Scandal kind of brushed past Olivia Pope’s kidnapping last season. Sure she had some mild PTSD and starting sleeping with a super hot dude who turned out to be evil, but she got back to business pretty quickly.
So it’s about damn time that, in “Thwack,” Olivia finally cracks. The return of a major threat to everything she’s worked for (and her emotional well-being) causes big problems. But it’s nothing that can’t be solved with murder. That’s right, Olivia straight-up kills somebody and it’s not pretty.
A Threat from the Past
Guess who’s back? It’s former Vice President Andrew Nichols, aka the evil bastard who orchestrated Olivia’s kidnapping last year. Huck may have given him a stroke, but he’s still alive, recovering and talking to Fitz’s former reporter girlfriend Lillian Forrester about how the president went to war with West Angola because his girlfriend got kidnapped.
Needless to say, no one wants that particular story to come out so everyone who was involved meets up in the White House: Fitz, Liz, Abby, David, Cyrus, Olivia and Mellie. Liz wants to have Huck finish the job he started and kill him. Cyrus doesn’t care because Fitz gave him immunity for everything he ever did in the White House.
Mellie visits Andrew to try and talk him out of it, but she fails. I know Andrew is recovering from a stroke, but his incredibly slurred speech makes it kind of hard to take this threat seriously. It’s almost too comical when he tries to get a senator and former First Lady who’s running for president to give him a hand job.
Olivia Tries to Fix It
Andrew’s return brings back Olivia’s PTSD and horrifying memories of being kidnapped. She even goes to Papa Pope and Jake, asking them to use the NSA to spy on Lillian so they’ll know if and when she’s going to publish the story.
Olivia’s plan to fix things is having Huck drug and kidnap Andrew to negotiate with him in the White House bunker. He demands $10 million and Olivia representing him for a book deal for his silence. Olivia brings it back to the group, with Liz and Fitz each agreeing to pay half (because they’re super rich Republicans).
Unfortunately, Andrew doesn’t really want the money. He’s hellbent on destroying everyone and there’s nothing they can do to stop him.
Fitz Offers to Take the Hit
With no other options, Fitz wants to take the fall for everyone. He plans on telling the world that he staged Andrew’s assassination attempt and that’s why they went to war. He’d have to resign in disgrace, but it would protect everyone else.
Abby is against it, but Olivia is for it because she thinks Fitz is being presidential. The problem is that Abby has turned into a monster refusing to let go of the Oval, even if Olivia doesn’t think Abby is that scary.
She has no idea. Abby goes to Andrew and makes a new deal. He covers up the president going to war and instead just throws Mellie under the bus. Abby is definitely a monster, willing to destroy anyone to protect the Oval.
Olivia Goes CRAZY!
Olivia is horrified at the Abby Monster she has created. She goes to Andrew to try and undo the damage to protect Mellie. But Andrew doesn’t care. He taunts her about being a slut and a prostitute, talking about selling her at auction again.
His comments bring back her PTSD and she starts reliving her kidnapping. And that’s when Olivia snaps. She picks up a chair in the bunker and hits Andrew with it. Then she hits him again and again.
Olivia literally beats Andrew TO DEATH with a chair.
Fitz arrives in the bunker to comfort Olivia. Abby arrives and is horrified. Olivia quickly plans the cover, blaming the story Andrew told Lillian on his stroke to stop it. Before leaving, Olivia ominously wanrs Abby “Never cross me again!” Yeah, Abby may have thought she was a monster, but Olivia is still the queen.
In the aftermath, Olivia goes home. And by home, I mean Papa Pope’s house. I would say that Olivia Pope is now Scandal‘s villain, but I don’t think the show has any heroes left. There are no White Hats, they’re all covered in blood like Olivia’s face.
The Latino Vote
The election is still going on in the background, with Mellie trying to get the Latino vote by meeting with a Catholic priest. It works, but Marcus is still bummed that no one at OPA seems to care since they were so focused on the Andrew situation.
Elsewhere at Vargas HQ, the candidate’s brother Alex starts to put the pieces together about Tom being at the Capital the night of the shooting and that Tom is Cyrus’ boyfriend (and yes, they’re snuggled up in a hotel bed together, so that’s confirmed).
What does Alex do with this information? He takes it to Cyrus’ prostitute husband. Let’s see Cyrus wriggle out of this one.
Next on Scandal: The show is off next week, but on April 21 Jake is getting married. Unless Olivia can stop him.
(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.
