Courtesy of ABC
First things first: does anyone else still have School House Rock in their head?
Let’s bitch it out…
Reason #1852 why you don’t sleep with your opponent’s wife during a mayoral campaign:
Community activist Marcus Walker (Cornelius Smith Jr.) returns. This time, he’s a candidate for the DC mayoral race. He takes “sleeping with the enemy” literally as he bangs the current mayor’s wife. During their last “session”, he hides in a closet when they hear a noise and he witnesses three masked men murder said wife.
Obviously his first call is to Liv (Kerry Washington), whose team cleans up the scene with the classic fluff and fold maneuver. Why are Liv’s clients always surprised when they witness this?! What do they think she’s going to do to get them out of jams this big?
After an awesome ass-kicking of the DCPD for questioning Marcus illegally, OPA discovers that the mayor ordered his wife’s death. Liv works a deal that the mayor will resign and endorse Marcus in return for his silence. Marcus, however, does not throw away his white hat just yet and he tells everyone the truth – about both his affair and the murder – during a press conference. Justice-1; Political Career-0.
I’m just a bill:
As a result of Brandon’s death at the hands of police in ‘The Lawn Chair’, Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) has been trying to get a bill passed to provide greater scrutiny on police brutality and VP Susan Ross (Artemis Pebdani) is the tie-breaking vote. Much to everyone’s dismay, Susan needs to read all 1,200 pages before she will commit to voting.
Do I appreciate Susan’s determination to write carefully crafted, enforceable laws? Of course. Do I think there’s a chance in hell that they would stop MID-VOTE to completely rewrite the bill and reintroduce it to the floor? No f*cking way! In any event, Susan convinces Fitz that they need to go back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, Cyrus (Jeff Perry) looks like he’s going to have a coronary. It’s pretty hilarious.
Courtesy of ABC
Impending Doom:
As we saw at the end of last episode, Rowan (Joe Morton) is back. Liv and Rowan’s opening scene exhausts me. It is so comically intense that I can only imagine that this is how rehearsals go. The result: Rowan tells Liv to pick a side on the B613 case.
Inspired by Marcus’s search for justice, Liv does not back down. Even when Operation Remington comes to light and David finds out that Fitz flew the plane that killed 329 civilians, she still decides to support the case. Ironically, Rowan is proud of her for standing up and choosing justice over Fitz, even if that means that they’ll be on different sides now.
Meanwhile, Liv’s multiple-night-stand, Russell (Brian White), is still in the picture. After some naughty time with Liv, Russell stabs Jake (Scott Foley) at Rowan’s behest!! (Side Note: we all knew Russell was B613 right?) Also: Russell is super unimpressed with Jake’s fighting ability. I’d like to think Jake is still alive (#TeamJake forever), but by the fourth deep abdominal stab wound, even my hopes began to dwindle.
Other Observations:
- Nice continuity bringing back characters. I loved seeing the aftermath of Brandon’s shooting and Fitz’s administration trying to make a difference. Also, hi Ethan! The look on his face when that poor kid got the word correct at the spelling bee was priceless.
- Mellie (Bellamy Young) and her ridiculously permed hair finally declares her candidacy for the Virginia senate race.
- How can Marcus and OPA not be arrested for tampering with a crime scene after SMASHING NATALIE’S BODY WITH HAMMERS and cleaning up all evidence?
- Liv’s acting skills are on point. When she convinceS Russell they had just been drunk dancing and he passed out, not drugged and tied up, I almost believed it!
Best Line:
- David Rosen (Joshua Malina): “I fed the pigeon”
What did you think of the episode? Is Jake going to survive this? Do you like Susan’s character as much as I do? Sound off below!
Scandal airs Thursdays at 9pm EST on ABC. Next week: Papa Pope continues to pursue OPA and the ABC ad machine is already hyping the season finale