Scandal: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

"Defiance isn't ever going to be over."

I started watching Scandal as a guilty pleasure. Lately, there’s been very little guilt about it. Scandal has thoroughly evolved from frequently silly soap to one of the best dramas on television. If you’re not watching this show, you’re missing out.

So it’s ten months later, which I assume the show did to allow David’s life adequate time to fall to pieces and so that real time will once again match up with the show. I’m onboard with the time jump, except for one thing: Fitz hasn’t brought up Defiance for almost a year? And no one’s figured out he knows for almost a year? Seems a little unbelievable.

Speaking of David, oh that poor, poor man. The brilliant, ambitious lawyer we knew from last season has disappeared completely. While I’m far from degrading teachers, it really does suck that the man tipped to eventually be Attorney General has been reduced to teaching high school civics. And his grandmother is paying his rent? Again I repeat, poor David. This guy has the worst luck in the world. I’m really looking forward to a David Rosen-centric arc. I’m hoping the season ends with David reluctantly joining Pope & Associates. How adorable would that be?

Yes, our major arc has started to form. We have a huge leak inside the US government, a dead blonde who (it seems) knew about the huge leak inside the US government, someone trying to frame David for the death of said dead blonde, and a super cute guy who literally watches Olivia when she sleeps. Very promising.

I’m very excited about Scott Foley’s character. A million years ago (back when I was actually watching Grey’s Anatomy), Derek broke up with Meredith to try to make things work with his wife. Enter Chris O’Donnell as an adorable, all-around-good-guy veterinarian who romanced Meredith for a while, before ultimately being dumped because (gasp) she was still in love with Derek. So, Scott Foley pops up this week and I’m thinking, okay, here’s our McVet. It makes sense. Foley radiates good-guyittude, plus I often confuse him with Chris O’Donnell. So far, so obvious. Wait just a minute though, what’s this? Oh, our would-be all-around-good-guy has Liv under serious surveillance. Hmmm. Way to mix things up Shonda! This show continues to impress me with its creativity and risk-taking.

I loved Mellie selling out Cyrus and painting herself (not Olivia) as the holdout, the one who was pressured into going along with Defiance. When Olivia and Fitz had their post-coital confrontation, Olivia never tried to justify her actions like Mellie. One thing I don’t understand, however, is why Mellie wouldn’t accuse Hollis. It was his idea (not Cyrus’s), plus Fitz hating Hollis really doesn’t have a negative effect on the running of the country. I guess it’s just Mellie trying to get power from any quarter she can. Still, Fitz is clearly out of control and I think he needs as many people around him as he can get.

I’m also sort of loving the dynamic between Quinn and Huck, although I’m a little afraid for Quinn. Huck looked excited in a very bad way when he said she was “a natural” at clean-up. Please, Huck, don’t turn the poor girl into one of you. Still, I think it would be awesome if Quinn found her niche in Pope & Associates. And it looked like she really enjoyed breaking that lamp.

Bits and Pieces:

I’m absolutely obsessed with the title of this episode. It made me Lima Oscar Lima.

It’s been a while since we got a standalone episode. Not that I’m complaining.

Kashfar joins the ranks of East Sudan and Kurkistan as made-up Scandal countries.

Adoring Olivia’s new haircut. It looks very...Kerry Washington.

Fitz was so sweet playing with his son.

How cute was baby Ella with her little pigtails? Aww!

Was Ballard using Thorngate to spy on Olivia or is this something he set up himself? I really hope we haven’t seen the last of Thorngate. It seems like the fact there’s a huge program with the ability to surveil every American citizen should be addressed further.

Quotes:

“Cyrus, you’re in my bathroom.”
“Yes sir, Mr. President. I’m as unhappy about that as you are.”

“Once, I saw the Vice President take someone else’s latte. I did. Not cool.”
It seems like something she would do.

“That is a very impressive fake job you have.”

“Did you have David Rosen framed for murder? No offense.”
“None taken.”
I love that Cyrus wasn’t offended by this and answered Olivia honestly. So funny. Yeah, that is something I might do, but it wasn’t me.

“Do you remember the case I was working on when I got fired, Mike? We referred to it internally as ‘Defiance.’ Defiance is the county in Ohio that elected our president. Not by an honest accounting of votes, the case alleged, but through an illegal manipulation of voting machines. It was a bold claim. And I say claim because it never saw the inside of a courtroom. You wanna know why? Because I was an idiot. Are you an idiot too, Mike? Your theory of the crime is that I, David Rosen, the man whose job you’re now occupying, whose chair you’re now sitting in, your longtime colleague with extensive legal training and no prior record whatsoever picked up a woman at a bar and then brought her back to my place, where I promptly stabbed her to death. Because that’s what I am. A stabber. Give me a knife and I’ll stab anything. Oh, how I love to stab. Which is why, when I finished stabbing her in my apartment, I carried the body to her place and stabbed it some more. Why settle for a crime of passion when a burglary gone wrong is so easy to stage?”
“You were the last person she was seen with.”
“By a bartender who’s routinely drunk for the last two thirds of his shift. Trust me, I’m a regular. Which in evidentiary terms means you have absolutely nothing. So, if you want to keep this job, stay in this nice office, look out at the beautiful view of the mall every day, and put yourself on the fast track to attorney general, don’t be an idiot. Leave me alone and forget this ever happened. Because only an idiot pursues cases he stands no chance of winning. I learned that the hard way. If I were you, I’d spare myself that shame.”
This week, David gets Cyrus’s requisite awesome (almost) monologue.

three and three quarters out of four bloody blondes

• Next episode
  
• Scandal season 2
  
• Scandal home