Scandal Left me Dazed & Confused
This episode left me dazed, confused and upset, but at least I was not bored. We learned more about Marie’s plans for the bomb and gained some new insight into her relationship with Eli and why he hates her so much. Mellie is circling the drain emotionally and is thisclose to finding out the paternity of her eldest son, and my boy Cyrus is back to being his evil self which is a relief because grieving Cyrus is not nearly as much fun as malicious Cyrus. And despite having choked the dog mess out of Ms. Pope last week, Jake is still sprung and won’t accept that she will never love him the way that he loves her. There are some awful and tortured relationships on this show, and I guess that it what makes it such compelling television because it is hard to look away from this much dysfunction.
The show opens at the OPA offices with Jake and Olivia arguing. He is accusing her of treason when Fitz and Cyrus roll up with a security detail. Fitz told her that she should have checked with him before shutting down B613’s network, but she said she had to make a call and that the FBI or Homeland Security should be able to help them track down her mother. Cyrus says that they cannot get any federal agencies involved because that would make Mama Pope’s shenanigans part of the public record along with Fitz’ role in helping her escape. While they are going back and forth over whether B613 will be revived that ole petty Jake calls her out for giving up the drawers to get to his phone, and Fitz gave him the side eye of death.
Papa Don’t Take No Mess
Jake explains that Marie has the President’s complete itinerary, a bomb and crew on the move. They focus on Dominic Bell, the man who brought Marie the bomb. Seeing his picture, Fitz and Cyrus share a pained look and say that there is only one person who can help with this situation, and that person turns out to be Daddy Pope who makes a grand entrance to James Brown’s Superbad. Fitz tells him that this does not mean that he is being reinstated as Command – he is only there to serve his country. Eli replies that he is not helping Fitz or even his country. He wants revenge on Dominic for ruining his life.
The dueling Commands are giving their respective pitches on how best to track down Dominic, who is actually Marie’s handler, when Quinn and Charlie join the party. Charlie asks if they missed anything, and Jake replies that they only missed a history lesson in the ancient craft of spycraft from one of the Smithsonian’s finest archivists. Now that is some Cyrus level shade. Daddy Pope says that either Jake goes or he’s leaving. Olivia of course picks her dad and Jake storms off and tells her not to call him when things fall apart. Olivia follows Jake out and tells him that this a good thing because he is free. Jake warns her not to trust Daddy Pope, the master manipulator. “He will reel you in with a trail of warmth and kindness. And once you are comfortable, once you feel safe, he will take everything from you… He will take everything that matters to you. He will break your bones and step over your body on his way out!” Yeah, so I am thinking that I would pick my dad over some stalkerish nutjob who just had his hands around my throat.
Drunk Mellie
Drunk Mellie was a trending topic on Twitter last night and for good reason – she is hilarious! Either her Dad sent Mellie a new shipment of hooch, or she brewed up her own batch of white lightning because my girl stayed drunk for the entire episode. Olivia tells Fitz that he needs to stay at the White House because someone out there wants him dead. “You think it’s just out there?” slurs Mellie. Fitz was trying to argue with Cyrus about not hiding out in the White House, but Mells notes that if Olivia tells him to stay put he will. With just 6 days before the election, they are canceling all remaining campaign events which is working out in Sally’s favor. Furthermore, an important ally on immigration dies, Senator Hightower, and Fitz sees giving the man’s eulogy as an opportunity to speak to the public, but Olivia insists that it is not safe, so Sally starts preparing to deliver the eulogy.
Mellie is still upset about losing Andrew and wants to get her revenge on Fitz by requesting a paternity test on little Gerry from the White House doctor. Leo Bergen, Sally’s henchman, goes to the Gerry’s school to collect a DNA sample that he got in a very skeevy way involving a teenage girl and a condom. But by the time he called Eli with the update, he was already working with Olivia and told her what they were up to so that she could thwart the plan which she does by paying off someone at the lab.
Olivia confronts Mellie about ordering the test and asks her if either or both of her children were fathered by Andrew. Mellie is angry and tries to wave her off, but then Liv tells her that had to have known that this would be leaked and homegirl just unleashed all her anger about having sacrificed her happiness for Fitz’ ambitions for the last 15 years. She says that she wanted Fitz to burn and to suffer and says that it’s Fitz’ turn to bear the cross because she does not want to be nailed to Big Gerry any longer, but she never comes right out and explains what she means by that. Mellie then begs Olivia to keep the test from getting out and to not tell Fitz about it.
Mama Pope’s Other Man
Huck found Dominic and dumps him on the floor of Olivia’s office – right after Charlie and Quinn had announced that he was gone. Daddy Pope asked Dominic about the bomb and he starts talking all slick saying that he must be Eli because he is exactly how Marie described him. Then he tells Olivia that he has not seen her since she was a little girl and asks if she remembers him. Daddy Pope is not trying to walk down memory lane with this fool, so he tells Huck to do whatever it takes to make him talk but Olivia instructs Huck not to hurt him. Olivia has been pestering him all day about why he hates this man so much and Eli tells her that Dominic Bell is the only man that her mother ever loved — I thought he was going to say that Dominic was Olivia’s real father!
Huck got nowhere by playing nice, so Eli gets a gun and calls Marie from Dominic’s cell phone and warns her that he will kill him unless she reveals her location all the while trying to keep her on the phone long enough for Huck to trace the call. Daddy Pope is literally playing Russian Roulette with this guy as he holds a gun to his head, and the gun only has one bullet in the chamber. He takes a shot each time Marie refuses to help and she ultimately hangs up the phone before the trace is completed and Eli kills him to get revenge for how they both played him which made Olivia so mad that she had to be physically restrained. The following day she lets him know that she did not appreciate him turning her office into a Black ops site. Daddy Pope apologized, but I don’t think he meant it. He finally explained that Dominic was Marie’s partner and had her marry Eli just to get access to his information. This has been eating at him for years, and he enjoyed killing the man who ruined his life.
Olivia is so upset thinking about her cold, murderous parents that she calls Jake to vent but he only wants to talk about their last roll in the hay and says he knows that she was not just using him because he could feel it. I am really starting to worry about this guy. Here you are supposed to be some slick assassin with killer instincts yet you cannot stay away from someone who is constantly playing you. And if that was not bad enough, she had nerve to say that yes she felt something while they were doing the deed, but she loves her married boyfriend and felt like she was betraying him. Right. In the words of Dr. Phil “How is that working out for you?”
She tells Jake about how Marie let her man be killed when she could have easily saved him and Jake tells her that she is not like her mother which she of course already knew.
Fitz is getting restless at the White House watching reports of how Sally is beating him in Ohio, so he decides to go to the rally in Defiance despite Marie still being on the loose with a bomb. They fire up the helicopter and are just about to board when Olivia calls Cyrus and tells them that they are going to get Fitz killed. Daddy Pope overhears this and tells Olivia that her mother loves her and would never kill the President if it means killing Olivia too, so she joins the campaign in Ohio and the whole thing feels like a morbid death watch.
Meanwhile Jake, who has been working with David to track down Marie using some fancy facial recognition software, discovers that Mama Pope killed Senator Hightower so that Fitz would attend his funeral at this church which is the real location of the bomb – not the rally in Ohio! Jake calls Cyrus with this information and advises him to warn the others and clear the church, but he just hangs up and asks Ethan if Sally had already left for the funeral. Not only does he not tell anyone that the bomb is at the church, he also lies to Fitz about the service being delayed and has him read the eulogy to him.
Huck, Charlie and Quinn have to dispose of Dominic’s body but Charlie and Huck are too busy squabbling to get anything done, so Quinn drives off alone to handle it. When she returns to the parking lot, Huck is there waiting for her and they finally consummate their unholy union while Mama Pope struts by on her way to meet up with Eli in the office. I mean ole girl was stepping like she was on a runway with not a care in the world and those two nasty clowns didn’t even notice. I doubt that they could have stopped her but heck, pay attention.
Ruthless though Marie may be, she does love her daughter, and when Daddy Pope sent Olivia to that rally in Ohio so that Fitz would not be killed, that was the final straw. She opens the door and orders Eli to bring her baby back home. He calls Olivia and tells her that Marie is there at the office, and in the next scene he is laying on the floor bloodied and possibly dying. I guess between that knife incident from the restaurant and using Olivia as a human shield, the Notorious MOM had enough of the nonsense.
The show closed with scenes from the church highlighting Sally, Andrew and Leo who had just arrived.
And Mellie has the real results of a second paternity test that Olivia discreetly ordered for her.
- If they kill off Daddy Pope, the most verbose and irritated dad in television history, then I am going to very upset. Who else is going to lecture that naive child of his about the ways of the world? Who else will be able do deal with the Notorious MOM who has turned out to be way more lethal than I ever imagined.
- Is Cyrus really going to risk the lives of a church full of people just to be rid of Sally? I know he is a monster, but this is bad even for him.
- Does Gerry’s paternity test reveal what we have been thinking all along? And if so, will Mellie finally tell Fitz that his father raped her?
- Where was Charlie when Huckleberry Quinn was defiling that parking garage? That sneaky stalker was probably watching from a remote location, and if so, there is going to be another funeral real soon.
- When is Jake going to accept that Olivia will never choose him over Fitz? She used him just last week, and had nerve to tell him that she still loves the Boy president. Man, pick up your toys and move on already. And quit being so whipped.
With this much drama packed into this lead-up to the finale, I just know that we are in for a real roller coaster ride next week.
And let us all take a moment of silence for Daddy Pope who turned out to have every right to be so angry at everyone all this time. Stay strong Eli – you have many more indignant monologues to deliver.