SCANDAL Recap: One for the Dog

Finally a new episode of Scandal and it is a crazy one so sit tight because we have a lot to cover.

Hollis wastes no time getting cozy in the Oval Office. He is telling the VP he is sure Huck is guilty and the upcoming torture scenes are hard to look at. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t watch them through my fingers.
Our US Attorney friend David Rosen is watching the interrogation as well and he seems as squeamish about it as I do. The man overseeing the interrogation isn’t all that amused with David though and tells him so.

At Pope and Associates Verna pay Olivia a visit to admit her role in Huck’s imprisonment. Olivia is shocked. I can’t quite figure out what Verna thought would happen when she gave Huck’s name to the VP.

The Secret Five, minus Hollis, have a zero dark thirty meeting at Pope and Associates. Verna says it is because of Hollis that she called the meeting.
While the meeting is taking place Abbey and Harrison are running a scam on a girl at a bar who works for Hollis. While that is happening Verna is talking about a second phone she found out Hollis has. A little cheap burner phone he locked up in his desk drawer the second Verna saw it. The Secret Five are all a little put out that Verna is skeptical of a second phone.

Abbey managed to swipe a key card off of the girl from the bar and breaks into Hollis’s office to find the burner phone. It has one number on it and Abbey writes it down.
Back at Pope & Associates Cyrus refers to this as phone-gate which makes me giggle and gets up to leave. Verna isn’t letting it go though. Verna is sure Hollis is behind the assassination attempt. Now they just have to prove it.
Harrison and Abbey bring the number to Olivia who says to hold onto it.

At home Olivia and Edison are talking when the doorbell rings and an official letter shows up for Edison. This doesn’t end the little fight they were having about how distant Olivia has been lately. It’s about to get worse. The letter is from Fitz. He is asking to be reinstated to his full power as President. Olivia is stunned, she has heard nothing about this and if Fitz is sending letters he is awake. She grabs her coat and tells Edison to get out of her way before leaving the apartment.

In the hospital Olivia runs into Cyrus, they rush in to see him but he isn’t actually awake. In fact he hasn’t woken up at all. In his room is Mellie and after looking at both of them Olivia gasps, “What did you do?”

Olivia is questioning Mellie. She is the one that forged Fitz’s signature. I’m thinking this is a Federal crime of some sort and Olivia states that a moment later. It’s actually treason. Mellie says she thought this through and made her decision. She can’t have Hollis sitting at the right hand of a VP whispering into her ear. They have to protect their secrets. Olivia doesn’t know what she wants to do about this and she doesn’t have much time to think about it because Tom (Secret Service) comes in with a phone. It’s the VP to speak with Fitz.

The three most serious people on the show all start freaking out and making miming actions until Mellie sighs and picks up the phone. She puts on her best fake happy voice and says Fitz is sleeping. The VP seems unconvinced.

Harrison, Abbey and Quinnsay are at the office debating whether or not to call the number form Hollis’s phone. For some reason Quinnsay wants to call the number in case it might save Huck. I may be wrong, I mean I’m not wrong but still it sounds more humble to say I am…wait I was making a point, oh yeah, wasn’t Quinnsay mad and being all snooty ungrateful pants just a few episodes ago towards Huck and now she feels bad for him.
Harrison says Olivia has a plan and they are out of their depth. This is next level stuff. He has a great fast talking Harrison speech and tells them we don’t question Olivia on this. Olivia gets to the office and puts the President’s picture up on the wall – they have a new client.

The VP is pacing the Oval Office with her lap dog Hollis. She is venting about how Mellie is playing her for a fool. Hollis works her up into a tizzy and gets her to leak the letter to the press so they will ask the questions she can’t ask.

Moments later every news reporter in DC is running with the story of the President’s grand recovery. Olivia isn’t impressed; she has Harrison find a friendly doctor. He does some more awesome Harrison sweet talking with a cute doctor to say Fitz’s recovery has been miraculous thus far. Cyrus is told to act like Fitz’s return is a forgone conclusion. This includes him going to the White House to get briefing reports for the President to look over.
Abbey leaks to the media that Olivia was just visiting with the President and Mellie even moves back into the residence.

The media runs with this and it seems very believable because Olivia is good at her job, very good at her job.

Our poor Huck is still being interrogated and it isn’t pretty. He agrees to talk but only to whoever is standing behind the glass, not to the guys that have been “interrogating” him.
Huck asks if the President is still alive. David answers him yes so Huck says, “She isn’t finished!” He says it isn’t over. The interrogators don’t like that so they knock Huck over and kick the crap out of him. I wish there was a better way to say it but it is brutal.

In her office Olivia is ignoring a call from Edison when low and behold David walks in. He announces he knows where Huck is. Olivia says Huck didn’t do it, but David doesn’t believe her. He does agree this shouldn’t be settled in a torture chamber though; it should be handled in court. David also tells Olivia what Huck said about the person coming back to finish the job.

This takes Olivia to the White House where she gets condescended to by the VP’s aid. After a little power tripping The VP agrees to see Olivia. She explains that The VP has the wrong man for the shooting. The VP doesn’t believe Olivia, but the VP’s advisors agree with Olivia and they speak up. They say there is no way Huck could have done the shooting and got caught. He is the best there is and he would never have made the mistakes that framed him.
Thankfully the VP, after reading Huck’s file, seems to agree with them now and says, “How do we go about it.”
They do it by having David bring an executive order into the torture chamber getting Huck released immediately to Olivia. Huck is not in a good place but all he says is, “We don’t have a lot of time.” Because he has a job to do.

Continuing their scheming Olivia tells Mellie to sign the order to get Fitz transferred to Camp David. Just sign Fitz’s name because at Camp David it will be easier to control the guest list and there is no media allowed. Mellie has the nerve to argue for a moment before signing the order

Over at the hospital Harrison is telling Edison he can’t visit the President, he isn’t accepting visitors. Olivia gets there and Edison says she hasn’t been home in days and she isn’t answering his calls. She keeps repeating she is working. Edison says he isn’t leaving until he sees the President. She says it isn’t going to happen. He accuses her of being forging the letter, saying she will be tried for domestic terrorism if she did and he will have no trouble prosecuting her. She dismisses him because we all know Olivia would do anything for Fitz.

Hollis and the VP are doing some more plotting. Hollis says the country looks weak and something has to be done. He says he is handling it, plausible deniability though so he won’t tell her what is going on.
Next thing you know Becky getting a phone call to which she says she will be ready.

James is at the hospital in the nursery. He holds his daughter and starts crying. It’s a sweet spot in this otherwise dark episode.

That night Huck is standing outside the hospital surveying, Olivia shows up with the motorcade route for moving the President and the number from Hollis’s phone. Huck says he won’t let Olivia down this time. I don’t say it enough but Huck is such a great character and Guillermo Diaz plays him so well.

Since this is the moving part of the episode we also get to see Olivia in Fitz’s room, she lays on his bed with him as the music swells.

On the roof across from the hospital Becky that conniving little b*tch is setting up for her shot. She is looking through the scope at the Secret Service outside the hospital when her phone rings. She answers it and it is Huck, not only that but he is standing behind her with a gun pointed at her. She says she figures he will put four bullets into her before she can reach for her gun and Huck says, “Five. One for the dog.”  Hence the name of the episode.  I’m still upset Becky killed his family.  Before he can shoot her SWAT shows up and takes both of them into custody.

As the nation watches the VP gives a speech stating they have apprehended the person responsible for the attack on the President.
At Pope and Associates they are sitting around the table eating take out and watching the VP on the news when there is a knock on the door. Quinnsay goes to answer it and finds Huck. He is being released to Olivia’s custody. Huck limps into the office while everyone looks at him until Quinnsay says, “Welcome home.”

Oh but that isn’t everything, at the Oval Office Mellie shows up to. She and the VP make fake small talk with some backstabbing in soothing tones. The VP says she has been looking into handwriting analysis; she pulls out the letter and accuses Mellie of signing it. The VP says this letter will be rescinded or she will expose them.

Cyrus is at home where he is telling James there is no miracle, Fitz is still unconscious. James says he isn’t a reporter anymore and Cyrus says he isn’t Chief of Staff so let’s go get our baby. Cyrus is ready to walk out the door when his phone rings, he looks shocked.

At Pope and Associates Quinnsay has her big girl pants on and she demands to know from Olivia why she isn’t doing anything about Hollis Doyle after all he did with Cytron and the President. Olivia says okay, let’s talk. Except she gets a call at that moment too. It’s Cyrus; he has someone who wants to talk to Olivia.

He hands the phone to Fitz, who is awake and he says, “Hi.”  I don’t know why that made me want to tear up but it did.  It’s such a simple and meaningful moment.  Olivia says “Hi” back and we fade to black.

YAY! The President is awake and talking. Can’t wait until the next episode because this show is a trip!  In the meantime I am “this close” to  to putting up a board in my living room with the characters pictures and strings connecting them to plot points and conspiracies a la David Rosen.

Scandal airs Thursday 10/9c on ABC