SCANDAL Recap: Seven Fifty-Two

After weeks and weeks and weeks Scandal is finally back and this is an intense episode all the way around so hang in there.

Five years ago we see Olivia on a train platform giving money to a homeless Huck.
Back in the present Olivia is still at the hospital where Fitz is basically standing watch over her. He tries to kiss her but she pulls away, she says she hates him and he apologizes for his recent behavior. She doesn’t forgive him and she goes on to tell him he can’t treat her like a whore he picked up off the street. He counters with he loves her but she says he can’t keep saying that. He keeps repeating it however and she says, “I. Don’t. Believe. You. Anymore.”

That must have done it because he leaves her room. Jake is still waiting outside and Fitz wants to know what happened. He wants Jake to find out who attacked Olivia. Well that’s tricky, isn’t it?

At Pope & Associates the team is trying to work out what to do with Huck who is still rocking in the closet. Harrison is about to leave for the hospital to check on Olivia when Huck starts repeating “Seven Fifty-Two” over and over and over and over.

Flashback to fourteen years ago and Kim (Fringe‘s Jasika Nicole) is surprised at work by her boyfriend Huck. He is back from his tour and he is happy and…normal. His tour was cut short for a meeting the government wants him at.

The next morning Huck is in an office for his meeting and is offered a job, even though he doesn’t know what the job is. Charlie is there as well as a guy who appears to be the boss. Huck figures he is at the CIA so while he is flatter, no thanks. They don’t really give him a choice though. He agrees to take the job.

Back in the present Harrison is trying to get into Olivia’s room but the Secret Service has the hall blocked off. They won’t let him through, no matter how fast and fancy he talks. Harrison says unless their boss is sharing a room with his boss they can’t restrict his moments. The Secret Service doesn’t budge making Harrison stop and really think about what that must mean.

Harrison turns his head to see baseball cap guy (Charlie), he chases him down but can’t catch up with him. So maybe it was Charlie in Olivia’s apartment the night she was at Jakes? Maybe he is working for Albatros?

Harrison gets back to the office to find Huck is still repeating “seven fifty-two”.

Flashback to Charlie giving Huck his first lesson, it amounts to Charlie telling Huck – with glee I might add – that they kill people. It’s what they do. Oh they also torture people. Charlie is setting out a pretty disturbing murder/torture kit on the table for Huck. He hands Huck his first assignment.

In the present Olivia calls Harrison to see how it is going and he fills her in on Huck’s condition. Harrison tells her he knows she is safe, he saw the Secret Service but before Olivia can explain Harrison says it is none of his business. You know why? Because Harrison is down, he is ride or die for Olivia.

At the office Quinn sits next to Huck (who is still repeating seven fifty-two) and just starts talking about what she wanted her wedding to be like. What she pictured her first house and babies with Jesse would be like. She says the only reason that future being stolen from her didn’t kill her is because of Huck. Huck saved her and she is telling him he has to just let this go, whatever it is, he can’t let it steal his life.

Flashback to Kim telling Huck she is pregnant. His response is, “Oh,” and not an enthusiastic, “Oh.” He was just momentarily surprised and asks her to marry him. They look really happy.

The next montage is Huck happy at work and happy at home. It is disturbing to say the least. He tortures people one moment and gets married the next. Cuts off a guys toes and helps deliver his baby boy. Did I mention how disturbing it was?

Cyrus tracks Fitz to the hospital to lecture him on his “antics”. Fitz says he is staying until Olivia is discharged, end of discussion. Fitz introduces Jake to Cyrus and Cyrus can’t quite hold in his skeptical face.

Over at Pope & Associates it’s now Abbey’s turn to sit with Huck. She tries to figure out what seven fifty-two is, she thinks it is the number of times Huck has done something for Olivia without questioning why. She sounds a little bitter. She opens up to Huck about how happy she was with David. How glad she is that she was right about David not being a woman beater. Abbey says Olivia rescued her from her husband, a man who was going to kill her, so she owes Olivia her life. Olivia saved her and turned her into a gladiator and in return they give Olivia blind loyalty. The downside for Abbey is she did what she had to do for Olivia and now David will never love her like he did.

We flashback to Huck getting home from “work” to find Charlie, in his house, talking to Kim and holding his son. Charlie pulls Huck outside and berates him for having a family. That is a no-no. Huck has to fix it or Charlie will do it for him.

That night Huck is packing, he tells Kim they have to go, right now. He needs to run to the bank and when he gets back they will leave. Huck gets as far as the driveway when a car pulls up and he is kidnapped and put in a metal box/cell. In the cell every few months, weeks, days, hours, minutes – I’m not sure – the top is opened and Huck is asked if he has a wife and child. He keeps saying yes until he doesn’t anymore. They literally make him forget he had a family.

Harrison is now talking to Huck, who is still repeating seven fifty-two. Harrison says he is a talker, he has always been able to talk himself in or out of anything. Right now though he doesn’t know what to say because Huck is the opposite; Huck is always so quiet that they don’t know how to get through to him. Harrison calls Huck a warrior, a real deal gladiator, so he really doesn’t know what to say in this moment. It makes Harrison realize all he is is talk, just talk compared to Huck.

Over at the hospital Olivia is ready to be discharged. Fitz wants to talk to her but she doesn’t ever want to talk to him again. He keeps repeating that he loves her, something she refuses to believe – having cameras put in her apartment isn’t love. He brings up Defiance and how he was angry because she tried to fix him, handle him. He says that was control – and that isn’t love either.

He again says that he loves her and asks if she still loves him. You can see that she doesn’t want to answer but she can’t lie, she tells him yes, she still loves him. It doesn’t matter though because she can’t do this anymore.

Their song plays for us viewers at home. Whoever wrote the song deserves an Oscar an Emmy, whatever, some sort of award, because it is moving and sweet and sad and perfect for them.

Fitz: “This past year I have learned only one thing. That I can not exist without you, that I can not breath without you. That the man I am without you – I’m nothing. I’m nothing and you are everything and I need you to give me another chance. I demand another chance. We are worth another chance.”

That gets to Olivia (how could it not) and she turns and pulls Fitz in for a I haven’t kissed you in months kinda kiss. She comes to her senses and pulls away saying she can’t. She just can’t.

Fitz heads home to the White House where Mellie is up to something. She says she is leaving – him. She is moving next door across the street. With the tunnels they will be able to keep it secret from the press. Oh and she is taking the baby. He could care less about her leaving but he says she can’t his son. Mellie tells him there is a clock on this whole keeping it quite thing. He has some time to figure out if he can behave or not. If not then she will be on the front lawn discussing her philandering husband and his whore to anyone who will listen.

Mellie: “Good luck getting reelected once I start talking.”

Cyrus calls Charlie and tasks him with finding out what kind of relationship Jake and Olivia have. Charlie says Cyrus can probably guess but that isn’t good enough. Cyrus wants proof, proof he can use.

Jake meets with his secret squirell boss/contact. His boss wants Albatros no matter what and he wants to use Olivia as bait, something that doesn’t sit well with Jake. Jake says he may need out, he wants the mission to be reassigned, because of his relationship with the President. Yeah, that’s it, the President. Jake is told there is no such thing as out.

After his family is forgotten Huck is a broken man, he can’t even preform his job anymore and Charlie is there to kill him. However Charlie has a moment of humanity and spares Huck, tells him he is for all intents and purposes dead, a ghost.

Charlie reports back to his boss – who is also Jake’s secret squirrel boss – that Huck is dead. Does that make Jake CIA? An assassin?

Olivia, having been discharged from the hospital heads over to the office to see Huck. She goes into the closet with him and closes the door. She sits down with him and quiets him. She tells him she doesn’t usually give change to homeless guys but his eyes were so sad, sadder than hers.

Huck always says she saved him but Olivia says that isn’t true, he saved her. Huck is all she has, he is the only one that, “lives on the dark side of the moon” like her. Whatever “this” is he has to snap out of it and come back to her because he is everything she has.

Huck: “I think I used to have a family, but I don’t remember if they were real or if I imagined them.”

Olivia pulls Huck up off the floor and we get one more flashback to Huck homeless on the platform. He looks at an arriving train to see his wife and child step onto the platform. His son gives him a dollar because he looks hungry. Kim doesn’t recognize him or look at him with more than with just a glance. As they walk away Huck looks up and the clock above him reads, 7:52.

I’m glad we have a few weeks of new episodes to look forward too but man does this show just wreck me. I will be sitting at my desk tomorrow and the day after and the day after just thinking about Huck and Jake and Fitz & Olivia.

Scandal airs Thursday 10/9c on ABC