Scandal Episode 405: The Key

Scandal Episode 405: The Key

Scandal Episode 405: The Key shows Olivia trying to find out what happened to Jake as she works to exonerate her friend Katherine who is likely being framed by a shady character who works for her husband. Huck has been stalking his family and is subjected to an intervention that ends badly, and David is having a crisis of conscience over having used the B613 files to advance his interests at the expense of others including the judge who committed suicide after being blackmailed.

Quinn and Olivia are on a stake out when they see the murder of a teenage girl, Faith, who is the friend of the young girl who was killed a couple of episodes ago. She is meeting with the man who was last seen tussling with the victim, Caitlyn, over a folder in an elevator. The man’s name is Kubiak, and he is a shady former DC police chief who has something to hide that he is willing to kill to keep under wraps. He’s looking for a key that Faith likely got from Caitlyn before she died. Quinn figures out that the key that they’re searching for is actually in the dead girl’s body, so she breaks in the morgue to retrieve it. Oh, so we’re just slicing up bodies now Quinn? She needs to spend less time with Huck.

I must have missed the memo because Olivia is suddenly calling Jake her boyfriend and becomes alarmed when he stops returning her calls. Daddy Pope stops by for a nightcap and feigns ignorance of Jake’s whereabouts knowing full well that he signed his death warrant. He claims that Jake reminds him of himself when he was younger and implies that Jake might just be out pursuing other interests. I changed my mind about wanting Daddy Pope to adopt me because that man is ruthless and lies too easily. I wouldn’t be able to rest worrying about what he was planning, so never mind. “What if I’m supposed to be saving him right now instead of drinking wine with you?” she asks. He replied: “Olivia, what could have possibly happened to a man like Jake?” That is not much of an answer, but what can you expect from the grand wizard of deception.

Back at the Oval Office, Fitz demands to know why Jake hasn’t confessed, and Cyrus reminds him that he is B613 and trained to withstand normal interrogation and hints that it may be time to move on to less Constitutional techniques to get him to talk. He also advises The President that the people who work for him need to get some rest which they cannot do so long as he remains in the office. Cyrus offers to walk Fitz over to the residence, but he does not want to run into Smelly Mellie. Cyrus assures him that his lovely wife is probably either drunk or in a food coma from too much fried chicken, but he still refuses to leave the office.

Huck’s Intervention

Huck has been stalking his family and his ex-wife Kim warns him to stop before she calls the police on him again. Huck says that he needs to see his son and promises to stop once he sees the boy. Kim agrees and tells him to come back later that night, but when he returns there is a psychiatrist waiting to see him instead of his son. Huck started choking the doctor while telling Kim that he had told her the truth about what happened to him. I have a bad feeling about this because we know that he does not handle disappointment well. Kim is liable to come up missing.

Olivia tells Huck to find Jake, and he tracks him to his last known location — the White House. Olivia calls The President to ask him if he knew what happened to Jake, and he cannot believe that she is calling him to ask about her boyfriend.  Fitz hangs up on her, so she calls Cyrus who refuses to take her call, and then she calls Abby who informs her that she does not take orders from her anymore. Red, you really need to get over this ugly jealously that you’ve been displaying all season. It’s petty.

Cyrus pays Olivia a courtesy call to let her know that Jake is being held at the Pentagon for killing Gerry and Harrison and James. Olivia says that her father is behind it all, but Cyrus said he watched Rowan get the confession from Tom and that the next time she sees him he will be dancing on Jake’s grave. Okay, but Cyrus you were the one who asked Jake to kill James in the first place! That wig must be on too tight because it is apparently causing memory loss.

 

Olivia confronts her dad with the information she got from Cyrus, and he tells her a bunch of lies about training Jake to watch her and break up her relationship with Fitz and claims that Jake went rogue.

“You wanted to win the election. Jake knew that. He asked you to save him, to be with you repeatedly. He was obsessed with you. He gave you exactly what you wanted. And then he blamed the death of Gerry Grant on your mother creating a barrier that was insurmountable. So that you could never be with the President again. How could you when your mother was responsible for killing his son? What love could survive that? Jake made it so that you had no choice but to leave, to go away forever.”

This man must have ice water in his veins to be this evil without a shred of remorse.

Fitz Interrogates Jake

Fitz goes to the Pentagon to interrogate Jake and reveals that he knows that Jake was on the island with Olivia. Jake urges him to set his ego aside and be logical and had nerve to say that Olivia loves both of them because they wear the proverbial white hat – probably not the smartest thing to say to an angry, jealous man who has the power to end your life. Fooling with Jake, Fitz missed his daily visit to Gerry’s grave causing Mellie to assume that he was with Olivia. After a heated exchange, he yells that he was not with Olivia but was instead working to get a confession from the man who killed their son. He did not want her to find out what really happened, but Mellie says that she is relieved because that means that his death was not random and that he was like a soldier dying for them. Now I was with her up until she went off the deep end and started talking about him dying for their sins to give them another 4 years in the White House. Madam, your son is not the Blood of the Lamb, and I think it’s time for you to put down the scotch.

Disgusted by ole Smelly Mellie’s crazy rant, Fitz tells her to take her booze and her snacks and get the hell out of his office. He also warns her not to mention his son again. His words must have worked because she finally removes the dirty robe and Uggs and takes a shower.

David is Ruined

David had been drunk dialing Abby trying to score some quality time. He was on some ole Freddy Jackson Rock me Tonight stuff, but Red was not having it. So he showed up at her office and tells her all about what happened with Judge Sparks and said that he killed him trying to be Olivia Pope because he was tired of losing.

Filled with righteous indignation, Abby goes to Olivia’s house and tells her that she is poison because she ruined David. Instead checking this annoying broad once and for all, Olivia starts crying and tells Abby what Daddy Pope said about Jake killing Gerry and Harrison. Abby comforts her, and it looks like they may be finally making up after feuding all season.

Fitz goes back to the Pentagon and tells the men guarding Jake to stand him up. “Did you kill my son?” He growls before punching the hell out of Jake who is still denying any involvement in the murder. They go on like this for a few minutes while Jake taunts Fitz and tells him about all the things that he did to Olivia during the two months that they were on the island because we all know that’s what The President is really mad about right now.  Fitz literally beat the blood out of that man, but he was still laughing and gloating over having done the deed – repeatedly – with the President’s former boo thing. Jake, it’s been nice knowing you, but I think this is the end for you. Tell James that we said hi.

• Is Fitz going to kill Jake himself? I knew that he would punish the man for being with Olivia, but I never expected him to get his hands dirty.
• Who is going to bring down Daddy Pope? As much as I have enjoyed his character, he is doing too much this season. All this lying and manipulating has got to catch up with him soon, and there is a long list of people who want revenge for him ruining their lives.
• Is Tom already dead, or is he just in the hole being tormented? If Tom is still alive, he just may be the one that finally reveals the truth about Rowan.
• Where was Cyrus’ gigolo this week? Did he finally use up all of James’ insurance money and have to wait until his next paycheck to get broke off again?
• Is Smelly Mellie finally getting herself together? There have been a couple of false starts, so I don’t want to get my hopes up only to see her back on the couch funky and drunk.
• When is Shonda going to hook up one of these COGIC milliners with a contract to provide white hats to the show? It’s a recurring theme, and that lid that they got for Olivia last time was pitiful. I’m envisioning something like this:
  

  I could totally see Olivia rocking this

 

And they could totally get a black cap to cover Cyrus’ dreadful toupee.

Scandal Episode 404: Like Father, Like Daughter

Scandal Episode 404: Like Father, Like Daughter shows the chickens coming home to roost for Daddy Pope and Jake, and the last 5 minutes nearly gave me a heart attack with a twist that I saw coming but was not ready to witness. This could be the beginning of the end for Jake so we may as well start planning his funeral now. I’ve got $10 on the casket spray. Oh and it’s also not looking good for that ole two-faced Tom.

The library must have been open late because everyone was getting read tonight!  Cyrus got Abby, Olivia got some evil blackmailers and Fitz hit Smelly Mellie with the read of life that left her needing a shovel to pick up her face. That man said he had been sitting around singing “I Won’t Complain” for long enough!

Karen Grant Wilding Out

The Grant family continues to deal with the emotional fallout following the murder of Gerry, and this time First daughter Karen is the one in trouble. She ditches her security detail to go a rave 500 miles away from her school and calls Olivia for help when she is too wasted to find her way out. Olivia and Quinn go rescue her while Huck kills the cell phone service to the building so that no one would be able to upload any pictures or video to the Internet, but they soon realize that they have bigger problems because Karen made a sex tape with two young men and does not know their identities! The girl was so high that she could not even walk out on her own, so Olivia and Quinn had to prop her up.

Cyrus is basking in the afterglow with Michael telling him about how sprung he is and being downright affectionate. I guess $2,500 must buy quality action for his nose to be so wide open. His post-coital bliss is interrupted when Olivia calls to tell him to get the President on the phone because his daughter is auditioning to be America’s Next Teen Porn Star. Those crazy kids did something known as the Eiffel Tower, and while I refuse to Google it myself, I hear that it’s really a thing — who knew?

Back at the White House, Fitz goes from being worried about Karen to nearly snatching her up after she gets sassy with him about her exploits. Upon hearing that she took drugs, her concerned dad asked if she was raped, but Karen tells him that he is lame and wonders why he assumes that the boys took advantage of her. Olivia saves her by sending her off for a barrage of STD tests. You’re welcome bratty First daughter.

Fitz asks Olivia to find the boys and kill that tape before it gets out which means that she and her team have to be back in the White House with Abby and Mellie neither of whom are real happy with OPA right now. Also, they are trying to keep this from Mellie who is back to being sad and unwashed on the couch. Abby spots Huck and Quinn in the hall and starts harassing them about being there until Cyrus tells her to mind her business. She accused Cyrus of making her feel small by constantly siding with Olivia but he told her that it was not him but her own jealousy that was doing that and advises her to get her life. “You are not Olivia, you will never be Olivia, and hating Olivia for your own shortcomings will not change that fact.”  Get Red together Mr. Beene!

Daddy Pope meets Tom on a park bench and asks why Jake Ballard is still alive. Rowan warns him that he best handle it or be next on the hit list. Poor Tom. See what happens when you dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight? Right after Rowan leaves, Jake shows up and tells Tom that even if he does kill him he will be the next to die since Command cannot afford to leave any loose ends that could tie him to the President’s son’s death.

Olivia meets Fitz in the White House to let him know that they have identified one of the boys in the tape when he starts asking her where she went when she left town. He assumed that she was alone, and she does not correct him claiming that she needed some time alone. He says that he is sorry about her mother and she tells him not to be sorry because her mother did a terrible thing and ruined them. Girl, you don’t even know the half of it.

David Rosen is basking in his positive press coverage when Jake shows up demanding that he release the B613 files if Command kills him, but David says no. Jake asks for the files back and David says nope again because those files would bring down the government. Jake grabs him and nearly snaps his neck like a chicken bone before David gives him the key to the files.

Smelly Mellie Gets Read

Mellie sees Olivia in the hall, grabs her and demands to know what she is doing in “her house”. Olivia fixed her with a withering gaze and tells her to go ask her husband. She almost went all Marie Wallace on the First Lady because you know Mamma Pope did not raise a punk. My girl backed her up with one look.

Mellie assumes that Olivia is there for a rendevouz and goes off on Fitz for bringing her there. He told her that Karen called Olivia because she got in trouble and that Mellie should be glad that she was on it. Mellie makes the mistake of saying that she is the mother, this her family and she is the one who holds everything together and Olivia needs to go. She says she will fix it, and he needs to stay out of the way. If she wants to fix something, she might want to start with a bath and then move on to that bird’s nest on top of her head.

Fitz has had enough and unleashed all the saltiness that he’s been storing up since their son died:

“I have dealt with drunk Mellie and smelly Mellie, and screw everything to hell Mellie and crybaby Mellie and eat everything that is not nailed down Mellie and I have not complained, but I will not put up with whatever righteous history-rewriting Mellie you have going on right here right now. You are not the mother – not since Gerry died. You have mothered no one. You hold nothing together. You pick up no pieces. You are sitting around in booties and a dirty robe eating chips and getting drunk at 11:00 a.m.”

She had nerve to reply that Karen really takes after him by making a sex tape. Is that is the best she could come up with after that magnificent wig snatchage? And she must have forgotten that Karen busted her on her knees with Andrew not long ago. You can climb down off your high horse madam because your dirty drawers are showing,

Fitz Makes a Move

Karen was able to identify one of the boys by a tattoo, and Quinn tracks him down at his fast food job and makes him talk. He tells her about the other guy, a rich kid from Bethesda whose parents, the Morgans, want to be paid $2.5 million for the videotape. Liv takes the deal to Fitz who is angry, but Olivia advised him to pay them off to spare Karen the embarrassment of having that tape released. He goes from outraged dad to lovesick puppy in less than two minutes. He closes in on Olivia and asks her if she missed him. “Don’t ever leave me like that again. I almost didn’t survive. I almost died without you. Didn’t you miss me?” He moves in for a kiss and she blurts out that she did not go away alone which totally ruined the mood. He backed up and tells her to just say that she went with Jake. She does, and he had nerve to be upset about it. He tells her pay the Morgans and storms off. So the married man is upset that his mistress has a sidepeiece of her own. Cute.

Olivia meets with the Morgans again but this time they are asking for another $500,000 for expenses, and she goes off on them. She takes their pictures and promises to ruin them by leaking their pictures to the tabloids to assassinate their character by claiming that their son set up Karen to blackmail the President. Then she makes them sign papers and they scram with nothing other than a verbal smackdown.

Smelly Mellie goes to Karen and tells her that she understands her pain and that she is going to get one free pass because she is still grieving for her brother. But she warns her that she can’t have any more screw-ups because she is the daughter of a famous man.

The Jig is up for Tom

Fitz ordered an investigation of the Secret Service to find out what happened with Karen’s security detail, and the Inspector General finds a discrepancy in Tom’s schedule. The records indicate that he was in Maryland at a military base when he was supposed to be at the White House in November — the jig is up. Tom calls Jake in a panic, and he tells him to just tell the truth because he has evidence that will clear him. Ah Jake, have you learned nothing after all that time in the hole?

Jake shows up to the White House with his files but Fitz walks out and tells him he will be right back. He then heads over to watch Tom being questioned. Tom says he was acting on orders and was about to spill the beans when in walks Daddy Pope. Tom asks for a lawyer and then asks to speak to the President, but Rowan does not budge. He presents Tom with the evidence showing him at the facility where the bacterial strain of meningitis that killed Gerry was taken and demands to know who gave him the order.

Daddy Pope plays the hell out of Tom telling him that when he leaves the room no one is going to be on his side and that he needs his help. Tom lies and says that Jake gave him the orders. Rowan leans in and gives Tom a meaningful look just before he is cuffed and lead away. Meanwhile Jake, who was already at the White House, was lead off by a group of men.

• When will these characters learn that Daddy Pope always wins? That man is a wizard of deception and Jake sealed his fate last week during that dinner when he laid all his cards on the table. Hey, it was fun while it lasted.
• Did Fitz knowingly set Jake up for running off with his boo thing? Or does he really believe that he gave Tom the command to kill his son? While Fitz is petty enough to ice the guy just for being with Olivia, we all know that Daddy Pope is very persuasive. Fitz just might believe him.
• Will Smelly Mellie get it together for her children’s sake? Not only is Karen wilding out, but according to Fitz baby Teddy thinks that the nanny is his mother because Smelly spends no time with him.
• What’s next for David Rosen? Those B613 files were his ace in the hole, and he really did rely on them the last couple of times he was backed up against the wall. Will be go back to being a loser? Or will he find another way to step up?
• Although I do not want to see Fitz and Olivia together, those two do have undeniable chemistry. He is mad now because he found out that she was with Jake, but he’ll get over it just like he did before. But she may not forgive him for killing Jake.

Scandal Episode 403 Inside the Bubble

 

Scandal Inside the Bubble

Scandal’s third episode shows things improving nicely for the Grant White House. The court upholds the President’s gun control bill, Mellie snaps out of her grief and Cyrus gets his groove back even if he does have to pay for it. Alas, you know in Shondaland nothing is ever what it seems.

Inside the Bubble is where new Attorney General David Rosen finds himself after his passionate defense of the President’s Gun bill lands him in the President’s good graces. It’s a short-lived glory because despite his convincing arguments one of the judges, Sparks, indicates that he is going to overturn the law causing Fitz to have a meltdown about how he has given up everything for his job and it has to mean something. Desperate for a much-needed win, David blackmails Judge Sparks securing the victory along with his place in the President’s inner circle. David is all like Call me D.J. Khaled cuz All I do is Win ….for now.

Olivia drops by her dad’s house to say hi and he invites her to bring Jake over for dinner. Jake is not interested in dinner because she is not his girlfriend, as he keeps reminding her, but he tells her to let him know if she is up for any other activities. Boom chicka waa waa. This new Jake is a cheeky monkey, but I like it

Mourning Mellie Comes up for Air

Mellie is strangely invigorated by a story about a newlywed bride who is accused of pushing her husband off a cliff. Everyone is assuming that the woman is guilty, but Mellie is determined to prove her innocence and throws herself into the case. She is looking and acting like her old self for the first time since her son’s death, and Fitz orders Abby to give her whatever she wants when she starts acting like the defense counsel. Mellie’s rebirth is short-lived because some tourists come forward to vindicate the wife, and that was the end of that. She is soon back on the couch in her pajamas and Fitz has to apologize to Abby for being a jerk when she tried to warn him that his wife was being weird.

Jake hems Charlie up to confirm that Daddy Pope killed Adnan and Harrison and is prepared to torture him, but Charlie offers to tell him everything he wants to know in exchange for one night with Quinn. Ick. Now I do not know what he expected to happen, but she winds up putting him in a chokehold after telling him that she is not interested. She stays there all night and is disgusted when she gets back to the office the next day and no one even realizes that she was gone. She reads them off and tells that’s how Harrison wound up dead – because they were distracted. Actually he wound up “dead” because Columbus Short lost his mind and Mother Shonda had to regulate.

Mrs. Robinson and the Cloud

Olivia gets a call from an old law school friend whose stepdaughter has gone missing. Her friend Katherine is married to a high-powered lawyer who is currently out of the country, and she is trying to locate the daughter without involving the police. The girl has gone missing before so good ole stepmom doesn’t seem too worried, but it turns out that the girl didn’t just run away because they had a fight about college like Katherine originally said. Huck finds a sex tape that the stepmother made with the girl’s 17-year old former boyfriend and a voicemail from the girl that confirms the real reason for their fight. Huck had a laptop and may have gotten the video from its cloud storage.

Huck does not find out about what really happened until after  Quinn had already located the girl at a hotel and Olivia told Katherine where to find her. Olivia offered to have Quinn bring the girl back home, but the stepmother insisted on going to get her on her own. And by the time Olivia realizes what really happened, the girl is dead and she immediately suspects that her friend killed the kid to keep her quiet. Katherine denies any role in the girl’s death, and Huck finds elevator footage showing the girl in an altercation with a man who is trying to take a folder from her. They cannot determine his identity, but they suspect that he may be the killer.

Papa Don’t Take No mess

 

Jake decides to accompany Olivia to her dad’s house for dinner, and when she excuses herself to take a call, he tells Rowan that he knows about him killing Harrison after he learned the truth about how little Gerry was killed and warns him that he better pack up and leave town before Olivia finds out. Daddy Pope jumps up with a knife and tells Jake that not only is not going anywhere, he will be standing over him when he dies. So much for polite dinner conversation.

After a couple more flirty encounters, Cyrus seals the deal with his new friend who charges him $2,500. Cyrus pretended to put up a fight talking about how he doesn’t pay for sex, but the gigolo informs him that the money is for discretion and suddenly that makes it alright. For $2,500 ole dude should have painted the house, cleaned the gutters and raked the leaves. I hope Baby Ella has a college fund while he is out here procuring services at that rate.

At the end of the episode, we see Katherine being arrested for her stepdaughter’s murder, and David learns that Judge Sparks committed suicide. David dug up an old hit and run case where the judge killed a mother and child but was never charged. I really enjoy how they are finally letting David experience some wins even if he is playing dirty. He is finally using those B613 files that Jake gave him, but is he going to become just another heartless manipulator? It has not worked out that well for the others – just ask Cyrus.

• Will David keep blackmailing folks now that he’s driven one person to suicide? Or is his newfound power too irresistible?
• Is Olivia friend’s really guilty?  Or was she set up by someone else who knew about her predicament? And how dumb is she to have uploaded a sex tape to the cloud. These freaks are going to learn their lesson about that one of these days.
• Just when is Daddy Pope going to off Jake? Because you know those two cannot peacefully co-exist and when he sat up in that man’s house and told him to shut up, I was very afraid for him. Jake, you in danger girl. I was sitting here like this while he was spouting off 
• Why was Olivia not wearing a scarf when Huck rolled up on her in the middle of the night? I know good and well her hair would not be laying that flat if she was just sleeping on it all loose like that on a regular basis.
  

  This is not the hair of someone sleeping w/o a scarf

• Is Cyrus going to figure out that he’s getting tricked?  His nose is wide open right now and he is about to wind up in the National Inquirer. The old Cyrus would have peeped this guy’s game from the first time they met and sent him packing with the shadiest of takedowns this side of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
• I am very happy to see Olivia not running back to Fitz and getting back to fixing stuff for other folks. And I want her to have a real relationship with her dad which means that Jake has to go. It was fun while it lasted, but this girl needs parental guidance and her mother is not available at the moment. She’s also an unrepentant terrorist, but no one is perfect.

 

 

Scandal Episode 402: The State of the Union

The State of the Union

One week into the new season of Scandal and clearly the State of the Union is not great. Mellie is crazed with grief, Abby is power tripping, Huck is still crazy, Quinn is not worth discussing and Olivia is still torn between two men. This week’s episode was slow, and Mellie and Cyrus were the ones who saved it from being a complete bore.

The episode opens with Jake and Olivia jogging in a park when he informs her that he got a hotel room so that they can have booty calls. He claims that he has things to do can’t be sitting around waiting until she’s ready to drop the drawers and says that she can just call him up when she’s ready. Olivia says that she doesn’t do booty calls and I think we can all agree to just let that slide for the sake of moving the plot along – we know better.

Calling in a Favor

Olivia spots Cyrus on a park bench where he pretends to care that she did not call him to say she was back in town. He had the nerve to tell her that she looks like crap meanwhile he looks like he has an old ferret pelt on his head. Check your mirror sir. Olivia knows his game and asks him if they are even still friends. Cyrus asks for a favor and  threatens to blackmail her when she tells him that she does not work for the White House anymore. He must have forgotten about his own numerous skeletons and the fact that her father will eliminate him on a whim.

 

He needs her to babysit a feuding couple, the Elliots, who are supposed to be the President’s guests at the State of the Union. Theirs is a celebrated love story, but the truth is that they hate each other, and Cyrus is counting on Olivia getting them to play nice just long enough to show up for the speech.

 

Mourning Mellie Makes the Tabloids

Photos of mourning Mellie siting on her son’s grave eating chips are published leading to wide speculation about her mental state. The President will be talking about gun control, and they do not need any distractions because the topic is controversial and his party is opposed to it. Abby did a poor job of defusing the drama during a press conference, yet when Olivia offers her some advice she goes off and tells her former employer that she does not know anything. This broad is really getting brand new this season.

The photos of Mellie sitting on the grave are all over, so Fitz and Cyrus explain that all this chatter is very bad for The White House during a crucial time, and they ask her to make herself presentable and come to the State of the Union address, but Mellie is like nope, I’m not going to be able to do it. Mellie was chilling on the balcony with a fresh platter of southern fried chicken and couldn’t manufacture a portion of a damn if you paid her. Fitz walks off leaving Cyrus to try to reason with the First Lady, but she is not having it. She even tells Cyrus that his grief not the same as hers because she lost her child.

Cyrus may be a shady weasel, but I am tired of the Grants trying to diminish his grief, and so is he. He lets Mellie know that he resents her acting like his loss is less than hers. “A broken heart is a broken heart. It’s cruelty to take measure,” he notes between bites of chicken.

Mrs. Ellen Plays Hardball

Lizzie, the RNC chair, digs up those fake photos of the woman who David supposedly beat back when Harrison made up the whole thing to keep Abby away from him. Although the pictures are fake, Lizzie tells Cyrus that if they do not withdraw David’s nomination for Attorney General those photos will be leaked to the press. David assumes that Olivia is behind it and says that she has no loyalty to anyone and says that is why Abby doesn’t work for her anymore. David bribes a Senator to endorse him so that he can still get the job, but this means that Lizzie is going to have to find another way to get some leverage to use against the White House.

Cyrus is having a drink at a bar when a handsome stranger starts flirting, but he was as nervous as a schoolgirl on her first date. That man had him all flustered and at a loss for words. Okay Miss Cyrus, you have to jump back in the pool at some point.

Sassy Abby gets Mellie together with a rant about how she needs to get on her job and show up to the President’s speech because she is not the only mother to have lost a child. After having initially waved Abby off, Mellie puts on a fierce red dress and shows up for the speech where the President praises her for her strength. She was strong in public breaks down once it’s over and falls out in the floor.

Cyrus Picks Up a Gigolo

Cyrus goes back to the bar to pick up the man who was sizing him up and later realizes that the man is a male prostitute. He tries to resist him but the gigolo wears him down.

Cyrus after finally getting broke off

I knew that man was too fine to be checking for Cyrus’ old butt without some ulterior motive, and we learn that the RNC chair set the whole thing up! Mrs. Ellen, you just got here and really need not start showing out this soon. We have rules and a hierarchy around this camp, and Cyrus is the one who sets folks up. You, madam, are out of order.

Jake really does have some business to attend to and is looking over the coroner’s files on Harrison Wright. He was reviewing the photos when Olivia shows up at his hotel room wearing only a trench coat and boots, and that was the end of that.

I was worried that they were going to send Olivia right back into Fitz’ arms – especially after he asked to be alone with her. I guess as long as Jake is around she can hold off for a few more weeks but those two will be eventually be together again. The fate of the other characters is not so clear.

• Is Harrison coming back to the show? I miss his character, and I have to believe that Columbus Short learned his lesson and would be a model employee from here on out. He would probably organize the office potluck and everything.
• Just where are they going with Mellie’s grief? It’s an interesting angle, and it is making her a sympathetic character, but it’s going to get old after a couple of episodes. And where the heck is baby Teddy?
• When is Olivia going to check Abby once and for all? She’s getting too comfortable spouting off every week, and Red needs not to be so quick to read the woman who saved her.

• How is Cyrus going to react to getting played? Mrs. Ellen and that sex worker better get some new identities and passports because Cyrus is going to sic Charlie on them once he figures out what really happened.