With the season 3 of Scandal ticking down — just two more episodes left after this one — “Fluffer” set up what should be a doozy of a finale. Mama Pope, B613, the campaign: Everything is interconnected, yet everything is up in the air.
Red Pill or Blue Pill?
Let’s give a Abby a pat on the back for being a dutiful proxy for Olivia. She tries her best even with Cyrus basically laughing at her, everyone walking out of the strategy meeting, and having her name butchered by everyone who matters.
But there’s only one Olivia, and she’s back on her game when she “fixes” the Mellie/Andrew situation. Because of Fitz, she offers him two choices: the vice presidency, or Mellie. At first, it really did seem as if Andrew would go with the love of his life, but in the end, he does the right thing (for Fitz) by choosing him. Just like Olivia predicts he would, he goes with power over love.
Mellie’s reaction to Andrew suddenly turning down her advances is golden — she knows how this works all too well to figure out that Fitz was behind Andrew’s reaction. So she storms into the Oval Office — and with Cyrus and other staffers right there, and she slaps him!
We feel you Mellie. Fitz gets everything and you have nothing.
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Three’s a Crowd
Jeannine Locke is back with a tell-all memoir. She had signed a contract about not going public with her affair, but it seems someone got to her and paid her even more. Who else but Reston?
After some fighting, Cyrus leaks the news about Sally’s daughter who had an abortion; this actually brings Sally and Fitz’s campaigns together for the common goal of taking Reston down so it will essentially be a two-person race.
It’s actually quite nice to see them working together rather than going after each other. All it took was a case file Olivia had on him, a visit to Reston’s wife in prison to hand over said file and a video camera that goes viral after his angry woman-hating rant. Bye, bye, Reston.
Just Doing Her Job
Olivia’s mission is to take down B613. And despite her father being against this, it’s no surprise she doesn’t. So his attitude is basically like, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. He explains how it’s funded: operating off the books and taking a little bit from every department of the government and rerouting it into a black box account.
Except when Huck gains access to it — there’s nothing there. Olivia, so blinded by her feelings, actually accuses her father of not telling the truth/playing with her. Of course, Jake moves the money elsewhere! Sometimes, I wonder about our girl.
Anyway, because command is the only person with access to codes, accounts, etc., Huck believes if Jake’s phone can be tapped, then he’d be able to piggyback off that and infiltrate the system. And the only way to do that apparently? Is to sleep with Jake. Because why not. Because just in the beginning of the episode, she wouldn’t even open the door for him (well, he was drunk).
After doing the deed, Olivia gets what she needs.
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Ready to Blow
Meanwhile, Mama Pope is on the move — and that’s out. At least Charlie and Quinn are in charge of watching her, even though they’re not to make a move without command’s orders.
She collects fake passports, kills her “mentee” who first gives Harrison the cold shoulder when he asks about her boss’ whereabouts and so rudely interrupts Sunday dinner between her husband and daughter.
What is she up to? Oh, just the bomb of all bombs.
She’s going to kill the president. Charlie and Quinn sees it, Jake sees it, but doesn’t want them to do anything. They need to keep watching.
At just about the same time, Huck has done it — he’s inside B613’s entire network of craziness. And with Olivia’s order, and a keystroke or two … poof. It’s all gone! B613 ceases to exist.
Well, that throws a wrench into keeping an eye on Mama Pope because the computers shut down, Jake’s office goes black — the phones are even disconnected.
Oh crap, Olivia, what have you done?
Gone, Girl
Charlie chases after Quinn who busts into Mama Pope’s hotel room, but they’re already gone. Charlie points out that Quinn’s been on Olivia’s side all along.
Back at Olivia’s office, Jake comes bursting in, and throws Olivia up against the wall, asking what she’s done. (Sidenote: Scott Foley confirms that it was a body double he threw, not a very pregnant Kerry Washington.)
So Mama Pope and bad friends are on the run, there’s a giant bomb, previews show it’s embedded underground at the site of Fitz’s speeches, and an hour is ticking down. What is going to happen?
Scandal airs Thursdays at 10pm on ABC.
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(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
