SCANDAL Recap: Boom Goes the Dynamite

Call me Jake:
Jake and Olivia try the dating thing. He’s quite suave, that’s right I pulled suave out of my 1990’s vocabulary, and after informing her that the restaurant she chose is; “where dates go to die” he woos her with an outside evening picnic. He also accuses Olivia of being bad at dating – which she is. He really seems to take it all in stride though.
Later we see Jake paying a visit to Fitz. It was Fitz that hired him to spy on Olivia – no big surprise there – although I’m still bothered that Olivia and or Huck don’t sweep for bugs in her apartment.
Fitz and Jake go way back, so this is something of a personal favor. When Jake questioned Fitz as to why he says, “Olivia Pope is not what she seems…She’s not a good person.” Someone is still feeling betrayed and hurt I see.
By the end of the episode Olivia has reconsidered Jake and gives him a call; she agrees to an actual date. Oh Fitz is not going to like this if/when he finds out.

Mellie meet the True Monster:
Mellie is still Fitz’s number one confidant and since he is still dealing with the hostage situation he is relying on her quite a bit.
Mellie consoles Cyrus for being cut out of Fitz’s circle even though she threw him under that Defiance bus just last episode. Cyrus suggests, “blood for blood” when it comes to the hostages and Mellie – despite telling Cyrus she will credit him – runs right to Fitz claiming the idea was her own.
Cyrus finds out and is furious. After taking Olivia’s advice he waits for his chance and let’s Mellie come up with a bad idea. When he pretends to back it Mellie runs with it.
Sure enough when Fitz finds out what Mellie did –thanks to Cyrus leaking the information to a reporter – its Fitz’s turn to be furious. Just like that Cyrus is mostly back in while Mellie is out.

I-Spy:
David Rosen thinks he is being followed.
David: “…waiting for the right moment to shoot me or run me over or drown me in my own toilet.”
Turns out David is being followed – by Wendy’s best friend, Molly. She saw a guy threatening Wendy outside her house once and he saw Molly watching. Now she is scared she is next on this man’s hit list.
While she is in protective custody with the team, Huck’s computer decrypts one of Wendy’s files; it’s the names of the CIA operatives that are being held hostage. While watching a news program Molly recognizes CIA Director Osborne as the man who threatened Wendy, and with the list of CIA names in Wendy’s possession we can also see that Osborne is the mole.

Case of the week:
The Caldwell’s – a very powerful political family – are the case of the week. Senator Caldwell’s brother, Will is running for Governor of North Carolina.
Eric Mabius is Senator Caldwell and Sam Page is his brother Will. Now that is a gene pool that makes you believe in a higher power.
The rumor that Will is gay is hurting his chances of becoming Governor so Pope and Associates play matchmaker for Will who swears he is not gay, he just hasn’t found anyone yet. The team goes out and interviews girls for his possible new wife.
Olivia thankfully finds a future wife for Will just in time for the big fundraising gala.
Olivia looks stunning as she is leaving for the gala but Harrison calls with a problem, the fact that they interviewed for Will’s wife leaked to the press. Olivia tells Harrison to shut it down.
He does just that and it turns out the leak about the arranged marriage, didn’t come from one of the girls they interviewed, it came from inside the family. In fact it was Will’s older brother’s wife. She and Will have been having and affair for 10 years – since a few months after his brother brought her home to meet the family. Will amusingly to us viewers explains to Olivia about an affair and how it works and why he can’t give her up.
Will: “We have what we have. It might not be much but it’s what we have.”
Olivia: “You have nothing. You have a pile of secrets and lies and you are calling it love…stolen moments aren’t a life.”

At the gala Olivia stands in the audience as Fitz gives the keynote speech. They share a longing wordless look or two when Olivia’s phone rings. It’s Jake, he does some more charming and Olivia can’t help it, she smiles and laughs. Something Fitz is very aware of.
Fitz calls Jake to the White House later that night to find out who the guy is that Olivia is seeing. He knows there is a guy. Jake puts on his best poker face and says there is no guy.

This wasn’t my favorite episode but I also realize not all episodes can be fast pace action packed. Some episodes need to be a set up for things to come and that is what this weeks was.

Olivia thaws towards Jake something that will go awry when she finds out he has been spying on her for Fitz. Quinnsay is actually a friend to one of the team when she is nice to Huck during his rain induced PTSD from being water-boarded and we found out the identity of the mole.
All in all a pretty solid set up for things to come.

Scandal airs Thursday 10/9c on ABC