Olivia and Fitz’s relationship has had plenty of ups and downs on Scandal. This week, their biggest obstacle comes to light as Fitz learns about Olivia’s involvement in releasing her father from prison, aka the man who killed Fitz’s son. So did they break up or are Fitz and Olivia still together?
In other news, Papa Pope seems genuinely scared for his life and while we don’t know the full extent of these “sons” that are behind Lazarus 1, the episode ends with Rowan being taken hostage by the last person you’d want interrogating you.
Fitz Negotiates a Peace Deal in the Middle East
The White House is putting the finishing touches on an historic nuclear arms treaty with a fake Middle Eastern country for peace. There’s only one problem because the foreign president’s translator asks Olivia Pope to help him defect by offering the location of a secret nuclear facility the U.S. doesn’t know about.
At the last second, Huck figures out that the information is correct, causing Abby to stop Fitz from signing the peace deal as it’s happening. Olivia finds the translator bleeding as he tried to kill himself because he’s gay and didn’t want to be forced to go back to his home country. But now he doesn’t have to because the secret facility isn’t full of nuclear weapons, it’s full of computer servers to stage cyber attacks. In the end, Fitz signs the peace deal, but has the military bomb the crap out of those servers as he’s doing it.
Papa Pope Is Scared
Papa Pope confronts Olivia at her office building for a father/daughter chat that sounds a lot like a goodbye. He explains that he isn’t the devil, there’s a new evil out there because his “sons” have turned on him and want him dead. He tells Olivia that if he dies, he’s given her everything she needs to survive and he’s proud of her.
Olivia talks to Jake about it, telling him that she believes her dad. Thus continues Olivia’s turn to the Dark Side, because now she’s genuinely sympathetic to her father’s plight and worried for his life. This is a woman who literally tried to kill him last season (remember when she pulled the trigger of the empty gun?).
Now Olivia is trying to save her dad, Jake is trying to kill him (as are Papa Pope’s mysterious “sons” who are behind Lazarus 1) and Cyrus tricks David into putting the full resources of the Justice Department into finding Rowan.
The Truth Comes Out for Olivia and Fitz
Olivia is conflicted about telling Fitz the truth about her involvement in releasing her dad because she knows it will end their relationship. Sadly, she never gets the chance because David’s investigation discovers the truth. Olivia is arrested and sent to the same underground prison cell where everything always happens. Fitz comes and wants to know that it’s not true that she helped release her dad.
Instead of hearing her explanation, the show cuts out all of the dialogue as we hear the song “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” Fitz looks horrified and then leaves a crying Olivia behind, but this is all misdirection.
Afterwards, we learn that Fitz has forgiven Olivia and he claims to believe her (since she was right about the translator). He tells her that he reassigned Jake to bring in her father alive, but that’s in debate. Fitz also unilaterally decided that it’s time for Olivia to move into the White House so he had all of her designer outfits moved in so he can protect her. It’s less romantic and more super creepy, like he’s locking her away in a tower. Perhaps he’s balancing the scales: she let her dad out of jail so he’s metaphorically putting her in jail.
Where Is Papa Pope?
At the end of the episode, Jake tracks down Rowan’s location, but he’s missing and Tom has been knocked out. Papa Pope is now tied to a chair in an abandoned building by…Huck! What is he doing? Is Huck somehow a part of Lazarus 1? Is he going unleash the beast and start killing again? What kind of insanity is headed our way in next week’s winter finale?
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
