Whooo! Last night’s episode of Scandal was the bomb… Well, in Olivia’s case it was literally a bomb when one client decides to get to the truth of her son’s death by any means necessary. Even if that means, taking a few people hostage at the Capitol… Liv included! Let’s get the party started! I’m as excited as Mama June in a tub of Hidden Valley Ranch!
“Mrs. Smith Goes to Washingon” begins with Liv sitting on the floor watching the fine, yet bruised, specimen that is Jake “Your Body is Ready For Me” Ballard (Scott Foley) lying naked, save for a strategically placed sheet covering his goodies, on her bed. In one of the most awkward moments on Scandal, and there are many, Fitz calls Liv only to have her tell him, “Boy, bye!” Eventually, Liv gets a hold of Huck and asks him where he is so they can talk. Unfortunately, Huck (Guillermo Diaz) is NOT here for the bullshit, and he tells her he’ll holler at her later. He just needs some time. What he actually needs time for is stalking Liv’s dad, Rowan (Joe Morton). Huck is pissed.
Fast forward to Liv coming into the office, only to be met with a new client she know’s nothing about. Apparently the gang took on a Mary Nesbitt to help with a private family matter. Liv looks absolutely surprised, and a little annoyed with the team’s boldness, but she’s goes along with the ruse. Nesbitt tells her that she would love to stay and talk, but she has a meeting on The Hill. So, toodles! It’s safe to say that meeting will be explosive… *chortle*
Back at the White House, Fitz and Mellie do their best to debase and insult each other in front of their little son, while Cyrus goes on and on about Fitz’s approval ratings. They are just setting up their kid for success, right? He’ll make a great Tea Party candidate 20 years from now. They are not particularly paying attention to anything Miss Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) is saying (Miss because he’s nasty, honey!), instead opting to air some dirty laundry about their dismal (past) sex life. Instead of listening to Cyrus, Fitz is nagging Mellie over how she’s feeding the baby. Mellie finally snaps and tells him to “quit yer bitchin’” over a child he could hardly get it hard enough to conceive.
Cyrus is NOT feeling their shenanigans, however, and he snaps at Mellz and Fizzle, telling them that they will get it together, present a united front to the public or else… Cyrus is the master of the Art of Reading. Don’t you ever forget it.
Later on, Olivia heads up to The Hill to handle some business just as a madman tears away from his White House tour, demanding and screaming his lungs out about Operation Remington and wanting to speak to the President.
Meanwhile, Olivia arrives at the Capitol just as everyone runs out of Congressman Struthers’ office, but instead of doing what any sane black woman would do any sane person would do, she goes in to the office everyone ran out of, finding Mary Nesbitt strapped to the teeth with explosives, and she’s ready to blow!
Mary Nesbitt is like Cindy Sheehan, but on a grander scale of pissed-ivity. She is a mother who is grieving for her son Chris, who was gunned down by the FBI a year and a half ago. She believes that the circumstances surrounding his death are sketchy at best, and she wants his file declassified pronto! They told her that her son was a terrorist, but all of the info surrounding his case was sealed under the Patriot Act. Olivia gets on the horn with the FBI’s Commander Randolph Bowles (Ernie Hudson) , being the professional spokeswoman that she is, and tells them Mary’s terms. Eventually, Mary lets some of the other hostages go thanks to Olivia’s bargaining. Now it’s just Mary, Liv and Congressman Struthers.
Meanwhile, Mellie and Fitz are under guard in a panic room somewhere as the events play out. Cyrus is informed that the person who stormed the White House was a lone wolf and is not working in connection with Mary. The minute Cyrus finds out who it is, he tells the Secret Service Agent to let the man go, much to the other man’s incredulity. Of course, Cyrus wastes NO time getting on the phone with Rowan to inform him that they have an Operation Remington problem. Welp, Cyrus is officially stressed out now… Fortunately for Rowan, stopping to take the call saved his life because Huck was right behind him with a hammer fitted with a suppressor.
We all knew the FBI had no intention of getting that woman the files. It’s clear they’ve been hiding something. That’s why she’s at the Capitol building with the bomb. Harrison (Columbus Short) goes to the scene where the FBI command post is set up, and informs Olivia that the FBI is setting up a team to storm the building and/or snipe Nesbitt. Olivia pulls Mary from the window just as about four red dots find their mark. It is by the grace of God that she’s not killed.
Commander Bowles is livid because he thinks Olivia screwed everything up. He goes in on her when he calls and brands her a terrorist for saving Mary’s life. Olivia demands to speak to Fitz, but Bowles tells her that’s not going to happen.
Whatever… You know Olivia can call Fitz on the mainline whenever she wants, and she does… through Jake. So her current cut buddy and her other current cut buddy have a curt little conversation when Jake calls Fitz on Liv’s behalf to ask about the files. Fitz shuts him down immediately and tells him that no matter what they personally feel for Olivia, it’s not happening.
Meanwhile, Rowan meets with the crazy who tried to get at the President in the White House. He gives him a stack in an envelope, but Mr. Whacko is feeling a certain way about things. He doesn’t want the money anymore. Apparently he and Rowan had a deal, but he’s no longer willing to play by the rules. Rowan tells him to cool it for now, he’ll get to talk to the President in time. As Rowan leaves he’s met with Huck’s gun straight to his dome, but he doesn’t even flinch. Matter of fact, he knew Huck was trailing him the whole time.
Back at Pope HQ, the team is trying to hack into systems and networks via Quinn’s attempt at being Baby Quinn. Except it’s not working. The young Paduan is not ready. Instead she opts to snoop around on Huck’s machine to see what he’s been up to in an effort to find him. Abby (Darby Stanchfield) goes to visit David (Josh Malina) hoping to get those sealed files, but he doesn’t care to help. In the “That’s Cold” quote of the episode, Rosen tells Abby, “Let me know the funeral arrangements. It should be good people watching.”
Harrison is still at the scene pitching a fit and yelling at Bowles when FBI agent Laura Kenney approaches him. She pulls him aside to tell him that Mary really doesn’t want to know what’s in that file. According to the file that she has, Chris was an Al-Qaeda terrorist who joined the terrorist organization after becoming a Muslim. Harrison and Kenney both agree that Mary really shouldn’t be told the truth about her son’s terrorist dealings, and he says as much to Olivia.
It seems to be a dead end until Harrison sees this Kenney drive off like it’s nothing. He tells Abby to head back to Rosen with info about this, and though he’s reluctant, he finds out that there never has been a Laura Kenney in the records online. Rosen smells something is up and he heads over to meet Cyrus. At first, Cyrus pulls rank on David, but it’s ineffective because Rosen did his homework. Rosen let’s Cyrus know that he’s uncovered some strange inconsistencies hinting at a cover up in Chris’ death. Cyrus knows the jig is up and goes into damage control.
Cyrus, Fitz, David and the Director of Counterintelligence all gather round to call Olivia. In a tragic twist, Fitz explains that Chris was killed by accident because of a screw up by the FBI. Chris was in deep cover and had infiltrated Al-Qaeda successfully. From that position, he was able to recruit 57 other covert operatives to infiltrate the terrorist organization. Thinking he was a actually a terrorist, he was killed, but his death was covered up to avoid a backlash. The FBI agent responsible was fired and the rest of the agents involved were given promotions and hush money. Fitz tells Olivia that Mary absolutely cannot be told the truth, because it puts the current operatives in action in harm’s way. To be more specific, the bad guys will kill them if they find them. It appears that Olivia will go against Fitz when she hangs up on him, but Olivia knows that while it’s not right, she can’t add another 50+ names to the list. I felt for her right there.
Mary loses it and crumbles down to the floor sobbing. Olivia consoles her while Struthers exists looking like he needs a stiff drink. As Olivia exits with Mary in her arms, Mary pushes her out of the office to the waiting SWAT team and locks herself in. Olivia pleads with her to come out, but SWAT drags her back just in time to miss Mary detonating the explosives. Fitz watches as all hell breaks loose and panics when connection is lost. Olivia is a little rattled, but she survived. I think her heart hurts a lot for Mary. All the lies…
While Olivia sits in the ambulance looking like she wants to just drown herself in a whole tub of fine red wine, Quinn tells her that Huck is obsessed with her dad and has been tracking is whereabouts. She must clearly still love her dad in some way, because this news snaps Olivia right out of shock.
Back at the White House, Mellie is getting plastered in the dark… Well, more plastered than she already is. Drunk Mellie (who stole the show at this point) tells Fitz that she’s glad Olivia wasn’t killed because that would have meant that an inconsolable, obsessed Fitz until the end of his or her days. No, she wants Olivia to live because while she lives, he’s not completely lost forever to dedicate his life to worshiping at the altar of “Saint Olivia Pope”. The only thing that would have made my life better would have been Mellie looking like this:
Olivia finally catches up with Huck who is also sitting in the dark (is this a thing?). She’s worried that he may have killed her dad, but after demanding to know if she’s now an “orphan”, Huck lets her know that her dad is very much alive. He did, however, kill the whack job who tore through the White House thanks to some coaxing from Rowan. Huck tells Olivia that he should have known better. B-613 will always be in control of him. They never let go. Once you get in bed with them, you’re stuck.
When Olivia finally gets home, Jake is still there and he’s happy to see her. He’s bruised up, but he’s happy. Olivia asks how he managed to make it out, demanding to know what his mission is. She tells him that there is no way he was released out of the kindness of the hearts of Rowan and B-613. Jake tells her he doesn’t know, he hasn’t been told specifically, but I have a feeling he’s Rowan’s ace in the deck for the future. Olivia finally gives up the 20 questions and sits next to Jake resignedly, telling him that it doesn’t matter. Rowan owns her, Jake, Huck… They’re all at his beck and call.
Overall a good episode, but I still miss my sexy Scandal full of drama and sexy times.