Scandal Episode 316: The Fluffer

Scandal Was Doing Too Much This week

From the risqué title to the dramatic final closing scenes, this week’s episode came close to doing way too much. For those of you who do not know what a fluffer is, Google it, because this is a PG blog and I am not going there. And as if that title was not pushing it far enough, the President’s fake mistress returns with a tell all book describing the Presidential package. Olivia handles Andrew who kicks Mells to the curb, Abby & Leo take down Governor Reston, Mamma Pope and Eli almost get to scrapping in public, and Jake goes ballistic after getting played by Olivia yet again.

After the Grant family interview last week, Olivia is stepping back from the White House and sends Abby over to run the campaign meeting.  Abby was so proud of  herself wearing one of Olivia’s old coats armed with lots of polls and data, but none of them is having it. Realizing that Olivia is not attending the meeting, Fitz walks out followed by Mellie and Andrew without so much as a “good day madam.”  The king of shade is back in rare form and insists on calling her “Gabby” which sticks, and he compliments her on the coat before leaving.

Olivia is meeting with her father to lock down the source of B613 funds and asks him to promise not to hurt Fitz, but the only thing that he is going to promise her is another epic read since she can’t seem to get it together. Daddy Pope is not completely evil, so he promises that he won’t hurt a hair on the boy President’s head -it’s the rest of him that they need to be worried about. It turns out that B613 has a secret account that they used to siphon money from all the other federal agencies. Huck is angry when he learns that the she got the info from her dad and refuses to help her hack into the account, but she tells him that he works for her and they all do things that they do not want to do.  This will come back to bite her later when they need to get to Jake’s phone.

The Return of the Fake Mistress and Shady Cyrus

Jeanine Locke, the former staffer who they paid off to pretend to be Fitz’ mistress, is back with a book about her fictional time as the Presidential mistress. She made up a whole story about the affair and alludes to his bedroom prowess and his “baguette.” Just tacky. They suspect that Sally is behind it and Cyrus decides to leak the the story of Sally’s teenage daughter getting a secret abortion which backfires because it makes her more sympathetic to female voters. Olivia tears into him for causing this problem and he replies “You can’t just lie down on the job and send some amateur in here because your boyfriend was mean to you.” Oh Cyrus, how I’ve missed your shady takedowns.

Fitz throws a tantrum over Liv sending Abby to the White House and wants to remove Andrew from the ticket because he is not trying to run with Mellie’s boo thang. She tells him that it would be a bad move to dump him now and asks him what else he needed in a very cold way since she is still feeling like the help. Fitz picks up on her tone and repeats her question and she launches into a tirade asking him about what services she would be required to provide for him today “Am I here to stroke your ego, am I your cheerleader? Am I here to wipe your tears…maybe I am here to make you feel hot and manly and ready so that you are not jealous of your wife’s boyfriend? Am I your fluffer today Fitz?” He replies that he is not the bad guy and tells her that she wants it to be easy but it is not. He also tells her that she was being disgusting, but I think he was into it.

Jake sends Charlie and Quinn to take over the surveillance of Mamma Pope who was getting her swerve on with some criminal type dude who is going to bring her flowers. So that is what the kids are calling it these days.  Harrison approaches Claire, one of Marie’s operatives, trying to figure out where she is and what she is planning, but Claire is like nope I’m trying to learn from the master thug.  Charlie starts questioning Quinn again about her loyalty and asks her if she can be faithful to him and B613. Ole needy &  jealous self.

Jake Channels Lennny Williams

A drunk and lonely Jake shows up at Olivia’s door in the middle of the night demanding that she let him in. They might as well have been playing Lenny Williams’ “Cause I Love You” in the background because ole dude was pouring out his heart talking about how he asked her save him and she said no. Sigh. This man is turning into a stalker, and she later capitalizes on the fact that he still loves her by going over to his place and giving up the goodies to gain access to his cell phone. Huck has something that can turn the phone into a transmitter giving them access to all of B613’s network  infrastructure, but the device must be attached to Command’s phone for 30 seconds. I guess a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, but I was so worried that Jake was going to catch her with his phone!

Fitz is still trying to replace Andrew on  the ticket but Liv tells him that it’s impossible, so she decides to have a chat with Andy to tell him that he can either be vice president or keep creeping with Mellie.  Olivia warns him that if he chooses Mellie, she will ruin him and Mellie will leave him because Mellie likes to stomp with the big dawgs. “Screw Mellie or be VP. It’s your choice.” Andrew says that he loves her. Olivia was not impressed and tells him that he has 24 hours to decide but it’s been her experience that men like him will choose power over love every time.

Abby & Leo Take Down Gov. Reston

Abby and Leo are dispatched to leak Governor Reston’s file to who his wife who is in prison for falsely claiming that she was being raped when her husband walked in on her and her sidepiece. She did not realize that the Gov. knew what was up and used that as an excuse to kill the man and get away with it while  Mrs. Reston rots in prison. His wife asks if he knew that the man was her lover, and he told her that she better keep quiet before he has her committed to a mental hospital. He didn’t know that he was being filmed or that the video would soon be posted online by Abby. He just got Poped.

Olivia is at a restaurant with her father when mama Pope strolls in and helps herself to a glass of wine. Oh she is not there for a family reunion, she has come with a warning for Liv to find a new line of work because what she is doing is liable to get her murked. Daddy Pope was so mad that he reached for a knife and Marie dares him to try it, and he doesn’t.  I think Daddy Pope met his match. Harrison calls during this awkward dinner to say that the Claire is dead. Speaking of Harrison, how are they going to NOT address him getting stabbed in the neck with a needle last week? We didn’t forget! Olivia tells him to get back to the office and calls her mother a monster which she probably took as a compliment.

Mellie Goes all Ike Turner on Fitz

Mellie does really well at the Warrior Women campaign event and is so excited that she finds Andrew at the White House and asks him if he wanted to “talk.” Boom Chicka Wa Wa. He was all like, nope, I’m good, and she realizes that Fitz shut it down because earlier Andrew was professing his love and begging her to love him back. She walks into Fitz’ office during a meeting and slaps the dog crap out of him and yells “You take everything from me!” Homegirl leaned into that slap and unleashed the fury of three years of public humiliation. Cyrus tries to clear the room, but Mellie tells them stay and icily warns Fitz “You just keep being the President.” They are going to drive ole Mells back to the hooch just when she thought she had her groove back. He better sleep with one eye open in Teddy’s room.

Huck manages to break the code to gain access to B613’s network and blows it up, and they make the mistake of being too proud of themselves toasting and making speeches. Just as they are feeling really pleased with themselves, Jake bursts in with a gun, slams our girl against the wall and chokes her.  It turns out that Marie’s suitor delivered a bomb -the Mona Lisa of Boom according to Charlie. Quinn wanted to move in right away but Jake tells her to wait, and then they lose all communications because the network was shut down before Jake gave them permission to move. Quinn decides to go anyway, but Marie is gone by the time they get to the hotel. “At least know we know whose side you’re on,” Charlie whines. It did not take Jake long to figure out what happened to B613’s network, and he told Olivia that she just killed the President.

For all the action crammed into this episode, I was actually bored for the first half.  I am sick of Fitz’ tantrums and whiny speeches – he never wants to accept blame for anything. I am also tired of Olivia crying about Vermont and Jam — it’s never going to happen. Get over it. I really do not like the way they have her playing Jake and whoring herself out just to get what she needs. Surely there had to be another way to get access to his phone.

I think Daddy Pope and Marie may be in cahoots because they both have the same objective -to  get rid of Fitz. There is bad blood there but you know Marie is gangsta enough to overlook her personal feelings to get what she wants. And then she’ll kill him or die trying.

Charlie is going to kill Quinn. He keeps on questioning her about her loyalty to Olivia, and I have a feeling that he knows about her and Huck slobbing each other down, and he is not going to just stand by and let that happen without retaliation.

I cannot believe Jake put his paws on Olivia! Granted, she was trifling, but I am about tired of seeing her getting choked out. First Huck hemmed her up and now this dude. Her new theme song needs to be “Protect Ya Neck,” by the Wu Tang Clan.

I am trying to hang on in there with Shonda and them, but it’s getting more difficult each week. There is no one to like on this show anymore, no one to root for because they are all flawed, damaged and borderline pychotic. I live for Mama Pope and the chaos that she brings, but even that will get old after a while. OPA needs to get back to fixing stuff and soon.

Scandal Episode 315-Mama Said Knock You Out

 

 

Scandal – No Funeral for James?!

I just knew that we would see some of James’ funeral this week. Although it would not have been nearly as good as what the fans were planning online, I was hoping to see  a tearful eulogy, a moving solo or someone throwing themselves across the casket. We did finally get to see Baby Ella for the first time in like a year, so that is some consolation. Oh, and Cyrus figured out what really happened, but he can’t do anything about it.

The episode opened with Liv running around looking frazzled trying to get a tv reporter to delay an interview. The Grant children, Gerry and Karen, are back from school to present the picture of one big happy family– only they are not so happy. Fitz’  brother/son is secretly running a hostile Twitter Account “Fuhrer Fitz” that he is using to smear his dad and he is planning to sabotage the interview while wearing a Reston t-shirt. Karen is dripping with disdain for her father until she catches Mellie in the act with “Uncle Andrew” and then she directs her venom towards Mommie Dearest going so far as to tell her shut up. It’s like early Thanksgiving in that joint. They need to call Iyanla to fix all their lives.

Olivia thinks that they can stop B613 if they can identify and cut off their funding. Yeah, like there is a line item somewhere for secret assassins. Huck warns them that they are on a suicide mission. “You don’t take down B613. You run, you hide or you die, and B613 survives. It always survives.”  Huck again tells Olivia that they need to rescue Quinn, but Olivia is not having it since Huckleberry Quinn pulled a gun on her the last time she tried to save her.

Rolling With Dmitri

Quinn and Charlie are driving at night with Charlie grilling her about what happened between her and Huck in her apartment. He has lots of questions and seems almost jealous. He offers to kill Huck for her, but she says she is done with him and the rest of Olivia Pope and Associates.  She tells him that they have work do do and once the car stops she pops the trunk and the camera closes in on a bound man she calls Dmitri – that would be the same Dmitri who met with Marie Wallace, AKA the Notorious MOM, last week.  Dmitiri is part of some Ukrainian crime ring, and the government was following him. He is apparently the advance man for Ivan who stood up Marie at the meeting last week – you know the meeting where she shot someone without batting an eyelash.

Olivia is asking for more time to prep the kids before the interview but Fitz wants to play kissy face while Mellie and Andrew are carrying on all over the White House like a couple of horny teenagers.  Hey Andy, Don Draper called, and he wants his hand up the skirt move back! Later  that day, Olivia is strutting down the hall when she spots Mellie coming out of an office grinning like a fool only to be followed out by Andrew just seconds later. She warns him to stay away from Mellie because they cannot stand another sex scandal, and he doesn’t even bother denying it. Instead he smirks about glass houses before walking away.

Rowan calls Olivia and warns her to back off B613 because they have eyes and ears everywhere. He had to call in some favors to spare her this time but she is pushing it. She is not hearing it, so he hangs up.

Marie calls Ivan and warns him to show up or else. He is spooked because he has not heard from Dmitri who we last saw in the trunk of Charlie’s car. Adnan suggests that they call the whole thing off since they are having problems with their crew, but Marie lets her know that there is no way out unless she says so, and I have a feeling that her way out involves an unmarked grave.

Mellie Gets Busted With Andrew

Fitz confronts Gerry about his Twitter account and the Reston t-shirt he bought online. Gerry says  he didn’t say anything that wasn’t true and starts yelling about his brother/dad going through his things. Karen leaves in a huff running smack dab into a partially clothed Mellie and Andrew who were fogging up the windows in another room. Mellie tries to smooth things over by telling Karen that it wasn’t what it looked like, but Karen saw her on her knees and starts yelling at her to shut up and says that she is leaving.

Fitz meets with Jake and demands that he gives up Dmitiri. Jake said that even if he had him, which is not admitting to, he would not hand him over because he is not the President’s bytch. Fitz tries to pull rank but Jake clowns the hell out of him by telling him that he looks pretty and talks tough but does nothing. I think  one of the requirements for being Command is the ability to master indignant monologues.

Cyrus’ Confession

Cyrus bursts into Fitz’ office  and attacks Jake with a vase because he knows that he killed James. I thought Cyrus was about to have another heart attack the way he was breathing all hard and with his eyes bugging out of his head. Jake handled Cyrus without  breaking a sweat and had nerve to say that he was sorry for his loss- just wrong. Cyrus later confides to Fitz that James would have brought down Sally and their entire administration had he lived and says that he brought it on himself. I hope James comes back to haunt all of these heathens! How are you going to shoot someone, stick around to usher him to the other side and then have nerve to give your condolences to the man’s husband? The same husband who put a hit on the victim, twice, and then had audacity to say it was his own fault. Hell to the no!

Mama Pope Breaks it Down

Marie calls Olivia and asked her to return Adnan who is over at OPA trying to get immunity because she is pretending to be afraid but she is really playing Harrison. Olivia calls her mama a traitor and a terrorist, but Marie tells her that she might be a traitor, but she would rather be that than the help cleaning up behind “those people.” Mamma ends the call with a thinly veiled threat telling her that if that is all Olivia wants out of life, she will stay out of her business so long as she stays out of hers.

Mellie is hitting the scotch after that scene with Karen and Olivia suggests that she switch to coffee since she still has to do that interview. Mellie says that they need to cancel the interview but Olivia says that she can’t do that which prompts Mells to imperiously ask what they were paying her to do – right after Mama Pope called her the help too?! Ole Mellie got some bass in her voice after finally getting her pipes cleaned.

Jake sends Quinn to meet with Huck to find out what he wants, and Huck says that he wants Jake to free her from B613. She asked him why he was suddenly trying to save her when just last week he wanted to kill her. She licks his face – ick – and they start making out before she pushes him away. Charlie is not going to like this. Quinn returns home to find that Charlie moved in, without asking, and has cooked dinner to celebrate.

Harrison gets freaky with Adnan in the office again and afterwards she stabs him with a syringe of who-knows-what which paralyzes him. Ah Harrison, you finally get more than 10 seconds on screen and it turns out like this.

Jake Comes for Daddy Pope Who is Never Scared

Jake visits Rowan at his day job and tells him to stay out of his business because he heard that he had been calling around asking questions. Jake asks him if he needs to revisit the terms of Daddy Pope’s retirement which launches Rowan into another epic read. I thought he was going to hit him with that same “you are a boy” speech that he gave Fitz, but he instead tells Jake that he is alone and not his equal. Jake thanked him for reminding him that when -not if- he decides to kill him he needs to do it alone. Daddy Pope responds with a nod and a look that invites him to leap if he’s feeling froggy. Man, it would have been perfect had they played BoneCrusher’s “Never Scared” during that scene.

 

Karen told Fitz about Mellie’s extracurricular activities. The boy President runs off to find to find Andrew and punches him right in the face. Mellie tries to help Fitz with his busted hand but he waves her off and starts asking how long she’d been creeping with Andrew. He says that she turned him away after Gerry was born claiming that having a baby changed her and she was no longer interested in sex. He started yelling at her for ruining their marriage because he would not have cheated if she was not frigid for all those years. This reminds me of when Cyrus brought Olivia in for the first campaign and Fitz got mad because she said he looked like he doesn’t have sex with his wife – she was right!

Fitz Puts Olivia in Her Place

Olivia is listening outside the whole time while Fitz is going after Mellie for how she ruined their marriage.  He gave her plenty of chances to tell him that his drunken father raped her, but she would only say that she had given up more than he would ever know. This made him angrier, and Fitz started yelling at her: “All you have done is deny me love and scheme to have power. You tell me one thing that you have done, one thing that you have sacrificed… What have you lost?!” Olivia walked in as he was berating Mellie who stands there looking like a deer in the headlights.  Liv tries to intervene, only to have Fitz scream that he is talking to his wife further reinforcing the reality of her being the Help. Our girl is having a bad day.

Having had enough of the Grants’ abuse, Olivia leaves.  On the way out of the White House she sees Cyrus who tells her that unlike him, she can play through the pain while he is going home to cry over his dead husband. “Tell me we’re not the help,” she pleads. “I’d be lying if I did. You know what we do,” Cyrus replies without his normal shade.

Olivia returns to tell Fitz to fix his family because it is not her place and they still have to do that interview. “I am at work. This is my job! If this interview is a disaster then I will have failed at my job, and I cannot afford to fail at my job because this is all I have left!” I hope this means that she is finally done with him because that man does not mean her any good.

Fitz walks up to Mellie who is steeling herself for another cursing out, but Fitz extends his hand. She takes it, and they go talk to their children, and they all show up for the interview just in the nick of time. Cyrus is watching from home with Ella who is not a baby anymore, and it looks like he is crying.

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David and Abby return to the office with Adnan’s immunity deal only to find Harrison on the floor bleeding from the mouth. Meanwhile, Adnan is showing  Marie and Ivan a flash drive containing information that she stole from Olivia’s PC after drugging Harrison. It is full of confidential campaign info including itineraries, exit routes and personnel. But wait – Jake has them under surveillance yet decides not to stop them because he wants to see what they are planning.

Rowan calls Olivia and tells her that she is looking in the wrong place for B613 funding because they get money from everyone. She asks why he is helping her, and he says that it’s because they are family, and family sticks together. The camera zooms in on the Grants seated for their interview once again demonstrating that they are family and she is not. Fade to black…..

Eh, after last week, I did not feel this episode was all that good:

• I am tired of Olivia being bullied and disrespected by everyone. She is averaging something like one death threat per show and can’t even get any comfort from her own mother. And Fitz’ sorry arse had nerve to pull the ole “that’s my wife” card when she was only trying to help? He wasn’t worried about his wife when he was pushing up on her in his office.
• Also, I am sick of Mellie protecting Fitz’ sorry daddy. Why won’t she just tell him the truth so he can stop acting like she is some frigid monster?
• I do not know what they are planning to do with Huck and Quinn, but I am not here for it! Quinn needs to go, and I do not care how they do it, but she needs to disappear pronto.
• Jake best think twice before coming for Daddy Pope. I don’t know if he had a bowl of Wheaties before that confrontation, but Rowan was in charge for too long to be intimidated by someone selected by the Boy president. And if they do kill him off it’s not going to be alright.
• It rained all night long, and I have DirectTV so I missed half the show due to signal loss and had to watch it online this morning.  I was not amused.

 

Scandal – No Sun on the Horizon

Who Shot Ya?

Last night’s episode was the best in a long time, and I don’t think I breathed for the last 3 minutes. The ending was a major cliffhanger that makes us look at Jake in a whole new way. I was not buying him as the new Command – Rowan is a tough act to follow- but Jake showed that he is not playing games anymore.

Sally Langston is officially crazy. She has gone all Lady Macbeth after having killed Daniel Douglas and is now talking about confessing to get back in the Lord’s good graces. Problem is, if she talks, a lot of folks are going to jail and Cyrus and them are not having it.

Olivia Learns the Truth

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the gladiators are telling Liv that Sally killed her husband and Cyrus and Mellie covered it up. She does not believe it, not because she thinks it’s impossible, but because she thinks Cyrus would have called her first. Once she confronts him and realizes that it’s true, homegirl cracks up. Then she tells him that he is on his own because she wants to walk in the light and feel the sun on her face.

Liv returns to her fallback guy Jake claiming that she wants to pretend to be normal and does not want to talk about what is really going on. Jake asks her to run away with him and then they get it on. Problem is, he took the roll in the hay for more than it was, and starts catches feelings all over again. Big mistake Jake. Sigh, when will he learn? Cue that old Babyface hit “Whip Appeal.”

Cyrus decides that the best way out of this mess is to kill  Sally, but his go-to assassin, Charlie, has been grounded, so Cyrus meets with Jake to try to convince him that Sally needs to die for the greater good.  Unmoved by Cyrus’ speech about saving the Republic, Jake declares that he is not his errand boy and proceeds to put him in his place with this gem, “You are small, and while I’d love to explain to you how the world really works, I don’t have the time, and you wouldn’t understand it.” Um, so who is this new Jake standing up there reading the King of Shade like an elementary school primer? No one talks to Cyrus like that. 

Jake comes to see Olivia and tries to get her to talk about her problems, but she refuses to tell him anything. He tells her she can trust him to keep her secrets and asks her to stand in the sun with him. Notice a trend here? She sighs, and he finally realizes that she is still hung up on Fitz so he leaves– after picking up his face. Realizing that he is not going to get help from his fake girlfriend, Jake sends Quinn to Olivia’s office to find out what she is hiding.  Just like the over-eager puppy that she has always been,  Quinn happily breaks into the safe and steals all the info about the murder and cover-up. Man, I see another impromptu dental session with Huck in her future real soon….

The Debate Gets Heated

During the debate, Sally tries to shade Fitz for his moral failings, and he basically tells her that she can walk over, but she’ll be limping back noting that her husband is now dead. Olivia called him before the debate, so he knew that Sally was planning to confess during the debate and he was daring her to go through with it. Not realizing that there was a sniper in the wings waiting to take her out if she talked, Sally announces that she has a confession to make, but after she pauses for too long, Fitz throws her a lifeline and accuses her of stalling. She recovers and goes back into attack mode hitting him on his “endless personal failings.”

James, You’re In Danger Girl

Leo stops by Cyrus’s office to gloat after the debate, and his offhand comment about a buzzing sound leads Cyrus to find the bug that James planted in that digital frame on his desk. The jig  is up. Cyrus rolls up on James and calls him Publius and then proceeds to apologize for everything and says that he loves him. “You shouldn’t have to pay for my mistakes James. Just know that I am so very sorry, and I love you. ” Now if that doesn’t sound like the kiss of death, then Olivia is going to give up wine and adultery. RIP James. 
I thought for sure that Cyrus Rutherford Beene was going to finally snap and kill his husband, but nope, he was just real tearful and apologetic. For now anyways. We all know that Cyrus is a master manipulator, so he may well have been setting the stage for something else, but James buys it and decides that he does not want to go through with his plans to expose the murder. James and David meet up with two reporters and then realize, too late, that the meeting was a set up. The two reporters are shot dead and then the camera zooms in on the shooter…… Jake!  He raises a gun and pulls the trigger and the scene fades to black without showing us who else was shot.

Now I had a feeling that someone was going to die during this episode, but I did not think Jake would be the killer! Knowing how Shonda and her crew love the unexpected plot twist, it may turn out to be something completely different.

Whatever the case, I am predicting that Sally is either going to commit suicide or wind up in the psych ward.

And another thing, I am so tired hearing about Fitz, Vermont and jam. It’s never going to happen, and I am ready for the return of the old boss gladiator because this new Olivia is a whiny conflicted mess. No wonder Daddy Pope stays reading her every chance he gets.