Scandal Recap: Sex, Lies and Video, Jake!
This week on ABC’s Scandal, the Gladiators’ search for the real mole had devastating consequences, Fitz and Cyrus traded secrets and Jake was exposed to Olivia (in, ahem, more ways than one).
RELATED | Save the Dates: Our Calendar of More Than 100 Season Finales!
FEELING A LITTLE HORSE | Cyrus convinces Fitz and Mellie to sign off on their first joint interview since the birth of America’s baby, as a necessary preamble to announcing his bid for re-election. During that TV sitdown, they rehash an old chestnut about how they first met, with Fitz swooping in to “steal” the girl he must have. But later, in private, Fitz recounts with his wife the true and far less romantic details, how she was all but “sold” to his father by a crony. “You were a thoroughbred racehorse,” Fitz recalls. “It wasn’t even a blind date; it was a merger.”
When Mellie contends that “every married couple pretends,” that it’s the ones who don’t who are living a fantasy, Fitz asks: “Did I do this to you…? Or were you always like this? Because if it was me, I’m sorry.” Mellie in turns asks what’s eating at him, but he deflects — only to later open up to Cyrus. “I killed Verna,” he confesses to his chief of staff. “Would [Olivia] forgive me if she knew?” Cyrus tries to assure his president, “There are things we never tell [our loved ones], things we hide…. It doesn’t mean you don’t deserve happiness.”
RELATED | Scandal Spoilers — Scoop on the Re-Election Campaign Timetable
PERJURER’S FUROR | Cyrus spoke from a particularly informed place, as earlier in the episode it was revealed that James kicked him out of their home months ago, after lying to the grand jury about Defiance. But now, Cy decides, it’s time to move back in. “What choice did I have?!” James rails about his perjury. Cyrus says, “You chose love, you chose me, your own happiness…. And it’s not so much the choice [bothering you] but knowing you’re capable of that choice.” Cyrus’ latest Shondalogue though is small comfort. “I wish you’d lied,” James responds.
MOLE HUNT II | Osborne’s wife storms OPA to argue that the CIA director was not a traitor, offering as Exhibit A his suicide note, which addressed her formally as “Susan” for the first time in 30 years. Exhibit B: Molly, the mousy gal who fingered Osborne, goes MIA after receiving a huge payday. Huck follows the money to a storage unit, leaving Quinn in the car, only to get KO’d from behind upon opening the mole’s locker. Fretting over her partner’s fate, Quinn channels her blossoming Gladiator and compels the clerk to let her review the security cameras, where she notices a “blind spot” that Huck disappeared into. Tracking down the unit, she discovers him bound and gagged within a small crate.
Back at OPA, David says a cowering Huck looks “incomparably worse” than even after his waterboarding. And Molly, who was briefly detained on her way to Belize? Dead, via hit-and-run. (That episode title wasn’t lying, Oda Mae!) Elsewhere, Cy’s go-to wet work guy, Charlie, is revealed to be Huck’s assailant.
RELATED | Scandal Season 2 Spoilers — Fringe Star Jasika Nicole Cast
JAKE, EXPOSED! | Jake — who’s been removing/restoring his bugs before/after Huck’s regular sweep — gets wind that Olivia’s team is onto the frame job, which he reports to actor Joe Morton. “I trust you to take care of this,” actor Joe Morton ominously responds. Jake lobbies to cook dinner for Liv in the kitchen she never uses (oops!), but she asks for a rain check. Later, she instead shows at Jake’s with take-out. After he discreetly powers down her cell, a kiss is shared. “What’s your excuse this time, Olivia Pope?” he asks aprés-smooch. “Nothing..,” she utters back. “I’ve got nothing.” And soon enough, both of them are wearing nothing…
After another, morning round of carnal merriment, Olivia slips away from a snoozing Jake and flips on his TV… only to instead fire up Super-Snooper Central Command, as his bank of monitors observing her home is revealed. “It’s not what you think,” Jake says, entering, not possibly believing that’s an acceptable statement. Olivia starts to bolt, but he stops her, semi-accidentally conking her in the process. Just as Jake shows Liv what he was protecting her from — the gun-toting, masked man currently invading her apartment — she fades, her head bloodied from the tussle.
When Olivia awakens in the hospital, Jake is there, quickly coaching her to say she was attacked at her own place and that he rushed in to save her — and that was the first time they’d ever met. Fitz then walks in, greets her with his trademark “Hi” followed by an ellipse, and then leans in to hug her… as a curious/alarmed/cheesed-off Jake looks on.
A few other quick notes and quotes:
* David trying a “Gladiators in helmets!” rallying cry after offering OPA an assist. (“Suits,” Harrison corrects.)
* Abby deflected David’s assertion that she still has feelings for him, saying, “I like sleeping with you and don’t want you to die — it’s not the same thing.” But even when she does cop to “some feelings,” he deflates her by revisiting the Cytron card theft: “I can’t let myself love someone I can’t trust.”
* How sexy is Quinn as she gets snoopier and savvier? So good to see her have more to do, yet that’s only drawing attention to how underdeveloped Harrison the Phone Answerer still remains.
What did you think of “Molly, You in Danger, Girl”?
Related stories
Exclusive Happy Endings First Look: The Third Kerkovich Sister Shows Up, Gets Hitched
Once Upon a Time Bosses Tease the Final Four Episodes, Four Reveals and One 'Really Big' Twist
Exclusive Suburgatory Finale Video: Why Is Dalia Happy to Share a House With Enemy Tessa?
Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
