SCANDAL Recap: Are You A Patriot?

SCANDAL IS BACK! Spoiler Alert – I do not keep my rambling to a minimum.

Where did we leave off you might ask? Sally did some murdering. Cyrus covered it up. James tells Rosen he thinks there was foul play but thanks to James screwing Rosen last time he brought him a story he tells James to shove it. Fitz replaced Liv’s Father with Jake as head of B613 and Huck kicked Poor Quinn out of Pope & Associates. Oh and Liv’s Mom is a bad mother – shut your mouth.

Guess what? Despite agreeing to not run (it was implied) in exchange for Cyrus covering up her murderous ways Sally Langston does just that. She announces she is running for President. Everyone is furious, well except Fitz. He is too wrapped up (literally) in his campaign managers arms. That’s right; Liv is back with the White House. It gets better Sally opts to not only run for President but also continuing on as Vice President. That will make things super fun around the West Wing briefings. Don’t ya think?

Fitz sure isn’t taking it well; he’s drinking his breakfast and breaking lovely crystal glasses against the wall of the Oval Office. Cyrus and Mellie are begging him to knock it off. Thankfully Liv enters and does a fast talking, I have this all worked out speech. Fitz doesn’t even look up from his glass. Not only that but he has picked his new VP running mate all by himself. Andrew Nichols. Andrew is Governor of California and Fitz’s old Lieutenant Governor. He made his choice and he summarily dismisses everyone.

Rosen confronts James with the audio he has of the phone call Sally made to Cyrus. James says too little too late. Rosen gets all uppity as he is prone to do and accuses James of taking a sweet Government job from his husband. James rightly counters, “How does that differ from you?” James takes off just in time for Harrison to call Rosen. Harrison wants him to check in on a Visa issued to Adnan Salif. Harrison is freaking out.

Jake is conducting what I can only assume is B613’s version of a meet and greet. Charlie runs down his life story and says he works for whoever has that office. He’s fine working for Jake. Before he can leave Jake tells him Quinn Perkins is not B613 material. Not only that but nothing had better happen to her. Poor Quinn, maybe she can do some secretarial work for them or something.

Pope & Associates meets with Andrew Nichols. None other than the ridiculously attractive Jon Tenny. Man Shonda can cast a pretty face, can’t she? Anyway, the team does their background work – he comes up clean while Olivia talks to him about why he would want to be VP. He even polls well – with men. Not so well with the women. Something to do with him reminding them of their boyfriend that got away or did some cheating or whatnot. Olivia doesn’t want to put him on the ticket but Cyrus says Fitz won’t budge. He also casually mentions Jake is running B613. Olivia had no idea.

She finds her Dad in the park. Olivia tries to bond a little but he shuts it down. She even tries to tell him she knows he was replaced at B613 but he insists he works for the Smithsonian. So he’s gotten all warm and fuzzy in his early retirement, hasn’t he? He has this whole speech, you can see where Liv gets her talking skills, about how Fitz kidnapped him and let Liv’s Mom get away. I’m sorry but I have to stop him here. He did this to himself. If he had been open and honest about what that women really was this wouldn’t have happened. But no….he had to be all secret agent man. Turns out he is quite bitter. In fact he is so bitter he threatens Liv and states, in no uncertain terms, that Fitz won’t live to see the end of his term. Fitz crossed the wrong angry old man. Olivia, bless her heart looks surprised that he could be this horrible. I just want to slap her and then hug her close. I think it was Shonda who quotes, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” BELIEVE that he is a vengeful force!

Abby and Leo debate it out on TV only to have Leo, not surprisingly, drag Olivia into things. He posits that Olivia is in fact Fitz’s mistress. Cue media storm. James continues to answer that Fitz named his mistress, it wasn’t Olivia, let’s move on. In the midst of these questions a reporter starts asking about Sally’s husband. There are no autopsy reports and all records have been sealed, she wonders why that is. James dodges the question and Olivia tells a very nervous looking Cyrus that this is the story they need to get the heat off of her and Fitz. Poor secret keeping Cyrus.

Leo is sharing his good news with Sally. The whole Fitz/Olivia story has caused her to go up points in the polls and she is even trending on Twitter. She is more troubled about the details of Daniel Douglas’s death coming to light. She wants to quit now and Leo should let her because Sally is going off the rails. I don’t mind religious fervor but this woman insists she didn’t murder her husband. The devil did it when he slipped inside her. Leo should be concerned. He takes his concern to Cyrus’s office. Cyrus does his threatening tone and Leo counters. Unfortunately for Cyrus, Leo knows the part Cyrus played in Sally’s murdering, or should I say the devil’s murdering, evening.

Charlie, going against Jake, is at the store with Quinn. He tells her Jake just needs some time to think about it and not to worry. She will be great at B613. Poor Quinn laments that maybe in the mean time she can babysit or wait tables. Charlie says not to worry as he takes a call from Cyrus. Is this what Poor Quinn has become? An assassin for hire? Really? Oh it is so much worse than that. Poor Quinn actually goes to a school and helps Charlie kidnap a child. I would seriously like to sit her down and hear her thought process on this. Her life choices have not been stellar as of late.

Olivia gets to Pope & Associates and puts Abby and Huck on discovering what exactly happened to Daniel Douglas. They speak to the medical examiner who says Daniel Douglas died of cardiac arrest. They try to use her past indiscretions (that’s to Huck and his internet digging) against her but they are too late. While they are out in the living room talking Charlie and Quinn are in the other room holding her kid as leverage. I am so disappointed in Poor Quinn. Anyhow the medical examiner says okay fine, it wasn’t cardiac arrest, it was excessive drinking, caused him to fall and hit his head and die. Poor Quinn watches them leave.

In an attempt to get on top of (so to speak) the Fitz/Olivia story Mellie has lunch with Olivia in a very public restaurant while the paparazzi watches. Mellie gets her digs in while smiling like she and Olivia are old friends. I thought for sure Olivia’s smile was going to slip when Mellie pulled out her list of eligible bachelors for Olivia to choose from but nope, Olivia is a professional. She didn’t even blink. Mellie figures if Olivia picks on and starts publically dating them the press will let the Fitz/Olivia story die.

Abby confronts Harrison about his issues with Adnan. She gives him her gun with a warning not to tuck it in his waist band and accidently shoot his dick off. She’s a thoughtful one our Abby.

Olivia starts prepping Andrew. She says he comes across as a playboy and they need to work on it. When pressured as to why he serial dates he says he had has chance and he lost it. So instead he married his job and tried to move on.

Next she goes to visit Fitz; she makes him leave the door open and stand across the room from her. Olivia is there to tell him she can make Andrew work, she can spin it and do her thing but her gut says Andrew isn’t the right person for this job. Fitz disagrees and that is the end of the discussion. She changes the subject and tells him what Mellie did/said. Fitz is for some reason surprised. Again, I think I need to sit down with all of these characters and ask them what about these other people’s behavior is shocking to them. Olivia wants to resign. Of course Fitz doesn’t agree and he stops her rant with a kiss and a, “You can’t leave me. I’m not losing you again.” It’d work for me, in case you were wondering.

For some reason this prompts Olivia to ask why he put Jake in charge of B613. Fitz says he trusts Jake to keep the secret of the downed plane and Olivia’ Mom just that – secret. Olivia accuses him of not trusting her but of course he counters with an, “I can’t win without you.” She nods, says she isn’t resigning and leaves the Oval Office.

Back at Pope & Associates Harrison hears a noise and goes, gun drawn, to the door to find his friend Adnan. Apparently Adnan is a women, I did not see that coming. She lowers his gun wielding hand and tries to kiss Harrison. He pauses for a moment before TAKING HER ON THE DESK. That is it; I’m sitting Harrison down with Poor Quinn to discuss life altering decisions and how to keep it in your pants.

Meanwhile, James has planted a bug in Cyrus’s office, he tells Rosen Cyrus is a monster; he needs to be taken down. It also turns out James is the one that has been leaking the questions about Daniel Douglas to the press. James is a well-meaning law abiding citizen and he has no idea what he is getting into. He may think he knows who Cyrus truly is but he does not and now I’m a little scared for his safety.

Olivia is at home drinking away her evening when Jake stops by. She says she wants Poor Quinn back; he insists he doesn’t have her. Olivia chastises him for taking the B613 appointment, he says, “I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States.” Olivia’s rejoinder, “Don’t we all.” Her ending speech is impressive and sad. “…you are so busy being a patriot you forget to be a person…Vermont keeps getting further and further away.”

She looks up at Jake and asks if he is a patriot. He must have said yes because next thing you know they are walking arm and arm in public, being all kissy and coupley. Fitz sees the photos in the paper and is not happy but Olivia insists it put the idea of him and her to rest and now she can stay. Fitz still isn’t pleased and I can’t blame him Jake is hot and lovely and charming. Olivia insists it is all for show.

While Fitz is about to announce who his VP running mate is going to be we see a little flash of Mellie and Andrew talking back stage. He says, and I quote, “Every day for the last 12 years I’ve dreamed of this….being near you again.” I’m actually glad Mellie is going to be wooed. People still woo one another, right? I don’t always love Mellie and her meddling ways but she should get to have a little fun now and again.
Oh and one more thing – Olivia’s Dad has a clandestine meeting with Leo. That doesn’t bode well for anyone.

So, what did you guys think? I know my recap is long but man they pack a lot into an hour!

Scandal airs 10/9c on ABC