SCANDAL Recap: “Spies Like Us” Just Want Normal

Last night’s episode of Scandal, titled Spies Like Us, was a very Huck-centric episode. We got a full on view of this character and his history. And what a history it was.

Kerry Washington, Guillermo Diaz in “Spies Like Us”
Photo: Vivian Zink/ABC

Spies Like Us starts out with a man running from his house to get a large envelope to the mail just as the mail carrier is climbing back into her truck. After she turns the corner, he promptly pulls a revolver out of his pocket and blows his brains out. Well that’ll grab your attention!

The envelope is addressed to Olivia Pope & Co., and inside is some sheet music. Er? But Huck takes a closer look and discovers that embedded within the notes is an old code used by the military once upon a time. It’s a list of the names of spies, one of them is Huck.

Huck was part of a team put together by the U.S. government to do the dirty, ugly things that no one else will do. They are trained assassins taught not only to torture and kill to get information, but to actually enjoy their work. I’m not clear on whether it was the name of the operation or this particular group of spies, but they were called “B613”. Everyone on this list has been retired and are now living normal lives under aliases.

So someone has this list and is threatening to make it public because “people need to know the atrocities enacted by this government.” Huck is trained to pack up and move on if his identity is compromised, but as he heads toward the door Olivia intercepts him and begs him to let her “fix this”. He can only give her 24 hours.

After meeting with the guy who claims he has the list, via Skype or similar, Liv discovers that the dude doesn’t really have the list yet. He’s still waiting for it. So this means that one of those names on the list is the leak. Liv goes back to her office and convinces Huck to call all of the B613-ers in. By talking to them and keeping them all together in one place, she can work to find the leak while trying also to get protection for them.

In the end, the leak is exposed and the team wants to kill him. But Huck steps in and gives a very moving speech about how they were all trained to kill and to like to kill. They were the elite soldiers, doing the jobs that no one else could do in service to their country. Sorta like Jason Bourne. However, after the job was finished and the government had no further use for them, they were given new IDs and relocated, and expected to live “normal” lives. Basically, it caused culture shock that the doctor (who turned out to be the leak) could not overcome. Normalcy was something that he could not achieve. Huck convinces the others not to kill the doctor, and just as everyone relaxes and lowers their weapons, one of the women shoots the doctor in the head, killing him instantly. As Huck sits at the table next to the dead doctor, the others clean everything up and take away the body. Huck appears to be in shock.

Olivia finds him still sitting there the next morning. She’s just glad that he didn’t leave. She tells him that she needs him. This is still a mystery to me, but I’m sure it will all become clear in a future episode.

The sub-story has to do with Abby and David. Olivia has to do something to stop their digging into the bombing that Quinn was involved in. Harrison, out of concern for Liv, tells her that whatever she is dealing with alone, he will help her no matter what, no questions asked. She tells him that David and Abby have to be over. She also tells him that Abby’s ex used to beat her and that may be something Harrison could use. And he does. After planting the seed of doubt in Abby’s head, and convincing her that she needs to do a background check on him before she let’s the relationship continue, he then pays an ex-girlfriend of David’s to meet with Abby and tell her that he was abusive.

Abby confronts David with a photo of his ex, all beaten up, and refuses to believe when David tells her that the woman fell down a flight of stairs. Abby pulls up photos of herself after her beating and tells David that she “fell down the stairs” too. End of David and Abby.

Meanwhile, Cyrus and James have serious problems after James prints a story about Hollis Doyle and it makes front page news. Doyle tells Cyrus that if he doesn’t “put a leash on his wife” he will take matters into his own hands. And as we have seen, that can be a seriously unhealthy thing for James. So Cyrus meets with James in the Oval Office and with tears and appeals to James’ emotions, he convinces James to leave off the story. That’s all fine and dandy, expect that one of the final scenes is of David circling James’ picture on that newspaper cover article. This is not yet over.

I’m feeling bad for Abby, but I can’t help bit think that when this all comes back to Olivia, things are going to get really ugly at Olivia Pope & Co.

Next week Leah will be back with her Scandal-ous recap of the fall season finale, “Defiance“.

So what are your thoughts on this week’s Scandal?