There's very little interplay between episode's threads; Congressman Reed's case this week, which Olivia takes, is almost there just to get Olivia out of bed so she can kick Franklin Russell out. With a name like Franklin, no wonder he left that off and just stuck with Russell last night. Russell seemed fine with a one-night stand; Franklin is just too needy.
Gotta' go!
Congressman George Reed has needs too; but he's going to pay Olivia well to fulfill them, and it means possibly getting justice for his long-wrongly-on-death-row dad. It's not clear what Olivia sees in Reed Sr. that convinces her so strongly, so quickly, that he's innocent of shooting his teen daughter's former teacher/lover. It's hard to understand how Reed, Sr. got on Death Row; everyone agrees that the killing was totally understandable, and the shooting victim's other former teenaged lovers are happy the asshole is dead. The guy's ex-wife was probably also happy he's dead. It's impossible to confirm, though, since she's recently died of pancreatic cancer.
Notice I never told you that I didn't do it
Congressman Reed's mystery is almost too easy to solve; who else would Reed Sr. protect by lying, if not his only remaining family member? Reed Sr. has wanted his son to forget and move on; but as soon as Olivia has it figured out, her move on Reed Sr. is to demonstrate all the ways his son has not moved on while his dad faces death for his crime. It's eerily similar to Congresswoman Josie Marcus taking the fall for her daughter. Except that Olivia can, and does, convince Reed Sr. to let his son confess to killing the poor girl's exploiting lover. Reed looks almost relieved as he offers his hands to the cops to handcuff. Reed Sr. looks like he has no idea what to do next as he's handed his old belongings and re-enters a world he was happy to leave behind.
Reed Sr. claims that he's been dead since his daughter took her own life. And, it's hard not to become a stone when you use your daughter's dollhouse to reach her where she's hung herself. What will he do while Reed gets used to prison life? It will be a while, but by using resigning his seat in Congress and his voluntary confession as leverage, Olivia should be able to get him easy time, and revive his reputation when he's eventually freed. But how will these two face each other, years from now?
Lizzy Bear has her own client's past to untangle; Mellie, it turns out, is the child of a broken home. Her father left her young to take up with another, much poorer, much less polished woman. The new marriage produced a much poorer, less polished sister named Harmony. And these two have never gotten along. The personal and class resentments, no doubt, built on each other over the years. Which makes them easy for Lizzy Bear to spot while interviewing Harmony as part of vetting her candidate's family. Mellie chafes under the extra scrutiny a candidate's family will get; but Lizzy Bear convinces her to devote some time to making nice to Harmony, because the woman is itching to air Mellie's dirty laundry, when she's not making soap from local animal fat.
Cyrus gushes like a schoolgirl, complete with the most malicious whisper ever heard in the White House, over how much refereeing Harmony's eventual shitstorm will sour Fitz on ever helping Mellie run for the Senate. Abby listens to Cy like a neutral employee, and dishes on the whole thing herself to Olivia, who sounds like she almost wishes she was there. Almost. It's nearly as much fun watching Fitz and Mellie argue like five year olds over his attending dinner with Harmony and Mellie. One man with no patience for other people's problems with two women who have nothing but problems between them. Cy is giddy as he relishes the ruins of Mellie's Senate campaign.
Harmony may not have a pantsuit, but her strappy high heels and neckline aren't that scandalous, really. It's not like she waltzes in like a Vegas showgirl or something. Even so, feminine yet power suited Mellie really doesn't want to touch her own sister.
I am totally not trying to guess if they're fake
Mellie just can't help suggesting her sister change her shoes before she leads her on the awesome White House tour. In front of Cy and Lizzy Bear, the two would rather die than start fighting; but fighting in front of Fitz during dinner is totally fair game. Harmony wants to talk about her soap business; Fitz wants to politely pretend to listen. Mellie wants to halt the whole thing because even family must call Fitz "Mr. President". I think someone's been First Lady a little too long. I think Harmony's been wanting to pull all of Mellie's hair out for some time. The women screech it out over who was worse during their childhood; Harmony for existing, or Mellie for keeping Harmony from her father's relatives. Two girls who fought for their father's attention have never hated each other more.
Fitz tries to lecture Mellie for her inability to keep her temper with someone she hates; guess what a big part of the President's job is? Mellie officially informs Fitz that he's got to transition to First Husband; he's got to be the one who defuses the tensions in social situations so she can get to the horse dealing and hooch swallowing; that's going to be his job, eventually. Wait, I thought he was moving to Vermont, eventually. Does Mellie know this?
Would Mellie even need Fitz, eventually? Wouldn't she be considered brave and better off by the American People for divorcing her kind of alcoholic, philandering husband? Wouldn't it be considered a sign of political independence? I suppose Fitz would have to accept the hit to his public reputation, which could cut into his mayor of Small Town, VT fantasy. For now, their new dynamic means that Fitz is the one who smooths everything over with Harmony. It's not as masterfully done as Mellie's first political wrangling with Jerry Sr., but it does the trick; Harmony goes from wanting to ruin Mellie to wanting to really hug her. Cy looks on in bewildered fear as Fitz promises more personal miracles to come on her Senate campaign.
Now we get to the good parts of the episode; namely, the ones that involve Charlie. I mean, Jake. Jake's always been able to scare Rosen silly, despite the fact that he's always left Rosen alive. Remember James' murder? If Jake wasn't going to kill Rosen then, he's never going to. Or, at least, we should all have remembered that. Despite the raiding of B-613's offices and chasing away of Rowan, the agency appears to be so alive and well that Jake and Rosen must dicker about bringing it down. What is there to bring down anymore?
Turns out, quite a bit. Jake's acrobatics in Rosen's office aren't so much to scare him as place a bug on a desk that no one will miraculously never find. It leads to three agents/witnesses being killed in a bloody mess on Charlie's watch. They all had extensive dirt on Jake, and the intention was to lure him into testifying; instead, Charlie finds Jake in the not-so-safe apartment. Charlie tries to shoot, but Jake launches onto him immediately. At first, the two try to duel like pros, but it becomes an awkward tangle of B-613 agents on the floor trying to get the gun while one of the witnesses crawls uselessly on the floor. Someone shoots the last remaining witness to death in the scramble before Jake manages to stagger out the door.
Rosen is horrified by this easily predictable mess. Charlie immediately moves for killing Jake like a rabid dog; Huck instantly agrees. Quinn tries debating them over it; Rosen just dejectedly slinks away. Huck declares that Jake has lost his humanity. He looks sheepish while he describes Jake's supposed state, as if he knows too well how savage Jake has become. Quinn reluctantly agrees, but she's totally on board with killing Jake later that night when they make their first attempt. Huck and Quinn quickly figure out that Jake is actually in Olivia's building, sending them scurrying to Olivia's. Olivia has actually invited Franklin Russell back, and really can't be interrupted to meet her new neighbor. Since Lois has passed away, Jake has somehow passed a background check and moved himself and his gun in.
Huck and Quinn realize that there's just no fixing the mess when Jake implies that if he feels too threatened, he'll just kill Olivia. It's important to note, that through all of this, Huck and Quinn have firmly rejected telling Olivia. Anything. She still doesn't even know about the investigation. Let alone the immunity agreements, the testimonies, the dead agents, and Jake's melt down.
It's the next morning when Charlie arrives with coffee for Huck and Quinn. The three stare blankly ahead until Rosen joins them. All three former B-613 agents have decided to completely give up; there are no more agents to use for leverage; if there were, who would ever agree to testify now? And how long would it take for Jake to wipe them all out? Who's to say he still won't? Worried about their lives, they reject Rosen's call to push forward and tell Olivia. Rosen is convinced Olivia would want to know. Huck and Quinn are convinced they don't want her to know and that she can't handle the fallout from all of this.
The Not-So Fantastic Four
Charlie's goodbye is touching. Is he really leaving the show for good? His handshakes and gentle good-bye kiss say yes. I'll miss him. No matter what, he never lost his bonhomie. Everything was just another job to be handled, never a disaster to grieve over. He was born to be a B-613 agent. He'll spend his life as a private investigator, maybe. Does he have a possible future as a Gladiator?
Rosen just can't give up. He's going on about white hats. Neither he nor anyone else ever bothered to wonder how Jake knew where to look for the B-613 agents earlier, so of course the bug is still there and Jake is still listening, presumably from Lois' old apartment, to hear that Rosen has hit on a new leverage for Jake; the murder of James Novak. It was a chilling killing, precipitated by the murder of the VP's husband. Rosen insists to Huck, in full hearing of the bug that's still there, that he's going after Jake for it. It could bring down Sally Langston to boot, so why not?
Well, because Jake says no. In the parking garage. Rosen has decided that the safest place for whatever files he wants to use against Jake is with his secretary, Holly. She's ever helpful and hoping Rosen will take care of himself when Jake approaches, gun pointed at Rosen. Rosen dutifully steps away as he's told, to find out Holly was also carrying, and now has her gun firmly pointed at Jake. Jake wasn't listening to Rosen's office to find the agents and kill them; he was listening so he could hear B-613's plant in the Attorney General's office, Holly, plot to kill those agents right from Rosen's office. Jake quickly kills Holly and tries his best to assure Rosen that bringing down B-613 is still on.
Rosen's not so relieved; Jake outright tells him to just roll with Jake's supposed betrayals, because that's how Jake works. He'll appear to hang you out to dry to smoke out your enemies. Don't worry, Jake's got this.
Yeah, but who's got Jake?
Olivia has her own heart to heart with Huck. Turns out, Jake's taken over Lois' apartment so he can make sure Olivia hears everything from his wiretapping herself. And, she lays into Huck for telling her nothing, for insisting on telling her nothing. She could've handled knowing what they were up to. She feels betrayed, while Huck looks like a puppy caught peeing on the rug.
And, it's a good thing Jake prepped Olivia for what's coming. Because it's here. Franklin Russell is the worst boytoy ever. Who brings the woman's dad for a booty call? The guy seeing Olivia Pope, that's who. Rowan is back! In a way that reveals he's still the boss of the world, and maybe even the Solar System. And he's here to ruin more than Olivia's love life. Ah...... the speeches in two weeks!!! I'm already loving them!!
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