Scandal is taking a hiatus. To get you through your Scandal withdrawal I will be back with recaps of the last couple of episodes!
Episode 14 “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” started off really…wet. Sorry if that word bothers you, but it’s the only way to describe the two opening sequences. Olivia is aggressively swimming in the most Olivia Pope of swimsuits and a matching swim cap, while Fitz is staring off miserably, letting the shower water run down his face like tears. Olivia is apparently using the exercise as a distraction from her ten months without Fitz, while Fitz has turned to alcohol to soothe his wounds of betrayal. Back in the White House, Mellie tries to cheer up Fitz with some oral sex, but Fitz was not at all into it. I literally laughed at Fitz’s face during those three seconds before Cyrus walked in. Anyone else? Cyrus intrudes on the President and First Lady’s intimate moment, rescuing Fitz, to inform the President that four Americans have been kidnapped by a fictional terrorist group, the Kashfaris. Mellie then decides to greet Cy from the shower, when she easily could have said nothing and not made the situation infinitely more awkward than it already was.
We then cut to the character with the best excuse to be drawn to murder, David Rosen, who is being framed for the murder of the young woman he was sleeping with. Abbey seems to be the only one who cares that David’s fall from high profile lawyer to high school U.S. history teacher is entirely the fault of Pope and Associates. In other news, Quinn shows an odd enthusiasm in cleaning up the crime scene and stabbing the murder victim. Huck finds out that Dead Girl has been dating men to find out top-secret information and selling that information for money. When they don’t prove willing participants, she roofies them and steals the information from their laptops. On her laptop the associates find pictures of the body parts of these men, and Harrison in this week’s best line of the week answers Abby’s, “Is that a…” with “a hairy baby arm? No.” So it turns out Dead Girl was looking for info on Defiance, Ohio, the center of Rosen’s case on vote rigging. In her search to find to whom Dead Girl was planning on selling this information, Olivia runs into a familiar face, a man who accidently bumped her cell phone out of her hand at a coffee shop earlier in the episode. It was not a surprise that Captain Jacob Ballard would be connected to Olivia’s case. We’ve learned to trust no character, especially seemingly unassuming ones. They have a fruitless conversation in which he manages to ask Olivia out and is thus turned down.
Olivia goes to her mentor Cyrus to ask about his possible involvement in the death of Dead Girl. He’s innocent but doesn’t take offense to the accusation. He tells Olivia that Defiance died with Verna so there was no need to kill Dead Girl. Olivia retorts that Defiance will never be over! Cyrus has his own problems this episode. The President is setting up meetings without him and generally ignoring his “dragon” to actually run the country himself. It was a nice surprise to see Fitz actually has to capacity to do the job all these characters stole for him. Fitz wants to send in a team to rescue the undercover agents, while Cyrus would rather wait and build up intelligence before acting prematurely. For about three scenes, Fitz takes his advice, but at the christening of Cyrus’s own child Fitz demands he makes the call to dispatch the team.
Meanwhile, Olivia goes to inform David of her progress on the case. David just wants to sever all ties to the woman who literally ruined his life (his grandmother paid for his rent last month) and wants to pay her for her services. In the second best line of the episode Olivia responds to his demand to know how much he owes, “You can’t afford me.” Olivia Pope is a boss. I’m so glad Shonda reminded us of that because I’ve definitely missed that aspect of her these past few episodes.
The big question this episode was whether or not Fitz knows about the election rigging. Though I thought his dig at Olivia and confession to Mellie last episode explicitly revealed to these characters his knowledge of their betrayal of him, but I guess that isn’t the case. I think that assumption ruined this episode for me a little. Anyway, when Mellie confronts Fitz about this, she subsequently blames the entire rigging plan on Cyrus. Her plan works and Fitz finally opens up to her. Her victory was short lived because at the christening was Olivia baby Ella’s godmother. Godfather Fitz and Olivia look painfully into each other’s eyes while holding the child. Good thing she didn’t fall because I honestly don’t think they would have noticed. After fulfilling her duties, Olivia starts heading out. Predictably Fitz follows her, and they proceed to have sex in an electrical closet. After the steamy/violent scene, Fitz makes clear that though he “may not be able to control his erections around [her]” he’s done with her. Fitz wins for the third best line of the episode. Cyrus then leads the President away, refocusing him on the rescue team’s mission. AND!!!!!!!!… It’s a fail. The seal team finds no one at the location. It is then revealed that there is a mole in the White House! Gasp
Meanwhile, David goes to Olivia with more information about Dead Girl and her plan. I predict that Olivia hires David as an associate. Well we at least know that will be teaming up for a while. Back at the White House, Fitz is back in the shower. When Mellie tries to seduce him again, he gets pretty aggressive with his rejection of her. He apologizes repeatedly, and they kiss and make up? I was actually really confused by this scene. What happened in those last ten seconds? Fitz looks really sad, while holding Mellie quite closely, but it lasts for a while without any real movement. Olivia on the other hand is trying to get over said President by confirming a date with Captain Jake (Jacob). Besides that fact that he is connected to her case, he generally gives me a creepy vibe, and Olivia should know better than to date him. He also happens to be spying on her, so there’s that.