SCANDAL Recap: Bang Bang He Got Shot Down

Take a breath gladiators, because I promise you, it will be the last one you’ll have the chance to take this episode.

The Tom Brokaw of BNC News is giving a special report on the President and his condition.
Outside the gala we get to see the shots fired once more and the ensuing aftermath. Olivia and Cyrus are in a daze in the trauma center, Mellie is hysterical and Fitz is being worked on by multiple doctors. It doesn’t take long for Cyrus to start taking charge while Olivia spies a flag pin on the ground in the trauma center.

FLASHBACK: Olivia is pinning that same pin onto Fitz’s jacket. It was the pin Eisenhower wore when he was in office. It’s an inauguration gift. Fitz tries to “properly” thank her for the gift despite her protests that they were going to stop when he because President. Unfortunately Mellie breaks up their little party. This is the old Mellie though, she seems quite happy and chatty and generally not a bitch. I think she and Olivia could have probably been great friends under different circumstances.
After the inauguration Olivia is moving into her new office at the White House. She walks down a hall to find Cyrus and his then boyfriend James fighting over why Cyrus can’t just take James to the inaugural ball with him. When Cyrus gets out into the hall and sees Olivia he calls James “just a reporter he was filling in on some details” and asks her if she wants to go to the ball with him, she says no, she isn’t going. A while later she gets a call and heads to the Oval Office, Fitz is there, he didn’t want to be another moment without her.
He playfully chases Olivia around a couch before catching up to her. She says this can’t happen anymore but he is pretty sure it can happen, in fact it can happen right there on the President’s desk, in the Oval Office. Olivia gives in, she is just human after all, and when Fitz says things like, “You are the most important person in my life – I can’t just stop.” you would be climbing on that desk just as fast as she did.
The chemistry between those two is hypnotic.

PRESENT: We get some more BNC News footage of the shooting. The reporter says the Press Secretary was seriously injured in the attack and the White House has yet to make any formal comment on the incident. The attention turns to the VP, her armed guard says she is going to the observatory but she says no, they are going to the south lawn of the White House. They say they can’t do that but she is insistent.

At Pope and Associate the gladiators watch VP Langston give a speech to the press that include the words, “I am in place…And in charge…” What a great way to make a power play Madam VP.

A very angry Cyrus storms into the Oval Office where VP Langston has taken up shop, as it were. Through the door Olivia can hear Cyrus yelling at the VP. Olivia decides it is time to take charge. She gathers the rest of the staff and starts her patented Olivia Pope fast talking, take charge, it’s handled orders. She’s back and she is staying as long as they need her.
Next she enters the Oval Office where VP Langston is telling Cyrus she is in charge. Cyrus begs to differ. He quotes the 25th Amendment. You can find the wording here, but basically she is not automatically in charge. The only way that will happen while the President is still alive is if he signs over power to her or if she gathers enough signatures from the Cabinet members.
Now Cyrus is scary and Cyrus he can be a complete bastard but there are times when he gets going that he is just awesome to watch. This is one of those times.

FLASHBACK: VP Langston is telling Fitz what an honor it is to stand in the Oval Office helping the President set the agenda for his first 100 days. The VP has a number of names in mind for the newly open Supreme Court seat. It was apparently part of the deal, she ran with Fitz as VP and if they got elected she could be the one to pick the first open Supreme Court Justice appointment. Verna (Part of the Secret Five) is in the Oval Office and hears this. She doesn’t seem pleased.

Fitz is jogging with his Secret Service when Agent Tom pulls him aside and tells Fitz he would like to let him know there are security cameras in the White House. Tom really has been helpful in the whole Olivia/Fitz relationship from the beginning, hasn’t he? Anyway, Fitz is unfazed by this revelation, he wants to go over options with Tom, where are the cameras so he can avoid them.

At Camp David Fitz, Cyrus and Olivia are having a political pow-wow and then later in bed she continues the conversation between kisses and giggles. This seems to be the theme of the next few moments. A little talking, a lot of cute kissing and general sexiness. They somehow manager to come up with the main talking points for the State of the Union address.
While walking in the woods around Camp David Olivia brings up Cyrus’s boyfriend. Cyrus says he is the right hand of the Republican Party, it’s complicated. Olivia says Cyrus loves James; you should be with the man you love.

PRESENT: BNC News Update – Olivia Pope is briefing the Press Corps. Olivia says Fritz is in critical condition as well as the Press Secretary and Mellie was unharmed. She won’t be giving health updates on those involved; they will come from the head surgeon. The FBI will be handling the actual attack/crime scene and the VP may have landed on the south lawn but she is now at a secure location. Per Olivia, the President is still the President.
Pope and Associates are still watching this on the TV from their offices. Well not all of them Huck is missing and he has been the whole episode. Harrison says he wonders why Olivia ever left the White House.

FLASHBACK: Olivia is at the White House when Fitz catches up with her. She has been avoiding him since Mellie showed up at Camp David. She says she isn’t this person, she can’t keep this up. This is all very Thomas Jefferson/Sally Heming’s. She says she has to go.
She is headed to a meeting with Cyrus and Verna about Verna’s appointment to the Supreme Court and how that isn’t going to happen if the VP actually gets to choose. Verna says she did everything, whored every bit of her integrity out to get Fitz elected. They are going to figure out a way to make it happen.
Olivia is getting a briefing from the Press Secretary that in the present was shot. One of the items on her list is a reporter who is doing a story on voting irregularities in Ohio. Olivia immediately calls Huck and asks for a favor. Huck does some digging, and mind you this is crazy bearded homeless Huck. The reporter got his information from Jesse at Cytron. That would be Quinnsay’s boyfriend, Jesse. Olivia asks Huck where he has been living and then declares that he lives with her now, get some clippers and clean up. Olivia’s next step is to talk to Hollis, she tells him to handle it.

In the gardens at the White House Fitz finds Olivia. He didn’t like her use of the Sally Hemings/Thomas Jefferson reference. He accuses her of trying to drive him away. She says, “You ARE away. By definition you’re away…” This next little speech by Olivia bears to be repeated word for word, “I smile at her and I take off my clothes for you. I wait for you, I watch for you. My whole life is you. I can’t breathe because I’m waiting for you. You own me, you control me. I belong to you.”
Fitz’s reply is equally as impassioned, “You own me! You control me. I belong to you! You don’t think I want to be honorable? I love you. I’m in love with you. You are the love of my life…My every feeling is controlled by the look on your face. I can’t breathe without you, I can’t sleep without you…I exist for you.”

Are you kidding me with this? It’s so ridiculously heart wrenching and I find I watch scenes between Olivia and Fitz on the edge of my seat holding a breath. I feel like I’m eavesdropping on conversations I wasn’t meant to hear.
Okay…I’m back.

PRESENT: Our Tom Brokaw is announcing the Press Secretary has died from her injuries. She was only 32 and he looks visually upset.
Olivia gets a call from Edison; apparently the VP is lobbying the cabinet for the votes needed to take over the Presidency. She is only two votes away. Cyrus wants to have a word with the cabinet but Olivia thinks there is an easier/better way, Mellie. Olivia finds Mellie in the waiting room of the hospital; she explains what is happening with the VP. Mellie is on board and all Olivia has to do is find something for her to wear. In Mellie’s closet, a room that is bigger than the bottom floor of my townhome Olivia sees Fitz’s clothes on one side. She pulls out a Navy sweatshirt and breaks down.

FLASHBACK: Olivia and Fitz are looking at The Constitution, he urges her to touch it, six people have touched it in the last 100 years, be the 7th. She does, running her fingers across it in awe and then tells Fitz she loves him too. He says they are in this together, she agrees.

PRESENT: Mellie is giving her own press conference with Olivia by her side. She talks about America being behind her husband and his recovery. She reminds them America has a President and it is Fitz. Don’t give up on him.

FLASHBACK: Mellie and Fitz are taking pictures in the Oval Office when she notices his flag pin is missing. He says he must have dropped it somewhere and when he looks up he catches the eye of one of his Secret Service Agents who quickly looks away. Mellie sees this look but we don’t go into it yet.
Meanwhile the VP has picked her Supreme Court nominee. She wants him approved, no hassles. Cyrus reaches out to James even though at the time they are broken up. He gives James the name of the Supreme Court nominee. Next thing we see the VP is yelling at Cyrus over a story in the paper that dug up the dirty past of her nominee. She accuses Cyrus of doing this and from this point forward she is in this for her and her alone. No wonder she is seizing this opportunity in the present.

After hearing about the bombing at Cytron Olivia confronts Hollis. He is unrepentant.

PRESENT: At the hospital the surgeon says Fitz is out of surgery but he is still unresponsive. At this point he is lucky to be alive.

FLASHBACK: When Olivia tells Cyrus about the bombing at Cytron he is also unrepentant. He figured the bombing was Hollis and he also figures it had to be done.
Out in the hall Mellie finds Olivia to give her back the flag pin the President must have dropped when they were together. She knows they were together thanks to that Secret Service Agent from earlier. Mellie says she and Olivia and Cyrus are a team, they got Fitz the White House and they are going to keep him here. They just have different ways of getting it done.
The President is giving the State of the Union Address while Olivia watches from her office. While the President is talking about integrity Olivia is leaving her letter of resignation on his desk along with the flag pin.
That night when Fitz gets back to the office he sees the letter and the pin, he sits down stunned.

PRESENT: Sally Langston is being sworn in as President, ironically by Verna, while Cyrus throws things around in his office. Olivia is at the hospital where she finds Mellie at Fitz’s bedside. She gives Mellie back the flag pin she found at the beginning of the episode and they both watch Fitz.
The BNC report is giving a description of the shooter, average height, average build and a read hooded sweatshirt. We then get to see the shooting from the shooters standpoint. THE SHOOTER IS HUCK!

Next week is the fall finale – I can’t wait!

Scandal airs Thursday 10/9c on ABC