Scandal - S4E5 - The Key
Previously on Scandal, ‘Like Father, Like Daughter’
Rear Window-Style
We’re back to the case of the week(s) when Olivia meets with Catherine and learns the man in the elevator video with Caitlin is her husband’s head of security, Kubiak. Quinn and Olivia are on a stake-out, watching Kubiak. You’re not the only one who thinks this is weird. Quinn asks why Olivia is doing the grunt work and her boss reluctantly replies her boyfriend is avoiding her. As they watch from a building across the street, they watch as Kubiak meets with a young girl and Quinn recognizes her as Caitlin’s BFF, Faith. Kubiak hits Faith and then follows her into another room where he shoots her. Quinn has called the police, but it’s too late. Olivia and Quinn have no idea what they were talking about before Kubiak killed her because the special mic they needed was being used by Huck to listen in on his wife’s phone call while he stalks her house.
Later, Huck uses his resources to find out Kubiak took precautions - the security cameras were all taken out and as an ex-cop, he’s manufactured an alibi against their anonymous tip he was in the building with Faith. Later, Olivia wonders how long it would have taken Faith’s parents to learn what really happened to their daughter if they hadn’t witnessed her murder.
Meanwhile, Fitz is getting drunk… drunker in the Oval Office. He wants an update on Jake. Turns out, Jake hasn’t confessed yet. Cyrus offers up using some less than Constitutional interrogation measures cause Cyrus is bout dat life. Fitz refuses. He needs Jake’s persecution to go by the book.
Like a B613-Boss
Jake has been chilling in his happy place in his mind: back on that island with Olivia. For the past 50+ hours he’s refused all food and drink and will not answer any questions until he speaks to the president. The poor guy charged with interrogating Jake, Bill, doesn’t stand a chance. Jake informs him the handcuffs he’s wearing are just a suggestion for him and he’d appreciate it if Bill stopped asking his pesky questions so he can concentrate on his Olivia Pope Poontang dreams in peace. Bill asks a question, several questions, and Jake knocks him out of his chair using just his foot. Then he tries to go back to his island fantasies while armed guards point machine guns in his face.
Smelly Mellie & Drunk Mellie & Drunk Dialing
Mellie is drunk at 8am. Fitz wonders why she won’t just leave and go somewhere else if she’s so miserable. She reminds him that Jerry is 4 miles away and they visit him every day at 2:30pm. Oh well.
David is drunk and all up in his feelings so he calls Abby for a booty call. Abby is too damn busy for that mess.
Olivia is finally worried enough that she calls Huck and tells him to find out where Jake is. Huck will get right on that just after he’s done being cussed out by his wife for stalking her house… again. Huck tells Olivia that Jake was last at The White House. When Olivia calls her ex-boyfriend looking for her current boyfriend, Fitz stonewalls and now she’s sure Jake is in trouble. Cyrus won’t take her calls and Abby refuses to help her, too. Talk about burned bridges.
Sins of the Father
Olivia tells Caitlin’s father, Jeremy, what Kubiak did. And even though Kubiak admits it to Jeremy, saying Caitlin gave Faith some mystery item they’re looking for so he had no choice but to kill her, Jeremy tells Olivia he has no idea what she’s talking about. Olivia vows that she’ll get to the truth. Quinn figures out that Faith wouldn’t give up a key and is tasked with finding where Faith stashed it.
Fitz goes to visit Jake, just as Jake knew he would. A few bites into the food Fitz brought him and after a mini-duet of an Otis Redding song, Jake realizes that Fitz is there for a confession and it’s not that far of a leap for him to figure out what Fitz is really shitty about is Jake banging Olivia for two months.
“I’m screwed,” Jake says.
Huck is back stalking his wife and she finally relents: She’ll let him see their son that night if he promises to never come back after that. After watching the footage of Faith’s confrontation with Kubiak, Quinn realizes Faith swallowed the key before she was shot. She sneaks into the morgue and cuts the key out of Caitlin’s body.
Lauren is the worst secretary ever. She stammers and blinks when Mellie demands to know where Fitz is and why he’s missing their appointment to go to Jerry’s grave.
Huck shows up at his wife’s house looking like new money and bearing gifts. Too bad his son isn’t there, but his wife has invited a doctor who tries to discuss Huck’s behavior. Huck grips him up and storms out after realizing his wife doesn’t believe anything he’s told her about why he was away.
A Predator, An Animal, A Killing Machine
Cyrus calls himself giving Olivia the courtesy of telling her where Jake is and why he’s there. She doesn’t believe it. He reminds her Jake killed James. After telling her that they will execute Jake and that he’ll dance on his grave, Cyrus says everything he just told her is classified and they’ll never speak of it again. Oh, Cyrus. You know better than that.
Olivia confronts Eli about setting up Jake. He denies it, of course, and even worse, he basically tells her everything Jake did was her fault because he did it to make sure she wouldn’t be with Fitz. Olivia doesn’t believe him, but she was wavering by the end of it.
Everyone Is Up In Their Feelings
Huck cries to Quinn because his wife doesn’t believe him; she thinks he’s crazy.
Mellie wants to know why Fitz missed their date with Jerry. She assumes he was off screwing Olivia, but he yells that he was trying to get a confession out of their son’s killer. When he tells her Jerry was murdered as an act of terrorism, Mellie shocks him (and everyone else), by looking at it as a good thing: Their son died for a reason. Their son died so they could stay in the White House. Fitz tells her to take her chips and booze and shut up forever. Damn.
David surprises Abby at her office and blames all of his problems on Olivia Pope and those damn B613 files - because, you know, he was forced to use those files to get confirmed and pass the gun control bill. Abby then shows up at Olivia’s door and jumps up her ass for ruining David’s life. She softens when she notices Olivia is about to cry. “What’s wrong, Liv?” Um, maybe all the hurtful shit you just said? But no, Olivia tells Abby about the evidence against Jake. She says she doesn’t believe it and Abby holds her as she cries.
Meanwhile, Mellie finally decides it’s time to wash dat ass. While she showers, Fitz goes back to the Pentagon to ask Jake over and over again if he killed his son. Jake says no the first time, but as Fitz beats on him, Jake taunts him with the fact that he’s been all up in Olivia with her screaming his name.
Thoughts & Questions:
- It’s hard to give a damn about this ongoing case when so much juicy stuff is going on with our main cast. Still, I liked how what happened to Faith made Olivia realize that if she didn’t ask questions about Jake when he’s missing, there’s no one else would.
- I’ve been saying that while I miss Mellie, I hope they treat this grieving over losing a child storyline with some sensitivity. It’s a TV show so we want to see the characters we like at their best, but no one wants to feel like the show is rushing through very serious subject matter. Millie’s reactions to Fitz’s news about Jerry’s death feels false to me. She hasn’t cared about the presidency or her role as First Lady. Now she’s talked herself into believing her son’s murder is a good thing for the presidency and their position in politics?
- I am glad that Olivia has doubts about her father and his evidence against Jake. Should she consider he’s telling the truth? Yes. In this universe where she’s gone 20 years thinking her mother was dead only to learn she’s alive and a terrorist, where she can find out her father is the king of government super spies, where she can learn her married lover murdered a Supreme Court Justice, learning that your lover is a murderer isn’t all that shocking. But she should believe it after sitting down and really thinking about it? Absolutely not.
- Huck’s behavior is super fucking creepy and it needs to stop.
