Scandal – Buckle Up

By: Jamie Steinberg

Susan and Mellie are headed to Florida to get the endorsement of Governor Louise Baker (Annie Potts). Both sides think that if they seal the deal with her, then they have a leg up in the election. Getting to Florida though seems to be the bigger issue at hand. Both Abby (Darby Stanchfield) and Olivia (Kerry Washington) want to make it off the ground in time to attend Baker’s dinner, but because of their recent dust up there is some lingering anger. Abby makes a massive move against Olivia by making it so Mellie’s (Bellamy Young) isn’t allowed to take off. Well, this means war…

Olivia isn’t going to take this sitting down. She takes to the media to list names of plane passengers being delayed by the President’s plane. Abby is flailing and it is upsetting Fitz. He wants her to make the plane move, but she’s not willing to budge.

Cyrus (Jeff Perry) is getting ready to head out to work when Michael (Matthew Del Negro) asks if he’ll be late again. Cyrus says that he is hard at work for Victor Vargas (Ricardo Chavira) and if he’ll be late he promises he’ll call. As Cyrus heads out, Michael gets a call from Alex Vargas (Danny Pino) who is pushing for him to make a move. He wants Michael to take some action, but he’s not ready and hangs up on Alex.

Desperate to get off the ground, Mellie walks out on the tarmac. GASP! She stands there in the middle of their planes and waits for Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) to come outside. The two talk about what is keeping them from getting off the ground, both going nowhere with the discussion. Fitz takes a bold approach and spills the beans about Olivia murdering Nichols (Jon Tenney). With all eyes watching them, Mellie must stand still and take in everything he is saying about it all. With this new knowledge, we see a concerned Mellie head back to her plane. Back on Air Force One, Fitz tells them to get the plane off the ground.

Meanwhile, David Rosen (Joshua Malina) is having his own fight…for the woman he loves. Governor Baker approaches him and tells him that if he gets rid of his investigation into a local sugar company than she will bless Susan Ross (Artemis Pebdani) with her endorsement. Looking for guidance, he turns to Elizabeth (Portia de Rossi). She has no sympathy for him and doesn’t suffer fools lightly. This becomes crystal clear when Rosen says he refuses to let the investigation drop as he took an oath to uphold his office. “We get it. You’re a special snowflake,” she snips.

Worried about their friend, Quinn (Katie Lowes) and Huck (Guillermo Diaz) take some time out to talk to Olivia. They just don’t understand why she’s bothering with this battle when she could be out saving Jake (Scott Foley). Being pushed to her limit, we see Olivia finally break down. She confesses that her father has threatened to slit his throat if they ever see each other again. Right now, she’s there to help Mellie and is making it her mission to get that damn plane to Florida. She calls Fitz and asks him to turn the plane around.

At Governor Baker’s dinner, she is entertaining her guests – including Hollis Doyle (Gregg Henry). The governor learns that Mellie has arrived, but doesn’t want to offer her a seat at the table as dinner has already begun. Her aide lets her know that it isn’t that simple…Just then, Fitz, Mellie, Susan and Olivia walk into the room. Time to make room afterall!

After dinner, we find Susan and David in her hotel room getting ready for bed. David lays on the floor and compliments Susan on her poise at dinner. He truly seems to be gutted by their breakup and literally doing everything possible to make up for breaking her heart. It is in this scene we see he truly, truly has real feelings for her. Susan also sees it and reaches her hand down to take hold of his hand.

Cyrus is getting ready for work when Michael asks him about another late night at the office. He wonders why he didn’t call like he said he would, but gets brushed off. An angry and upset Michael stands up for himself and pulls the trigger – calling Cyrus out about his affair. Unfortunately, this was lights a fire in the belly of the beast, where Cyrus begins to scream at Michael. He says that maybe if there was more sex and less stress (since he’s busy trying to make a President) then he’d want to be home more. He says Michael might want to consider his options if he has any plans of leaving because there is surely nowhere left to go.

Governor Baker holds a press conference and announces her intentions on voting for Susan Ross. A shocked Susan is quite surprised, but is certainly glad to have her on her side. Unfortunately, it somehow doesn’t work in Susan’s favor as she ends up being beaten in the polls in the state of Florida. Elizabeth meets back up with David to express her surprise. The two talk and she realizes what he did to get that endorsement. Elizabeth is filled with mixed emotions as she’s startled David gave in and happy that he’s finally playing politics.

We also see a news caster discussing a report that has come out that Victor Vargas’ daughter is in another state battling cancer. A shocked Vargas doesn’t know what to do, but investigate the matter. He calls around and learns that the message came directly from Cyrus’ computer. Alex thinks he has finally beaten the beast, but not so fast little warrior. Victor says that the message couldn’t have been sent by Cyrus and that he is certain this was a planted story by a sneaky Alex. Vargas fires his brother, leaving a smug Cyrus looking on in pleasure.

Not wanting to let her nemesis win, Abby has her own tantrum. She begins yelling at Fitz that he has no right to overrule her as she is the monster in charge. He’s had enough of her and Olivia’s antics and he isn’t going to let their pettiness continue to play a role in their politics. She understands what Olivia has gone through, but she’s still holding a grudge that she was asked to come back to Olivia Pope & Associates if things didn’t work out as Chief of Staff. Finally having it out, the ladies meet and lay their cards on the table. We see Olivia take back her power when she says, “I want my White House back! I’ve earned it.” Thank you! It is right now that we get our passionate powerhouse Pope back and we see her move on from wallowing in self pity.

As the episode comes to an end, Cyrus comes home after a day at the office – with a smile on his face, clearly still pleased at his victory. He says their plan to oust Alex worked and he’s happy to be home. Something doesn’t seem right though as Matthew doesn’t answer back. Heading into their bedroom, Cyrus sees that all of Michael’s clothes are gone…and so is HIS daughter! Checkmate.