Scandal – Thwack

By: Jamie Steinberg

Hold to your popcorn and steady your wine glass because this is a doozy of an episode! We begin the episode with a bombshell – the President’s new girlfriend, Lillian Forrester (Annabeth Gish) is pregnant. Abby (Darby Stanchfield) has had a spy on her and is informing the President when she gets interrupted by a text message nullifying her notice.

Meanwhile, Mellie (Bellamy Young) and Olivia (Kerry Washington) are discussing landing the Latino vote. Mellie is balking though as she “doesn’t want to be one of those candidates that tries to speak Spanish and accidentally calls someone a crocodile.” Olivia is pushing her to talk about immigration and get the Catholic vote by meeting with a Cardinal. Interrupted by a phone call from Abby, Olivia is warned that no matter what happens next this conversation never happened.

Post chat, Olivia heads over to see Vice President Andrew Nichols (Jon Tenney) to see why he’s meeting with a reporter from the Times. With a steel smirk, we begin this week’s sick episode of “Scandal.”

It’s hard to remember back to the time we last saw Andrew as it is many moons ago and a number of powerful plot twists past. But, we find Andrew noting how happy he is to be able to talk again and that he was telling the tale of Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) going to war to get Olivia back when she was kidnapped. Oh, and he’s conveniently left out the part about how it was him who set that kidnapping caper in motion. Olivia says his health issues weren’t her fault, but he Andrew fills her in on the fact he had a stroke because one of her buddies put a needle in his neck. He vows to make Olivia pay for his pain, but Olivia isn’t going to go sweetly into that goodnight as she is one tough cookie.

At the White House, the various masters of manipulation gather to try to piece this puzzle together. Mellie offers to meet with Andrew (her former boyfriend) to smooth things over. Cyrus (Jeff Perry) is having his laughs as he has an immunity deal, but isn’t willing to bounce because he’s still “a member of this distinguished club.” Elizabeth (Portia de Rossi) suggests killing him, but that idea is quickly shot down – by everyone. Mellie heads out to a meeting with Andrew as Abby asks them all to shred all evidence of Fitz’s fight on Olivia’s behalf.

Unable to sleep, Olivia tosses and turns until she has a realization. Angrily storming into Olivia Pope & Associates, she points a finger in Huck’s (Guillermo Diaz) face accusing him of needling Andrew. Unable to deny the accusation, Olivia asks him not to make another move. After asking the team to handle the document trail of the Fitz/Olivia war, we find Elizabeth in the garage confronting Huck and asking him to put Andrew out of his misery. Huck declines, but Elizabeth pushes on behalf of Liv and he takes the location to Andrew’s hospital room.

In Vargas Campaign Headquarters, Alex (Danny Pino) is going over video footage when he spies Tom (Brian Letscher) in the feed. Mellie walks into Andrew’s room and the two have a heart-to-heart. She is sad he chose Fitz over her, but she thinks that maybe his stroke happened so they could have a second chance. He attempts to put his hand on his manhood, but when she speaks out in shock he explains that the she would make a move if she truly wanted a second chance. He tells her she should take the opportunity unless she is disgusted by him, which he assures her is a mutual feeling. Mellie heads out and begins ranting at Olivia that there is a dark cloud hanging over them in the form of a sex scandal. Olivia has had enough of the outburst though and tells her to “sit down and shut up and wait for me to do what I do best.”

On the move again, Olivia shows up on her father’s doorstep. They seem to be going over strategy options while he and Jake (Scott Foley) have dinner. Papa Pope (Joe Morton) says that when the other avenues fail she’ll only be left with one option, something Olivia explains is not an avenue in her world. Huck arrives at the hospital and we watch him do what he does best – a needle to the neck.

In a bunker, we find Andrew still unconscious and Abby arriving to find out from Olivia the current status of their situation. Olivia explains that people are trying to kill him, but Andrew points at Huck and says, “The only person that ever tried to kill me was him!” Olivia is trying to explain that he has unleased forces behind his control by speaking out about her situation. She also wants to find out how much money it will take to silence the matter. He wants $10 million and for Olivia to represent him when he negotiates his book deal.

Alex Vargas is still trying to put his finger on identifying Tom from the video. Lillian is discussing her story with Nichols and we see Rowan and Jake listening in through a wiretap. Meeting up again to chat about the terms of his deal, the bad guys are deciding on whether they are willing to divide up the cost to buy Andrew’s silence. Fitz seeks out Abby’s opinion and agrees to be in on the bribe. Before they are willing to hand over the bucks, they want Andrew to sign a non-disclosure and call of Lilian Forrester. He wants the money first though, which Olivia does. Just when they are about to get him to call to cancel, Nichols decides he wants more money, an apple pie and a forest named after him. Talk about lofty goals…He says he knows they didn’t really transfer the money to him, but the looks on their faces now is what matters the most.

In the Oval Office, Fitz is lamenting his selection of Nichols as a VP and wants to meet with the press to confess that he actually faked the assignation attempt on him in order to get support for his war. He assures Abby that the investigation will only lead back to him and won’t bring anything to light about Olivia’s kidnapping. He knows that Andrew will take the deal because it will make him look like a hero and Fitz like a fool. Abby isn’t having it though and lets him know “this isn’t the time to fall on your sword.” Abby heads over to meet with Olivia because she wants to make a replacement plan so that the POTUS doesn’t go down. Olivia sees this as a sign of him stepping up as a leader who is taking the hit for the team. Abby doesn’t understand why she is backing this idea because it will mean all of their downfalls. In fact, it is here that Darby Stanchfield gives one of the greatest speeches her character has ever given: “I’m a big dog, Liv! The biggest! A White House monster. I chew them up. I spit them out. I own that place. What’s the point of being a monster if you’ve got no teeth?” Olivia must be off her meds because she suggests that Abby would be fine without the President and that she could always come back to OAP. “That would be fun, wouldn’t it,” she says. This is not our Olivia.

Back at the bunker, Abby meets with Andrew. Meanwhile, Olivia looks on as Mellie gloats over Fitz’s falling on a sword. Their chat is interrupted by a call from Jake that lets her know that Lilian’s story has shifted from war to women. It is going to flesh out the romantic relationship between Andrew and Mellie. Olivia heads over to meet with Abby about Andrew and correcting this concern. Noticing Abby’s lackluster response, Olivia realizes that it was Abby that set these wheels in motion. Abby explains the President won’t be making a statement and that as a team they all work to protect the President – who happens to still be serving. Since it is her job to run the Oval Office and she isn’t letting it out of her hands until the very last bell has been rung. With that, she revokes Olivia’s access to the White House. Olivia rings Jake looking to get back in though.

Abby lets Fitz know the press conference was cancelled and explains the current plan of action. Olivia enters the bunker to talk to Andrew about a counter-offer. She wants to talk his best outcome of this only to be taunted about her bedroom behavior. Olivia says he’ll never get out of this with a clean slate, but Nichols pushes harder. He goes as far as to saying how much he’d be able to auction her off for now, despite her no longer being Fitz’s girlfriend. Andrew goes on and on, causing Olivia to flashback to her days of torment during her kidnapping. As Andrew smugly says, “I needed and deserved revenge. I got revenge,” she takes a chair and beats him.

Fitz walks into the bunker to find Olivia sitting in the corner. He helps her up and assures her that everything will be okay. As the two embrace, Abby walks in to find Nichols dead. Olivia tells her that in an hour she should release a press release of his passing and during that time she better track down Lillian and put an end to the tales. With that, Olivia shares her last words to her former friend, “Never cross me again.”

The episode ends interestingly. We follow a news report of Nichols passing as we see Tom in bed with Cyrus. Then, we find Alex on Cryus’ doorstep meeting with his husband. He explains they have checked into a hotel under assumed names and wants to come in for a chat. Finally, we find Olivia at her father’s doorstep with her being welcomed home.