SCANDAL: “Icharus” Flew Too Close to the Sun…and Crashed

This week I’m stepping in for Leah as she takes care of some personal stuff, and I’m not going to lie, this week’s Scandal is kind of hard to recap. I was confused more often then not and I’m not sure I can write an account of the episode in a way that won’t be all over the board. So I’ll just lay it out for you in picture!

“Icharus” starts out where the last episode ended. Huck and Jake are watching Liv closely as she processes what they’ve just told her about Operation Remington. Lix is flashbacking to the day her mother left for her trip on the day she died. She then decides to confront Fitz with it to see if she can get the truth from him. Of course, he refuses to talk about it. Liv tells him she won’t work on his campaign and walks out.

Olivia announces to her team that they will be running the campaign for Josie Marcus (Lisa Kudrow). In full on Olivia Pope mode, they begin to plan and strategize with Marcus, but she is resistant to the games she must play in order to win and her opponent is playing dirty.

Meanwhile, Cyrus meets with Rowan and tells him that Liz knows about Operation Remington. Rowan tells him that she only thinks she knows but she doesn’t really know anything. At this point I’m ready to tear my hair out of my head. He ends up telling Cyrus to basically go back to work and he’ll take care of Jake.

Jake meets with Kate, and old acquaintance,  and asks her to hack into the sub-basement archives at Langley and look for the cockpit recording for a plane, which he has written down on a piece of paper. Presumably, this is the plane Liv’s mother was on that was shot down. As Kate leaves, we see that someone was watching them.

Cyrus threatens Harrison to get him to convince Olivia to step off the Marcus campaign. Apparently he can get the guy who can kill Harrison a visa back into the U.S. Harrison goes to Huck for help, asking him if he can make sure that visa is never approved. Harrison meets with Cyrus and turns him down, telling Cy that he would never risk being caught letting a known criminal back into the country. As Harrison leaves, Cyrus picks up the phone and makes a call.

Olivia is watching footage of the plane crash and she calls her father. He allows her to ask one question, and one only. So she asks him if he gave the order to shoot down the plane. Of course he says he didn’t, but I would have thought that after all that’s happened, Liv would know he would lie. But Rowan tells her to leave the past in the past.

Cyrus is trying to influence James because he’s going to interview Josie Marcus. Cy wants James to bring up the issue about the illegitimate child. Liv and Abby are are coaching Josie, and they take some drastic measures. They record a PSA showing Josie as a week woman who has no business running for President of the U.S. Their plan works and Josie takes James down right on national television. It was so sweet, I actually got out my pompoms and began to cheer, “MARCUS! MARCUS!”

Meanwhile, Sally has plans of her own and here’s where I get really confused. She’s working with that campaign manager who’s name I don’t know and they are being pretty devious, I’m sure. I just can’t figure out their game plan. Whatever it is, Sally is invited to dinner with Fitz and Mellie and she’s still pretending to be 100% aligned with Fitz, calling herself a team player.

Later, Sally meets with a pastor who’s endorsement she’s looking to gain. Unbeknownst to her however, Cyrus was using this pastor to gain confirmation that Sally is indeed planning on running against Fitz. Cyrus is nervous but Mellie says that she knows Sally’s weakness and they may be able to use it. Her jealousy over her wandering husband.

Baby Huck is practicing shooting and she’s visited by none other than Charlie. That’s right, Gladiators, he’s back! What’s even more chilling is that Quinn is asking Huck for information about B-613, and if, once you’re in there, can you ever get out. What is she thinking about doing? Huck should be all over this! It feels to me as though she’s angling for committing herself to the B-613 program. This is later confirmed when Charlie is seen talking on the phone with Rowan while watching Quinn shoot. This is bad, folks. Very, very bad.

Jake goes to meet Kate and is again followed by the ,mysterious guy. Kate reaches into her bag to get the files Jake is looking for when the mystery guy shoots her. He tells Jake to look in her bag and Jake finds a gun. Fitz was having Jake shadowed. When later, Jake is called to the Oval Office, Fitz tries to get him to back off of Operation Remington or he won’t be able to protect him anymore.

Back at the firing range, Charlie is on the phone with Rowan. He tells Rowan that the “seed has been planted, watered with love and waiting to bloom.” Rowan tells him to make sure it does bloom – “It’s important.” And oh, by the way, Kate worked for Rowan. *sigh* Where does it end?

The episode ends with Olivia once more confronting Fitz but this time she finally tells him that her mother was on that plane. I’m just going to let this video clip say it all because I cannot do it justice. It was a powerful scene and we are left to wonder if Fitz did indeed know that her mother was one of the casualties.

Gladiators, I give you the last 3 1/2 minutes of “Icharus”.

I think Fitz just ended them with those seven words, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Leah will return next week and take you through the next episode, “Everything’s Coming Up Mellie”, airing at 10/9c on ABC.