A Red Door looms large at the end of a blurry hallway, and Olivia, in a messy state, bumrushes the door. We cut away before we can see if she makes it. So, this episode will be all about how, even powerless, Olivia still has some fight in her.
The one consistent theme of Scandal is that happiness is short-lived, or postponed to an unknowable future at best. Consequently, we spend a few seconds rehashing Olivia's Me Party from the end of the last episode, with Olivia lavishly describing the wine she won't drink, the Dolly Madison Pizza and Gettysburgers she won't eat, and the piano sex she won't have. Her actual kidnapping is quick, and Olivia's loud Stevie Wonder music keeps her deaf to her kidnapper until he's literally on top of her. They struggle as Olivia claws at her door frame. Despite Jake's assumption, they don't take her out of the building; only to the apartment across the hall.
Wait, this isn't a party anymore!
Jake desperately runs away, shirtless, down to the street, where he hears a car start up and sees headlights pull away just in time. His running after the car is useless except to get a license plate number, and his next step is to go back to Olivia's apartment, desperately looking for any surveillance devices that could lead to Olivia's kidnappers. He's on the phone with Huck the second he's back in Olivia's apartment, reporting on exactly what happened, and the car. We last see him, now dressed, leaving. Presumably for wherever Huck is going to work his magic and try to track Olivia.
Olivia, meanwhile, is across the hall, gagged with duct tape. Just like her neighbor, Ms. Nice Elderly Lady, who isn't freaking out as much as she should be. Unlike Olivia, she doesn't know how evil evil people are. Her kidnappers happily manipulate Jake into thinking Olivia's been driven away, laughing at his futile effort to chase their decoy car. While Jake chases the car, two goons sneak into Olivia's apartment and remove all their surveillance devices, so when Jake whisks back into Olivia's apartment, there's nothing for him to find. Olivia watches in horror and resistance. Her only success is to work a ring off her finger, and leave it to be found later. Like a solid gold breadcrumb.
Ms. Nice Elderly Lady is shot in the chest, which everyone but she herself saw coming. Olivia's kidnappers, about four goons in black, remove their disguises, and reveal new ones: paramedics removing a recently deceased person from the building. Olivia is smuggled out in a body bag, literally right under Jake's fuming nose. Is Olivia wondering how to tease him about this later?
In the ambulance, we get the first characterization of Olivia's main tormentor this episode: a guy I'll call Tyler, because I hate that name and I hate this guy. He's smarmy as he unzips Olivia from a body bag, and muses on what her begging for her life will be like. Olivia's not dealing with this guy, mostly because, despite her fear back in Ms. Dead Neighbor's apartment, she could at least puzzle out that the guy in charge isn't in the ambulance. She may be kidnapped and surrounded by awful people; but she's still Olivia Pope. And Olivia Pope only talks to The Guy In Charge. So give her an injection to put her out and let her know when that guy shows up.
I don't think anyone expected Olivia to wake up in a Ritz-Carlton, but her new home is even bleaker than imagined. It's one room. The floor is bare concrete. There's sunlight through grilled openings that show nothing but a kaleidoscope of foreign slum architecture beyond. There's someone calling through the grille, but it's not for Olivia; it's an Islamic call to prayer. And, Olivia's unexpected cellmate is grateful she heard it, too. Because being kidnapped in a foreign country is bad enough without hearing things that aren't there.
Hey roomie
Ian is a wreck of a man; he spends his time in the cell lounging on his cot, or slumped in a corner, or hunched over a rice bowl. His life is in limbo while he awaits the resolution of his kidnapper's ransom demands. And he doesn't seem so certain his ransom will ever be paid. Ian talks as someone who was kidnapped in an Islamic country, so Olivia immediately begins processing why she could have been taken prisoner in the States, but brought to the other side of the globe, when she could have just been held in a basement somewhere. She puts it together that she's in the this country for something that she's expected to be involved with in her surroundings. Something involving her is being set up. But in the meantime, she's got to pee.
Her screams for potty time are answered by Tyler. And another guy we'll call Blake. Because I hate that name too. And Blake is a less smart version of Tyler. Blake cuffs her up and the two men lead her to the unisex restroom, which is a filthy sink and a filthier toilet. Olivia spends precious toilet paper protecting her heiny. There's no shower in this room. Make of that what you will. While in the hallway, Olivia tries to get a handle on her surroundings, and we see the Red Door. It's padlocked and chained.
Olivia and her Hall Monitors
Ian tries to help Olivia adjust to prison life; he runs her through the routine, which involves one bowl of rice a day, as long as their captors aren't busy. But Ian can't help Olivia gauge the passage of time; he doesn't even remember how long he's been there. So, when Olivia brings up escape, Ian is dead set against it. He's stayed alive by focusing on his bowl of rice every day. Olivia's talk of getting out just frightens him. He tells Olivia the story of Bradley, the real story. Bradley was his cellmate before, and his ransom wasn't paid after all. So their captors dragged him away, did terrible things to him, and then a gunshot ended his screams.
Ian collapses in Olivia's arms, and we see her tear up a bit at Ian's story and his obviously deteriorated mental condition. But we also see that Olivia is determined to get herself out, because she knows better than to depend on Tyler and Blake actually ever letting her go, no matter what ransom is paid. So she gets Ian to confess that he has a daughter named Kiera, and she dangles Kiera in front of Ian like meat in front of a dog. Olivia goes for the head cradle, reassuring Ian that she's Olivia Pope and it's handled. And she cements the deal by handing Ian his rice bowl and taking hers as well in solidarity. Eat up, her eyes tell him. We need our strength. They bond over the rice's mediocrity.
While Olivia slowly starts the transformation into the battered and unkempt woman she was in the show's opening scene, Ian and Olivia further bond as Ian tells her more of his backstory. His wife, a journalist, died in an Aghgani car bomb. Ian has continued his journalism career without her, but really wants to write a book that will provide some security so he can take care of little Kiera. Has Olivia's determination given him hope? Olivia decides that it's time to hope Daddy Pope had her unknowingly tagged with a tracking device, and has Ian check, but it turns up nothing. So Olivia keeps Ian's spirits up by telling him that she's best buds with the President of the United States, and he will get her back. Any way he can. She's quite sure, and Ian looks like he actually half-believes it.
Olivia will help, though, by trying to memorize everything. The hall. The routine. The keys. The cuffs. The bathroom. The Red Door to Freedom. She slowly becomes messier and messier. Her latest attempt to pee becomes the realization that the bathroom window has a crack that lets in the breeze, which Olivia investigates by standing on the ridiculously fragile-looking sink. It's locked from outside, but Olivia still has her bra, and she manages to fish the underwire support out of it.
The only good underwire has every done anyone, ever
She makes a small curve at the end of the wire that she will send through the window frame crack, and fiddle with. Her five minutes get eaten up while she's trying to find the lock with the wire, but she does manage to get the wire inside the latch, and lift the latch. The window opens just as Blake bolts into the room.
Olivia has the height advantage, and she manages to get Blake on the ground, but Tyler's right there as back up, and she's back in her cell, where a terrified Ian has no idea what's happening. Blake wants to shoot Olivia right there in retaliation for making him look like weak, but Tyler talks him down, reminding him that they need her alive. But, Tyler's a fair man and Olivia needs some punishment. For a brief moment,there's the threat that the punishment is going to be a brutal rape, but it's Ian who ends up paying. Since his ransom hasn't come through anyway, why not drag him away, so Olivia can hear him begging for his life and the gunshot that ends Ian's voice. Olivia can only listen, gripping the bars of her cell door's window, and imagine his end. It's made even more gruesome when Tyler returns, with a bloody face and tough talk for Olivia.
For the next day or so, Olivia is pretty low. She spends her time just laying on the floor, sleeping, staring into the distance, and generally not giving a shit. Only the sound of a helicopter can rouse her. It's followed by shouting, gunfire, and flashes of gunpowder. Which can only mean one thing: Jake is here! Triumphant music plays while Olivia cowers in her cell, waiting for Jake to appear and tell her she's okay.
And, he's apparently rescued her so she can wake up in a luxurious bed, sunlight bathing her until she's in a hot shower and calling for whoever she loves this week. Which turns out to be Fitz. Because, now, suddenly, she's in Vermont. With Fitz. Who, after shower sex, will go about his day as mayor of their Vermont town. She will get on with her boysenberry preserves. They rejoice about how awesome and ordinary their life is, before Olivia's subconscious can ruin things by showing good old Traitor Tom, the B-613 agent who reminds Olivia that she personally wanted him monitoring Fitz after his terms in office. Tom follows after Fitz, ever the dedicated Secret Service Agent. Olivia, instead, takes a dog that has magically appeared for a walk among the horses. Presumably, this has something to do with Olivia's boysenberries.
Olivia's subconscious strikes again, this time in the form of Abby, who's spent half a season being Olivia's problem. She's back to further find fault with Olivia; does she really believe Fitz resigned, for her? Where did the dog come from, and is it a substitute for her faithful gladiators? Abby tries to get through to Olivia, who is still trying to remain blissful and maybe looking for a boysenberry. Olivia doesn't want to hear that her lovers aren't going to rescue her. That she will have to rescue herself. Abby disappears, but not before pointing to a bit of rusty debris on the ground. Tom appears, backing Abby up, before Olivia finally wakes herself up and out of her fantasy.
Someone has delivered another bowl of rice. Which Olivia pounces on. After, Olivia attacks her bra again, getting the second and final underwire out. This time, she's going to use every second of her five minutes in the bathroom to get out. Blake escorts her alone this time. Olivia isn't paying attention to this, though, too intent on the window she will open in seconds this time. So it takes her and us a moment to register that while she slept, her captors bricked up the window. The new bricks and mortar just sit there, high up in the wall, representing Olivia's pain and sorrow and fear and anger. She can't take this blow, and collapses on the floor to cry in painful sobs.
While on her knees on the bathroom floor, Olivia suddenly realizes what Abby was pointing out to her. The same rusty piece of debris, a tie with some doodad attached, is somehow fastened to the underside of the sink. Olivia, luckily, has her underwire handy and manages to get it in her hand just as Blake decides she's been alone enough. The debris looks small and harmless enough, but it must pack a punch because Olivia knocks Blake out with it. She takes his gun and keys, and we see, again, her mad dash to The Red Door to Freedom. She's armed, she's got keys, and she looks unstoppable.
See Liv run! Run, Liv, run!
But Tyler, emerging from a corridor between her and the exit, surprises her so much she loses balance and falls on her ass in front of him. She's right back up with the gun pointed at him, but he's surprisingly calm. He's pretty confident she won't shoot him, literally thinking that a girl would never do that. Olivia Pope knows just what to do with pigs, though, and the guy has a bullet in his head and is sprawled out on the ground while Olivia finishes her dash to the door. She's only got so long before Blake wakes up. And she's got not one, but three locks to match with the billion or so keys on her key ring. She's panicky and fumbles with the locks, and the suspense builds.
Until, finally, the deadbolt key is found, the Red Door to Freedom is flung open, and we see a blurry vision of the street outside. Where is Olivia? We don't know, and neither, still, does she. Because she's not on a street at all. The Red Door to Freedom has led to a projection screen. In a huge, cavernous black room, complete with sound and light effects. Someone comes up behind her. But he has no interest in hurting her. Ian sure does look better after his ordeal, dressed up like a stock broker and cleaned up real nice. And he's in a much better mood since he's gotten out of that cell and ditched the game he's been playing with Olivia all along.
Ian reveals the whole point of this multi-day exercise has been to confirm that Fitz, back in the States, will do anything to rescue her. Which she did, and pretty much on her first day in the joint. Ian reveals that her need to give others hope led to her spilling the beans on Fitz. Ian is actually pretty nice while he makes a big deal of illustrating how Olivia aided him. And he politely escorts Olivia back into her prison. Old lines of Olivia's from the last episode, declaring that she's free clash with Abby telling her she's on her own as Ian re-enters the prison with her and closes the Red Door to Nowhere behind him. Olivia's finally met The Guy In Charge.
Will Ian continue to be the Gentleman Extorter? Will Blake wake up? Will Jake ever find her? Will Daddy Pope decide to care? Or will Mama Pope learn of Olivia's ordeal, break out of prison, and unleash the full fury of her old terrorist self?
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