So how many of you who watched last week’s Scandal walked away from it believing that Quinn was really dead? If you did, I hope you can feel the heat of the side eye that I’m giving you right now because… Really?! You honestly thought that Shonda Rhimes was going to kill off a pregnant actress in the final season of this series?
If the above paragraph was enough of an overt spoiler, Quinn Perkins is still very much alive. For now anyway.
“Good People” was a new episode that unfortunately felt like a rehash of the winter finale (707) thanks to the inclusion of a number of scenes that had been a part of “Something Borrowed”. It was composed mostly of new material though, and it worked to provide a view of how things went down with the kidnapping from Rowan and Quinn’s respective perspectives. It also rather brilliantly contrasted the desolate life that Rowan leads with the full life that belongs to Quinn.
In keeping with the trend that has been happening all season long, “Good People” gave us another unprecedented pairing in Joe Morton (Rowan) and Katie Lowes (Quinn), and it was fantabulous!
But anyway. Enough of that. Let’s get to this review.
The Best-Laid Plans...
The episode starts off by rewinding back from the moment Charlie confronted Rowan about the baby, back through Quinn’s burial, Rowan “shooting” Quinn, Olivia plotting with Jake in their sunken place, Quinn confronting Olivia about Rashad, and finally to Rowan shouting about wanting his bones back.
In present day, we see a department store sales guy walking through the aisles until he comes upon Rowan who appears to be considering an item. The salesman asks Rowan if he can offer him any assistance and Rowan says that he’s trying to make up his mind. Mr. Salesman tells him to let him know if he’d like a recommendation, and then he just stands there in wait. After a moment, Rowan points out the one that he wants and the man recommends that he go with another one.
Once Rowan agrees with the recommendation, the camera pans to show us that Rowan is purchasing a suitcase. When the salesman remarks that he hopes that Rowan is going on a nice vacation, Rowan replies that he is actually going on a “big adventure”.
Next we see Quinn as she is entering the elevator at QPA, the elevator going up, and then it coming to a stop. Then a panel at the top of the cab opens up and we can see Rowan peering down at Quinn. The next thing we see is him coming out of the elevator and wheeling the suitcase. As he is heading to his car, a close-up shot of the suitcase reveals a lock of Quinn’s hair dangling from the edge of the zipper!
Pause for the cause, y’all, because there are a lot of things that Scandal asks us to suspend disbelief for, but I can’t let this one pass. Come on, mayne. You really want me to believe that this 70-something year old man scaled down onto the elevator cab, hopped down into it, drugged Quinn, folded her up in a suitcase and then just wheeled her out of the building without breaking a sweat?
When Quinn comes to, she finds herself chained to a wall in a basement. She’s yelling for help, and when someone finally answers, she is stunned to find that her captor is Rowan. Angry now, she asks him if he has lost his damn mind, pointing out that she is “700 months pregnant” (LOL!) and that he has her chained to a wall on her wedding day.
Rowan is unmoved by her carrying on as he takes a seat on the bed that she had just gotten up from. Quinn goes on to warn him that her team will be out looking for her, telling him that they are the “best trackers alive”. Rowan interrupts to share that he has taken great care in creating the bunker that he has her in, stating that the door is made of solid titanium and the walls are soundproof. He then tells her that the gladiators believe that Quinn got cold feet and ran off. (A flashback to that day show Rowan planting Quinn’s ring in her apartment and Abby finding it some time later.)
Panicked now, Quinn asks if it is Olivia who sent Rowan to kidnap her in order to shut her up. She soon spirals as she repeatedly asks if his intent is to kill her, and Rowan comes to his feet and yells at her to shut the hell up and calm down! (Hahahaha!) He reminds her that she’s B613 “for God’s sakes”. As she clutches her belly, Quinn recalls that B613 does not kill pregnant women, that mothers and children first is the rule.
Rowan sighs in exasperation and then finally tells her that Olivia did not send him. He explains that Quinn is currency to his freedom, and that everything will be over once he trades her over to Olivia. He tells her that she should be out of captivity by the evening. Quinn exhales her relief as Rowan points out the bathroom and tells her that he’ll be back in a few hours.
Later that evening, we see Rowan dressed in a suit. He’s on his way out the door, but before he leaves, he tells his dino figurine to wish him luck. (The T-rex is the one that Sandra had given him in 606.) We next see him waiting in a restaurant and soon after, Olivia arrives. From this point on, this scene plays in its entirety as it had in 707. Rowan informs Olivia that he has Quinn and he makes his demands. What he hadn’t anticipated was that Olivia would balk and tell him that he won’t be doing jack diddly until she tells him that he can. (Hmph!)
Mad that his ploy didn’t work, Rowan returns home and pulls some guns out from their hiding places. One from underneath a sofa and the another stashed within a clock. He goes with the latter one, and heads to a back room for access to the bunker. He punches in a security code and the cabinetry slides open. He cocks the gun, but then doesn’t proceed with his impulsive plan. He locks the bunker back up, and once the cabinetry is once more in place, he yells his frustration before heading back into the living room. There, he angrily speaks to his dino, gesturing with his gun as he says that Olivia has three days to get him his bones back or Quinn is a dead woman.
The way Rowan is talking to this dino though…
The next we see of Rowan, he has returned to the department store and is again looking over something. The salesman from his first visit comes upon him again, remarking by way of opening that Rowan’s trip must have been a short one. Rowan nods and tells him that it was. The man joins him and remarks on what it is that Rowan is looking at this time around, and they crack jokes about how expensive one of them is. Finally, Rowan admits that he has no idea which to choose, and it is then that the camera pans to show baby cribs! The salesman asks who the mother-to-be is, and Rowan says that she is his daughter. (Lies!)
Back at his house now, Rowan comes down into the bunker and Quinn wants to know what is going on. Rowan had promised to be back the night before, but hadn’t and she is now in dire need of food. She tells him that she needs to eat on a schedule and requires a host of other things, including her “bouncy ball” because she has hemorrhoids. (LMAO! TMI, Quinn.) She states that what she actually needs is home, and she instructs him to get to unshackling her, so that she can leave.
When Rowan just stares at her and says nothing, Quinn figures out that Olivia refused his proposal. Rowan in response tells her that he bought a crib, to which Quinn is like, “You bought a freaking crib?” (Haha!) Rowan tells her then that Olivia asked for time (she most assuredly did not), and Quinn tells him that what Olivia is doing is what she always does, which is to handle people. Right now, Olivia was handling him.
Quinn goes on to say that Olivia has no intention of trading, that if she wanted to trade, she would have already done so. What Olivia wants is to win. (Facts.) Quinn concludes that she is already dead and that Rowan himself will never be free. He will die a prisoner as much as she. She tells him that he played this all wrong and that he wasted his time buying a crib because he just killed her baby. (Quinn is freaking out again.)
At this point, Rowan tosses onto the bed the bag that he had with him. He tells her that within is a change of clothes and cereal. He then heads back upstairs, and once there, he tells his dino that before he becomes a slave, Quinn will be buried in a grave. He then adds that there are 57 hours left until time expires for Olivia.
That evening (or some other), Rowan is seen entering a bar. He spies the sales guy from the department store sitting at the bar and the other man is shocked to see him. Finally the two men introduce themselves to each other, the salesman sharing that his name is Marv Heward and Rowan telling him that his name is Montell Damascus. (Hello, Mr. Bainbridge!)
The two men settle in at the bar and get to chit-chatting. Rowan is passionately going off about how people used to be proud when they purchased things on the cheap versus how people brag today about how expensive an item that they purchased was. Marv replies that the corporations that are producing these things aren’t even using America workers, that they are using the labor of children from some non-English speaking nation that has a warlord as leader. According to Marv, the money is going into the pockets of Communists. He calls it “un-American”.
Rowan goes on to “casually” make mention of when he had been in the service and how he had thought that he had had it made once he got out with a factory job and then a stint driving a truck. Both jobs are now lost, and he laments about how America isn’t even growing its own food anymore. Marv’s interest is piqued when Rowan makes mention of having served. Rowan shares that he did two tours with the Army and Marv says that he had served during Vietnam. His tasks were limited primarily to fixing mopeds and (wait for it) delivering babies.
Marv says that he doesn’t miss his service days and Rowan replies that it beats not having a job. At this remark, Marv says to Rowan that he has an employee discount at the store, so should Rowan need anything again in the future, he can apply his discount to Rowan’s purchase. Rowan tells him that he can’t take the discount, calling it “charity”, but Marv insists. He tells him that it isn’t charity at all, that “Montell” is still paying for the item.
Rowan asks if he’ll get in trouble for doing such a thing, and Marv replies that the purchase will be in his name. Rowan will give him the money, Marv will use his debit card to make the purchase and then there will be no evidence that “Montell” ever stepped foot in the store. After a moment’s pause, Rowan remarks that his “daughter” could use a lot of things for the baby, and he then agrees to take Marv up on his offer.
Elijah “Rowan” Pope is one hell of a mastermind, let me tell ya. He just played his target, and Marv is none the wiser. You can’t tell me that Rowan didn’t already know all of the intimate details that he needed to know about Marv before he got to talking to him in the store. What are the odds that he randomly bumps into and maintains “incidental” contact with a man who also happens to know how to deliver babies?
After having received his agreement with the discount offer, Marv tells Rowan that he’s a good father and that his daughter is lucky to have him. (Puh-lease!) Rowan then says back to Marv that he is a good person, and Marv replies that “we’re all good people when someone gives us a chance to be”.
So are we all bad people when no one gives us a chance to be good? Should we not be good because it’s the right thing to do and not because someone gave us the opportunity to do as we should? Asking for a friend.
Meanwhile back at the bunker, Quinn is trying to keep herself from having a full blown panic attack. In the process, she conjures up Charlie who asks if this was her attempt at escaping having to marry him. Quinn takes momentary solace in the image, but she closes her eyes tight to clear her vision, and when she opens them up again, Charlie is gone.
Alone once more, Quinn turns to talking to her baby, willing her to kick. When the little one responds, Quinn lets out a relieved sigh and encourages the child to keep kicking. (Aw man…)
...Go To Waste
In the next scene (which I think is likely out of order), we see when Rowan comes out to meet Jake where he is parked outside of his house. This is a second scene lifted in its entirety from 707. Jake has come to warn Rowan about Olivia, telling him that the games need to end, especially given that Rowan no longer knows the woman with whom he is dealing. Rowan is confident that he knows exactly who his daughter is, and he says that he is ready for whatever it is that Olivia has coming his way. Jake replies that Rowan may not be as ready as he thinks.
Rowan is next seen back in the house where he is putting together the baby crib. What Jake said to him about not being as ready as he might think bothers him enough that he abandons the crib to return downstairs to the living room. He’s repeating the words to himself as he strolls into the room, and he immediately notices that his dinosaur is facing the opposite direction. He rights the figurine, which then makes Jake’s words finally click for him. He hurries to the places where he had stashed his guns and finds them all empty. Jake has cleared him out.
Frustrated now, Rowan returns to the dinosaur and tells it that he has a right to defend himself and fight back! He says that he and Quinn have now both been left defenseless. He adds that he may have killed Quinn, but they shall never know now if he would have saved her instead. He states that this isn’t a game and that things have gone too far.
Um, should we be looking into getting Rowan into a psych ward? Because, uh, these conversations with the dino are worrying. Unless he’s talking to someone other than the dino...
Down in the bunker, Quinn is lying on the bed and singing lullabies to her baby. She is now dressed in the clothes that Rowan had gotten for her. As she is singing, Huck’s voice breaks through to ask her if she’s actually going to do something other than lying about and singing to herself. Quinn continues singing as if to drown him out. He tells her that she knows how this goes, that it has been over 48 hours and she hasn’t made an attempt to escape. Quinn turns to him then to say that she’s chained to the wall and that she has no options available to her.
Ghost Huck then asks Quinn why it is that she never told anyone her suspicions about Olivia being the one who blew up the plane, and Quinn replies that she didn’t say anything because she hadn’t been sure. Accepting that, Huck goes on to say that Quinn still didn’t tell anyone even after receiving confirmation of her suspicion when she confronted Olivia about it. Quinn wants to know what his point is, and Huck replies that the Quinn he knows would be doing everything in her power to get herself out of the bunker instead of singing to herself while lying on a filthy mattress.
Whoo wee!! Talk about Scandal’s and their parallels! This moment reminiscent of when Olivia was kidnapped and she lapsed into a dream of her being in Vermont with Fitz (410). Abby made an appearance in the dream, much like Huck has done here, to recall Olivia to the task at hand and that task required her to fight for her freedom.
Another similar moment happened when Huck was trapped in the trunk of a car underwater and had to fight his way out (609). He conjured up the image of the head gladiator herself as well as Quinn and Charlie. They talked him through to his eventual escape.
In this present situation, Huck is reminding Quinn that she has a child to think about, and this sets Quinn off. She asks him what it is that he knows about raising a child and wants to know where his kid is. Huck becomes sad over this and Quinn realizes her mistake too late. Ghost Huck disappears into the ether, leaving Quinn to herself. (Deservedly!)
Quinn reclaims her seat on the bed and then begins to explain that she didn’t tell anybody about Olivia because she felt that saying what she knew out loud would have made real for her what Olivia had done. It would confirm that Olivia isn’t the Olivia that they knew anymore, that she has become a monster capable of doing such dastardly deeds, and Quinn admits that she doesn’t want to think of Olivia in this light. (Aww…)
Huck returns then to say that Olivia still has the chance to do the right thing, but in the meantime, Quinn isn’t to wait because if she does, Rowan is going to kill her. Quinn counters by saying that Rowan isn’t going to kill her, that he just bought her a crib, and Huck tells her that the crib is for the baby. Not her. (Welp.)
Next, we see that Rowan has returned to the department store for a third time. He walks with determination right up to where Marv is working behind a cash register. He asks the man if they sell handguns, and Marv replies that they do. Rowan then wants to know if he can use Marv’s discount to get one. Marv is taken aback by the request and Rowan explains that he needs it for protection, especially given the pending arrival of the baby and the rash of break-ins in his neighborhood (lies).
Marv is hesitant to agree to this request because their agreement would require him to buy the gun in order for Rowan to get the discount. And if he were to buy the gun, he would have to register it under his name. Rowan acknowledges this fact and then says that in three months the registration can then be transferred to him. He says that it’ll be easy peasy, that “it’s handled”. (Uh huh.)
When Marv still remains uncomfortable, Rowan appeals to Marv’s anti-corporatist beliefs as well as his position on the right to bear arms. He tells Marv that taking away their guns is exactly the thing that the “D.C. elites” want to do to people like them. When they take away their guns, they’ll also be taking away their freedom, he says. He then adds that he has every right to protect his family.
Rowan goes on to state “I am a man, Marv” and asks the salesman if he doesn’t want him to be just as much of a man as he is. When Marv is slow to answer, Rowan wonders aloud if Marv believes that there is so difference between them and if this is something that they ought to talk about. (LMAOOOO!!)
Marv finally snaps to attention and changes his stance then, telling Rowan that he is right. He then adds that he would never discriminate against the man who he knows as “Montell”, that Rowan’s blood “runs red, white and blue” just as his does. Marv starts to quote something that Oprah (!!) said, but he doesn’t complete that train of thought when Rowan gives him a look. Marv instead opts to say that he “doesn’t see color” and that the two of them are “brothers from another mother”.
Rowan, the master manipulator. Y’all see what he did just then?? Not only was he appealing to the parts of Marv that they had “bonded” over earlier, he was also using them against him. What Rowan does next is to not-so-subtly accuse Marv of possibly being a racist for being unwilling to help him to illegally obtain firearms. Like many a white person in America, Marv is quick to push back against the notion by proclaiming himself to be somehow blind to skin color. He then almost provides an Oprah quote before he resorts to overcompensation by capitulating to Rowan’s demands.
Also, Rowan stating that he is a man is likely in reference to the “I Am a Man!” proclamations made during the Civil Rights Movement. It has become a declarative statement of independence against oppressive systems, though its origin lies in the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike of 1968. (I see what you did there, Shonda.)
Back home now, Rowan is showing off his latest acquisitions to his dino and he goes into a whole speech while doing his signature shimmy:
“Like I said, I’m ready. You want to serve Command? Tell her come get her girl. Tell her I am the darker brother, I am at the table, I, too, am America, and she had better recognize and respect! Command ain’t nothing but a title. Father is who I am!” -- Rowan Pope
*insert Kevin Hart annoyed gif here*
The “I, Too” poem that Rowan semi quotes speaks to the way that America treats its darker skinned citizens--in this case, a man. They (white America) relegate him to the kitchens when guests are visiting, and though banished, the “darker brother” laughs, eats well and grows strong. On the morrow, he shall sit at the table, and when the guests come, no one would dare banish him to the kitchen because they will see his beauty and be ashamed of how they have treated him.
Within context of its use here, one can infer that America in this instance is Olivia and that Rowan is essentially warning her that it is he who will have the last laugh. It is clear at this point that Rowan has figured out that his precious dino is bugged, hence the performance.
Once he is done shaking and baking for the dino-cam, he steps into the hallway and out of view in order to take a breather. He glances back in the direction of the living room as if wondering if he did enough to get a response out of Olivia.
A flash over to Jake in the sunken place confirms that he is in fact keeping tabs on Rowan via the dino. Jake is seen watching Rowan’s antics on a big screen television (his speciality), and he places a phone call to God knows who to have them relay to Olivia that she will want to see him right away. (I assume he called Olivia’s assistant.)
In 707, we saw that Jake arrived at Olivia’s office sometime later to inform her that Rowan was summoning her. At the time that Jake shared this with Olivia, we had no idea how this summons was made, and now we do. Maybe. (Ha!) Rowan must have figured out that he was bugged the moment that he noticed his dino facing the wrong direction, and he has been speaking directly to Jake ever since.
The scene that follows is another direct lift from 707. It is when Olivia shows up and informs her father that he does not summon or push her. Rowan listens for a moment before he whips out the gun he had just acquired from behind him and directs it at Olivia. The scene proceeds as it had the first go around, but this time, it does cut away at the point where Rowan says to Olivia that she has a soul left and therefore won’t let Quinn die.
Meanwhile in the bunker, Quinn is trying to come up with a way to get out of her predicament. She’s tearing up the bed sheet and tying the strips together when Charlie’s apparition makes an appearance. This is followed by Huck and then Abby, the latter of whom is criticizing Quinn’s plan.
Marcus shows up next and asks if this is all a test by Rowan to see if “they” are foolish enough to escape, that Rowan could just be looking for another reason to kill “them”. (Ah, Marcus is the second guessing side of Quinn.) Just then, “they” hear Olivia and Rowan arguing through the vent system. Abby says that Olivia could be there to save Quinn, but Quinn isn’t sure about that. She turns to Huck to ask for his opinion, and he tells her that “they” need to move now if they have any chance of getting out of that place themselves.
Flashing back upstairs, we rejoin the crazy Popes at the point where Rowan says to Olivia that she is bluffing and she counters by saying that she believes it is he who is bluffing. Olivia takes a seat then and feigns nonchalance over her father’s threats, stating that if Quinn has to die for the Republic, then she has to die.
Back down in the bunker, Quinn is armed with her makeshift rope, and she moves as far as her chain will allow her to go so that she can get closer to some boxes that are sitting off at a distance. The gladiators are standing by and watching, Abby looking doubtful of what Quinn is doing. (Ever the judge, that Abigail.)
Quinn swings her rope and it lands, but not around the boxes. She makes a second attempt and is successful. She pulls the boxes towards her, but when she opens them, there isn’t anything within that could be of help.
Back upstairs, Rowan is staring into the face of his daughter, trying to catch a hint of humanity within her eyes, but the woman remains impassive as she stares right back at him and continues her countdown as to how much time he has before she obliterates his life. Rowan finally leaves her to head down to the bunker. Half way down the stairs, he looks over at the bed and doesn’t see Quinn. He immediately has his gun up in a defensive position and continues the rest of the way down the staircase.
Rowan misses Quinn completely as he was staring straight ahead, and she attacks him from the side with the chain that had held her to the wall! Quinn attempts to wrap the chain around his neck, but his hands are in the way. As they struggle, Rowan inadvertently lets off a shot. He escapes from the tangle of chains and then gets to struggling with Quinn. Rowan’s hand gets deeply cut by the chain as he wrestled for control of it from Quinn, and he immediately clutches at his hand in pain. (This is where the blood splatter on his shirt came from.)
While he is distracted, Quinn tries to reach for the gun that he had abandoned on the floor, but she can’t move fast enough. Rowan picks up the weapon and directs it at her. Quinn is now left to beg for her life. Rowan shakes his head and offers an apology as he says that he cannot allow Olivia to win. Quinn pleads with him to at least wait until after the baby is born. She braces herself for him to shoot her anyway, and he does fire the gun.
Heading back upstairs, he enters the living room to find Olivia shaken. He asks her if she wants to see the body, but Olivia doesn’t seem to know how exactly to respond to that question. Rowan tells her that he has earned his freedom and that Olivia is to call of her men. She gives him a jerky nod and then goes to grab her purse.
As she heads for the exit, Rowan wants to say something to her, but she interrupts to ask him to wait a few days before finding a way to bring her back to them. She tells him that she can’t just have Quinn’s body turning up in some ditch somewhere, that because of who she’s Quinn, Huck will never stop looking for her. She states that they need to bury her, and then she departs. (Some Command you are, Livvie.)
Once she is gone, Rowan is able to react to the cut on his hand. He heads into the kitchen to tend to the open wound and he squirms in pain when water hits his flesh. He uses a dish towel as a makeshift bandage and carefully wraps his hand with it. After a moment, he makes his way back down to the bunker and we see that Quinn is still alive! (Hahaha...duh!) She tells him that he has gotten what he wanted and she demands that he let her out.
A Brand New Start
We get flashed back to when Quinn pulled those boxes towards her and discovered that nothing within could help her. She overhears the conversation between Rowan and Olivia, in particular the part where Olivia says that if Quinn must die for the Republic, then she’ll just have to die. Abby pipes up then to say that Olivia won’t be killing Quinn. After all, she named Quinn, gave her OPA, and gifted her with Bess Truman’s hairpin! Huck finds all of what Abby said to be irrelevant now that Olivia considers Quinn to be a liability.
The gladiators get to chattering all at once when it finally dawns on Quinn that she has been waiting for Olivia to save her when Olivia has already given her a means to her escape. It’s the hairpin! Quinn removes the pin from her hair and breaks it apart (eek!) in order to use it to pick at the cuff around her ankle. This is how Quinn was able to free herself and attack Rowan when he came downstairs.
We are given a replay of the earlier scene with Quinn struggling with Rowan, the difference this time being that we see that when Rowan pulled the trigger, he did not shoot Quinn. Instead, he shot at the wall next to her. Quinn carefully opens up her eyes to look up at Rowan and then over at the bullet hole in the wall. Rowan is breathing hard as he stares at her, and then he instructs her to stay quiet. A stunned Quinn comes to her feet then and watches as Rowan makes his way back up the staircase.
As soon as the bunker doors shut, Quinn makes her way over to the vent to listen in on Olivia’s reaction to what she presumes to be her now dead friend. Quinn hears the entire post-shooting conversation, including Olivia instructing Rowan on bringing them Quinn’s body so that they may give her a proper burial. Poor Quinn is devastated.
Once Olivia is gone, Rowan returns to the bunker. As he is coming down, Quinn retrieves the chain she had attacked him with and takes a defensive stance. When Rowan does not immediately say anything, Quinn says to him that he has gotten what he wanted, so he needs to let her go. Rowan in response offers her a glass of wine and Quinn tells him that she would prefer a glass of water.
Rowan starts back for the stairs, but before he can go far, he tells Quinn that she won’t be needing the chain. Looking down at her hands as if she had forgotten that she was holding the object, Quinn unceremoniously dropped the chain to the floor and followed Rowan up the stairs.
Once in the kitchen, Rowan offers her the water and takes one for himself. They sit next to each other on the island and take gulps from their bottles. Quinn is first to speak, and she states matter-of-factly that “Olivia is a bitch”. (LOL!) Rowan replies that what Olivia did was impressive, and Quinn reluctantly agrees before adding that that doesn’t take away from the fact that Olivia is as she described. Rowan is amused and he says to her that he won’t be joining her in calling his child a bitch.
Oh, oh, oh, he won’t?! Is it because the mood doesn’t strike him at the moment or because he lacks a particular audience? He has absolutely no problem calling Olivia all kinds of slut/whore/bed wench when he feels the need to publicly and privately shames her for having consensual sexual relations with Fitzgerald, but “bitch” is a line that he just won’t cross?
Hold my earrings, somebody.
Just then, Quinn feels contractions. Rowan goes on immediate alert and Quinn tells him that they are likely just Braxton-Hicks, that they come and go. Despite her protestations, Rowan orders Quinn to stand up. When she does, he proceeds to coach her through some breathing exercises. (Who is this man right now?) Quinn does as told, and after taking a couple of steps, her water breaks! Baby is a comin’!
And Quinn starts to panic. Rowan works to calm her down as he helps her back to the chair that she had just vacated. Quinn tells him that she needs to get to a hospital and they need to get Charlie. Another contraction hits her just then, and Rowan assures her that all will be fine and tells her to remain calm. He turns to rummage through one of the kitchen drawers and Quinn wants to know what it is that he is doing, telling him that they need to leave. Rowan replies that she will be fine, that women have been “having babies since the beginning of time without a hospital” and he says that they’ll “just do this the old fashioned way”. (Um…)
Yeah. That wasn’t what Quinn was hoping to hear. She gets up from her seat then and makes a slow escape from the kitchen, but she doesn’t get far. Rowan pulls her back and tries to offer her reassurance, stating that he knows that she is scared but that everything will be okay.
Quinn pleads with him to take her to a hospital. She tells him that she needs Charlie, and right then, she conjures him up. He tells her that everything will be fine, but the person actually speaking those words are Rowan. Quinn is staring at Charlie’s apparition when Rowan injects her with something in the neck, and she passes out.
Next we see Quinn back in the bunker, and Rowan and Marv can be heard talking. Rowan has brought him to help deliver Quinn’s baby. Marv is hesitant as he tells Rowan that he believes that there has been some misunderstanding. Rowan tells him that this is an emergency situation and that he thought that Marv claimed to have delivered babies before. Marv replies that he did that when in Vietnam, not now! He states that this won’t be so difficult if Rowan hadn’t knocked Quinn unconscious, that he needs to be awake in order to push.
As they are talking, Quinn is coming to. She has once again conjured forth Charlie who is encouraging her to wake up. Quinn says that Charlie should tell them not to yell in front of the baby.
Noting her incoherent babbling, Rowan points out to Marv that Quinn is awake now, so he can get to delivering the baby. When Marv asks Rowan what Quinn’s name is, he replies with “Christy”, and Marv tells “Christy” that he is going to need her to push. A still dazed Quinn instead sees Charlie, Huck, Abby, and Marcus, and they are coaching her on.
This could be a stretch, but between the Judas kiss that Olivia gave Huck last week, Rowan resurrecting the Damascus name and he giving Quinn the alias of “Christy”, I can’t help but to see Biblical references everywhere. In this analogy, is Olivia Judas to Quinn’s Christ?
When Quinn successfully has the baby, the gladiators smile at each other like proud parents. Marv is also proud that he helped successfully deliver the baby girl. Rowan orders Marv to hand the baby over to him, and he does as told. Meanwhile, Quinn is starting to drift off again. Charlie tells her to go on to sleep, that she will see the baby when she wakes up.
As Quinn’s eyes close, a gunshot is heard. Pow! Guess who won’t be making it to dinner.
Hours later, Quinn wakes up to the sound of Rowan cooing to her baby. She is in Olivia’s childhood bedroom. (I still find it creepy that that room is as it had been when Olivia left it sometime in the late 80s/early 90s. It’s as if Rowan has left it untouched as a sort of memorial to what was, a memorial to the child who used to reside there.)
Rowan places the baby girl in her arms and Quinn lovingly stares down at her. After rocking her for a moment, Quinn remarks about there having been a man present during her birth. Rowan tells her that the man had been a friend who was willing to make a discrete house call. (Is that what we’re calling it now?) Quinn assumes the man to be a doctor and she asks if everything is really okay with her daughter, and Rowan replies that according to his “friend”, all is good and the baby is healthy. He then commends her for a job well done, stating that she had been “exquisite”.
Quinn wears her gratitude on her face as she looks down at her baby once more. She then notices all the stuff that Rowan has purchased and asks if he got them just for them. A wider camera shot shows all that Rowan had purchased, including the crib that is now fully assembled. Rowan tells Quinn that she knows that she cannot go home just yet, and Quinn says that she understands, particularly since Olivia believes that she is dead. Her leaving would lead to Olivia making her death a reality. (Would she though? Hmm.) Rowan concurs and says that Quinn staying there would keep her safe until they can figure out how to proceed. Quinn thanks him, and when the baby starts to fuss, Rowan remarks that that is his cue to leave. The “little lady” must be hungry. He says that he’s returning to the basement to clean up.
As he is leaving the room, he adoringly says that it is a “blessing” and a “joy” to have a little girl in the house. Quinn tells him then that he is a good person (oh hell nah!) and Rowan has the nerve to repeat what Marv said to him about how “we are all good people if someone gives us a chance to be”.
Please stop.
Now why in God’s name would ANYONE trust Rowan?? Quinn Perkins of all people should know better, but I’m going to blame the baby and her disillusionment over Olivia for her discombobulation because this is all kinds of hell no. There is always an ulterior motive with this man. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.
Later we see Rowan in the basement cleaning up while Quinn is upstairs with the baby wrapped to her body, and she’s looking at the different things that Rowan had purchased. The clothes (which are covered in dinosaurs) are replicas of each other in various sizes starting from 0M and going all the way up to 24M.
Uh, 24 months? How long exactly is he planning on having that child living up in his house?
Quinn makes note of the clothes and the smile that she had on her face disappears. Now she’s disturbed. She goes ask Rowan for an explanation, and as she makes her way down into the bunker, she comes to a stop when she finds him cleaning up after the dead body of his “friend” Marv. The man’s brains are splattered all over the floor!
Quinn covers her baby’s face as she takes back what she said about Rowan being a good person. (Girl, you should have handed him that pass in the first place!) She calls Rowan a “twisted, callous, crazy old man with a bloated corpse in his basement”. Rowan is annoyed that she would say this and orders her to shut up. He is emotional as he tells her that the name of the dead man is Marvin Heward, that he was a Marine who served in Vietnam, that he was a good person, and that he had been his only friend.
If you don’t miss me with this foolishness… His only friend?! Certainly there are myriad of ways that one can treat those they consider friend other than shooting a bullet through their head. Y’all remember Sandra? She was his friend, too.
Rowan says that he killed Marv for Quinn and her baby, and then he recalls for her the B613 rule of protecting mothers and children first. He then has the audacity to tell her not to preach to him.
Wait, wait, waaaaaaait. Rowan is citing protectionism for the reason why he killed Marv? That he did it for Quinn and her baby??
This is the kind of stunt that Olivia pulls when she does questionable things. She’ll pass it off as her having done it to protect the other person or because she wanted to give someone that which they wanted. Recall her excuses for Defiance (219), breaking up Abby and David or her forcing Luna Vargas to suicide (616). There is always some “greater good” reason as to why she did as she had, some flimsy justification that barely holds water. I’m just waiting for how she plans to explain the why of Rashad and Yasmeen. That should be fun.
Having been fed that load of crap from Rowan, Quinn reconsiders her early attack and then she crouches down to help with the clean up. Why do you people fall for this nonsense from the Popes??
And there ends the episode. We know that Charlie eventually shows up, but does he see Quinn or just the baby? Did Jake spy anything more from the dino-cam? If so, does he share it with Olivia? Whose body was it that Rowan burned up as a surrogate for Quinn?
Share your thoughts in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter with your prognostications.
This is the end of the recap/review of Scandal episode 709!! Thank you for reading and see you next week!
