We have officially returned to the Olive Pope love triangle, y’all. Scandal’s third episode of the season opens with Olivia crouched over in a corner of her bedroom, staring at Jake Ballard sleeping in her bed one second and shooing away President Fitz, who wants to have a conversation about why Ballard’s back, the next.
Our Lady of The Pantsuit (consider yourself replaced until 2016, Hillary) doesn’t have the time for Fitz as she’s hunting down Huck, trying to figure out where his head is after finding out Command is Olivia’s pappy. He’s too busy stalking Rowan Pope to talk to her and asks for some time—as in, leave me alone, woman…damn.
Once Olivia arrives at Gladiator Headquarters, we meet Mary Nesbitt, who drops off a big check and quickly flees the office to head over to Capitol Hill with the Lil’ Kim lyric “Who the fuck want war?” looping in her head. Quinn realizes that Mary cleaned out her bank account, and upon recalling where she ran off to, Olivia decides to go out and find her.
After Olivia gets there, she sees people chasing after a man. What does she do in response? If your answer was “Look for the exit like she has some sense!” you’re dead wrong. The man who Olivia spotted running ultimately got tackled to the ground and we hear him yell about wanting to speak to Fitz over Operation Remington.
In any event, Olivia spots her new client with a homemade bomb attached to her chest. Fed up with being ignored about the death of her son Chris at the hands of the FBI, Mary laments about how no one would listen to her cries despite writing letters, making phone calls, putting up fliers, posting on message boards, and howling like a mad woman outside of the White House with a megaphone. Somewhere a lot of people are going, “That’s exactly how I feel when he doesn’t text me back.”
Mary wants the truth, only the Patriot Act won’t allow the documents concerning Chris’ killing to be unclassified. Despite being a hostage, Olivia goes to work for her client and new domestic terrorist. Abby is sent to snoop around the Justice Department, Quinn is told to try and hack the FBI’s database, and Harrison is sent to hang outside the building where Olivia is being held hostage and heckle the guy in charge of handling the hostage situation—the Black dude from Ghostbusters.
We’ve really got to do better by Harrison this season, folks.
Olivia continues to take the reigns, securing the release of six of the hostages—leaving us with the bomber, Olivia Pope, and Congressman Jim Struthers, who royally pissed her off by not retuning her messages. We learn a little bit about her in the process. Like, how she used the Internet to find a bomb recipe and sew it all together. Mary Nesbitt: star of The Real Housewives of Psychosis.
As Olivia tries to work her magic, President Fitz takes the reigns on the outside. Fitz gives the FBI the go to shoot Mary’s head off, only Olivia pushes her out of the way and saves her life in the process. Naturally, Fitz wants the snipers to settle themselves before he’s truly stuck with Mellie forever. Not long after, Fitz and Olivia communicate by way of Jake Ballard. Judging by his tone, Fitz continues to be very much jealous by boyfriend number two.
Fitz knows the truth about Chris, but it took Abby and Olivia tag teaming David Rosen into getting him to spill it. David had to go toe to toe with Cyrus, and although Cyrus tried to initially chin check David, Abby’s ex stood firm and ultimately got Cyrus, and subsequently Fitz, to buckle.
That’s when it’s discovered that Chris wasn’t a terrorist, but a CIA agent deeply embedded in the Al Qaeda network at the highest levels that brought other CIA operatives into the fold. Fitz branded him “perhaps one of the greatest heroes our nation will ever have.” Even so, Fitz told Olivia that his mother could never know that because it would result in other operatives being found out and tortured. He was killed due to the government’s uncertainty of his true allegiances—a “terrible mistake that made him a martyr to Al Qaeda and a hero to the United States.”
Olivia initially balked at Fitz’s plea, but ended up telling Mary the lie for the good of the nation. The crisis was over as Olivia and Congressman Jim Struthers were released. Mary ended up blowing herself up. Pour a little liquor out for her this weekend.
After that drama ended, we saw my favorite, Mellie, drunk out of her mind on the hooch her father gave her. Fitz assumed that she was devastated that Olivia didn’t die, though she corrected him quickly. Mellie Mel explained: "If your whore had died today, brave and strong protecting a congressman inside of the Capitol with the nation watching, honey, the nails, the wood, [the] cross you would build and hammer her on.”
She dismissed “Saint Olivia Pope” and went on to say, "She's your flaw, your Achilles heel, which makes her my weapon."
When Saint Olivia got back to her office, she found Huck, pouted and cried a lot and prodded him about whether he murdered her father. He didn’t. Yes, Papa Pope found himself with Huck’s gun in his face, but somehow managed to flip it and reverse it into him taking out whoever that was that got tackled in the White House.
In the final scene, Olivia presses Jake on why her father released him. He has no clue, but goes into Drake mode, talking about her face kept him going. Olivia shuts it down, dismissing his “fairy tale” and proclaims that her dad still owns the both of them. Master calls, but she doesn’t answer. I’m sure she’ll be punished next week.
Written by Michael Arceneaux (@youngsinick)
