Being in love isn’t simple for Olivia and Fitz on Scandal. Their affair is public, but they both have a lot of damage control on two different fronts. They also have one huge problem they must deal with together.
In “You Got Served,” Olivia hires Leo to help fix her image in the press while Fitz hires a lawyer to fight back against the Senate committee’s investigation into the affair. However, the fact that Fitz went to war last season because Olivia was kidnapped is a problem, one that can only be solved by Cyrus.
Olivia Pope: Woman of the People
Olivia goes into damage control because her public image is that of an entitled homewrecker. She hires Leo Bergen to help out and after she vetoes his idea of painting Olivia and Fitz as a great love story, they settle on making her relatable to the masses. This involves not wearing chic designer outfits and actually going to the grocery store instead of having her wine and popcorn delivered.
The key part is finding a character witness to defend her, someone respected. So Olivia goes to Edison Davis, her old flame who proposed to her. He agrees to help her, but only if she admits to him that she never loved him and was simply using him to deflect from her affair with Fitz. She does and he helps, but all of that is irrelevant when the press learns about that family heirloom diamond ring Fitz gave to Olivia.
Olivia Pope: Lovestuck Teenager
The next plan is for Olivia to do an interview professing her love for Fitz, painting her as a lovestruck teenager. She has concerns and visits Jake, who is now shacking up with Elise. Jake, who knows Olivia better than anyone, realizes that she’s afraid that professing her love ties her to Fitz forever, leaving her no possible exit in case she wants to run away.
Olivia does the interview and gets brutally and emotionally honest. She says she wishes she never met Fitz because she has a business that could go away and her friends and family and Fitz’s family are all suffering. Their love has caused so much trouble, but she refuses to apologize for it because she knows that if she didn’t love him, everything would be easier. But she can’t do that.
The President on Trial
The Senate formally opens an investigation into Fitz’s affair with Olivia with the possibility of impeachment. It’s a bipartisan committee led by the super racist Republican, Senator Gibson, and the Democrat, Senator Moskowitz, aka Gypsy from Gilmore Girls. They pay a visit to Marcus Walker, coercing the newest gladiator at OPA to be a spy for them.
He’s reluctant at first, but when Huck and Quinn talk about possibly blackmailing senators to ensure a favorable outcome with the investigation, Marcus seems willing to work with the Senate. But it’s only a ruse so he can be a double agent, finding out what the committee knows.
Cyrus is over the moon, binge-watching the news on TV while snacking on brownies. Mellie is kicked off the committee because of the obvious conflict of interest, so she wallows with Cyrus.
Fitz hires a lawyer, a tough, no-nonsense lady named Patty Smell (played by Romy Rosemont, Finn’s mom from Glee). She’s very effective in convincing him to testify and cooperate with the investigation by giving them every single document in the entire White House.
The Boys Are Back
Marcus finds out that the committee knows about West Angola, that tiny little matter of Fitz going to war because Olivia was kidnapped. That’s obviously an impeachable offense so Olivia has a sexy meeting with Fitz to tell him about this revelation and her concern that Cyrus is the only person who can confirm that Fitz actually knew about Olivia being kidnapped.
Fitz meets with Cyrus to offer him a job, but Cyrus immediately figures out that it’s only because he needs him to deal with the West Angola problem. The episode ends with the intense, beautifully written and acted scene of Cyrus delivering a monologue about how well he knows Fitz, followed by Fitz’s surprising revelation that he pays attention to Cyrus too and has genuine affection for him. The fences are mended and the unstoppable team of Cyrus and Fitz are back together,
But Cyrus does have some conditions. He wants to be reinstated as Chief of Staff, with Liz North being fired and thrown aside. He also wants a sealed presidential pardon for any and all crimes he’s committed. Fitz agrees, Cyrus is back and the Senate committee has nothing.
Next week on Scandal: Cyrus wants Fitz and Olivia to get married. Sure, why not.
(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.
