowan knows that Olivia sent Huck and he’s not at all worried that his former soldier is going to follow through on that mission. Huck finally asks if Rowan did in fact kill Vargas and he readily admits to doing the deed. He then asks Huck if he wants to know why it happened. Huck says he already knows and Rowan, who knows what his daughter assumed, tells Huck that that isn’t the reason why he did it.
Checking his watch again, he tells Huck that he’s got 45 seconds left. Curiosity getting the better of Huck, he asks why Rowan did it and Rowan says that it is because he had no other choice. Huck finds it preposterous that those who Rowan claims are following him forced him to do anything. Rowan concurs and tells Huck that this situation is different. These people are well-funded, well-armed and don’t play by the rules. He is anger over being outsmarted by them is evident.
Huck points out that the person Rowan killed was the President-elect, and Rowan replies that he did it in order to save the woman that he loved. They had threatened her life, so he followed through on their demands to save hers. Rowan then asks Huck what he would have done in that situation, and when Huck refuses to play, Rowan barks out that he isn’t asking Huck a hypothetical question. He adds that these same people are threatening Olivia and that if he doesn’t do what they want or if he turns up dead, the mystery people are going to kill Olivia. Rowan goes on to say that Olivia’s life is in both of their hands now, so what he chooses to do in that very moment is pivotal.
Huck believes that Rowan is lying, and Rowan asks why then Huck hasn’t already shot him if he believes this to be the case. He also asks him what the point of fabricating such a lie would be? He then goes on to say that in 15 seconds a train is going to pull up on the other side of the platform and a white lady in an orange coat with her hair in a ponytail is going to get off along with a man in a suit with a scar across his forehead. They will be looking for him, Rowan says, and they will be unhappy when they don’t find him.
At this point, Huck is uncertain as to whether he should carry out Olivia’s directive or listen to what Rowan is telling him. He still has his gun directed on Rowan when the other train starts to pull into the station. Huck looks over his shoulder in that direction, but when he looks forward again, Rowan is gone.
People start off loading from the train and one of the first two to step off are indeed a white lady in an orange coat sporting a ponytail and a man in a suit with a scar across his forehead. They are looking about for something….or someone. Huck manages to do anything to draw attention to himself as he carefully makes his way over to stand behind one of the Metro signboards while keeping an eye on the two. So now he knows that Rowan was in fact telling him the truth.
Once mystery lady and her henchman get into an elevator and head up, Rowan reemerges and Huck wants to know who the people are. Rowan doesn’t know. What he does know is that someone is watching Olivia and whoever it is is on the inside. Rowan tells Huck that it is up to him to find out who the traitor is because he himself cannot do it given the trap that he is stuck in.
Trust No One
Returning to OPA, Huck is giving everybody the crooked eye. Everybody being Quinn and Charlie. In his suspicion, he bugs his two coworkers.
Back at his place, Huck listens in on their conversation. Quinn and Charlie are heard initially talking about their upcoming wedding. Some time into it, the topic shifts to Huck’s girlfriend Meg. Quinn asks Charlie if he thought that maybe Meg as a little off. (LOL!) Charlie points out that Quinn only spoke to the woman for all of five seconds, but Quinn is convinced that Meg is a “rando psycho”. She goes on to remark that one would think that Huck would have higher standards but that it seems like “rando psycho” is his thing.
Foreshadow alert #1.
Charlie tells Quinn that she sounds like she is jealous, which Quinn is quick to deny. Soon she is asking Charlie to leave. Once he is gone, she is heard on the phone asking if whoever she is speaking to has found a place to stash Jennifer. Well, that immediately grabbed Huck’s attention!
Quinn is next seen walking down the hall of some hotel, and when she knocks upon the door of one of its rooms, Huck emerges from the shadows and puts a gun up at Quinn’s head as he directs her not to move. Surprised, Huck asks what he is doing. It is then that Jake opens the door and Jennifer can be seen within the room. Seeing this, Huck concludes that Rowan was right about there being a mole among them.
Once within the room, Huck keeps his gun trained on the other three. Jake directs Jennifer to go into the next room while they talk, but Huck instead directs her to go into the bathroom, which is closer and (presumably) without any windows. He tells her to “keep low just in case.”
With Jennifer out of the way, Huck turns back to the remaining two and directs Jake to get to talking. Jake explains that he approached Quinn to help him find out what it is that Rowan is into and that he thought about including Huck but he knew that Huck would tell Olivia what they were up to. Given Olivia’s present headspace, he didn’t think that he would be open-minded. Quinn took that moment to remind Jake that he told her that Olivia went bonkers. (LOL!) She then adds that it appears that Olivia isn’t the only one who lost her mind, referring this time to Huck who now have his gun trained on her.
Huck quickly fills them in on what he learned about the mystery people forcing Rowan to kill Vargas by threatening someone close to him, and that these same people placed a mole by Olivia’s side. All these people have to do is say a word and Olivia is dead. Jake comes to the conclusion that Huck believes that one of them is the mole, but Huck is quick to dismiss Jake outright and train his attention on Quinn.
Wait a dangone second. Why is Jake dismissed?
Huck is suspicious of Quinn or Charlie and Quinn is offended! And to top it off, she can’t believe that he is parroting something that Rowan told him. Quinn then pulls her gun on HIM and says that he’s the only double agent that she sees in the room. Chile…
Jake interjects then to ask if Rowan mentioned the person that it is that these people threatened, and Huck replies that all he knows is that it is a woman. Jake says that he knows who the woman is and he carefully reaches into his pocket to pull out a surveillance photo of Rowan speaking to Sandra while she is in her car. Jake has identified her as Sandra Potter, an old friend of Rowan’s who had reconnected with prior to Election Day but since then she has been MIA.
Huck concludes that this shows that Rowan could have been telling the truth, but Quinn counters that Rowan could instead be deceiving them. Quinn snatches the photo from Jake and says that she’ll track her down. After a moment, Huck and Quinn slowly lower their guns.
Later that evening back at OPA, the two of them are working at opposite ends of the table in the conference room. Quinn quits what she is doing and taps her finger in agitation before she brings herself to ask Huck if he’s going to apologize for believing that she is capable of killing Olivia, but Huck isn’t sorry at all. He chalks it up to him doing his job. Quinn is amused by this response as she asks him if he’s done this same thing to clear Meg.
Foreshadow alert #2.
Huck confused by the question and Quinn goes on to detail to as to why Meg is suspicious, but Huck dismisses it. Meg is an ordinary nerd who happens to still be on Pinterest. (Hey! Ain’t nothing wrong with Pinterest, thank you very much!) Huck goes on to say that Meg isn’t a mole...or a rando psycho. Oop.
Now Quinn knows that Huck had her bugged. She goes on to state that the mole isn’t Charlie, but Huck points out that Charlie is a mercenary. Quinn informs Huck that the first thing she did was shut down the freelancing and assures him that Charlie doesn’t even go to the bathroom without checking with her first.
Well, damn. Homegirl outchea with the lock and key on Charlie? Let me find out…
After a moment, Huck uses a roundabout way to broach the possibility of Quinn potentially being jealous about his relationship with Meg. Quinn says that she isn’t at all jealous, but surprised. She muses about Huck still not having learned his lesson. Huck doesn’t initially get her meaning, but then he realizes that she is referring to his previous weirdo girlfriend Becky.
Y’all remember Becky from S2, right? The one who was hired by Verna to assassinate Fitz? Thanks to Huck, she was caught about to finish off Fitzgerald in “One for the Dog” (210).
Here’s a statement I made in a review from some weeks back:
“Something about this chick makes me suspicious. Y’all recall Becky Flynn from S2? Remember how Huck met her at one of his AA meetings? She was as awkward and unassuming at this Meg Mitchell, and for that very reason, I’ve got my eye on Meg. She may end up being some covert operative who is presently playing at the innocent, incapable nerd. We’ve been here before.”
Huck denies that Meg and Becky are the same, but Quinn reminds Huck that Becky wasn’t Becky until she set him up holding the gun that shot the President (207-210). Quinn says that she hopes that she is wrong, but she has done enough to plant the seed of suspicion in Huck’s head.
Foreshadow #3. Spidey senses are tingling something serious at this point.
Friend or Foe
When Huck makes it back to his place, he is surprised to find Meg there. She remarks about how she didn’t know that he worked so many late nights, and Huck responds by asking her what she is doing in his place. Meg apologizes for assuming that is okay for her to come over unannounced and makes to leave, but Huck stops her. He recalls that he had given her a key and asks her to stay. They then proceed to get down and dirty and it mirrors a similar moment that Huck shared with Becky why back when.
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| With Becky (above) and with Meg (below) |
While they are lying there on the floor, Meg pipes up about a question that she has about Olivia. Her inquiry immediately shifts Huck’s mood as he recalls what it is that Quinn said about Meg attempting to get closer to him in order to get closer to Liv. Huck maintains his cool as Meg goes on to say that she would like to to enlist Olivia’s help to find out who killed Jennifer. She says that if Tom Larsen isn’t the one responsible, then the real killer remains unknown. She says that as Jennifer’s friend, she can’t just move on like everyone else.*
(I’ll get back to that asterisk in a moment.)
Huck says that he’ll speak to Olivia on Meg’s behalf, but Meg wants to speak to Olivia herself and in person. It’s now Meg that Huck is giving the crooked eye to. Huck is in a daze as he comes to the realization that maybe Quinn is right about Meg. Oh boy…
The next day, Huck is at the White House. Weird seeing him there by himself, but he came to speak with Abby. He needs her help getting to a high level inmate. He says that he can’t ask Olivia and ask Abby is about to state that she can’t help, he asks her if she’d be willing to do this if he had something to trade. He then shares that Jennifer Fields is alive. Shocked out of her mind at that revelation, Abby asks him to repeat himself and he does. This bombshell is enough for Abby to fulfill his request.
We next see Huck being escorted down a hallway with an officer in front of him and David Rosen behind him. David remarks that Abby didn’t tell him what this was all about, which he says isn’t unusual (LOL!) but he has to ask anyway, but Huck shuts that down and tells him that he actually doesn’t have to ask anything.
After being buzzed in, Huck enters a room alone and meets none other than Becky Flynn!!
Huck has come to find out directly from Becky how it is that she managed to manipulate him. He wants to know what blind spot it is that she exploited to get inside his head. Becky says that if Huck wants her help, she’s going to need his. She tells him that she would like to see her sister. Huck says that he was unaware of her having a sister, and Becky says that said sister was recently diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. She doesn’t even know if her sister is still alive. Becky says that she doubts that she’ll ever be let out to go visit her sister and she knows that her sister would be too sick to come see her in prison, so she says that maybe Huck can go instead and take a picture of this sister on her behalf.
Becky speaks on about her sister, sharing little details about her and Huck listens. By the end of it, Huck offers his condolences and says that he is willing to help Becky. In response, Becky says to Huck that it is she who just helped him. All that she just told about her sister dying was a lie. She tells Huck that he has a soft spot for a sob story.
Becky then goes on to ask him who it is that is playing him now. Huck denies that there is anyone, but Becky knows that he’s being disingenuous. She continues by asking him if this woman is acting sad and damaged all the time, and Huck says that Meg’s best friend had just died. Ha! Becky proclaims that Huck is just as gullible as he ever had been, but Huck is adamantly in denial. He says that Becky’s trickery is confined to her alone and that she is the only one between the two of them who has not changed.
Huck protests a little too much here. Seems to me as if ole Becks had struck a chord.
Later we see Huck sitting in his car as he watches something (or someone) in the distance. He uses the opportunity to call up Olivia who is in the office. When Olivia picks up the phone, she wants to know if Huck has done as asked. Instead of answering her question, he asks her if she knew that Rowan had been seeing some woman. Olivia is clueless as to who this Sandra person is as Huck explains to her that Sandra is the reason why Rowan killed Vargas. He did it to protect Sandra.
Getting up from her desk, Olivia orders Huck to tell her what is going on. Huck says he doesn’t know yet, but this is the theory that he is presently working with. Olivia asks him where this Sandra is and when he tells her that he doesn’t know, Olivia demands to know what it is that he does know for sure. Huck says to her that he doesn’t believe that Rowan is the person that he used to be anymore. He adds that Rowan is a different person now that he is in love and that he deserves a chance.
Say what? Huck, Rowan ain’t THAT different, but I’ma let you finish.
Olivia can’t believe what she’s hearing. She doesn’t believe that Rowan has changed.
“He can’t change, Huck. People can’t change. Not when they’ve spent their entire lifetime doing the things that my father has done. He’s a monster! There’s no getting over that. There’s no moving past that. There’s no capacity for change there! There’s just him, my father. He’s been who he is his entire life.” -- Olivia Pope
Boy, was this here statement loaded. Can you see how Olivia’s words would have played to Huck who just came from that visit with Becky? He was insistent to her that he has changed yet Becky stated that he hadn’t changed at all. And now here Olivia was countering his belief in the possibility that love transformed Rowan into someone less terrible.
And then there’s Olivia. Was she speaking only of her father in this instance? Does she believe herself a monster who is incapable of change?
Before ending the conversation, she tells Huck that if he doesn’t handle business by the morning, she will find someone else who will.
The conversation over, Huck returns to what it is that he was watching. We are shown that he is watching Meg from afar. He comes to the conclusion that he’s on a fruitless endeavor and goes to start his car when Mystery Lady shows up and takes a set right next to Meg! Huck immediately recognizes her from when she stepped out of the train at the Metro station!
Ah snap. What is going down here??
Later back at his place, Huck gives Meg a call. He affects a casual tone, but his body language is anything but. He invites her over to celebrate her news. He then adds that he also has news and proceeds to lie to her about Olivia agreeing to take on Meg’s case. Ut oh.
Trusting Your Instincts
Right before Meg knocks on Huck’s door, we see Huck sitting in wait with a syringe full of some chemical sitting next to him on a side table. Before Huck gets up to open the door, he takes up the syringe and hides it in one of his hands. Meg greets him as she walks in with a bottle of bubbly, and Huck is quick to follow behind her. As she sets the bottle on the table, he comes up to embrace her from behind. Meg mistakes it as a hug, but Huck was really patting her down! He runs his hands down her arms and then moves them up and down along her torso to check for weapons.
Following that moment, Meg goes to place the champagne in his fridge. Huck asks her to tell him more about her day, and she replies that she already told him what happened. Huck repeats what she had told him about her being called for an interview, and then he goes on to relay to her his day and how he had visited an old friend that he hadn’t seen in ages. Then the conversation takes something of a left turn when Huck remarks that he doesn’t have many old friends and don’t like them because they remind you that one can never change.
Olivia’s words coupled with what Becky said to Huck has clearly affected him.
Meg voices her disagreement, but Huck speaks on, telling her that he couldn’t decide between which drug to go with to use on her. He says this as he reveals the syringe that he has. He opted for the drug that wouldn’t make Meg feel like she was burning on the inside. (How kind of him.) Huck tells her that he doesn’t want to do this to her but that she is making him do it. She could make it easy on herself by telling him now who she is working for or he can force it out of her after she wakes up.
Meg looks absolutely terrified. She says that her firm is her employer, but Huck is asking about the mystery lady. Meg wants to know why Huck was following her and Huck wants to know who the hell the woman was. Meg says that she doesn’t know as Huck closes the gap between them. She explains that the bench is where she takes her lunch and the woman just came down and joined her. She claims she was told that the woman told her that she works at her firm, but Meg explains to Huck that she has never seen the woman before. She adds that she doesn’t even recall the woman’s name.
Huck doesn’t believe Meg. He tells her that he wishes that she had made this easier for him, that she hasn’t a clue how difficult it is for him to do this to her. Meg maintains her innocence as a tear runs down her face. Backing her into the refrigerator, Huck is set to plunge the needle into a very scared Meg. She is begging him not to do this. Huck tells her that it was a mistake for him to had trusted her.
At this, Meg changes tactics and tells him to go ahead and inject her with the drug. She calls him a monster and says that he ought to look into her eyes and see if he’ll find someone other than the person who loves him. If he does, then he should go ahead and jam that needle into her throat.
As I’m watching this, I’m now wondering if Meg is being sincere or if she’s playing mind games.
Huck hesitates and then eventually lets her go. Meg dashes out of there with a quickness.
Later we see Huck meeting up with the crew in a parking garage. Olivia wants to know when Huck was going to tell her about his secret meetings with Rowan (exaggeration much?). Huck gives quick glance at Quinn who he knows tattled. Olivia finds Huck’s theory about Rowan having killed Vargas to protect some old girlfriend of his to be ridiculous. When Huck maintains his belief in the veracity of this theory, Olivia directs Charlie to open the trunk of a nearby car. Inside is the body of Sandra Potter. Charlie offers that he found the body at an old B613 dump site.
Huck tells Olivia that the body doesn’t prove anything, that anybody could have killed Sandra, but Quinn informs him that the car was reported stolen the day before the election and Charlie adds that Rowan’s prints are all over the car. Olivia then chimes in to say that Rowan didn’t save Sandra. He killed her and likely did so because she found out about his assassination plot. (Olivia stay being loud and wrong.)
Despite what the three of them are saying, Huck maintains that Rowan was telling him the truth. None of what Olivia, Quinn and Charlie is saying to him makes any sense. He tells them that Rowan was being followed by these unknown people, but they are all believe that Rowan was merely using Huck. Quinn uses the opportunity to share with Olivia (and Charlie) that Huck even believed that there was a mole at OPA and had held a gun to her head.
Huck refuses to bend to whatever it is that they want him to believe. He holds fast in his conviction that Rowan was telling the truth and that he himself hasn’t gone crazy. He says to Olivia that there are indeed people controlling Rowan, but Olivia doesn’t want to hear any of that. She says that there is only Rowan as there ever has been.
Huck carries on anyway, saying to Olivia that she is wrong, that Rowan loved Sandra. That he was forced to kill her. Olivia wants to know if Huck believes a bullet to the head and being dumped in a junkyard constitutes love. Huck once more says to Olivia that she is wrong, and when she asks him why it is that she should believe him, Huck responds by giving Olivia some uncomfortable truths:
“Because I’m right and you’re wrong. Because I am not the one with a blind spot when it comes to your father. That’s you. You’re the one that’s broken. That’s you!” -- Huck
Ouch.
This has me recalling the argument that Olivia had with Huck after he caught her cavorting with Jake the enemy (512). She was on her whole “I don’t have to answer to anybody” kick as she was screwing around a man that the rest of OPA had come to think of as the opposition. Jake had at that point joined up with Rowan, so he was now persona non grata. Huck at the time had considered Rowan to be a monster that Olivia refused to vanquish. Huck surmised then that Rowan served as Olivia’s “guy” who was always out and Olivia preferred it that way because as long as Rowan was about, Olivia would always have someone whose terrible would far eclipse any that he commits herself.
Now here they are again and Olivia is once more flashing her eyes as Huck is telling her something that she doesn’t want to hear about herself and Rowan. This time, Huck is trying to tell her that something has changed with her father and Olivia doesn’t want to believe it. Rowan is a monster and always will be. He killed Vargas, killed Sandra and manipulated Huck. End of story. That was the truth as Olivia saw it.
But that wasn’t all there was to say.
“Maybe he used to be a monster. Maybe he killed people. Maybe he was awful. Maybe he was. But people change. People change. It happens.
“Maybe they can meet a nice woman and fall in love and have a relationship, and be normal. People can change.
“You are wrong about your father. So, no, I’m not going to kill the man who loves you most in this world, even more than me.
“This? He did this for a reason. He’s in pain. He’s a prisoner. Forgive him. Help him. Do not kill him.
“I. Am. Right. I am right! You are wrong.” -- Huck
So Shonda and Co are all about giving us these moments of introspection, ey? Huck could very well had been speaking about himself for much of this. He could also had been speaking about Charlie. He also could have been saying something that Olivia herself needed to hear even though she was not ready to receive a lick of it. It pairs up as a nice contrast to what she said earlier to Huck about monsters being unable to change.
I suppose I can’t really blame Olivia for not believing anything that Huck has to say about this change in Rowan. If I were her, I wouldn’t believe it either. After all, this is the same man who has beat like a drum the mantra of love being a weakness in which those seeking greatness do not indulge. He has incessantly ridiculed Olivia’s affinity for Fitz and vice versa. He has used this “weakness” as a weapon against Olivia and others to get them to do his bidding. To Olivia, Rowan has no such soft spots. The person that Huck is describing to her is an utter myth. Huck is right here, but Olivia wouldn’t know that.
When Huck is done speaking his piece, Olivia directs Quinn to handle Rowan and tells Huck to get rid of Sandra’s body.
Hold up. Pause.
Olivia seriously tasked the killing of Command to Lindsay Dwyer, the mall cop of B613? Really?
Off Huck goes to do as Olivia has instructed. Out in the woods somewhere, he is digging a grave for Sandra’s body. He is set to roll her body into the grave but before he does, he thinks to search the body for a tracking device and finds one in the back of her neck! (Did the shadow people put that in her or had Rowan?)
Huck takes the tracker back with him to his workstation at home and he is able to find the IP address to which the tracker was linked. From there, he is able to link into the database which had video of Sandra’s various interactions with Rowan. Huck has his evidence!
Off he goes to OPA to share his find with Olivia. There is video of everything including the shadow crew, the moment Rowan killed Sandra and the threat that they made towards Olivia herself. Olivia is watching all of this with a bit of confusion on her face, maybe even some disbelief. The shot that killed Sandra jolted Olivia awake, but she watched it all.
Once it was all done, Olivia turned around to face Huck. With tears that never fall from her eyes, she stands there for a moment. She dumbfounded. As Huck had been trying to tell her earlier, she was wrong. Olivia calls up Quinn and tells her to pull back off of Rowan. (I still can’t believe that Olivia sent that girl on a suicide mission.)
Will this be one of many lessons that goes to teach Olivia (and all those around her) that she isn’t always right? As Johnnie Cochran once said, if it doesn’t fit, your theory is shit. Or something like that.
The next morning, Olivia accompanies Huck to go see Meg. Meg does not want to see Huck at all. She says that she went to file a police report on what happened but she was told that Huck doesn’t exist. (Girl, did you even have a last name with which to look him up? Chile, what?)
In order to get her to speak with them, Olivia quickly informs Meg that her friend Jennifer is alive. Once inside the apartment, poor Huck is standing at the distance with his head bowed. The man feels terrible about what he did to Meg and Olivia is there to champion for him.
Of note, Olivia is FINALLY wearing a color that doesn’t depress me. She had been wearing navy earlier, but in this particular scene, she is in a gorgeous camel coat. A fittingly subdued color for the moment in question.
Olivia explains to Meg that Huck didn’t tell her about Jennifer being alive because Huck believed that she may have been compromised by the people who are trying to kill Jennifer. Olivia says to Meg that she cannot ask her to forgive Huck, but what she does need is for Huck to be able to forgive himself and she needs Meg’s help for that.
Poor Huck. The man is back there crying and whatnot.
“He loves you. He’s not a monster. He’s not. He’s changed. People can change.” -- Olivia Pope
GAH!
 |
| WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FORGIVE YOURSELF AND ACCEPT THAT YOU AREN'T A MONSTER, OLIVIA CAROLYN POPE? |
After Huck promises to never again put his hands on Meg, he takes her to go see Jennifer. Huck is all happy about reuniting his girl with her bestie. Things quickly go from good to bad when a pleasantly surprised Jennifer is shot in the chest and then in the head by Meg!
Mother[bleep]! This chick was playing Huck the entire time! Huck doesn’t even have a chance to react, he’s so stunned.
Now going back to that asterisk moment above, it would now seem that the only reason why Meg was trying to get closer to Olivia is so that she could find Jennifer and finish her off herself. Recall how she planted the seed in Huck’s head about how no one had been charged with Jennifer’s murder and that the person who had done it could still be out there? She knew that Jennifer wasn’t really dead!
This mousy liar who had Huck feeling bad for suspecting her then turned around and popped a few bullets into Huck!!
These Beckys ain't loyal.
All of this is juxtaposed against a scene that takes place the following morning where Abigail Whelan is meeting up with mystery lady and Meg! WHAT IN THE MICKEY FLICK IS GOING ON HERE?! Abby asks if the deed is done and mystery lady shares that Jennifer Fields is dead and Meg assures Abby that Huck won’t know that Abby was involved.
HO MY GAWD! My head is paining me. What. Is. Happening?!
Jesus on the Cross, this show will not be the death of me.
So what do you guys and gals think is going on here? Let’s go with the assumption that Huck isn’t dead because despite the blood gushing out of Huck, those shots she took could have been worse. If she wanted him dead, she would have done as she had to Jennifer and shot him right in the head.
What is Abby up to? Is she really working with these people? This feels like a misdirection, but is it? If Meg has been around and been part of the Vargas campaign this whole time, is it possible that Jennifer got pulled into this before Rowan called her? I had given her the side eye when she first arrived all giggly with Vargas or whatev.
Anywho, this is it for the recap review of Scandal episode 607. Please share your thoughts below in the comment section or you can share them with me on Twitter. Thank you for reading and see you next week!
