TV Corner: Scandal

[Content Note: Discussion of violence. Spoilers for the most recent episode of Scandal.]


I know this dress was in last week's episode, but OMG THAT DRESS.
THAT DRESS FOREVERRRRR. (Check out Trudy's amazing photoset here.)
Welcome to my first ever recap of Scandal, which is just one of my favorite shows on television right now! And I am so glad I'm finally caught up so I can do recaps and never have to worry about spoilers again! Yay!

When last we left our tremendously terrifying friends, Olivia had just found out that it was pretty likely that Fitz had been given orders to shoot down the airplane on which her mother had been a passenger. And ahh she wasn't too happy about it! On the list of reasons why Fitz is maybe not the best boyfriend material—which is already a very long list with many compelling entries!—PROBABLY KILLED MOM goes right to the top.

This episode opens with Olivia recalling saying goodbye to her mom for the last time, and it is very sad and very hard not to think of how different Liv's life might have been (72% fewer friends who are murderers) if her mom hadn't died. (Or at least is presumed to have died!) In flashbacks, Command (aka Olivia's dad) has a mustache, and he is still very handsome and still definitely the worst.

Liv heads for the White House, because she's got questions and she wants answers and I WANT THE TRUTH YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! People are always looking for answers and truths in D.C. True fact. Naturally, Team Fitz assumes that Liv has arrived to accept the job offer extended by Mellie to get Fitz's ass reelected, even though Fitz barely even wants to be president and would trade it all in a second to spend the rest of his days making mad love to Liv in a quaint New England cabin in between bouts of jam-making. But Liv is there to get answers about Remington. Answers Fitz won't give her because "I don't know what you're talking about" in a voice that means "I totally know what you're talking about but I am going to clench my jaw and stare at you with half-mast eyes and refuse to tell you."

How does Tony Goldwyn do it?! He makes me SO MAD but I love him. I get it, Liv. I get it.

Liv tells Fitz she's going to go work for Phoebe from Friends, who is also running for president but is a lady and a Democrat. (I love Lisa Kudrow with so many hearts!) She needs Team Pope's help, because she's polling behind Governor Reston (who, for real y'all, would never be a viable candidate even in this fucked-up garbage country after the shit that went down with his wife) in the Democratic primary and the liberal donors aren't investing in her.

Congresswoman Phoebe is SUPER PISSED that Liv is trying to make her into something she's not, because she apparently hasn't really wrapped her head around what it is, exactly, that Liv does. Which is make people do things they don't want to do in order to get and/or keep power. GET WITH THE POWER PROGRAM, PHEEBS! As an aside: One of the things I LOVE ABOUT THIS SHOW is how it's almost always women who are most resistant to Liv trying to make them into something they're not. The men are usually all, "Oh okay! Whatever I need to do to win! I have no ethical qualms about anything! Thank you very much for the excellent advice, Olivia Pope!"

Anyway! Liv sets up an interview for Rep. Phoebe with, of course, James Novak, who is Cyrus Beene's adorably stupid husband. And, just before the live broadcast, she shows the candidate (what is later revealed to be a fake) Reston advert, suggesting that Rep. Phoebe doesn't have what it takes to be president. AND OOH BOY IT MAKES HER SOOOO MAD. She immediately launches into a feminist dialectic when the interview begins, and IT IS AWESOME. No female candidate in the real world could ever get away with that shit, which is why I love television and why I love this show the end.

Meanwhile, Vice President Sarah Michele Palinbachmann is plotting behind Fitz's back with her own super annoying dude fixer (who isn't fit to fix Olivia Pope's breakfast BOOM!) to leave the ticket and launch her own independent Jesus bid. Naturally, Cyrus is one step ahead of her, and the megachurch megadouche who VP SMP thought was on her side was really playing her and reporting back to Cyrus. FOILED AGAIN, SALLY!

In other news: Something something Harrison is trying to keep some dude named Adnan Salif out of the country, while Cyrus is totally trying to get him in the country, which will be bad news for Harrison for reasons we don't know yet. Something something Quinn is learning to shoot at the firing range, and Charlie shows up to help her NO QUINN DO NOT ACCEPT HELP FROM CHARLIE!

I love Huck more than kittens, but I am kinda mad at him for opening a can of murder-worms in Quinn and then abandoning her when he realized it was a bad idea.

In other other news: Liv drunk-dials Command and has a truly heartbreaking phone call with him. She's scared to ask him questions, because she's afraid he'll kill her friends. She wonders if he'd prefer to talk about the weather, or how she can't get close to people because her mother died when she was 12 and her father is a terrifying monster. He responds by letting her ask one question and promises he won't murder anyone for her asking it. This fucking guy. Can you even IMAGINE if this guy was your dad?! GODDAMMIT.

In other other other news: Jake tries to get info for Olivia, but the lady from whom he was trying to get it nearly kills him. Luckily, she is stopped by a bullet in the brainpan care of a shadowy dude who is following Jake, on the president's orders. Jake goes to see Fitz, and Fitz gets all petulant and accuses Jake of trying to get into Liv's pants. "You don't own her; I do!" or whatever. Jake manages to not roll his eyes, and is still supercute.

At the end of the episode, Fitz shows up at Liv's apartment BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DOES and torments her with fantasies about going on the campaign trail together. He tells her that there's nothing she could do that he wouldn't forgive, and I imagine she considers saying, "WHAT IF I KILLED YOUR DAD?! OH WAIT NEVERMIIND I MET HIM AND I WOULD HAVE BEEN DOING YOU A FAVOR!" Instead, she tells him she wants answers and then tells him her mom was on that plane and she was only 12 and get the fuck out.

I SAID GOOD DAY, SIR.

Until our next incredible lovemaking session. SIR.