Olivia Pope MUST hold the secrets of the universe between her thighs because her one-night stands stay over and refuse to leave her house the day after. I’ve already tweeted Shonda Rhimes multiple times that I’ll be waiting for the Pimping Like Pope webinar. I got my PayPal account ready for that! I don’t trust that dude Franklin Russell, though.
Anyway, David Rosen is going full steam ahead on Operation Bring Down B613, and Jake wants no part of it. So David and Huckleberry Quinn gather ex-B613 agents in a safe house because they need their testimony to bring down the top-secret organization. Already the plan sucks because Rosen doesn’t even take obvious safeguards, like making sure his phone isn’t bugged. Rookie. Jake is elsewhere listening to his conversations and hearing the plans happening.
This episode’s client is Congressman Nicolas Reed, whose father (George Reed) is on death row after confessing to killing a man named Dan Hoffman 15 years prior. Dan was his daughter Jamie’s high school teacher, and he seemed to prey on the young girl. She fell in love with his pedophile ass and he broke her heart, so she hung herself. Well, Hoffman is found with a bullet through his head and the case closes before it even opens because George comes forward to say he did it. Nicholas wants Olivia to save his father from being executed because he doesn’t believe he did it. Liv visits the man and looks deep into his eyes and believes his innocence, even through his insistence that he is where he should be.
Meanwhile, First Lady Melody Grant (yes) is setting some groundwork for her senatorial campaign but Lizzie goes behind her back to meet with her half-sister, Harmony, in their hometown. I could tell immediately that she was going to do the opposite of what her name was and bring discord. Especially because she mentions that she doesn’t feel like her sister is loyal to her, and alludes that she knows about the skeletons in her closet. Melody and Harmony will not be making sweet music together.
Mellie’s power color is red, and that is her “get shit done†signature, but she’s rocking blue when her sister arrives at the White House. Harmony is the one in a red and black dress, which let me know that First Lady was not on her game. The sisters had a disastrous dinner with Fitz and they threw some fighting words. Mellie referred to Harmony’s mother as a “homewrecking whore†and her sister had to remind her that she knows all her dirty business.
Things take a terrible turn for Team Takedown B613 when Charlie returns to the safe house to find all the agents either critically wounded or already dead. Jake comes out from behind a wall, and the two men beat each other up until Jake runs out. When Huck, Quinn, and David get on the scene, Charlie tells them that Jake has gone psycho and needs to be stopped. Quinn has to be convinced that even though he did help save Olivia during Kidnap-Gate, he is a danger to their investigation and lives.
Huck starts trying to track down Jake, and he does: to Olivia’s apartment. When he and Quinn roll up to Liv’s crib and knock on her door, Pope opens up. She’s clearly on a date with One-Night Stand Turned More Russell. She had ONE job: to hit it and quit it. But she hit it and let it watch TV in her crib. NAH! When she basically dismisses Huck and Quinn and her door closes, the door across the hall opens. Lois’s apartment is now occupied by Jake Ballard who tells them he’s not going anywhere. Like Effie White from Dreamgirls. Huck, Quinn, Charlie, and David meet in front of the Lincoln Memorial, and everyone but David accepts defeat. They realize that there’s no justice here, and Jake is on the loose and able to kill them all. Charlie says he’s leaving for good, and the Gladiators leave David on the steps looking like he just lost another game of Uno. This is why I call him “Lemony Snicket.†He is is always entangled in a series of unfortunate adventures. The guy is Bad Luck Billy and if he’s on a team, you should be on the other team because it seems contagious.
At the White House, Mellie is all bothered by her sister, but Fitz tells her she needs to buck up because if she eventually wants to become president, she’ll have to deal with much worse. He invites Harmony into the Oval Office and tells her to give her sister a break. He says Mellie is jealous of her, and that is why she is such an asshole to her. Imagine Melody’s surprise when her ornery sister comes and hugs her neck as she leaves for home. For once, Fitz made himself useful without someone pulling his strings. They share a sweet moment, though, when he tells his wife (who is more like his BFF) that she will win the Senate race and he will be right next to her.
Back on the Reed case, the Gladiators learned of Lisa Hoffman, Dan’s wife, and wanted to see if maybe she killed her husband. They go visit her home, and her sister tells them she died of pancreatic cancer two weeks before. Later, they search the house to see if something in there might link Lisa to the murder of her husband. Surely enough, they find a gun that matches the exact ballistics of the one used to kill Dan. Liv goes to the prison to see George, and Nicholas comes with her. She tells them the gun found in Lisa’s home was too perfect, too convenient, and was clearly a plant. George didn’t kill Dan; Nicholas did. The Congressman ends up admitting to the crime he did, resigning, and being taken to prison. His father sees freedom for the first time in 15 years.
So David calls Huck and says he will testify against Jake. Why would he do this over the phone? Of course Jake is listening, so that night when David is walking his secretary (Molly) to her car in his office garage, Jake is watching them. As the two open up her trunk, Jake makes himself visible with his gun drawn. I thought David was about to meet his maker, but Jake tells him to move to the side. Behind him is Molly, whose gun is also up. Turns out that she’s a B613 agent who’s been spying on David’s investigation. SHE is the person who killed the other B613 agents, not him. Jake is quick with the finger and in one shot, takes Molly out. Her blood splatters all over David’s face. Well, shit.
AND, Olivia has known about Jake’s surveillance of David all along. He actually IS a white hat! Liv also scolds Huck for not being open and honest with her. He has to let her know things, but it’s also a reminder that she keeps her eyes open too. Those two have to reconnect again.
Liv goes home and there’s a knock on her door. She opens it and it’s Russell/Franklin, her new bae. He looks to the side and Papa Pope emerges like a shadow.
ALL. HELL. IS. ABOUT. TO. BREAK. LOOSE. And YESSSSSSSSSSS SCANDAL IS BACK! I am ready, because where there’s Rowan, there’s Maya. Most important, where there’s Rowan, there’s chaos. See you on April 16!
Favorite quotes:
“Ballard’s gone mad dog. We find him. We put a bullet in his head.†—Charlie
“We are the white hats. We are the good guys. We don’t quit. We get justice.†—David Rosen
“You’re gonna win this race, Mellie. And I’m gonna be right by your side when you do.†—Fitz