Scandal - S3E1 - It’s Handled
Previously on Scandal, click here.
Daddy Knows Best
“You raised your skirt and opened your knees for a man with too much power. You’re not rare. You’re not special.”
Daddy wants Olivia out of the country until it all blows over. The White House will eviscerate her. When Olivia insists that Fitz would never, Daddy cuts her off, reminding her that Fitz is not the real power. She should have aimed higher. Secretary of State or Chief of Staff. But first lady? Pfffft. Basically, Daddy thinks Fitz ain’t shit. He makes her get on a private jet. Once on board, she calls Cyrus who begs her not to leave. Olivia says she won’t be the administration’s scapegoat. Cyrus promises she won’t be, but if she leaves, Fitz will think he had her killed and never trust him again. That works and Olivia gets off the plane, much to her dad’s annoyance.
Play Nice, Sally
Cyrus really wants Sally Langston to go out there and take one for the team. She should answer press questions while they figure out what the hell they’re going to do. Sally ain’t playing that game. After trading barbs with Cyrus in which he insults her god and she insults homosexuals AND brown babies, Fitz asks to speak to Sally alone.
He falls on his sword, admitting his transgressions, and says he will go before the nation and admit it. But first, he needs her to do as asked while he gets his family ready for it. She agrees.
Business As Usual
Huck and Harrison have to rescue Olivia from her limo because the press isn’t allowing her entrance to the offices. She demands they go about business as usual, but after a few dozen phone calls she realizes that all the powerful clients she helped are turning their backs on her.
Cyrus sweet talks James into telling him that the leak of Olivia’s name came from a watering hole the secret service frequents.
Mellie confronts Hal, you know, the secret service agent who snitches like a little bitch every chance he gets. Through a flashback, we see that he drunkenly tells a reporter that Mellie found out Fitz was screwing a trusted advisor, but he swears he never gave Olivia’s name.
David visits Olivia and advises as her friend that she just needs to admit everything because if she goes down the other road and evidence comes out, she’s fuuuucked. Also, he slips in a “Hey, return my calls” to Abby.
But too late! There’s footage of the president leaving Olivia’s apartment! This was sent in to a TV news station by someone who obviously thinks it’s funny to take video of their drunk friend taking a piss on the side of very nice apartment buildings.
Harrison Takes Charge
Harrison calls Cyrus and tells him that no matter what, the president’s mistress cannot be Olivia. Cyrus blows him off because Cyrus has already started a kill folder on Olivia Pope. We don’t know what that is yet, but it can’t be good.
OK, now we know what it is. They’re gathering info to drag Olivia through the mud. The narrative? Olivia is an ambitious slut who has screwed a lot of powerful, older men a.k.a. Silver Foxes.
After a late night rendevouz with her dad, who informs her that he can still get her out of it, Olivia calls in some top secret codes in order to get a meeting with Fitz in a secret underground bunker.
OOOOOH! Are we going to get hot secret underground bunker sex?
No. Mellie arrives and the three of them devise a plan where they *gasp* tell the truth. Well, not the whole truth. Mellie will not have the world knowing that Fitz is in love with Olivia. She wants the world to think that Olivia is just a side piece. Even though Fitz doesn’t like it, he goes along with it. When Mellie leaves, he and Olivia hug as she cries and that’s as close to hot bunker sex as we’re going to get.
Or We Could Just Kill Another Intern
Mellie ain’t about that life. She is not going to have the world know that Olivia and Fitz had an affair. She teams up with Cyrus and Olivia’s team to leak another name. Janine Locke, the communications aide. Who? Exactly.
Fitz is furious. Mellie tells him to calm down. She admits it was her idea and she got it from him since HE leaked Olivia’s name. Via flashback we see that Hal dropped the first part about the president sleeping with a trusted aide, but it was Tom - under Fitz’s orders - who leaked Olivia’s name. Mellie thinks Fitz did it so that he can eventually be with Olivia, but he tells her he did it for the same reason he came to her and put his head in her lap and pretended that her forgiveness meant a damn: They’re at war and he was not going to let her use Olivia as a weapon. Now Olivia is free.
Well played, Fitz. Well played.
BUT Olivia now has a new client: Janine!
Charlie takes Cyrus at gunpoint. Don’t worry: James and the baby are fine. Cyrus meets with Olivia’s daddy who shows him a folder containing what REALLY happened during Operation Remington. That’s the top secret mission that Fitz and Jake Ballard carried out in Iran. Whatever was in that folder causes Cyrus to gasp. “Oh, my God.”
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This episode was wonderful!! I think they are gonna let Janine take the fall but gracefully.
Cyrus seemed to legitimately want to help her. I agree. She’s taking the fall, but he’ll try to cushion the blow.
But, of course, Olivia won’t have any of that.