After watching ‘You Can’t Take Command,’ I hope Scandal has given me what I’ve wanted for so long. No, not Liv (Kerry Washington) and Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) together; I’m talking about the end of the B613 story line.
Let’s bitch it out…
Dear Mellie (Bellamy Young): if someone introduces themselves to you as “Damascus Bainbridge” and basically offers to fund your campaign, that’s a red flag. That’s not a REAL NAME. But I digress…Mellie takes a meeting with Damascus/Rowan (Joe Morton) and is surprised to learn her big billionaire donor is more than she bargained for. Expecting to look through files on Rowan’s pet project (and ready to support it in return for a contribution, as all good politicians are), Mellie discovers photos of her and Andrew, Fitz and Liv, and files on Operation Remington. That’s right, Mellie is now under B613’s thumb. Rowan blackmails her for “a list” to keep quiet, which she forks over begrudgingly to save herself and Fitz.
Meanwhile, Jake (Scott Foley) testifies before the grand jury on B613 and Operation Remington. He kills it (this time, metaphorically). When everyone leaves the building, however, they discover the entire busload of jurors slaughtered. It’s a bloodbath. David (Joshua Malina) then hears the stenographer died walking her non-existent dog. That’s right, everyone who was in the courtroom during Jake’s testimony, with the exception of David, is dead. We learn later that David survived out of Rowan’s kindness to Cyrus, because he knows Attorney General confirmation hearings can be so laborious (um…thanks?).
Meanwhile, Mellie realizes that “list” Rowan asked for was a name of all of the grand jurors on the case. She is FREAKING OUT, and her hair gets even bigger now that it’s full of secrets.
Liv has one of her standard “I’m going to make my dad pay, he can’t do this anymore” speeches (yawn) as Jake, totally missing the point, offers to take her anywhere in the globe. She’s not ready for the sun yet, so she consults Maya (Khandi Alexander). Am I the only one who cheered when Maya called out Liv for being vain? Maya does, however, let Liv know that no one is able to take Rowan down because no one knows he exists. You can practically see the light bulb go off above Liv’s head!
Liv heads to the CIA to give them all the information she has on B613 operations so that the CIA can take them down. But unfortunately, Mellie had already gone to Cyrus (Jeff Perry), who won’t allow B613 to become public. Cyrus heads off Liv’s plan at the CIA and gets her and Jake locked up. Threatening Abby’s life, Cyrus forces David to get Liv and Jake to sign an affidavit saying there’s no such thing as B613. Liv proves that she failed Political Theory 101 in college by not understanding the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Don’t just assume Jake signed the document without seeing proof! Ugh.
Courtesy of ABC
Last week, I mentioned Fitz and Mellie’s relationship was my favorite. This week, that gets ruined. Lizzie (Portia de Rossi) “let’s it slip” to Fitz about Rowan and Mellie’s deal, and he realizes she’s inadvertently responsible for the jurors’ deaths. Fitz is furious and kicks Mellie out of the White House and fires Cyrus for his role in covering it up and arresting Liv. Um…let’s take a quick look at Fitz’s past actions: blowing down a plane with 329 innocent civilians, murdering Judge Verna (RIP), starting a war and killing American soldiers to get Liv back. Pot, meet kettle.
Meanwhile, Rowan kills everyone and destroys everything associated with B613 to protect himself against Liv’s attempts to bring him down. Liv’s second “light bulb” moment comes when Rowan tells her he’s just an old, doddering Smithsonian paleontologist now. The flaw in his master plan to eradicate everyone is that he has no power. So OPA deposits Liv’s ol’ auction money (how has no one at OPA gone on a vacation with that yet?) and rigs it to look like Rowan was embezzling money.
In the end, former Command is in County lockup with drunks and no way out. How embarrassing, but thank God. Can we please be done with him already? And Liv’s mom for that matter? I have a feeling she’ll be a key player in Season 5, and I, for one, am over all of Liv’s family drama.
To close the season out, Liv invites Jake to celebrate her big win, and he declines, stating “I’m in love with you, and you’re in love with him.” Liv moves on REALLY fast, and heads straight to the White House, which is now down one first lady and meddling CoS. The most powerful man in the free world and the most socially astute fixer on the planet then decide it’s a good idea to make out on the balcony. Let’s hope there’s no tour bus going by.
Other Observations:
- Quinn (Katie Lowes) is such a connoisseur of carnage that she recognizes the murders on the bus as Huck’s (Guillermo Diaz) handiwork. He claims he did it because Rowan forced him to in order to save his family, but Quinn knows better. He loves and craves the killing. As Quinn sticks a gun to his forehead to put him out of his misery, I don’t know who is shouting at her more to pull the trigger: Huck or everyone screaming at their TV. Just do it already. There’s nowhere left for this character to go.
- I am so pissed that Fitz and Liv start making out to “Here comes the sun.” The sun is Jake and Liv’s thing! Don’t take that away from him at least! Isn’t there some song about making shitty jam in shitty Vermont that they could use?!
- Personal #TeamJake feelings aside, it seems like the writers shoehorned putting Fitz and Liv back together again. Like they wanted to close out the season with that, but ran out of time to map out the story in a believable way and just shoved all of these wistful looks and flashbacks into the finale.
- Why did Rowan actually need the names of the jurors? Didn’t he just need to know their bus information? And also, if Huck killed them, did Rowan really need anything from Mellie? Wouldn’t Huck already know this information since he’s on Liv’s team? Foxtail seems to be a rather elaborate operation unnecessarily.
- Am I the only one dying to know Jake’s given name after he mentions it on the stand?
- Kudos to Tony Goldwyn for the amazing transition of furious Fitz who just learned about Mellie’s betrayal to loving husband who walks on stage to congratulate his wife on her Senate win.
Best Lines:
- Cyrus (to the DIRECTOR OF THE CIA!) “Honey, and I’m going to call you Honey, because I can’t remember your first name and I don’t care”
- David: “While I live for justice, I don’t want to die for it”
- Cyrus: “I can’t have a soul. If I had one I would never accomplish a thing”
What did you think of the season finale? Will you be watching Season 5? More importantly, will you be watching if Jake doesn’t return? Do you care at all whether Huck lives or dies? Sound off below!
Scandal has finished airing its fourth season on ABC. It returns in the fall.