SCANDAL Recap: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

This episode of Scandal, through flashbacks, explains a lot about the relationship Olivia has with her Father.

The flashbacks from five years ago show Olivia having Sunday dinner with her Dad. It is awkward and quiet. Her Dad is pretending to be the loving Father but Olivia clearly doesn’t want to be there. He apologizes for past mistakes and says he is trying. She falls for it. Family is a funny thing isn’t it. He plays the whole I work at the Smithsonian thing, she smiles. After dinner from the train station Olivia calls Edison, who she is dating and living with. She thinks him meeting her father is a bad idea, I have to agree. Moments after she hangs up she is mugged. Fortunately for her Homeless Huck is there – remember that is where he used to do his homeless hanging. He steps in and whoops the mugger’s asses, telling Olivia to run. She wisely takes off.

The day after the attack Olivia asks Huck how he learned to fight like that. She says he can trust her and he does. He spills his “I was an assassin for B613, black ops, run by a guy named Command; goes by the company name Acme Limited even though the operatives call it Wonderland”. Olivia listens without even blinking. At the next dinner with her Dad Olivia tells him what Huck said. He of course says Homeless Huck must be crazy. Olivia says he might be crazy but can’t her Dad ask his friend who works at the FBI to see if Homeless Huck’s story has any merit.

At the next family diner her Dad says according to his FBI friend there is no such thing as B613 and then paints Huck as a psycho with a long rap sheet and serious issues. He tells Olivia Huck was arrested for assault; she shouldn’t worry about him anymore.

Of course Olivia can’t let it go and she calls in a favor from an old law professor. She heads to the court house to find a David Rosen. The favor was having Rosen run Huck’s prints from her purse. Rosen, looking scruffy and young, says his prints are not in the system, he was never arrested. Then he asks to borrow a pen, a pen Olivia got from her Dad’s house. It is significant and you will see why in a moment.

Olivia heads from the courthouse to Acme Limited which is conveniently on the corner of Wonderland Ave. Well what do you know? She pulls the pen out of her purse from earlier and sure enough, the pen says Acme Limited on it. Why exactly would B613 have pens made??? Anyway it is all the proof Olivia needs.

She heads right to dinner with her Dad. She pulls the pen out and sets it in front of him. She questions what he does for a living? His answers with, “I am your Father so I am going to explain how you are to behave in my presence.” That is confirmation enough for her. She gets up and walks out. Why he thought he could control her is beyond me. Seriously, she is Olivia freaking Pope!

One more week later Olivia shows up at her Dad’s house with Edison for Sunday dinner. She tells her Dad Edison is her fiancé and then informs her Dad Edison is the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Her Dad is not amused. When Edison goes into the other room Olivia tells her Dad she wants Huck back.

Later Olivia is at the train station and Huck is back. He looks a little beat up and sounds crazier than before. Her Dad calls wanting a thank you for giving Huck back and not so subtly tells her he had Edison beaten – badly. He then goes on to say give the ring back to Edison and call off the engagement. Olivia tells him she will stay away from him and what he does but he is also going to stay away from her. Their relationship – if you can call it that – is over.

In the present Olivia is jogging when Secret Service Tom jogs past her handing her a cell phone. She answers, “Hi” and gets the responding “Hi” that breaks my heart every time. They discuss what they are going to do about the framed aide and then have a sweet personal conversation. Fitz, “Somewhere in another life, in another reality, we’re married and we have four kids and we live in Vermont and I’m the mayor and…” Olivia, “…and I make jam.” Fitz, “…and you make jam.”
Olivia changes the subject, she is going after The White House and Fitz tells her to go for it.

Olivia wastes no time getting The Adie on the front lawn to give a press conference denying the affair. Now I know The Aide has a name but I will be referring to her as The Aide as I can’t see her story lasting much past this episode. Cyrus and Fitz watch – Cyrus annoyed, Fitz amused.

Mellie isn’t to be dissuaded though. She does some more framing with Cyrus’s help.

Olivia is about to handle this newest information when she finds her Dad at her office. Olivia and her Dad close her office door and pretend to smile while having a tense conversation. With a fake smile on his face he tells Liv if she wants to see Jake again – ever – she will let America believe it was The Aide that had an affair with Fitz. She wants to know what her Dad did to Jake, her Dad says ask Huck.

When he leaves Olivia pulls Huck aside and says she needs to ask something about B613. She asks what happens when you disobey an order – Huck tells her about The Hole.

Next she calls Tom who gives the phone to Fitz. She wants Fitz to find Jake. That’s right, she is calling her married boyfriend about her other boyfriend.

Meanwhile at the office Quinn is hacking into Olivia’s email. When Huck asks her why she says, “Because I can.” I think Miss Quinn is getting a little too big for her britches. She is very curious about Olivia and her Dad as Olivia has never mentioned him. Quinn says Olivia and her Dad used to have dinner every Sunday and then one day it stopped, everything, dinners, emails, etc…She wonders what happened.

In Cyrus’s office Fitz tells Cyrus Jake has been taken by B613. Cyrus tries to deny knowing what B613 is but Fitz basically tells him to knock it off. Fitz wants Jake released. Cyrus says that is too bad, they do not answer to Fitz; it was set up that way on purpose to protect the administration. Fitz is not their commander and chief.

The office is getting ready for a live press conference. The Aide is going to go on TV and deny the affair with IM’s between her and another aide as proof that she wasn’t ever alone with The President.

Abby calls Olivia to tell her the IM’s were deleted – at The Aides request. Someone – Mellie – must have gotten to her. The press conference is about to start when Fitz calls Olivia. He tells her Jake is alive but that is all he can do. That isn’t good enough for Olivia. She tells Fitz he is the President for a reason, so that nothing is beyond his control, now get her Jake!

Olivia makes her next call to her Dad, she puts Sunday dinners back on the table if he will release Jake, he says he will consider it.
When she hangs up, The Aide tells Olivia she was offered $2 million to admit to the affair. End of story. Before she can give her statement one way or another though Fitz gets a jump on things. He is making a live statement from the briefing room, which preempts anything Olivia and The Aide were going to do. Cyrus wants to know what is going on. Fitz says it can go one of two ways. One he tells the press Cyrus set The Aide up because he didn’t want it to get out that Fitz was having an affair with Olivia. Or Fitz can admit to the affair with The Aide and in return Cyrus gets Jake back from B613.

The President is making his statement. He says he did in fact have an affair with The Aide. The Aide wonders why Fitz would say they slept together when they didn’t. Olivia doesn’t answer just grabs her purse and leaves.

Quinn finds Huck in the computer room. She didn’t quit snooping in Olivia’s emails. She found an email where Olivia asked her Dad to look into a homeless guy she used to give change to. Right after that the emails stop. Quinn wants to know if Olivia and her Dad were talking about Huck. Huck doesn’t’ say anything just follows Olivia out to the parking garage. He grabs Olivia and practically strangles her. He wants to know if her father is Command. She admits that he is. He says nothing and walks away.

That night Olivia gets a call from her father telling her he will see her on Sunday for dinner and to open her front door. She does to find Jake bloody, beaten and looking not so good.  He collapses when he sees Olivia and says, “Hi.”

Scandal airs 10/9c on ABC