This was another solid week for Scandal. The last few episodes have been steadily building towards a big Winter Finale, and this week we sprinted right for it. Jake is out of jail, and teamed up with Olivia and Fitz to take down Rowan. Huck, Quinn, (and unfortunately Javi) have a bloody stakeout session. Elizabeth and Cyrus compete for Olivia’s expertise, and Mellie gets her groove back.
But first, let’s jump right to that unlikely dream team of Jake, Fitz, and Olivia. They want to punish Rowan for killing Gerry and framing Jake, but how? Jake simply wants to kill Rowan immediately, while Fitz and Olivia want to put Papa Pope through a secret military-tribunal-type situation first. You know, for justice. Jake mentions all those B613 top-secret files he has stored in a locker, and everyone is on board to prove Rowan’s guilt during some form of a judicial process.
Ah, but first they have to get Rowan into custody. Fitz and Jake bicker about the safest way to barge into B613, but Olivia suggests they lure him out instead. “Your father isn’t a small child,” Fitz spits out, “you can’t just dangle a shiny object and expect him to come running.” Duh guys, Olivia is the shiny object, and she’ll lure him out with an invitation to dinner.
Did anyone else think it wouldn’t be that easy? I mean come on, this is Papa Pope. He’s Command. And you don’t take Command, Command takes you. I knew he’d slip away from that dinner unscathed. However, I didn’t know that he’d kill all those snipers and drop Olivia like a rag doll: “For the first time in your life, you are on your own,” Rowan warns Olivia. “You think the world is so terrible with me in it? Wait until you see what it’s like without me.” And then he turns on Olivia and slips out without paying the check, because ain’t nobody got time for that when there’s police on the way.
Now here’s the thing about that scene—Rowan kept saying things like, “You don’t know how they see you,” and “You don’t see who they are, what they want.” But as far as I’m concerned, Fitz, Jake, and Rowan all see Olivia the same way: as a shiny object to own. All three men desire this shiny object. They all want to possess it. Claim it. Control it.
Plus, all three men have fantasies about what they want to do with this shiny object—Fitz wants to make jam in Vermont, Jake wants to spend time in the sun, and Rowan wants to eat Sunday night dinners. Each man claims to have something unique and special with Olivia, but each of them only have a dream, a fantasy, a whisp of reality. Papa Pope may have said that he’s finished with Olivia, but we all know you can’t quit Liv that easily—eventually the fantasy will lure Rowan right back.
Papa Pope drama aside, I really enjoyed this episode because we got to see a lot of Elizabeth North. I like her character; not only is Portia de Rossi very fun to watch, but the Lizzie Bear storyline just got a whole lot more interesting this week. Last week we saw her cozying up to Mellie, and this week she saw her really cozying up with Andrew Nichols, the Vice President of the United States.
Oh yeah, you guys remember him? Mellie’s long-time lover is back, and he just survived a car bomb assassination attempt. Mellie watched the explosion on the news, and her womanhood had an explosion of it’s own: “That bomb went off and I woke up. My body woke up. I’m not the same person I was. Give it a try.” Oh and try he did. Mellie got her groove back when that red silky blouse was ripped right off of her. The only problem is, we saw Andrew pull the same move on Elizabeth later in the episode. Oh, poor Mellie. Both her husband and her side piece are cheating on her. She sure does know how to pick ‘em.
In other sexy-time news, we learned that Michael actually has feelings for Cyrus. Though Elizabeth hired him to spy on Cyrus, he hasn’t been reporting much. In fact, he actually snitches on Elizabeth and gives Olivia all the details about her secret apartment. So I guess Michael is really on Team Cyrus after all.
Um, yay? I don’t know, everything about Cyrus has me feeling kind of “meh” right now. I mean, I understand he’s grieving James, but did Shonda have to give him a full lobotomy this season? I miss his moxy. The old Cyrus would have caught onto Michael on Day One, and used him to blackmail Elizabeth in return. At the very least, the old Cyrus would have asked for Olivia’s help much earlier, and he wouldn’t have had to beg for it. To his credit, Cyrus told Olivia he’s been stupid, and I hope his newfound-knowledge about Michael’s loyalty will get Cyrus back into fighting shape before the Winter Finale.
Speaking of fighting shape… let’s talk about that tussle between Huck, Quinn, and Kubiak. Since OPA is surveying Elizabeth’s apartment, Huck is parked out front in a food truck, watching the feed from all the cameras he set up. Naturally, he uses this opportunity to spend quality time with Javi, because kids are great for late-night stakeouts. All is going well until Javi witnesses Huck and Quinn kill Kubiak. Javi drops his ice cream, flees away, and playtime is officially over. (See, this is why Bring Your Child to Work Day is a terrible idea.) Now that Kubiak is linked to Elizabeth, the Kaitlin Winslow murder just got a bit more interesting to me.
The episode closed with Papa Pope slipping into the night and David Rosen’s team discovering all the B613 files are now blank pages. The teasers for next week show Jake training Olivia to shoot a gun (because “she wants the kill shot,”) Quinn getting strangled, and did I see Maya Pope’s cell opened?! Oh lord, Shonda would drop Mama Pope on the Winter Finale. I don’t know if I can handle it.
Favorite Quotes:
“Did Kubiak make any moves?” “Only towards Type II Diabetes.”—Huck and Quinn, after Quinn watches a sedentary Kubiak eat his third donut.
“I’ve been told all the files have already been organized and color-coded.”—David Rosen pretending he hasn’t already read and dissected every inch of those B613 files.
?So what do you guys think? Is Rowan out of the picture for good, or will we see him next year? Why do you think Kubiak was at Elizabeth’s apartment? What other surprises do you think we’ll see in the Winter Finale? Sound off below!
Emily Worden is a Boston-based freelance writer and author of Make. Sell. Repeat. The Ultimate Business Guide for Artists, Crafters, and Makers. You can follow her on Twitter.