Scandaaaaaaaaal!!!
That’s how hype I still am after seeing this badass episode. Whew! “The People vs. Olivia Pope” was everything I expected and more! Well, I could have done without that one thing that happened towards the end, but eh. I’m over it. (No, I’m not.) And as Kerry Washington’s television directorial debut? The episode was meaty as hell, and she so handled that!
Oh! And did I mention that Janet Jackson was the soundtrack of the entire thing?! WHAT!! You heard me. Y’all ain’t gonna take me out like this, Shonda. No, you’re not, but I am laid out nonetheless. Laid. Out.
Let’s get right into this thing.
And the Light Goes Out
“The People” opens up with Olivia emerging from the interior of Fitz’s hotel room into the living room where Fitz is staring out of a side window. She’s in his bathrobe, and her eyes are on him as he turns towards her upon hearing her entry. She greets him with their classic “Hi” and he responds in kind. The smiles on their faces make it obvious that they had themselves a great night. (Heh.)
As Olivia curls herself into a nearby chair, Fitz leans against the mantle of the fireplace and asks if she would like to go to Vermont. Olivia is caught off guard by the proposal and Fitz tells her that they don’t have to limit their time together to just a night, that they can have the entire weekend.
Olivia doesn’t need much convincing as we see in the next shot, which is of them in a chopper heading for Vermont. Fitz is seated closest to the window and Olivia is next to him, her hands holding onto his one that is nearest to her. Fitz is staring out the window at the cityscape, and Olivia stretches a bit to look out as well, but her eyes soon shift to look at him instead. She contemplates him for a moment before she lays her head on his shoulder. At this, Fitz turns towards her and presses his cheek against her head and pulls her close. (Why are they like this?!)
Janet Jackson’s “When I Think of You” overlays these moments as they happen, and I’m immediately put in my feels because who the hell told these people to take one of my favorite Janet songs and intertwine it with Olitz?! WHO?!?! Why would you do that?!
For those who are unfamiliar with the song (WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!), here are the partial lyrics to the first verse, which reflects what is going on in Olivia’s headspace:
Oooh, baby / Anytime my world gets crazy / I have to do / To calm it / Is just think of you / ‘Cause when I think of you, baby / Nothing else seems to matter / ‘Cause when I think of you, baby / All I think about is our love
I’ll cut it off right there or I’ll take us right into the dance break.
At the risk of sounding like the sappy romantic that I secretly am (as if the gifs above didn’t already blow my cover), I want to put more of a point on that head on the shoulder moment. In the review for 708, I remarked on the significance of Olivia showing up at Fitz’s door after initially lashing out at him when he came to console her over Quinn’s “death”. I said then that she sought him out to “receive emotional sustenance”, and while I believe that to still be the case, there is a little bit more at play here. She isn’t the unyielding Chief of Staff or the venom-spewing Command who carries herself as if nothing ever weighs her down here. She’s just Olivia, the one who exists in her vulnerability, the one who allows herself to lean into another because the load she carries is indeed too heavy. The expression on her face is that of one who has returned home after a trying stint away.
Sigh.
Anyway...
Off the chopper now, the two are holding onto each other as they walk towards the entrance of their home. (Yes, I said their.) Olivia looks so damn happy to be there, her smile genuine as she looks up at Fitz and he gives her an affectionate kiss on the forehead.
To note, Olivia is still in the same outfit that she had on when she came to Fitz straight from Quinn’s “funeral” the day before. This woman didn’t even bother to go home and get herself a change of clothes or an overnight bag. I mean, I guess. When you know that you're going to be nekkid most of the time, you figure what's the point, right?
Fitz opens the door and Olivia precedes him inside. She takes a few steps in and lets out an exhale as one would when they’ve finally made it to paradise. She looks about in wonderment and smiles back at Fitz as she takes in everything around her. She hasn’t been to the house since Fitz first revealed it to her in “Vermont is for Lovers, Too” (308), so her glancing about like a kid in a candy store wasn’t at all surprising. When she was last there, house was unfinished.
What is surprising is the record scratch moment when Huck gets up from one of the seats and jars Olivia right out of her daze! She stutters in shock as she asks him why he is there, and she whips around back towards Fitz as the sound of the closing door echoes with finality. Seeing the serious look on Fitz's face, Olivia turns back to Huck, who tells her that they are all aware of her dirty little secrets. Olivia notes his use of “we” and just then Abby, David, and Marcus emerge from where they had been hiding.
Olivia looks about wide-eyed like an animal surrounded by predators. She takes several heavy breaths as if trying to calm herself of the inner panic that threatened to consume her just then.
Back in D.C., the baby is crying in her crib as Charlie continues to choke the heck out of Rowan. Quinn comes to Rowan’s defense and is able to throw Charlie off of the old man, demanding that Charlie stop with his attack, that Rowan is protecting her. Stunned out of his mind, Charlie stares as Quinn picks up the crying baby and tries to calm her down.
Jumping forward just a tad, Quinn is sitting with Charlie in the living room and she has already given him the lowdown on all that has happened. Rowan is leaning against a chair opposite them. Charlie rocks back and forth as he tries to process what he has been told, and Quinn is trying to get him to share what his thoughts are about what she has said.
Charlie is finally able to look at her, and he expresses his disbelief over her actually being alive. When Quinn confirms that she actually is and grabs his hands to prove it, Charlie sits a moment with the reality of it all before he jumps out of his seat to ask why it is that she hadn’t called him to let him know that she was alright. Rowan steps forward then (did he think Charlie was going to attack her??), but he’s intervention isn’t necessary.
Quinn now is also on her feet as Charlie explains that he almost killed people over her, that he went to her funeral. In her best calming tone, Quinn points out to him that all of that is over now. She isn’t dead and he isn’t alone anymore. She is then able to coax him into going along with her so that he can meet their daughter. (Awww…)
Quinn now is also on her feet as Charlie explains that he almost killed people over her, that he went to her funeral. In her best calming tone, Quinn points out to him that all of that is over now. She isn’t dead and he isn’t alone anymore. She is then able to coax him into going along with her so that he can meet their daughter. (Awww…)
Over at the White House, Cyrus has just clued Mellie in to the fact that it was Olivia who had Rashad killed!! Remember how Jake tried to link Fenton to the bombing of Rashad’s plane (706)? Cyrus never bought that that part of the tale, and after learning that QPA received intel of a link from Jake, Cyrus did digging on his own and found no such link (707). He confronted Jake about it, and Jake dismissed it as a potential “mistake”. Cyrus wasn’t born yesterday and he certainly wasn’t buying that evasive answer. Jake later dissuades Cyrus from digging further by issuing threats, which effectively placed Cyrus on a leash. All bets were off when Fenton ended their relationship and Cyrus suspected that Jake had something to do with it. I’m extrapolating here, but considering how resourceful Cyrus is, he likely pieced together enough to figure out what happened.
Mellie asks Cyrus to repeat what he had just told her, and he obliges. Mellie stares at him in stupefaction for a moment before asking if there is any proof. Cyrus replies that he believes that Quinn Perkins had some, and Mellie is stunned anew as she wonders aloud if he’s also accusing Olivia of having had something to do with what happened to Quinn. Cyrus tells her that he believes Olivia to be responsible for all of it.
Mellie sits for a few seconds in frozen silence as the implications of his words settle over her. She then turns to her phone to have her assistant summon Olivia to her. Surprised when Rachel tells her that Olivia is not yet in for the day, Mellie demands that she be found.
Back over to Vermont, Huck asks Olivia if she killed Quinn, and when she doesn’t immediately say anything, Fitz tells her to answer the question. Marcus speaks up then to say that no one is looking to punish her, and David adds that they won’t punish her if they don’t have to. Fitz then states that they are trying to help her.
Olivia turns to each person as they speak, her moves jerky as she is hit from all directions. She finds it absurd that they are attempting to have an intervention with her, and Abby tells her to consider it a second chance. She then lays out their conditions, which is that Olivia is to give up the White House and B613 in lieu of David prosecuting her.
Huck follows by revealing that Abby and David found a recording that Quinn made of her conversation with Olivia that night at the War Memorial. He accuses Olivia of having killed Quinn and demands that she admit it, but Olivia will not. She instead states that Quinn’s death isn’t on her. (Uh…) Abby is perplexed by her logic, and Olivia replies that B613 was handling a situation and that Quinn should have trusted that, and understood that she was doing what was absolutely necessary.
Girl, what?
When the only response she gets to that statement is all of them collectively looking at her in judgement, Olivia orders them to stop staring at her in the way that they are. Fitz asks her how it is that she means, and Huck supplies that they are looking at her like the monster that she truly is. (Yiiiiiiiikes!) Huck’s going hard, and Olivia glares at him in surprise. Marcus speaks up to say that Olivia has to know that what she is saying isn’t right. Olivia turns nasty then, her eyes squarely on Huck as she states that what she knows is that there isn’t a single one of them who hasn’t had to get their hands “a little bit dirty at one point or another”. (True, but...)
Olivia singles out Abby, who wavers a bit as if hit by a zapper. Then she turns back to Huck to say that she knows that he of all people isn’t calling her a monster. She then directs her ire at Fitzgerald, stating that after everything that he has done and all that has been done in his name, he certainly isn’t the one who can stand there in judgement of her! How dare he or any of them wag a finger at her!! (Zzzz, Olivia. Zzzz…)
Fitz is unfazed by her barbs as she calls the house that he built for them “ridiculous” and tells him that it should have been built out of glass. (Okay, I laughed.) Fitz replies that she can take all the cheap shots that she wants at him, but that none of them will work. When he tells her that she isn’t getting it, Olivia’s snap response is, “Neither are you”....and I DIE because I don’t believe they are talking about the same “it”.
Bedroom privileges revoked!
Fitz informs her that she has no power there and Olivia is taken aback. He goes on to say that he has instructed his Secret Service to keep her from leaving, so she is going to be there for however long it takes for them to get through to her. Olivia laughs at the absurdity of the plan, calling it “insane”. Fitz tells her to give them what they are asking for and she’ll be free to go.
Abby, Huck, and Marcus speak up then to inform her that her phone has been disabled and that she won’t be able to communicate with anyone on the outside. No email, texts, or phone calls. David adds that he will start the process of filing charges.
Appropriately panicked now, Olivia turns away from them and back to Fitz, begging him not to do this to her. Fitz again tells her to give them what they are asking for, and Olivia wonders if he doesn’t find the whole business of making her his prisoner to be a bit of an “old hat” (referring to the time that he moved her into the White House in 508-509). She asks him if he is sure that he wants to go down that road again, and Fitz says that as long as she continues to pose a threat to others, to herself, and to the country, that yes, he is absolutely sure.
Unsuccessful with pleading for her freedom, Olivia says to them all that they need to wake up. When she sees that she won’t be making any headway with any of them, she asks herself why she is even wasting her breath, and she starts out of the room. She violently clips Marcus with her shoulder as she brushes past him, and disappears into one of the rooms down the hallway.
This group certainly has their work cut out for them because this stubborn woman will not be doing down without a fight. Good luck, y’all.
Back at the White House, Jake is seen walking down the hallway towards their B613 lair. He is placing a call to Olivia, and all he gets is her voicemail. He tells her that he was just checking to see if she was planning to come in to work today, and that she should call him back. He proceeds into their sunken place, and there Madam President herself is waiting for him!
Jake is quick to recover from his surprise at seeing her, and he asks Mellie how it is that she got in there. Mellie sarcastically replies that she used the front door same as he did, and Jake tells her that she shouldn’t be there. Mellie asks him if it is because she isn’t supposed to know that the lair exists, and she points out that she is the President and that the White House is her house, so she will know of everything that is going on within it. She then wonders if him saying that she shouldn’t be there is because she isn’t supposed to know what it is that they do down there. She then adds that maybe he believes that her staying out of the lair would keep her from being implicated in Rashad's assassination if she is unaware that her own Chief of Staff ordered it.
Jake epic fails at pretending to not know what she is talking about, and Mellie cuts him off before he can get far with feeding her some bullshit. She says that she wants to know why Rashad had to die, and Jake replies that he doesn’t know what it is that she wants him to say. Mellie in her classic condescending manner tells Jake that she isn’t asking him for an answer, and asks why would she when Jake is nothing but Olivia’s dog. (LMAO!!) She tells him that this is her “pinning a note to [his] collar and sending [him] back to [his] master”. He is to tell Olivia that she wants her back at the White House and looking her in the eye, otherwise she will fill the pool with cement and make sure that Jake is in it.
Fire-breathing Mellie is back, y’all!! I don’t even like her behind, yet here I am cheering her showing up at this most opportune of moments. YES!
Over at Rowan the Grandfather’s house, little Robin is crying and Charlie has no idea what to do with her. He’s trying to rock her as Quinn sits and eats ice cream, and when Rowan comes into the room, Charlie remarks that he thinks something is wrong with the baby and that they should probably get her to a doctor. Rowan chuckles at that and Quinn puts down her ice cream to relieve Charlie of the baby, telling him that crying is what babies do.
Once she has Robin in her arms, Quinn starts singing Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” and….Rowan joins her. Yes. You read that right. He and Quinn take turns singing parts of the first verse, and Charlie looks as perplexed by this as I feel. They’ve even got choreography!!
They make it all the way through to the chorus and the baby is now calm. Quinn and Rowan share an inside laugh among themselves, and Charlie is watching the whole thing as if he has dropped into the real life version of the Twilight Zone. Rowan turns to Charlie then to say that “it isn’t Stevie, but it works”, a clear reference to how he used to use Stevie Wonder to calm Olivia down as a child. (Yeah, this dude really is trying to use Robin as a do-over, isn’t he?)
The Intervention
Back in Vermont, Olivia has locked herself in that bedroom down the hall. She is trying to send Jake a text message, but she receives a delivery failure error. Dropping her phone to the bed, she goes for the landline phone that is by the bed, only to find it dead. She draws closed the curtains to the glass door in the room just as one of the Secret Service agents wanders by, and then she plops down on the bed in frustration.
The series of events that happens from here on out is very reminiscent of “Seven Fifty-Two”, where each of the gladiators attempted to talk Huck back from the mental cage he had retreated into after he was locked in a box by Charlie (219). Though the circumstances are different, the goal of pulling a loved one back from the brink is the same.
In the present, Abby is the first to come to the door. She begs Olivia to open up for her, but she is ignored. She proceeds then to speak to Olivia through the door, stating that she knows that Olivia believes that she had no choice in doing what she did and that she believes that she was making the best decision that she could under terrible circumstances, but Abby informs her that what Olivia did in actuality was whatever she could to hold on to her power. She says that she truly does understand how Olivia ran right over that cliff (cue 608), and she goes on to add that she knows Olivia can’t feel good about what happened to Quinn because Olivia is a fixer, not a destroyer. (Weeeeell, that’s debatable…)
When Olivia remains silent to all that she has said, Abby reminds her that she had saved them all from something once, and that it was now their turn to do the same for her. With silence continuing to be the only thing that greets her, Abby gives up and walks away.
Back in Washington, Cyrus enters his office to find Jake waiting for him. He remarks that he doesn’t recall the two of them having a meeting as he steps further inside the room, and while closing the door to the office, Jake replies that despite the lack of an appointment, Cyrus doesn’t seem surprised to see him. He then goes on to say that he thought that he and Cyrus had an understanding, that “bad things happen to people who don’t leave well enough alone”.
Cyrus zeros in on the phrase “well enough” and points out that in order for one to leave something alone, one would have to agree that everything is indeed functioning as it should, and Cyrus says that they both know that this is not true. Jake tells him that he needs to return to Mellie and shut down the situation that he has instigated, and Cyrus replies that Jake does not give him orders. He then tells the Admiral to get the hell out of his office.
At this point, Jake attacks him by pushing him up against the wall. He has a large pair of scissors in his hand, and he’s got one of its blades up against Cyrus’s neck! He tells the Vice President that he is indeed going to do as he is told, otherwise Hannah is going to return from lunch to find that he killed himself using the scissors that he borrowed from her desk. Jake states that slitting Cyrus’s wrists would be a more plausible cover for his murder, but that slitting his throat is so much more fun for himself. (Creeper ass maniac. Why ain’t he dead?)
Cyrus stares him right in the eyes and asks him what reason he would have to kill himself, and Jake replies that it could be despair over his lost boyfriend or guilt over the murder of a husband. (This man has a lot of gatdamn nerve bringing James up in this conversation.) He goes on to say that after the life that Cyrus has lived and the career that he has had, that the list of reasons for him killing himself must be endless.
Cyrus doesn’t even bother fighting him. He tells Jake to go right ahead and kill him, a response that Jake was clearly not expecting for he rears back a bit as if he’s been doused with cold water. He presses the blade closer to Cyrus’s neck and asks what it is about him that would make Cyrus believe that he is bluffing, and Cyrus defiantly tells him that this isn’t his “first game of chicken”. He states that he’s been at this game a long time, and has dealt with and beaten people far worse than Jake. He declares that in comparison to those people, Jake is a baby!
Ermahgawd!
Cyrus continues by saying that Fenton didn’t dump him, that Fenton ran away because he got too close and saw what was inside of him. Cyrus warns Jake to reconsider this attempt to push him if he doesn’t want to see what it was that sent Fenton running for the hills.
Jake looks doubtful now of his strategy, but he holds fast for a long moment, he and Cyrus staring each other down as he tries to decide on whether he is going to follow through on his threat or not. In the end, he removes the blade from Cyrus’s throat and pushes him away as he tosses the scissors onto the desk and strides out of the room. (Punk ass.)
Jake looks doubtful now of his strategy, but he holds fast for a long moment, he and Cyrus staring each other down as he tries to decide on whether he is going to follow through on his threat or not. In the end, he removes the blade from Cyrus’s throat and pushes him away as he tosses the scissors onto the desk and strides out of the room. (Punk ass.)
This move by Cyrus effectively obliterated whatever control that Jake had over him. Moving forward, Jake won’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to threatening Cyrus about anything. Jake, ladies and gents, has essentially been neutered. Arf.
Just as Jake is leaving the office, Hannah returns to let Cyrus know that she is back. Cyrus has his hand to his throat to hide his bleeding cut courtesy of Jake, and when Hannah asks if there is anything he needs, he initially says that he needs nothing, but then tells her to bring him a Band-Aid.
Flipping back to Vermont, it is now David’s turn to try to get through to Olivia. He says that since Abby’s words failed to sway her that he’s going to give Olivia some numbers instead. He proceeds to read off a list that he has made of different criminal codes under which he could charge Olivia. Conspiracy against the United States; murder of internationally protected persons; private correspondence with foreign agents. That doesn’t include the obstruction of justice, which David says is covered by a whole bunch of other codes.
As he speaks, Olivia is standing by the glass doors and staring out. She eventually steps away from it as David’s voice echoes into the room, and she collapses into a nearby chair. David asks her if she wants him to go on, but of course, he receives no response. He states that the U.S. government hasn’t executed anybody in nearly two decades and that Olivia is going to put him in the history books with her prosecution. Then he sarcastically thanks her for that. (LOL!!)
Out in the living room, Huck is sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace and blankly staring ahead. Abby comes and sits next to him, and after a moment, she offers Huck an apology for not believing him when he came to her about his suspicions about Olivia (708). She says that because they were talking about Quinn, she never thought that Olivia could ever do anything to hurt her. Huck replies that he knows, and following a pause, he says that he misses the old Olivia. When Abby says that she, too, misses that Olivia, Huck says that he wants that Olivia back. Abby just looks over at him before the two of them lapse into silence.
Back over at the White House, Cyrus is in the Oval going off to Mellie about what happened in his office with Jake. Mellie pours him some of her hooch and hands it to him as Cyrus declares Jake to be a “spineless punk”. (Hahahahaha!) Mellie tells him that he ought to get his neck looked at, but Cyrus waves that off. He says that he and Mellie ought to drop Olivia and Jake on Gitmo and “leave them there to rot”. (LOL!!)
Monster Cyrus is BACK! YES! He’s been gone for so long, I was starting to wonder if I’d ever see him again. Monster Cyrus is the best Cyrus. Together with fire-breathing Mellie, ain’t nobody fitna get away with jack in that White House. Not at all.
Mellie addresses him with a calm tone, stating that no one is doing anything until she has a chance to speak with Olivia. Cyrus stares at Mellie dumbfounded for a moment before telling her that the time for talking is over. He says that Jake may have stopped short of killing him this time around, but that neither he nor Olivia will “go quietly into the night”. Mellie replies that if Olivia did indeed do as accused, she must have done it for a reason and she needs to know that reason before she can decide how to handle it.
Cyrus looks at Mellie strangely at that, prompting her to ask why it is that he is looking at her as he is. It takes him a minute, but he finally observes that Mellie is scared. With her hackles up, Mellie comes to her feet and demands to know what he means. Cyrus elaborates that Mellie is afraid of doing her job without Olivia, He goes on to say that Mellie wants to talk to Olivia so that Olivia can “cast her spell” and convince Mellie that what she did was all done to help her. Cyrus concludes that Olivia has really jacked with Mellie’s head.
Mellie steps forward then to say that what she’s actually doing is looking for answers, but Cyrus doesn’t by that. He tells Mellie that what she is doing is looking for a way out. He then asks her what it is that Olivia did to get Mellie to be completely dependent on her, wondering aloud if Olivia fed her crap about “sisterhood” and “trust”, and how they girls need to stick together.
Oooh, Cyrus so has y’all number, Mellivia! And I live because while some folks cheered, I called out that manipulative jibber-jabber disguised as feminist rah-rah back in 701. I sure enough did! I have the receipts.
Cyrus strikes close to home with his comments and Mellie seeks to remind him who it is that he is addressing. (Ha! Mellie, girl, Cyrus has known you since when again?) Cyrus tells her to please remind him of who he is speaking with, and as Mellie angrily dismisses him from the Oval, he says that Mellie may be okay with Olivia making a fool out of her, but he will not allow Olivia to make a fool out of him. When Mellie asks him one last time to leave her office, he finally obliges and departs.
Cyrus is just pushing them buttons. He knows all the right ones to press on, too. If there is one thing that Mellie does not like, it is being made a fool of and Cyrus knows this. Poke, poke, poke.
Out in the hallway of the White House, Jake comes upon two Secret Service agents that are a part of Olivia’s detail. He tells them that he has important national security information to share with Olivia, but that he is unable to find her. He asks them to help him out and tell him where Olivia is, but the woman agent tells him that they won’t be able to honor his request. When Jake presses, the woman bids him a good evening and the two agents move on.
Welp. So a whole B613 super spy with the resources of the NSA at his fingertips can’t find the woman who is serving as his Command? He can’t triangulate the tower where her cell phone last pinged to figure out that she was last cuddled up with Fitzgerald in his hotel room?! What kind of Crackerjack operation are y'all running here? Some team y’all are.
The Desperation
It's evening time now and we are back at the Pope residence. Rowan is folding up the laundered baby clothes when Charlie remarks on how small the items all are. Rowan replies that Charlie will be surprised by how fast they grow out of all of those little clothes. Taking a seat in a nearby chair, Charlie says that he owes Rowan an apology for attacking him earlier, and Rowan tells him that he owes him nothing, that he would have done the same or worse if he were in Charlie’s shoes.
Charlie tells him that it has all been a lot to process, and he states that he never thought that he’d have the opportunity to fold baby laundry, let alone watch his daughter grow out of them, and for that, he gives Rowan his gratitude. Rowan turns to Charlie at that and says that the pleasure has been his.
With that bit of business out of the way, Charlie comes back to his feet and informs Rowan that he is ready to take over as protector of his family. He says that they can all be out of there by the morning, and Rowan says that he doesn’t think so. He tells Charlie that Quinn and the baby are safer staying where they are, and Charlie counters by saying that he can take care of his own family. To that, Rowan quips that Charlie has done a poor job thus far. (Ouch.) He adds that the world needs to believe that Quinn is dead and that every minute that he remains in that house risks ruining this.
Rowan then asks Charlie how long it is that he believes it will take for his friends to come looking for him. He says that Charlie is free to leave, but Quinn and the baby stay there with him. Charlie concludes that Rowan is jealous and that because he has lost his family, he is seeking to replace them with Charlie’s. Charlie says that Rowan wants to get rid of him because he is a threat, and Rowan angrily thunders that Charlie is absolutely not a threat to him. (Oh boy.)
Back in Vermont, we see Fitz sitting out in front of the house when Marcus comes out to join him. He has brought with him some beer, and he hands Fitz a bottle before he claims the seat to Fitz’s right. Fitz asks Marcus how his turn went with Olivia (we aren’t shown it), and Marcus tells him to drink his beer first and then he’ll tell him. Fitz concludes that it didn’t go well, and Marcus says that it is hard to tell since one can’t read reactions through a closed door.
The two men sit in silence for a bit as they sip on their beer, and then Marcus remarks on how he has forgotten about how quiet it is out there. When he says that he finds the quiet to be “creepy”, Fitz chuckles before explaining that he picked that spot specifically for the quiet. He shares that he and Olivia had this thing where the two of them would stop for one minute and sit in silence whenever their lives got to moving too fast or were too loud. He says that that is the reason for the porch and the chairs. He thought that one day she and himself would come out there and just sit, and that “it wouldn’t have to end after one minute. It wouldn’t have to end at all”.
Sigh. Shonda, why the hell are you doing this?! Y’all have Fitz out here explaining “one minute” to Marcus? Hi. Vermont. One minute. What’s the reason for this assault?! Please stop.
Meanwhile, inside the house, Huck has brought Olivia dinner. He sits the tray outside of her door and then pauses for some time outside of her door. When he finally brings himself to announce that food is there for her, Olivia, who is laying on the bed, turns towards his voice and calls out for him. Huck, who is walking away, stops in his tracks and moves no further.
Olivia sits up in the bed then and listens for a moment before getting out of bed and approaching the door. She tentatively calls out for Huck again, asking if he was still there. Huck doesn’t answer and Olivia carefully opens the door a crack and sees that he is still close. She whispers to him that she knows that he is angry and that what happened was horrible. (Ya think?)
Hazarding a venture outside of the room, Olivia says to Huck that she needs him. Huck doesn’t immediately respond nor does he turn towards her, his face exhibiting the pain that this ordeal is causing him. Olivia continues to try to lure him into helping her get out of the house by recalling him to the many times that she has helped him when he had “lost [his] way”. She tells him that she had always been there for him, forgiving him for the bad that he has done, reminding him of the person that he really is. She adds that Huck is more than just a coworker or a friend to her, that he’s her gladiator.
At this, Huck starts to turn towards her, and seeing this small success, Olivia repeats “gladiator” to him as if it’s some kind of doggie command. She tells him that she only started using the term because of him.
So, uh, pause. Does this woman not remember that Huck bore witness to her little drunken meltdown in her old office? She had ridiculed the whole "gladiator" concept, yet here she is trying to use that very thing to lure Huck into springing her from the house? This chick has some nerve.
Upon telling Huck that she needs him to free her, she asks him to leave with her and come run B613 to her. She steps fully into the hallway then, whispering still, her voice a tad creepy in its desperation. She’s like a fiend who will do and say anything to get themselves to their next hit. Huck tells her that he can’t help her, and she counters by saying that he can. She holds his face between her hands and tries to connect with him, but Huck isn’t hearing it. As he turns his face from her, Olivia gets a bit frantic as she states that she did this one terrible thing and wonders why it is that Huck cannot forgive her for it.
Huck turns slowly back towards her then and the emotion on his face has shifted. He’s no longer looking like a sad puppy as he had just a moment ago. There is fierceness in his eyes now as he states that the two of them are not the same. He tells her that she killed one of their own, that Quinn was family! Olivia tries to get him to lower his voice, but Huck is done listening to her. He barks a "no" at her and lets her know that what she did was unforgivable. He then tells her that he isn’t going anywhere with her. He says that he is done serving her and that he isn’t her gladiator anymore.
You go, Huck! Good on you for refusing to be sucked in by her foolery. The days of being her enabler are over.
Back over at the Pope residence, Charlie is lamenting about Rowan to Quinn, but she interrupts to say that Rowan is right. She tells him that their friends and Olivia need to believe that she is dead, and Charlie says that if Olivia is the reason why she feels likes he must remain in hiding, then he will go out there and kill Olivia himself. (LOL!)
Quinn tells him that he won’t be going after Olivia all willy nilly because she is, after all, Olivia Pope. She says that in a situation like this, one must be crafty and take their time. Charlie replies that he’s not an idiot, that he knows how to kill people, and Quinn says that they are not killing anybody. She states that they are better than that. What she wants is justice. What she wants is for Olivia to spend the rest of her life paying for what she did to them, and in order for her to have that happen, she is going to have to be smart and patient. She then tells Charlie that he is going to have to go.
Elsewhere in DC, Jake is breaking into Olivia’s apartment. (You know, his second favorite past time behind being her bitch.) He calls out for her, but there is no answer. He steps inside of the apartment and then heads towards her bedroom. He stands for a moment, looking about as if searching for clues as to her whereabouts. He starts to go through a notebook on her nightstand when the sound of the apartment door closing draws his attention.
Abandoning the book, he heads back out towards the living room and asks the person who had entered if they are Olivia, but when the person steps into view, it’s actually Mellie! (Wait, what??) Proceeding as one would when they are caught doing something that they shouldn’t, Jake tells Mellie that Olivia isn’t there, and Mellie informs him that she is actually there to see him. She then orders him to sit before she nods a dismissal to her Secret Service detail.
Soooo it’s one thing for Jake to be all up and through Olivia’s apartment when she isn’t around (invading her privacy is his thing), but Mellie is showing up there now, too? And all random like. First the lair and now this. I mean, was she just sitting in wait outside of the building on the off-chance that Jake would show up? Because while the apartment is close to the White House, it isn’t that close. Mellie walked up in there within a minute of Jake breaking and entering. Now y’all fitna have a meeting in her house?!
In any case, these two make themselves comfortable, and Mellie wastes no time in getting down to the reason why she has tracked Jake down. She tells him that what she likes about him is that he has always told her the truth, even if it something that she doesn’t want to hear, so because of that, she would like to know what really happened with Rashad. She wants Jake to confirm for her that it was indeed Olivia who ordered the assassination, and Jake tells her that she already knows the answer to that.
Allowing that to marinate, Mellie sighs and then asks him to tell her why the hit was ordered, and Jake tells her that she is going to have to ask Olivia that. Mellie counters by saying that she is asking him for the answer. She wants to know if the kill was “just” and Jake is too quick in replying that it was. This lets Mellie know that he is lying and she informs him that she can tell. Jake then proceeds to feed her the company line about how Olivia tried to get Rashad his country back, but that it was too late. Olivia then made a deal with the rebels where they got the treaty in exchange for Rashad’s death.
Mellie rejects this explanation, stating that she doesn’t believe him. Jake throws up his hands and says that that is what happened. Mellie says that she understand that that is what happened, but it isn’t why it happened. She states that Olivia is better than just giving the rebels Rashad’s head, that she always gets what she wants. She says that if Olivia didn’t want Rashad dead, she would have offered the rebels something else in exchange.
Using that Harvard-educated brain of hers and what she knows of Olivia, Mellie figures that Rashad is dead because Olivia wanted him dead. What Mellie is determined to get out of Jake is the reason why Olivia wanted that to be so. Jake is looking about uncomfortably at this point and is getting fidgety in his seat. He tries to divert Mellie, but she wants her answer. She stresses the severity of what took place, and remains undeterred in her quest to know the why of it.
Finally, Jake tells her that it’s because she “couldn’t keep [her] damn legs closed”. (Excuse me??) Reacting as if she had just be slapped, Mellie stares at him in stunned disbelief. Jake goes on to say that Mellie was going to go to war over Rashad and only God knows what else she would have done for him. He says that ending that threat was the right thing to do and that everything that Olivia has done has been in support of Mellie. (Buuuuuullshit.)
Mellie orders him to stop talking, and when he continues on unabated, she repeats herself and he finally shuts up. Mellie sits for a moment as the truth of his words settles upon her. She looks up at him and stares for a long while before she finally stands up and leaves the apartment.
Whew, chile. So because Olivia considered Rashad a threat due to Mellie’s feelings for him, she killed one bird and got two stones: Rashad eliminated and that treaty signed despite his death. I can’t argue with the “rightness” of the logic strategywise, but there isn’t any moral justification to be found here. Surely there had to have been some other way that Olivia could have handled the situation without killing the man, his niece and several crew members. Of all the times that her relationship with Fitzgerald posed a threat to national security, Olivia’s ass should have long been grass, yet here she is inflicting pain on the succeeding POTUS, who so happens to be Fitzgerald’s ex-wife! Oh, the irony. (Back to this in a bit.)
Back to Vermont we go, and it’s now Fitz’s turn to talk to the crazy woman who he considers the love of his life. He twists on the door knob and finds that the door is still locked. He asks Olivia how she is doing in there, but she doesn’t respond. On the other side, she is sitting on the floor with her back against the door.
Fitz sighs and then lets out a small laugh before he launches into his own attempt at reaching her. He shares with her that he’s been thinking about the day that they met, when she stood in front of his entire campaign staff and informed him that he was losing the primary because he didn’t love his wife. He says that he didn’t know her name then, but what he did know was that he hated her because she was right. He adds that she is always right (lies!), a trait that is his least favorite thing about her, but which also happens to be the the thing that he values the most. (Awww…)
Fitz continues by saying that while her “rightness” has been true in the past, she is wrong this time with the whole B613 and the Quinn situation. He tells her that she knows how wrong she is, that she is too smart and too right all the time to not know this. Olivia hears all that he says, but does not respond.
Stepping back from the door a bit, Fitz repositions himself to sit on the floor in front of the door and he leans back against it. The two of them are now mirror images of each other, with one washed mostly in light and the other covered mostly in shadow. Olivia turns her head a bit when she doesn’t hear anything coming from the other side of the door, but Fitz is still there, just momentarily silent. When he speaks up again, he quietly says to her that he isn’t going anywhere. He tells her that he’ll be right there, so when she is ready, all she has to do is open the door.
On the other side, Olivia looks to be affected by his words and she sits up as if considering finally stepping outside of the room.
Back at the Pope residence, Charlie has come into Olivia’s old room to look in on little Robin. When the child starts to get fussy, Charlie has no idea what to do. He tries to pat her lightly, but that doesn’t work. He tells her to take it easy and then starts to walk away, but the baby girl starts to cry in earnest just then. Charlie turns back to her and picks her up, and tries to calm her down, but he’s failing.
Rowan comes into the room then, and Charlie explains that he was merely coming to say goodbye to his daughter. Rowan tells him that he can leave in the morning, but Charlie insists that right then is better because he is terrible at goodbyes. He hands the baby over to Rowan then, and Rowan proceeds to coo at the baby to settle her down. He then hands little Robin back to Charlie and proceeds to each him how to do it himself. He instructs him on how to properly hold the baby and all that good stuff.
Charlie does as Rowan instructs him to do, and soon enough he is successfully handling the intricacies of carrying a baby. He looks scared as hell though. (LOL!) Looking at Rowan then, Charlie again thanks him for his help and Rowan offers him a smile and a nod in response. It’s a tender moment that still weirds me out because, I mean, it’s Rowan. He’s the same guy who screwed up in the affection department with his own child, but he’s somehow able to give it to someone else’s kid?
The Deception
The following morning, Olivia finally emerges from the room and walks out into the living room. There she finds everyone waiting in silence. One of them alerts the others to her presence, and they all come to life. Marcus and Huck, who were both lying down, get up into an upright position and Abby moves over to stand by David. Fitz was already standing, so he straightens up and turns towards Olivia.
As she steps forward with the piece of paper that she has in her hand, she tells the room that she spent the night and most of the morning writing. She drops the paper onto the table and steps away. Abby steps forward then to pick up the sheet and read what is written on it.
When Olivia asks her what she thinks of it, Abby tells her that it is smart, good. Olivia points out that it keeps Mellie clean, and Abby adds that it also succeeds in praising Mellie for her leadership and touting Olivia’s own achievements. When Abby goes on to say detail that Olivia also wrote that she is proud of what she has accomplished, Olivia interrupts rather defensively to say that she is indeed proud before Abby continues by indicating that Olivia intends to move on.
Abby passes the note over to Fitz and Olivia says to him that she is resigning as Chief of Staff. She then adds that B613 will take time to handle, but interjects to Fitz say that B613’s dismantling will have to happen immediately. Olivia clarifies that the time isn’t for her, but for Jake to handle its dismantling. Her voice cracks at this point as she says that she won’t be a part of that process.
Olivia then tells them that she isn’t admitting that she was wrong, that she tried to reason and listen to everything that they all said to her, but that she still can’t bring herself to make that admission. She then struggles with the next part as she states that this inability to admit wrongdoing is what has led her to realize that she has to stop. She says that she can’t continue like this.
And it is at this point that my Spidey senses started to tingle. Something about all of this is feels too damn easy, but I keep watching and hoping that I’m wrong because surely Olivia wouldn’t be pulling some okey doke on her loved ones, right?
Everyone is watching her with rapt attention as her face breaks, yet no tears are coming out of her eyes. (Suspect.) She apologizes to them and then she says that she wishes that she could also apologize to the person who needs to hear it the most, that person being Quinn. She tells them that since she can’t apologize to Quinn, she is apologizing to them while she still can. She goes on to state that she will announce her resignation at the evening’s White House press briefing. She says she doesn’t know what happens after that, but what she does know is that it is time.
Yeeeeeah, the senses are screaming at me now and I’m mad that it also isn’t screaming at the rest of them. Do they not remember who they are dealing with?
Olivia splits from the room in dramatic fashion and Fitz goes after her. Everyone else is left sitting in stunned silence.
Once she is back in her room, Olivia brings her hands up to her eyes as if to wipe away tears. She is facing the glass doors when Fitz comes in, and without turning around, she tells him that she is fine, and Fitz replies that she isn’t. She turns to him then and insists that she is, but she has a hard time looking at him. Fitz steps forward then, and when he is directly in front of her, she looks up at him and says that she is doing the right thing. Fitz concurs and says that she always does. (Oh, Fitz…)
Staring at him for a moment, Olivia pulls him down for a hug and she holds on for dear life. Fitz returns the embrace and tightens his hold on her as he tells her that he’ll make the arrangements and have them heading back to D.C. within the hour. Olivia nods and then just holds him, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
This woman is about to do something that she won’t be able to come back from, and this hug of theirs is essentially a goodbye. Fitzgerald just doesn’t know it yet.
At the White House, Jake is in the Oval and remarks on the fact that Mellie set up a meeting with White House Counsel. Mellie confirms that she did indeed set up a meeting, and Jake steps forward then to tell her that she doesn’t want to do that. Mellie looks up from her work to look at him and she chuckles before she pushes away from her desk to stand up. She asks Jake if he has any idea where Olivia has been over the past 24 hours, and before he can offer her an answer, Mellie tells him that she knows that he doesn’t know because he was asking Secret Service to share that information with him.
Coming around her desk to stand in front of Jake, she shares that she has just learned that Olivia has been in Vermont. She then proceeds to rake Fitz over the coals for his conduct during his time in office, stating that he had led with “legs wide open for eight years” (wow) and that they barely made a peep about it. She asks Jake if they should have killed Olivia or blown up her plane in response to their long standing affair. (Well, Cyrus did almost end her in 413, but I digress.)
Mellie mockingly asks if the logic Olivia and Jake had applied to Rashad would have also been the “right thing to do” if Olivia had been the target. Jake just stands there like a dummy because (1) Mellie makes a valid point and (2) he’s not crazy enough to venture a response when his Commander in Chief is this vexed. Mellie goes on to say that Fitz “spilled his DNA all over this White House” (heh) and all she did was basically stand by and let it happen. Hell, one could argue that she helped facilitate it, but I’ma let Mellie have her outrage right now because, I mean, she’s pointing out Olivia’s blatant hypocrisy. Rashad, who Mellie only managed to share a hot kiss with, was worthy of death because he “threatened national security”, but Olivia who was kidnapped and used to control the President is still walking the streets?
How crazy is it that it is she who is cockblocking Mellie? Granted things were pretty much dead in the water between Fitz and Mellie, but Olivia was smack in the middle of that marriage. Then when she and Mellie get to being “buddies”, Olivia interfered with her relationship with Marcus. THEN she comes and kills Mellie’s next potential bae because...national security.
Mellie mockingly asks if the logic Olivia and Jake had applied to Rashad would have also been the “right thing to do” if Olivia had been the target. Jake just stands there like a dummy because (1) Mellie makes a valid point and (2) he’s not crazy enough to venture a response when his Commander in Chief is this vexed. Mellie goes on to say that Fitz “spilled his DNA all over this White House” (heh) and all she did was basically stand by and let it happen. Hell, one could argue that she helped facilitate it, but I’ma let Mellie have her outrage right now because, I mean, she’s pointing out Olivia’s blatant hypocrisy. Rashad, who Mellie only managed to share a hot kiss with, was worthy of death because he “threatened national security”, but Olivia who was kidnapped and used to control the President is still walking the streets?
How crazy is it that it is she who is cockblocking Mellie? Granted things were pretty much dead in the water between Fitz and Mellie, but Olivia was smack in the middle of that marriage. Then when she and Mellie get to being “buddies”, Olivia interfered with her relationship with Marcus. THEN she comes and kills Mellie’s next potential bae because...national security.
If there is anyone who has benefited from Mellie’s lack of companionship, it has been Olivia Pope. Now that’s not to say that Melody Grant hasn’t also benefited from using Olivia as her mule all of these years. I won’t bother going down that list because if I do, we’ll be here until next week. “Mellivia” is the crack ship that just never left the dock for me. Leave it to sink, y’all. Leave it to sink.
Having vented all of that to Jake (who also happens to have his own issues with Olivia and Fitz), Mellie returns to other side of her desk before telling him that this whole matter isn’t about B613, that it is specifically about Olivia. Mellie declares Olivia to be bad for the country, and she says that if Jake cannot see that, then he is as big a fool as she has been.
LMAO!!! Y’all are a damn trip. So now Mellie is inflicting on Jake the juju that Cyrus used on her? Hilarious!
This Rashad business has resurrected spiteful Mellie (FINALLY!) and opened her eyes to a long ignored fact: Olivia isn’t her friend or her partner in anything. She’ll get better confirmation of that in 24 hours, but regardless of what is to come, Mellie, like Olivia’s family, has hopped off of the ride. That leaves Jake swirling about on the Olivia Pope Carousel of Chaos all by his lonesome. What do you think he who willingly accepts whatever crumbs Olivia tosses his way is about to do?
Later that evening, Jake shows up at Olivia’s apartment, and when she opens the door, his first question is about Vermont. Olivia tells him that it isn’t what he thinks as she drifts further into her apartment while taking a sip of some whisky. (She hasn’t had herself some wine in a while.) Jake sarcastically remarks that it’s a relief that Vermont isn’t what he thinks because what he thinks is that “Command was rolling around in a pile of leaves with her boyfriend while a coup was happening in the White House”. (Quite the imagination there, Jake.)
Olivia interrupts then to say that she got all of his messages and that she is up to speed on what has happened since she was gone. Jake calms down then and wonders what it is that she intends to do about their situation. Olivia puts down her glass of liquor then and turns to him just as Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” starts to play.
And I will never forgive Shonda for this shit because as cheeky as she believes herself to be, I really did not need to have one of my Janet faves associated with the foolishness that is about to ensue. In so turning to Jake, Olivia says that the situation at the White House is tomorrow’s problem, and Jake wants to know what she means by that.
Over at QPA, David has just joined Abby and Huck who are sitting in front of the television and waiting for Olivia to show up and make her announcement as promised. Instead, Olivia is in her apartment telling Jake that tonight is when she loses every friend that she has ever had. Then she grabs Jake by the neck and says that she will be losing everyone but him.
Confused, Jake asks Olivia what is going on as she pulls him down to kiss him. When she doesn’t immediately respond, he asks again, but she tells him that they aren’t talking anymore. She then kisses him again and he’s unresponsive at first, but then his lame ass gives in.
So yeah, we’re just going to skip right over the rest of this.
Olivia breaks the very vow that she made in 701 about no longer crossing the line with Jake and hops right into bed with him because, you know, that’s the logical thing one does after they’ve intentionally deceived every true friend that they have. They double down on stupid and dig a deeper hole for themselves.
With eyes glued to the television, Huck wonders where Olivia is when the White House press secretary takes to the podium. Abby says that maybe Olivia is waiting until the end, but then she immediately observes that the press secretary has no physical signs of stress over an eminent announcement coming of the Chief of Staff’s resignation. The three of them are quick to realize that they had been played. Olivia “poped” her own people.
Over at the Grant Institute, Fitz and Marcus are watching the presser, and Marcus already knows what the deal is, but Fitz holds fast. He says that they should give her more time, but he’s merely setting himself up for heartbreak. When he attempts to reach Olivia by phone, he gets nothing but her voicemail. That’s because Olivia is busy getting buggered by her dog.
I could have done without that entire interlude, but there was a point to all of it. (I know, I know. A point to a Nolake scene?! What? Yeah, bear with me here.)
First, consider the emotional space that Olivia was in when she was going to Vermont and the space that she was in after she left it. She gets on the chopper in a love daze and she is emotionally open when gets there, only to be unexpected assaulted by people who rarely ever questioned her judgement. She was deprived of all modes of communication with the outside world and told outright that she had no power within the space that supposed to be a safe place for her. Failing to coax Huck into assisting her with an escape, Olivia figures out a way out of her predicament by giving them what they all wanted: her capitulation.
As a fixer, it is on Olivia to figure out a way around all kinds of difficult scenarios in order to get to the end result that she wants. In her situation, she worked out that her freedom rested in giving her “captors” what it was that they wanted. Fitz said as much to her at the beginning of all of this. She told them what they wanted to hear and then she was set free to fulfill what it was that she promised that she would do, except she doesn’t do it.
Second, her business with Jake had nothing to do with her physical needs and everything to do with her wanting to reestablish her sense of control and that which she relies on as always being true. It was a power move. After being “caged” in Vermont, Olivia had to prove to herself that the world still operates as she expects it to; that things and people can still bend to her will. And who better to test that out on than Jake Ballard?
Remember what she said to him in “Til Death Do Us Part” (518) about how she could dumping him and then tell him five minutes later that she wants to be with him and he’ll come crawling back to her every time? Yeeeeah. He fell into line now as he always does, but there’s a twist. Dun, dun, dun!
You know that saying about how doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different results being the definition of insanity? Keep that in mind.
The following morning, Jake is lying awake in bed and staring up at the ceiling. He looks to have been up for a while contemplating on something. (Maybe he can recall that wife of his, but I digress.) It isn’t long before Olivia wakes up and Jake greets her with a simple “hey”. Olivia responds with what can barely pass as a smile before she unceremoniously reaches over Jake to retrieve her phone from where it was sitting on the nightstand. Jake puts his hands up out of her way and tries to minimize himself as if the two of them were strangers who had never before done the horizontal mambo. It is a rather awkward morning after.
Having confirmed the time, Olivia announces that they need to get to work. As she gets out of bed, she tells Jake that his first task of the day will be to go to Mellie and shut down the insurrection. Then he is to put together a kill folder on Mellie to remind her of her “sins, get her off of her high horse, and get her back into the reality of ruling”. (Whuuuut…?)
Jake is taken aback by the mention of the kill folder request and he tells Olivia that the issue with Mellie is that she has lost faith in her. He suggests that the carrot might be more effective than the stick here, but Olivia cuts him off to say that what she has instructed him to do was not a suggestion but an order.
Like I said, power move. Not a damn thing has changed. I’m betting that Jake already knew this going in, but being the crumb muncher that he is, he indulged her anyway. Mellie’s words about him being a fool must have been echoing in his head, too. In this moment, Jake was like…
Over at the Grant Institute, Fitz and Marcus are joined by Huck, Abby, and David in a conference room there. They are trying to figure out how to proceed with the Olivia situation, and Huck says that they will have to turn her in. Abby states that the only evidence they have is a recording, and David adds that it isn’t enough to prosecute Olivia for Quinn’s murder. He informs them all that the best that they can do is build a circumstantial case against her for Rashad’s assassination.
Marcus speaks up then to say that that isn’t good enough. He states that if they don’t have evidence that Olivia acted alone, Mellie could be taken down with her. He goes on to say that he isn’t comfortable with “burning the first woman President of the United States”. When David says that he can try to give Mellie cover, Abby states that he is working on the assumption that Olivia doesn’t have him killed by then, and David goes, “Thank you for that, Abby.” (LMAO!)
Huck says then that prosecution might still be worth a shot, but Fitz chimes in to say that prosecuting Olivia means exposing B613, which would be them telling the world that “the United States isn’t a nation governed by laws, but by the whim of a single person with unchecked power”. He states that it won’t just be the end of Mellie’s Administration. The kind of exposure that B613 would create would kill the very idea of America’s democracy.
Fitz turns to Huck then and regretfully says that he can’t go through with it, that it’s not worth it. He stands from the table then and exits from the room. Once he is gone, Marcus turns to the rest of the group and asks them what it is that they are supposed to do now.
Over at the White House, Jake presents Mellie with a folder. When she asks him what it is, he tells her that it is a kill folder intended for her. He directs her to open it and see within every terrible thing that she has ever done. From election rigging, her affair with Andrew Nichols, her fake miscarriage, her association with “Damascus Bainbridge”. Every dirty little secret.
Slapping the folder shut, Mellie’s demon voice demands to know what it is that Admiral Ballard believes himself to be doing. Jake clarifies that he isn’t the one doing anything, and says that all of this has been brought to her courtesy of Olivia. The folder was intended as threat and Mellie is shocked by this. (I don’t know why since Cyrus warned her that Olivia wouldn’t go down without a fight.) Jake tells her that while it is true that Olivia is threatening Mellie, he doesn’t believe that a threat is what she needs. He says that what Mellie needs is to be advised on her survival.
All ears now, Mellie leans back in her seat as Jake continues. He tells her that she will not be able to survive without B613. He says needs someone who will be protecting her and the country; someone whose only agenda will be these two missions. He states that Mellie needs someone who she can trust, who will listen to her, who will give her a voice and will include her in every decision no matter how difficult.
Ooooh. The moment Jake said “missions”, I already knew what was about to go down. He had already come to the same conclusion that Mellie had about Olivia: she was bad for the country. I’m guessing that the kill folder is what proved Mellie’s point and sealed the deal for him. Girlfriend had to go.
Cue up Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat” and we see Olivia walking down the White House hallway with determination. She’s all badass laser focus as she struts her stuff like a woman who knows she is back on top of the world. It’s reminiscent of how she walked down the hall in 701 to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”, except in this instance, she looks like a woman with a chip on her shoulder. She has come for blood.
The song choice is so apropos, especially when one considers Olivia’s behavior since the start of this season. Rowan did warn that her day of reckoning was coming.
“Black cat, nine lives / Short days, long nights / Living on the edge, not afraid to die / Heartbeat real strong, but not for long / Better watch your step or you’re gonna die”
Olivia’s confident strut hits a stumbling block as she gets closer to her office. She sees some artwork being carted away and she stops to look back at it, having recognized it as her own. She then sees some more of her stuff being taken away.
Stepping into the anteroom to her office, she comes upon Cyrus standing just outside of her office and she asks him what is going on and he says to her to she ought to tell him. She proceeds past him to stand in the doorway of her office, and there she observes Jake unpacking his things into what is now his office! When he sees her, he mere stares at her with no remorse whatsoever. Just as he did in 701, Jake circumvented her and got Mellie’s ear before she herself could.
Stepping into the anteroom to her office, she comes upon Cyrus standing just outside of her office and she asks him what is going on and he says to her to she ought to tell him. She proceeds past him to stand in the doorway of her office, and there she observes Jake unpacking his things into what is now his office! When he sees her, he mere stares at her with no remorse whatsoever. Just as he did in 701, Jake circumvented her and got Mellie’s ear before she herself could.
How embarrassing must it be that in a fit of pique, Olivia tumbles back in bed with Jake only to have him snatch her JOBS right from under her?! She isn’t Command or Chief of Staff, and she ain’t got no friends!
I can’t even be mad at Jake for the doublecross. It’s exactly what Olivia deserves for being a dumbass and thinking that she knows better than everybody. Instead of facing the truth of what was being said to her at that intervention, she decided that the best course of action was for her to tumble headlong into the ravine and obliterate life as she knew it. She was so sure that she was going to have the White House and B613, so what would be the big deal with her burning her friends and giving the man that she loves a giant middle finger, right?
Burn in solitude, Livvie. I’m like Huck up in this piece, waiting for the day that the Olivia Pope that I love and adore will return. You, magpie, are not her.
Over at QPA, Charlie waits in the conference room for the other gladiators to show up. Quinn is chilling in the kitchen at the Pope residence as Rowan prepares breakfast. Fitz is over in his office, doing what he was doing at the start of the episode and staring out of a window. Olivia is again on his mind, but this time around, he looks justifiably upset.
Back at the White House, Olivia storms out of her office and heads right over to the Oval. When she walks in, Mellie is on the sofa going over some documents. Olivia slams the door behind her and asks Mellie what it is that she has done. Mellie glances up at her and defiantly stares at Olivia while crossing her arms over the document on her lap. Mellie is ready to do battle.
And there ends the episode.
OMG! Give me the next one now!!!
What a ride. I am ever thankful that this episode was nothing like last week’s. Whew. That one put me in a conscious coma.
So what did y’all think? Is Olivia going to be able to convince Mellie to give her her job back or is this the end of her stint at the White House? Will she be able to come back from betraying her friends? What do you think Quinn’s going to do when she finally comes face to face with Olivia? Questions, questions!!
Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section below or with me on Twitter!!
This is the end of this recap/review of Scandal episode 710! Thank you for reading and I’ll see you next week!
