I know some of you collegiettes are Scandal watchers, and if you’re not you should be. For the rest of the season I will bringing weekly episode photo recaps! Please watch the episode before reading though; they will be full of spoilers. Without further ado, let’s get started.
In Shonda Rhimes’s latest brainchild, Olivia Pope, DC’s go-to fixer, finds herself at a crossroads. On the romantic front, Olivia faces the conundrum of remaining the President of United States’ mistress or living a “normal” life as the wife of a senator, seemingly bound for the White House himself. On the professional front, if there is really a delineation, Olivia is realizing that that white hat she keeps referring to has been SOILED (by her own doing). I’m not sure why it has taken her so long to realize this. She feels guilty for rigging the Grant election. There is also the fact that President Fitz has just asked his wife for a divorce. That’s where we start off Scandal season 2 episode 12, Truth and Consequences.
Has anyone noticed that the voice that says, “Previously on Scandal” is that of Shonda Rhimes herself!!! Oh, you did. Okay…
The episode starts with a flashback to a period we’re very familiar with, the Grant campaign. While Fitz and Olivia are getting their flirt on, Quinn Perkins aka Lindsay Dwyre’s boyfriend Jesse is switching out voting machines in Ohio. As we know, he works for Cytron and is currently directly taking orders from everyone’s favorite caricature of a character Hollis Doyle. Did anyone else wonder why Jesse didn’t look suspicious being the only person below the age of 70 on the voting machine tour or whatever that gathering was? Spoiler alert! Jesse dies. Just kidding, we already knew that.
Fast forward with some photojournalisty, DCish snapshots and snapshot sound affects and we’re in DA Rosen’s office with Hollis and his peeps. Rosen makes some threats regarding Hollis’s alleged vote rigging scheme from the past election. And Hollis made this face.
Then First Lady Mellie bursts into Cyrus’s office ranting about the divorce. She makes an entire speech about how she brought Fitz’s confidence up after his father had broken him, claiming all responsibility for his success. It’s scenes like this that make me wonder if Fitz is just a puppet. Cyrus and co. always claim Fitz’s greatness as a pardon for all the illegal things they do for “him” but have we seen anything that makes him worthy of all of this besides his great looks??? Anyway, I digress.
Mellie was pissed. Later in the episode she makes an interesting point about her anger being primarily directed at Fitz and not Olivia. This is why I love Mellie. She refuses to be basic and hate the woman her husband is cheating on her with. She hates him and rightfully so. He’s cheating on her and planning to leave her while she’s 9 months pregnant. At the same time, she’s a conniving, manipulative social climber, so we root for the affair. Is anyone having trouble reconciling the moral dilemma this show puts them in because of their support of the Olitz affair? No?
Yea, me either.
Edison has good taste. Also, if Olivia has the ring does that mean she has already said yes to Edison? I don’t think she has, but why is she carrying around the ring? Anyway, Hollis stopped by Pope and associates for a visit to do what he always does, build suspense and spread his Southern charm. In the next scene, Fitz actually seems to be doing presidential work. He mentions gun control in front of group of advisors. Also, can we just all admit that President Grant is a faux Republican? First the Dream Act, now gun control; you’re not fooling anyone Shonda. Now that we’ve cleared that up, Cyrus tries to talk some sense into Fitz about his plan to divorce the First Lady. He even mentions Olivia’s race, which seldom comes up in this show. It’s refreshing that the drama of the show does not revolve around Olivia’s race, but at the same time we cannot ignore her race and the historical baggage that comes with her relationship with a white man, not to mention a Republican President.
What was up with Fitz’s come back? I’m not sure if it’s the gunshot to the head talking, but he gives the most ridiculous speech he’s ever given. He tells Cyrus that he dreams up the big ideas, and it’s Cyrus’s job to execute them. Today’s big idea was divorcing his wife while in office, not the conflict in Sudan they keep talking about, not gun control, not anything related to his role as President of the United States. Nice to know your priorities, Fitz.
FLASHBACK! Jesse wants more money for switching the voting machines. In his rage, he pours coffee on his laptop. This detail is important; we know this because of the close up on the frying laptop. In present time, Olivia shares her guilty feelings with Cyrus, who very tenderly tells her to take a break. But for every good thing Cyrus does, there is always a counter act. At home, Olivia and Fitz have another of their late-night phone calls on the landline (what?). Fitz calls her the cutest nickname every, Livy, and asks her to wait for him. Edison stops by, but we really don’t care. Olivia clearly doesn’t like him, and they are obviously not going to get married.
The team tries to figure out all the secrets Olivia has been keeping from them. Quinn coins the word “Gladiate.” One by one the associates reveal what they know, everyone except for Huck because he already knows everything and doesn’t want to betray Olivia. Does anyone else love Huck and Olivia’s relationship? More on that later. The associates finally figure out that Olivia is protecting Hollis Doyle, who both helped rig the election and tried to assassinate the president in the most suspense-less scene of the episode.
Huck pays Livy (so cute!) a visit. He without any hesitation just hops right into her bed. So cute! I love their sister-brother relationship. They both need stable love in their lives, which they provide for each other. In bed, Olivia tries to give Huck a lesson in morality??? She needs to stahpp. Anyway, Huck tells her that Cyrus is going to kill Hollis. Sidenote: Huck is the best character on this show, hands down.
Olivia turns Hollis into Rosen and tries to come clean to her crew, but everyone except Quinn is not interested. Led by Harrison, the team rededicate their loyalty to Olivia by refusing to hear her confession of the interferences she’s made in their lives, for better or worse. They don’t want to be able to testify against her in the future. They then get to work on how to connect Hollis and Huck’s assassin ex-girlfriend Becky in a montage with a funky soundtrack.
Huck comes through with a little help from Quinn, but it was mostly Huck. I might be biased. For help Huck goes to Becky herself. He wears a suit! And he reveals that he still loves her uughh!!!
Similarly, Cyrus goes to Mellie for help to distract Fitz while he kills Hollis before he can reveal their connection to the vote rigging. Back at Olivia’s office, Harrison, the least developed of the associates, more or less says, “I gotchyou, Boo!” to Olivia. Huck then finds out that it was not Hollis who hired Becky to kill the President. David Rosen gets screwed by Olivia again. Mellie will stop at nothing. She uses all her cards. In this episode she induces labor. At this same time, Cyrus’s hired assassin gets into an elevator with Hollis, who is in fact not guilty of the assassination attempt, but is guilty for a lot of other things…The episode ends with a cliffhanger, the familiar assassin in the elevator with Hollis Doyle.
Questions:
Do you think Fitz is a good president?
Who is your favorite Pope associate?
Would you keep the engagement ring of the guy you haven’t given an answer to?
How did you like the recap?