Scandal Finale Recap – The Price of Free and Fair Elections

The Scandal Finale Was Explosive!

I suppose it would be trite to say that Scandal ended this season with a bang, so I won’t, but it did. There was an explosion, a heart-breaking murder and a shocking resignation to wrap up the season. All those intercessory prayers must have worked, because Daddy Pope demonstrates that he really is the Hell and the High Water while Mama Pope, like the Wu Tang Clan, is nothing to eff with. And just as I suspected, those two have been in cahoots the whole time! I have been team Eli since we learned that he was Olivia’s father– remember that original scathing read?  But even I had no idea of the depths of his gangster. This man planned and schemed and set himself up for the perfect opportunity to get everything that he wanted. Man, he was playing fools like a Stradivarius with not a bit of remorse. Oh, and Huck found his family. Or rather Charlie, the jilted stalker boyfriend, finds his family and gives the the info to Quinn who passes it to Huck. Huck might get his family back y’all — no more Huckleberry Quinn. Hooray!!!

The episode picks up with Cyrus having second thoughts about not telling the President about the bomb at the church, and he is just about to tell Fitz when Jake bursts in and says that they need to evacuate the church immediately. They managed to get most of people out before the bomb explodes, no thanks to that ole shady Mr. Beene. Cyrus just keeps on making new enemies including David Rosen who goes to Jake and asks why Cyrus is not being prosecuted for letting the church blow up. He wants to take down Cyrus, B613 and the whole administration, but Jake tells him that he is not about that life anymore and he is going to sit on his couch and chill. David is no match for Cyrus let alone B613 AKA Murder Inc.

Sally escaped the blast and is on her way to the car when Leo tells her that this is her chance to close the gap between her and Fitz by demonstrating hands-on leadership during this emergency. He rips her suit and smears some soot on her face for effect and pushes her back into the fracas where she ministers to the wounded while demanding that the reporters not take pictures. “Be Jesus, you go in there and you be Jesus,” he tells her. Yeah, more like Judas.

Olivia was in a waiting room at the hospital when she sees the news about the bombing, and she rushes back to the White House to oversee their response. Fitz’ speech about the bombing is eclipsed by Sally’s heroism. Despite Olivia’s threats and best efforts, all the major broadcasts eventually cut from Fitz to show Sally tending to the wounded at the bomb site. The whole crew realizes that they have just lost the election. Drunk Mellie is not happy and demands a refund of whatever they paid Olivia since they paid her to win. Never mind that she is the one that begged Olivia to come back in the first place.

 

Daddy Pope Gets Paternal

Olivia returns to the hospital, and Daddy Pope is being strangely paternal when he speaks to her. The knife used to stab him just missed his heart by inches, and he is going to be okay but he is being uncharacteristically affectionate. Liv is sad about Fitz possibly losing the election, and Eli says that he loves her and he wishes he could do something to help. Say word? Not only is this coming from a man who hates the boy President with all of his being, but I do not think that we have ever heard him say that he loves his daughter. He spends most of his time being either angry with her or disappointed at her behavior. Even when she was begging him to be her dad for once he was still being salty about it. Daddy Pope is no Heathcliff Huxtable, so I was worried that he still might die since he was being all sentimental and stuff. Olivia even notes that this is not normal behavior because she later tells Fitz that she thinks he was in pain.

Mamma Pope Uses Harry Potter’s Cloak

Olivia dips out for a while but when she returns her mother is there at Eli’s bedside asking her if she was talking to her boyfriend. This woman must have Harry Potter’s old invisibility cloak the way she just pops up undetected all the time. She tells Olivia that she was trying to help her and that she committed all of those dastardly deeds for her. She also added that if she wanted to kill Eli he would be dead which we all know is true. Then she tells Olivia that “he” has hurt her and used her and will throw her away when he is done. I initially thought she meant Eli,  but she actually meant Fitz. Olivia threatens to call security and then tells her that she is not going to let her get away, but Marie asked who was going to stop her– Caps, Caps, Caps? Who you finna try? I was scared for her when Marie brushed by on her way out of the room.

Fitz is in his office with Olivia preparing his concession speech and starts talking about moving to Vermont and starting over with her when she tells him about Big Gerry raping Mellie. She just blurt it out after the boy President was going on and on about how horrible Mellie is and how he has no allegiance to her. Fitz did not believe it at first, but he goes to Mellie who tells him that she fought Big Gerry and that she had a paternity test done on little Gerry to prove that he is Fitz’ son. Olivia knows that this eliminates any chance for them and she says that she wouldn’t even want him if he could leave his wife now that he knows what she’s been through all these years. I don’t think it was Olivia’s place to share that information, but he did need to know. That  relationship is beyond repair though.

Charlie finds out about Huck and Quinn, who we see bent over the conference table at OPA, and instead of going ballistic and killing them both, he just calmly hands Quinn an envelope and leaves her apartment. Man I was not expecting Charlie to just walk away after getting played like that, so he must be up to something. Sure enough, the envelope contains information about Huck’s family. Is he planning to kill them? Or does he know that seeing them will send Huck over the edge? He only says that he knows that this information will prevent those two from ever having a future and that he is a sore loser. Quinn takes Huck to his family’s house and he freaks out because he says they are better off without him and leaves. But he comes back later on and knocks on the door. His wife opens the door and seems shocked to see  him.

Tragedy Strikes the First Family

Having accepted that he will lose to Sally, Fitz takes the stage at his final campaign rally to make his last big speech with Mellie and the kids in tow. They are all on stage when little Gerry starts coughing up blood and then collapses! They rush him to the hospital but he dies of a weapons grade strain of bacterial meningitis that is kept at a military base. A vial was recently stolen, and that is what was used to kill the First Son. Not little Gerry – he was so young and innocent! Who could be so evil as to kill the President’s son just to get to him?

Just as Fitz is absorbing this news at the hospital, Daddy Pope comes over rolling his IV pole and offers to help him avenge his son’s death which Fitz assumed was engineered by the Notorious MOM. Eli crawled out of his bed of affliction for the opportunity to get revenge on Marie who has bested him at every turn – or so we think. “I may not be your friend Mr. President, but I am a father, and I know what I would do if someone hurt my child,” Eli intones. Fitz said that he was going to kill Marie – yeah right- but Eli offers to serve her head up on a platter. He probably saved  his life too because Marie was not going to be as easy to kill as Verna. This man smothered one old lady and now he thinks he’s Sonny Corleone.

As Olivia predicted, the sympathy for the President’s loss sways the election and he wins. She calls her dad and asks him if his offer of a new life still stands because she has had enough of it all. Abby is upset and says that they went over a cliff for her and now she is trusting her father after all the lies and murders. “Go, run to daddy!” Sassy Abby better watch how she talks about Daddy Pope now that he is back in charge of B613. Jake’s ole desperate azz shows up at Liv’s apartment and asks her to take him with her. Even after she says that she loves someone else, he says that she can leave that behind along with everything else. Whip Appeal has got to be that guy’s theme song because whatever Olivia wants is alright with him. Ole thirsty azz.

Eli uses Harrison to get details about Marie’s plans so that he can track her down. He shows him a picture of Adnan lying dead on the ground and says that Marie will kill him just like she did Adnan because Harrison is in over his head.  Harrison says that he knows where she is planning to pick up her money, and armed men show up just as she was leaving the bank. Eli calls the President to say that Marie has been killed and disposed of, but that happened too easily, and I did not believe it. I wanna see the receipts!

Harrison Figures it out — too late

After learning about Liv’s departure, Harrison confronts Daddy Pope about everything that happened. He knows that Marie is all about the money, so her killing the President’s son makes no sense. But Eli is back in charge of the newly re-constituted B613 and Olivia is out of the picture – he got everything that he wanted. Harrison figured out that the Head Goon in Charge is the real killer not Mama Pope!! Eli is unfazed and simply says “My daughter wanted him to be President, and he is. Daddy took care of it. I promised her that I would not hurt a hair on his head, I gave him four more years, but there is a price for free and fair elections. He took my child, so I took his.” Whew that man is cold-blooded. And then he brings in Tom after Harrison started looking like he wanted to get physical. We see also see a flashback of Tom infecting little Gerry with the bacteria that he applied to a ring. Tom also killed Adnan and took that picture that Eli used to trick Harrison. Tom is not just B613, but he is apparently Eli’s right hand man. He killed Little Gerry and he delivered the toxicology report to the boy’s daddy. Tom is going straight to Hell in a gasoline suit for all this devilment.

Olivia and Jake board the plane that will take them to their new life when her phone rings. It’s the White House, rather it’s Mellie calling for Fitz who is having a breakdown and was asking for Olivia. Olivia ignores the call and they continue to their happily ever after… for now.

Daddy Pope is back at B613 HQ with Charlie and his minions when he walks over to the hole and lo and behold, its occupant is none other than Marie Wallace. She gives him an evil smirk and he motions for one of his goons to replace the cover after giving her a brief, but telling, nod. I knew she wasn’t dead, but will she remain in prison for another 20 years? I hope they at least left her some hair products and a good flat iron.

See You in September

Whew, so much drama. So much death!! So many questions to obsess about until the season premiere.

• What is the deal with Eli and Marie? Is she like some kind of wild monster that he unleashes as needed to maintain law and order? I know she told Olivia that she did it all for her and that she would not understand until she has children of her own, but goodness. Is this the last of Mama Pope?
• When will Olivia return? Because you know she has to come back or there is no show.
• What is next for Daddy Pope? Now that he has his old job back and his army, I expect that he will be seeking revenge on folks.
• Poor Sally and Leo. Killing Daniel Douglas has been weighing on her, and now that she lost the election and Andrew is the new VP, what does this mean for her?
• Will Huck’s family accept him? And can he ever have a normal life? Well, maybe not normal, but something better than what he has now.
• Is Mellie going to Betty Ford during the break? I get a kick out of drunk Mellie, but I am starting to worry.
• Will Harrison be killed or inducted into B613? In light of ole dude’s messy personal life, he may just get offed. Y’all know Shonda doesn’t play around with troublemaking employees. Just ask Isaiah Washington…

So ends Season three which was disappointing overall, but I am hopeful that season 4 will mark a return to the show that won me over from the first episode. Enough of the Vermont Jam, enough of the whipped weak men and please enough sex scenes in and around the office. Put the scandals back in Scandal and let Olivia and the crew fix them.  And please keep the deadly Popes just a little while longer. Daddy Pope is the father I never wanted while Marie is the best female tv villain since Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan. And please send Ella a new mommy.