Scandal Recap: Heavy is the Head
Scandal is back and I could NOT be happier! There are simply no words to describe how much I missed Scandal and the entire TGIT lineup.
If you have been living under a rock and need to catch up on last season, check out my recaps here.
Let’s just dive right in, shall we?
Heavy is the head who wears the crown and Scandal made sure to remind us of that in the season five premiere.
America’s Princess
We begin the episode with Sally Langston as our narrator. She is ranting about Fitz’s celebration while we watch Fitz and Liv make up for lost time. Yes, that is right. Scandal didn’t let us forget that Olivia and Fitzgerald are now together. Sally is speaking about a commoner, an all-American girl who falls in love with a prince. With the cutaways, we are led to think that she is talking about Liv and Fitz. However, that is not the case. Fitz is throwing a state dinner for Prince Richard and Princess of the country Caladonia and Sally is not happy about it.
President Grant is really hosting this dinner because he’s trying to convince Richard’s mother, Queen Isabel to let him build a naval base in her country. She’s not really having it though and asks him to give her a bit more time.
Fitz and Liv get ready together in the White House bedroom for the dinner but have to leave separately. Fitz has no problem with people seeing them but Liv is not on that bandwagon. They share a cute moment before going in separate elevators and heading downstairs.
I would like to pause for a second to acknowledge Olivia’s attire. She wore a GORGEOUS dress. Just GORGEOUS. I just wanted to lay at her feet, that’s how good she looked.
While at the dinner, the two lovebirds share looks while Abby tries to get some information from Liv. She asks her how long it took Fitz to call her once Mellie was kicked out. Liv, unsurprisingly, denies any contact with Fitz. She simply tells Abby that Fitz didn’t call.
I really thought Liv and Abby’s relationship was getting better but that’s clearly not the case. She constantly lies to Abby. I mean, sometimes I know you have to but give the girl some slack.
While having a little girl chat, Abby rambles on about how charmed Princess Emily’s life must be. Emily overhears them in the bathroom and steps out. She doesn’t react snottily or insulted as some would think. She is charmed and classy even in her response. She tells Liv that, “To most of the world, I’m not a real person anymore.” She also says that “To them, I’m not human. I’m just a spectacle. I don’t think they’d say half the things they say if they knew they were hurting an actual person.” This seems to hit home a little bit for Olivia as I got the feeling she may have been comparing Emily’s situation to her and Fitz’s a little bit.
Shortly after the dinner, Olivia (in Fitz’s NAVY shirt) and Fitz are speaking about the Queen’s reluctance to the naval base and are getting a little cuddly when Olivia gets a phone call. We cut to Liv running in a tunnel where the Princess’s car is upside down with her bodyguard in the car and the Princess on the floor dead.
This storyline was very much Princess Diana inspired with everyone even calling Emily America’s Princess. Not to mention, I really think that Queen Isabel could pass for Queen Elizabeth.
MAN DOWN MELLIE
While Mellie has never been a favorite character of mine, I have grown to appreciate her more in the last few seasons. While I don’t always like her, I do respect her. With that being said, Mellie was definitely on the short end of EVERY stick this episode. First, Abby tried her entire life when she told the press that Mellie was sick and unable to attend the dinner. Mind you, Mellie was in her full gown with her assistant trying to tell Abby the importance of the First Lady being present at a state dinner.
Next, it was Elizabeth North. Mellie called the White House to confirm that Fitz will be in attendance at her Senate confirmation. She got told that he was unavailable. Apparently, he had much more important things to do than be with his wife on the most important day of her life. Who other to firmly deliver the news to Mellie than Fitz’s new Chief of Staff, Liz.
Mellie thought they would be on stay on the same team after she saved Liz. NO, MA’AM. Elizabeth was quick to tell her that she didn’t do anything FOR her, she knew that Mellie always had her own agenda. I don’t know how she thought Liz would be loyal to her in the first place. They were never going to be on the same page. You two used to sleep with the same man, for goodness sake! There AIN’T NO LOYALTY, BOO! Liz was more than happy to let Mellie know she was on the outside looking in now. When she told Mellie, “You also don’t matter to the most powerful man on the face of the Earth,” I wanted to cry for her.
That’s not even all of it for our dear Mellie. After some wrangling from Olivia, Fitz did indeed make it to her confirmation. Mellie thought this meant they were making strides to being good again or at the very least keeping up the charade they are used to doing. She thought very wrong. When the confirmation was over, she tried apologizing to Fitz. He was not trying to hear any of that and simply handed her divorce papers.
WElP!
At that moment, even though I saw the previews, I needed someone to pick both my and Mellie’s mouth off of the floor.
MURDER, SHE WROTE
OPA was hired to make sure the images of the Princess’s body weren’t splattered across the tabloids front pages. While ensuring this, Quinn (Huck is unavailable at the moment) and Liv also tried to figure out what exactly happened to the car. They soon realize that Princess Emily was murdered. They noticed that she and her husband hardly spent time together and that she was mostly with her bodyguard. The same bodyguard who also died in the crash. They quickly deduced that they were having an affair and concluded that The Prince must have had them killed.
Olivia goes the to White House for a meeting and almost demands that the Prince be charged with murder. Despite the fact that they are sleeping together, Fitz refuses. The Royal Family has diplomatic immunity and we all know that the naval base is important to Fitz so of course, he’s not going to charge them with anything. They get into a huge argument which Liz realizes is a lover’s spat.
AN HEIR AND A SPARE
Mr. White Hat aka David comes through for Olivia with his case. He tells her that Princess Emily’s body will be flown back to Caledonia the next day and that once it happens, nothing could be done. Because of this, he brings her a folder with the Princess’s autopsy results. Olivia opens it to find out that Emily was pregnant. Another nail in the Prince’s coffin, so to speak. He had to have found out that the baby was not his.
Liv goes to the Queen to tell her that her son had the Princess killed. Queen Isabel simply tells her that her son is innocent. She tells Liv that she was the one who orchestrated the murder. She found out about the affair and realized her son was way too in love with Emily. The Queen had a problem that needed to be handled. There was no way Emily could have babies that weren’t true heirs to the throne. “She had one job. To give us an heir and a spare.”
Well damn.
Talk about cold blooded.
EVIL QUEEN
Liv is determined to get justice but the Queen quickly stops her in her tracks. She reminds her that they have immunity and that she signed a nondisclosure agreement when she was retained so she can’t say anything to the press or the justice department.
Olivia was almost speechless in this scene. Queen Isabel basically said, “yes I did it, and you can’t do anything about it.”
Liv goes home, still distraught over the turn of events. While laying on her couch, she sees the magazine with the Prince grieving on the cover and has an idea. We cut to the next day where the casket is being rolled towards the plane with the Queen waiting to see it get on. Olivia then shows up with the Prince.
UH OH.
YOU IN TROUBLE NOW GIRL.
What kind of trouble do you ask? The NDA said she couldn’t discuss the case with anyone outside of the Royal Family, it didn’t say anything about its actual members. Therefore, Olivia told Richard everything. He tells his mother that he knows the truth and then proceeds to read her the riot act. He tells her that she will resign, give him the reins and disappear to a faraway house where the next time he’ll see her is at her funeral.
WELL HELL!
She thought she had the upper hand but it seems she forgot who the hell she was dealing with.
My favorite line of the night perhaps came right after this. As Richard walked away, Liv leaned into the Queen and whispered,“All fairy tales don’t have happy endings. But evil queens? They tend to go down.”
WAY MORE THAN ONE MINUTE
Of course, I had to save the best for last. In my second year as President of the #Olitz fan club, no one is happier than I am that these two are now together. I don’t care if it only lasts for one season ( I want it to last forever), I am happy that this time has come.
All episode long, we saw these two try to navigate this very new relationship where for the most part they are free to do as they please. Yes, they are still hiding but they are sleeping in the same bed every night. Yes, they had a huge argument in front of others regarding Caledonia’s crime charges but we saw that Liv is still Fitz’s voice of reason. After he was firm in his nonattendance at Mellie’s confirmation, she was the one to convince him to go unbeknownst to Abby and Liz.
Fitz, however, took things a step too far in Liv’s opinion when he served Mellie with divorce papers. That was not something she was prepared for and she told him that it messes up the plan they had once agreed upon.
After the huge argument in the Oval Office and the fiasco with The Royal Family, Liv goes back to the White House and meets Fitz on the balcony. He tells her of the Queen’s resignation and Richard succession (which Liv knew about). The Prince is an even tougher cookie to crack which means no naval base for Fitz. He then asks Liv why she is picking a fight with him but she ensures him that she is not. She tells him that work needs to be one of their boundaries. She is going to have to do things he won’t like and vice versa but that can’t interfere with their personal relationship. They both can’t expect the other to bend to each other’s will. She needs to have something that is her own and separate from whatever it is that they have.
She also reiterates that serving Mellie with divorce papers is not ideal. She admits that she is very afraid of going public with their relationship now because she’s not convinced they’re strong enough to handle it yet. She knows she will become a spectacle. In light of her recent case, I know this is weighing heavily on her. She needs them to remain two separate people. Once they go public, it will just be about “them”.
Olivia tells Fitz that if they are broken going in, they are not going to get out in one piece.
As much as I live in fairytale land when it comes to these two, she makes very good points. Fitz sees her point of view and agrees to slow it down and move at her pace. They start kissing and then Abby interrupts them.
Liv got caught and she knows it.
Abby looks like a little child that doesn’t know where to put her hands but quickly tells them both that there is something they need to see.
They go to the TV where Sally Langton is on her show talking about the information she has received. She tells her audience that she can confirm that Mellie and Fitz’s marriage is a sham and they are no longer together. She got insider information that Olivia and Fitz are now sleeping together. She doesn’t have just rumors though, Sally has facts! She has footage from the security cameras showing Liv and Fitz kissing and canoodling. She even has images of Liv adjusting Fitz’s tie before the dinner.
There is no more room to hide.
The secret is out.
We even see Mellie and Cyrus watching the footage from their respective homes, looking slightly shocked.
While we all know this doesn’t bother me in the least that the secret is out, I can admit that this is not good for Liv and Fitz at all.
Liv, what are you going to do boo? That time you said you needed? It’s run out. It is all out in the open now girl.
The press is about to be waiting for you at the door!
And see this is why SSA Tom was my favorite even though he was working for Papa Pope. He has never allowed images to be leaked and always took care of it. Say what you want, he looked out for #Olitz.
So who leaked this information? I am pretty damn sure it was Elizabeth but that may be too obvious. I am going to keep my eye on Abby too. While she is loyal to Liv despite everything, Liv lied to her to her face. She had to catch them on the balcony for Olivia to even give a bit of leeway. Abby was also in the dark about a lot this episode and has been for a while. She might be ready to have the upper hand.
I am also anxious to dive into Cyrus’s world now that he has been removed from The White House. We only got a couple of minutes with him this episode when he was talking with Mellie. I got the feeling that he is still holding out hope that Fitz will come around but you never know with Cyrus Beene.
I am also very concerned about Huck. At the end of this episode after asking Liv to fix him and she told him he needed a better plan, he found himself on Jake’s doorstep. What is Jake going to do, how does he fit into all of this?
I guess we will find out soon enough.
Scandal airs on Thursdays at 9 pm on ABC. Make sure have your wine and popcorn ready. Shonda is not playing with TGIT!
Natalya is the author of All The Things I Never Said, a soul-stirring collection of short stories, prose and love letters for the soulful wanderers, the brokenhearted and the hopeless romantics.
You can follow her rantings and occasional sparks of brilliance on Twitter @NatalyaMuncuff.
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