Just when you think Scandal can’t get any better, the final minutes of this week’s episode prove otherwise. Things are getting absolutely crazy, and it’s all due to Olivia Pope stepping up to become an even bigger bad-ass than usual.
She may be Helen of Troy, but this time she’s not just causing men to go to war, she’s leading them into battle. Olivia out-Commands her own dad and brings together the unlikeliest alliance of all-time for the battle we’ve all been waiting for.
Olivia of Troy
Fitz is calling Olivia a lot ever since she told him that there’s hope, but she still wants to get to the bottom of the Jake situation. She convinces David Rosen to get her access to the super-max prison…so she can visit Tom the Evil Secret Service Agent.
Tom gets very introspective, wanting to talk about Olivia and Fitz’s relationship. He calls her beautiful and compares her to Helen of Troy, the woman whose beauty launched a thousand ships and caused a war. It’s a very fitting analogy.
The important information is that Tom tells her that Fitz tried to kill himself because he was so sad after Olivia went to the Island, and he continues to claim that Jake ordered him to kill Fitz’s son. He also has some harsh words about how Olivia never had a dad, she had Command.
That night Fitz calls her up and she tells him about how Tom mentioned Fitz’s suicide attempt. Drunk Fitz doesn’t want to talk about it, so instead he engages in some extremely NSFW phone sex, telling Olivia everything he wants to do to her. Damn, this show is pushing the envelope in terms of what you can say and do on network TV, because that was so hot Olivia started taking off her clothes.
Later, Papa Pope visits his daughter and delivers yet another epic speech. This one is about how she needs to respect him and stop picking boys over her own father. She is not intimidated, but maybe she should be when he says “Against me, you will lose.”
Olivia Starts the War
Tom is brutally attacked in prison on orders from Command, and this is just the incentive he needs to tell Olivia that it was actually Rowan who gave the order to kill Fitz’s son, not Jake. And Olivia records this conversation because it wasn’t Command who had Tom attacked, it was Olivia, doing it all to get a confession. She has clearly been paying attention to her father’s handiwork.
Olivia plays the confession for Fitz, who wants to know what they do next. Cut to the Super Secret Underground Presidential Bunker, the same one where Fitz, Mellie and Olivia met to hash out how to expose the affair in the season 3 premiere. Only this time it’s a different awkward love triangle as Olivia and Fitz meet with Jake to discuss how to take down Papa Pope.
Wow, this is the epic war we’ve been waiting for. Olivia has convinced both of her lovers to join forces to take down her dad. Helen of Troy is nothing compared to Olivia Pope.
Chip vs. Susan
A Virginia senator resigns in disgrace after a video of him dressed like a giant baby, drunk and pooping his diaper, goes viral. Fitz endorses none other than Chip Putney, aka Abby’s abusive ex-husband. And Leo Bergen is his campaign manager. Abby has a meltdown over this and Olivia comes to her rescue, deciding to take a lame, no-chance-in-hell candidate named Susan Ross and running her campaign to take down the wife-beating Chip.
Leo starts to worry when Olivia runs an amazing campaign ad starring Susan’s adorable 10-year-old daughter. She has bunny slippers, a missing tooth and tells the voters about how her mommy is smart, he dad is dead and her grandpa worked in a coal mine.
In response to this, Chip approaches Abby to try and get her to tell Olivia to stop. Abby, who has a total breakdown being approached by her former abuser in a parking garage, pulls a gun on Chip and almost kills him. She runs to Olivia, who suggests that Abby use her position as press secretary to tell the world her story and destroy Chip, but she doesn’t want to become a punchline like Monica Lewinsky.
Instead, she tells Leo about Chip’s abusive past. And Leo gets Chip out of the race, sabotaging his own campaign to help Susan win. Yes, it turns out Leo is a pretty decent guy, and as far as romantic gestures go, destroying the political future of your abusive ex-husband is pretty good. At least it’s good enough for Leo and Abby to make out in the press briefing room, with the potential for boob-touching. I instantly love this relationship a lot more than Abby and David.
Cyrus Goes on a Mole Hunt
An embassy is bombed in Angola and Cyrus uses this to flush out a mole. He feeds his gigolo Michael some disinformation, waiting to see if it gets back to RNC Chairwoman Elizabeth North. It doesn’t which makes him happy, but it does go to Mellie (who was told by Elizabeth). So wait, does Cyrus think Mellie hired a male prostitute to seduce him? Because I’m not sure when she could’ve found the time between eating chips at her son’s grave and wiping fried chicken grease on her bathrobe.
What’s Coming?
Quinn goes to see lawyer Jeremy Winslow about the photos of Olivia that Jeremy had his daughter killed to hide. Instead of giving answers about what it all means, he tells her “You can’t stop what’s coming” and then kills himself. That was cryptic, and Quinn and Huck decide to keep this from Olivia until they have more info since she’s busy with Jake, Abby’s ex and about a dozen other things. However, they eventually do tell her.
In bigger news, Huck is still playing video games with his son, only this time his son tracks him down by tracking Huck’s IP address (like father, like son) and wants to know why Daddy Huck left his family.
Next week on Scandal: The war between Papa Pope and Olitzake (or whatever you want to call that odd threesome) begins.
(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.
