SCANDAL Recap: Welcome to Wonderland

I read other peoples recaps of Scandal and I wonder how they get them into these 600 words or less articles. Even last week here at NiceGirls when Liz covered for me (thanks Liz!) she was succinct and to the point.
Me? I ramble, I write like I talk and this week is going to be no exception. I just can’t help it. So bear with me, because a lot happens.

Let’s take the flashbacks first. Fifteen years ago Mellie and Fitz are visiting Jerry (Fitz’s Dad). Cyrus, Professor Beene, is there to meet Fitz. More accurately he is there to size Fitz up as a candidate. Fitz is tall, has good hair and a pretty wife. That seems to be everything you need. Speaking of hair, Cyrus has a lot of it. A LOT and at one point he says he has to get home to his wife. That’s right, wife. This makes me giggle a little. He waited until he was running the campaign of a Republican he wanted to make President someday before coming out of the closet. There is irony there somewhere.
Rambling. I’m rambling.

Jerry and Fitz hear Cyrus’s proposal to make Fitz Governor of California but it comes down to one sticking point, Fitz won’t run as a war hero. He flat out refuses to run on his military service, no matter what Jerry orders him to do.

Cyrus doesn’t care for family drama though and he goes to leave. Mellie catches up with him and begs him to stay, they will fix this. Cyrus tells Mellie that if she wants Fitz to become Governor and maybe someday President she will have to make Fitz her life’s work. Her whole life will need to be him and his career. Cyrus leaves and Mellie tries to do just that.

She sits down with a very drunk Jerry and listens to him ramble on about what a great father he is and in his drunken state he tells Mellie about the flight that Fitz shot down. She is understandably a little shocked. According to Jerry there was a dirty bomb on board and as Fitz was flying black ops missions at the time he took his orders and shot the plane down to save London (the planes destination) from the bomb.

While she is reeling from that Jerry does something worse than anything we have seen him do and he was always a bastard. He rapes Mellie. When he is done she goes upstairs and doesn’t tell Fitz. Instead she climbs into bed with him and silently cries.

The next morning Mellie sits down to breakfast with Jerry. He goes to apologize for “getting carried away”. Yeah that’s what happened. Mellie tells him to save the apology. Instead he is going to pull Fitz aside when he comes down to breakfast and tell him whatever he needs to hear in order for Fitz to run for Governor. It’s almost chilling to see Mellie become…well Mellie. It works and not much time later they are throwing a party to announce Fitz’s run for Governor. At that party Mellie tells Fitz she is pregnant.
You all know what that means, right? Fitz’s son could potentially be his brother.

While you are trying to digest that let’s cover the present. Mellie’s image with voters is not good and to attempt to remedy that she is doing an interview with the press as well as a taped tour of the East Wing. At one point Mellie is asked if she feels she made sacrifices to become part of the Grant political dynasty. Ya think?

Later in the walk through Mellie stops by the Oval Office with baby Teddy to see Fitz, only Fitz isn’t there like he is supposed to be. Mellie plasters her fake smile on anyway. However that night Mellie rails at Fitz. She does everything alone; they are supposed to be partners. “If you knew the sacrifices I have made, the things that I have given up and the pieces of myself that I have given away for you…” She says he doesn’t have to love her, but the least he could do is be her friend, a little bit, because they are in this together.

The next day Fitz does show up, he sits next to Mellie and cuts off the questions fired at her by the lady doing the interview about her popularity. According to the poles a third of American’s question her sanity. Before Mellie can answer Fitz jumps in, he takes the blame and the responsibility for everything. He had the affair and he damaged their marriage. He says they are both trying to move on.
When the camera crew leaves Fitz tells Mellie he meant every word he said in the interview earlier and holds Mellie’s hand as they enter a party the White House is throwing.

Mellie looks shocked and pleased. I’m not saying I love the Mellie character but I do sympathize with her more than I ever have before. There isn’t a person on this earth (besides my child) I would give up that much of myself for.

I think what got Fitz was earlier when Mellie was upset at him for not showing up she told him he was a stranger. This is something Olivia said to him earlier when they were on the phone. He doesn’t like the statement from either woman.

Back to the party Cyrus is there watching the hooker he and Mellie picked out flirt with VP Langston’s husband. Did I mention Cyrus and Mellie picked out a hooker to try to trap VP Langston’s husband? Apparently he has a wandering eye. It doesn’t seem to work though.
James is at the party as well and he approaches Cyrus to tell him he was fired. Moments later he is seen getting a drink while VP Langston’s husband clearly flirts with him. The hooker apparently wasn’t the right gender.

Now let’s also talk about Quinn. This chick is pissing me off in a big way. She is spending more time with Charlie at the gun range. She questions Charlie about his next “target” and he claims to be a PI who takes pictures for jealous wives, etc…

In the office later she pulls Huck aside and actually wants credit for calling the weird dynamic between Olivia and her father. Huck seems less than inclined to give her credit. Good, cause she is crazy. This girl was saved by Olivia from life in prison, brought into her team, and now is acting like she is some walking on the dark side badass because she can sense a vibe and hack some emails. Did I mention she is pissing me off?

So anyway, that night Quinn follows Charlie. Charlie has better surveillance skills than Jake though. (should we talk about last week’s debacle that almost got him killed – No? Fine.) and pulls Quinn out of the bushes before kissing her and walking away.

Quinn, who is too special needs to be worried, meets up with Charlie the next night while he is on a stake out. He tells her he needs to go get a file from this company, he doesn’t want to drug the night watch guard but the guard doesn’t seem to be moving from his post. He shows Quinn the tranquilizer in the syringe he is going to use. He bates her and she spills that she and Huck tortured someone once. She brags she got what they needed. Bragging to an assassin, basically a serial killer seems dumb, just dumb.

She gets what she thinks she wants and Charlie hands her the syringes. She is going to drug the guard for him. They have to kiss first though. Obviously. What is wrong with her? I cannot type that enough.

Quinn goes into the building and stabs the guard with the syringe. Only it isn’t a tranquilizer, it is poison and just like that the guard is dead. Suddenly she is less than badass, running scared from the building.

She runs to the alley where she tries to call Huck only to find Charlie there. He tells her Huck will be tremendously disappointed in her and then shows Quinn video of her killing the guard. Charlie, “You belong to B613 now. Welcome to Wonderland.”

Poor stupid Quinn looks genuinely upset now. What did she think was going to happen and isn’t that what she wanted? Why on earth would she trust Charlie with anything!
Rambling. I’m rambling again.

Also during the episode, Olivia gets to the office to tell the Gladiators Pope and Associates has a new client. Olivia’s Mom. Now she has the team digging into Remington. That doesn’t bode well for their safety.

Olivia gives them the rundown, my Dad runs B613, and he had the plane my mother was on shot down, oh and The President of the United States was the pilot, yada yada. The Gladiators are on board because….over a cliff.

They find out Fitz’s Dad was the head of the Senate committee that headed up the investigation into the crash. They also find out the flight was delayed on take-off, but not reported delayed. They track down the gate agent who worked the flight. She says a Federal Marshall held the plane to remove one person before the flight. Something that not surprisingly also didn’t make the report. The Gladiators figure out the passenger taken off the plane was Omar Dresden. He is however listed as one of the victims of the crash.

Next they track down the guy who was driving the stairs to the plane that night. He still lives in DC and he might have seen the person who was removed from the plane. Jake says he is going to meet with him later that night. When Jake gets to the guys work he sees the guard Quinn killed. That was their only lead.

We end the episode with Command visiting a prisoner, named Omar Dresden. While that is happening Fitz is reading a file on Olivia and her family. He turns a page to see Command – he is shocked to see that is Olivia’s father.

What is more shocking is Command getting to Omar’s cell only it isn’t Omar, its Olivia’s Mom. Momma Pope is still alive.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? What is up with Olivia’s Mom? Do you like Mellie a little more? How damaging would it be for Fitz to find out his son might be his brother?

Rambling. I’m rambling.

Scandal airs Thursday 10/9c on ABC