Scandal – Air Force Two

By starrymag | March 14, 2018

By: Nicole Dintelman

 

 

This week on “Scandal” Cyrus (Jeff Perry) is cracking himself up writing a speech for Al Smith Dinner. His secretary asks what is so funny. When he tells her it’s his speech she asks him if he’s checked his email. Of course, he hasn’t! Cyrus goes to Mellie’s (Bellamy Young) office and asks her why he’s not going to the dinner anymore. It’s his chance to drum up excitement about himself. Vain much? Mellie tells him that she knows what the dinner is but he needs to go to Lisbon. Cyrus says that his speech is gold. Mellie tells him to send it to Jake (Scott Foley). Jake is going to the dinner in Cyrus’s place.

 

Cyrus thinks that Jake is pushing him out. He wants the nomination for himself. Mellie tells him that no one is out to get him. Cyrus is still adamant that they’re trying to push him out so Jake can get the presidential nomination. He refuses to give Jake his speech. David Rosen (Joshua Malina) is off to Lisbon with Cyrus. Abby (Darby Stanchfield) asks him if he packed his Dramamine. David says that he doesn’t need it. David asks Abby if she has plans for Thursday night. He made dinner reservations for a very upscale restaurant for them.

 

Abby tells Huck (Guillermo Diaz) and Charlie (George Newbern) that she thinks David is going to propose. She seems appalled by the idea. Abby says that she and David are not fancy restaurant people. They’re take-out people. Huck says that he can get to the bottom of it. He’ll hack his computer. Cyrus heads off to board Air Force Two to head to Lisbon. He’s having a drink alone when David comes in excited to be on Air Force Two. The plane starts to experience turbulence and Cyrus thinks that it’s just because it’s a subpar plane.

 

Molly (Melanie Cruz) comes in and tells Cyrus that they’ve lost control of the plane. David asks if it’s a mechanical error and Molly tells him no. They’ve been hacked. Cyrus asks if it’s stuck on autopilot. Molly says no, they don’t know who’s flying the plane. Huck discovers that David did buy something from a jewelry store. He also made reservations at six different restaurants before deciding on the one they’re going to. Abby says she doesn’t know if she should be more offended by the sheer fact that David is proposing or that he did it with a ring he bought at the mall.

 

Quinn (Katie Lowes) grabs them all to see something in her office. Meanwhile, Olivia (Kerry Washington) is off to visit her mom for her birthday. Momma Pope doesn’t even seem to know it’s her birthday. Olivia brought her mom dinner, dessert, and wine. Maya (Khandi Alexander) tells Olivia there is no way she can eat everything she brought. Olivia tells her that she doesn’t have to. Olivia is staying to have dinner with her mom. Olivia tells her that she used to love her mom’s birthday when she was a kid. Her mom always acted surprised by Olivia going all out.

 

QPA is watching The White House statement on the plane being hijacked. Mellie wants to know how they could have lost Air Force Two. They let her know that it’s not a glitch. The plane is under someone else’s control. They’re unable to communicate with those on board. It could be a hostage situation. Cyrus is trying to calm everyone down on the plane. He wants to explain the full situation to those on board.

 

A reporter is recording Cyrus and they ask her to stop. The hack was introduced inside the plane. Someone’s phone or computer aboard was the cause of the hack. The malware was loaded on their device before they got on board. David says that they will be collecting everyone’s devices. Cyrus’s secretary thinks she’s the one that brought the virus on the plane. The day before her laptop went missing. She went to make copies and when she came back it was on her desk again.

 

Cyrus asks who was in his office when the computer was missing. Before she can answer him the plane makes a sudden jerk and Cyrus falls and hits his head. The plane is now headed right to DC. Cyrus tells David that he thinks the attack is Jake. Hannah’s (Whitney Hise) laptop went missing at the same time Jake came by his office. Cyrus says that Jake wants him out. Only Congress can vote a VP out so he thinks Jake is trying to kill him.

 

David and Cyrus take the laptop to the plane control room. She says that she may be able to connect to the internet via the National Weather Service. QPA is trying to figure out how the attack was started. Huck says that someone is trying to upload malware to their network. It’s the plane! They’re sending them the virus to QPA so they can figure out how to stop it. They tell them not to trust the White House.

 

Mellie is in the war room getting briefed on what is going on. Jake tells her they may need to shoot the plane down. Mellie tells everyone to clear the room. She tells Jake that she wants the plane on the ground right now. Jake says that he does too. Mellie asks him if he really does or if this his way of taking out the trash. Jake tells her that there’s a drug that could make it look like Cyrus had a heart attack. If he wanted him out why would he go to the trouble to hijack the plane? Mellie says maybe because Jake has a thing for planes.

 

Jake is dismissed from the sit room. Mellie tells him that she doesn’t want him anywhere near the operation. She’ll deal with him later. Huck is trying to crack the virus. Abby says that she wants to help. Quinn tells her that she can’t. She has to let them work. Mellie is trying to get a hold of Olivia. Oh, now she wants her former chief of staff to help? Maya asks Olivia why she is there. Olivia tells her she’s there because it’s her birthday and she wanted to make it special.

 

Maya tells her daughter that if she really wanted to make the day special she would have gotten her a ticket to Paris, a suitcase full of money, and one of the fancy coats Olivia wears. Maya says if the guilt is why she’s there she needs to free her from the prison she’s in. Olivia says she really thought she could come there and have one lovely day since it’s her birthday. Maya tells Olivia it’s not her birthday. She had so many aliases’ that she didn’t know what day her birthday was. She says that Olivia should have realized it a long time ago. She’s a smart girl.

 

Olivia checks her phone and finds out about the plane. Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) and Marcus (Cornelius Smith Jr.) are also watching the news when Mellie calls Fitz. She tells him she’s not sure why she called. Fitz says if he had to guess it would be because she just wanted to talk to someone who’s been where she is. Fitz asks her if she wants him to tell her what to do. Mellie tells him no and hangs up. Cyrus asks David if he and Abby are serious. David says that he is but he’s not sure about Abby. While they’re talking they see the F-15 fighter jets sent to shoot them down.

 

Mellie says that no one pulls the trigger without her say so. The press secretary is trying to hold off the media with the nonchalant answers but they keep coming at her. Abby is in her office staring out the window when Huck comes in to give her an update. He wrote a script to try to beat the virus. Huck says they’re working as fast as they can. Abby asks him if it’s as fast as an F-15 can shoot. Abby tells Huck that if David had asked her to marry him she would have done the same thing. Huck asks her if she would have blown him up with a missile. At least that got a small smile out of her.

 

Huck tells Abby that David is not a bad guy. He knows what she went through before and maybe she doesn’t have any good memories of being married. She needs to make new ones. Abby says that she guesses she’s out of luck now since David’s plane is about to be shot out of the sky. David tells Cyrus that they need to talk to the White House. Cyrus says it won’t do any good. They can’t trust them. Cyrus asks what Mellie can do about it. Jake is in charge of the NSA too so her hands would be tied.

 

They’re still counting on QPA to come through and save the plane. Cyrus says they need to prepare for the worst. The reporter makes her way into the control room and says that she thinks there is WiFi aboard the plane. She encourages them to send it out into the cabin. The crew asks everyone to take their seats and fasten their seatbelts. Cyrus gives a moving speech. He thinks the White House is working diligently on getting them home safely.

 

The reporter begins to secretly record Cyrus and broadcast live. The speech is moving to anyone watching. Cyrus says whoever is behind the attack is an enemy of freedom. The jets outside represent the government’s commitment to protect the citizens of America. He hopes that they can all think of their sacrifice as an honorable one. They’re keeping the citizens safe. Cyrus says that he’s proud to do it with everyone who is on the plane.

 

Olivia is trying to get a hold of someone about the plane being hijacked but no one is answering her calls. Her mom tells her not to worry about something she can’t control. She tries to get Olivia to do breathing exercises to calm herself down. Olivia asks her what is wrong with her. Maya says that she doesn’t like playing this game with Olivia. She raised her to be stronger than crying over people that kicked her out of the White House.

 

Clearly tired of her mother’s antics, Olivia gets her things and leaves. Mellie asks Jake to swear he had absolutely nothing to do with the hijacked plane. He tells her that he didn’t. Jake asks Mellie to give him an order. Tell him what she needs. He’s always served at the pleasure of the president. They tell Cyrus that they give the White House five to ten minutes tops before the fighter jets begin to fire. He tells them to keep trying no matter what.

 

Everyone on the plane is visually upset. Some are making lists, while others are praying. Cyrus chooses to get a bottle of liquor. David finds the Dramamine that Abby slipped in his pocket. Mellie is getting ready to give the order to fire. The jets are pulled back and they get in the position to fire. David tells Cyrus that it’s been a pleasure serving with him. Cyrus returns the gesture. Huck and Charlie are vigorously working to hack the virus when Charlie does it.

 

Mellie demands that they try the plane one more time. It takes four calls out before the plane responds. David safely gets to Abby’s house. Abby tells him to do whatever he was going to do, do it now. She doesn’t want to wait. He almost died but didn’t so she wants him to just do it. David tells her that he’s not proposing. She asks him about the trip the jewelry store and the six reservations. David tells her that it’s his mom’s birthday and she’s a picky eater. He says he wouldn’t propose to her unless he wanted to lose her.

 

Fitz tells Mellie that she made the right call. He asks her if she wants to know what he would have done. Mellie says that she really doesn’t. Olivia is wrapping a present box and gives it to a delivery man to take away. Olivia watching Mellie on the news seems to have an idea. The box she was wrapping is delivered to her mother. Olivia gets a call from Maya. One of Olivia’s coats was in the box. She also included a one-way ticket to Paris and a Swiss bank account. She’s giving her mother what she wants. She is free.

 

Liv heads over to check in on Cyrus and see how he’s doing. He says that he’s still waiting for his nerves to settle but he thinks he’s going to be okay. Olivia asks Cyrus why he would settle for Air Force Two. He acts like he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He says he can’t help her understand the attack. All he did was just live through it. Olivia tells him it was a hell of a gamble to risk himself and all the people on the plane. She tells him it was a bit premature. His presidential run is at least 7 years away. Cyrus tells her even three years is too long. Olivia asks him what he’s planning but Cyrus doesn’t give it up. He’s definitely up to something. Hopefully, we find out what soon!