'Scandal' Recap: Mamma Pope Lives And Quinn Gets Into Bed With B-613

by UInterviewNovember 15, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Quinn got in bed with B-613 as Mellie struggled to clear her name in the media in Scandal’s latest episode, “Everything’s Coming Up Mellie.”

The episode began with Liv (Kerry Washington), who is running out the door when her Presidential cellphone rings. She hesitates for a minute, but, in the end, picks it up. Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) begs her to stop digging into Operation Remington – it will only put her in danger. Liv is, unsurprisingly, not incredibly moved by his pleas and feels betrayed. She says she thought she knew everything about him. And then reveals that she knows Rowan (i.e. Command aka Daddy Pope) before promptly hanging up on the President.

Liv heads into her office and gathers her team of Gladiators and informs them that they have a new client: her mother. With Huck (Guillermo Díaz), Jake (Scott Foley) and Olivia all at dead-ends in their investigations, they need Pope and Associates to dig up anything and everything they can about the plane “crash” that killed Liv’s mother.

After finding out about Liv’s crazy family history, Quinn (Katie Lowes) goes straight to Huck. She wants him to acknowledge that her instincts were right: there was something weird going on with Liv’s dad, and she wasn’t just curious because she’s a psycho killer waiting to break free. Huck dismisses her, unwittingly sending her straight into Charlie’s (George Newbern) killer arms.

Mellie's Story

Meanwhile, in the White House, Mellie (Bellamy Young) is putting on her best First Lady act for the cameras while also scheming to create a scandal with the VP’s husband by tempting him with an attractive hooker. A camera crew is following her for an in-depth look into the life of the First Lady, and was also promised a sit-down interview with the President and his wife. Mellie pretends she enjoys setting tables and picking out paintings because, after she announced on national television that her husband was a cheater, she lost the public’s support. Mellie resents the fact that she has to grovel for the public’s affection when Fitz is the one who had the affair in the first place. After Fitz flakes on a meeting with Mellie and the baby for the camera crew, Mellie has had enough. She goes to Fitz in the Oval Office and tells him that the least he can do for her right now is “show up.”

In flashbacks, we see what Mellie has really sacrificed to get Fitz in the White House. Fifteen years ago in California, Mellie and Fitz, young and mostly in love, are trying to have a baby. Fitz has come home from his time in the Navy and his father, eager to get his son into the political realm, wants Fitz to run for Governor of California. In the flashbacks, not only do we get a closer look at how overbearing and condescending Fitz’ dad is, but we also meet Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry). When Cyrus and Fitz first met, Cyrus had a beard. Oh, and a wife.

After their initial meeting, during which Fitz’ father, Jerry (Barry Bostwick) tells him he needs to run on his reputation as a war hero. Fitz, ashamed of his role in Operation Remington, flat out refuses and Cyrus goes on his way. Not one to give up, Mellie goes after Cyrus and tells him to come back tomorrow – she’ll handle it.

Fitz and his father fight about his war record – it turns out that, as Pope & Associates is learning, Fitz father participated in the cover-up to save his son’s reputation and carve out a political future for him. Later that night, Mellie is trying to bond with Jerry and understand more about his relationship with Fitz. Jerry, drunk, and lamenting his son’s ungrateful nature, hits on Mellie. She shrugs him off, but he keeps coming, and rapes her.

The next morning, Mellie sits at the breakfast table with her father in law and decides to use his crime against him. He tries to apologize for how things ‘got out of hand,’ but she doesn’t want to hear it. No, what Mellie wants is for Jerry to suck it up, take Fitz aside and tell him that he’s proud and that he’s sorry for being so horrible to him.

In the present, that is exactly what Mellie wants from Fitz: an apology. And, surprisingly, in the middle of their interview, he gives it to her. He defends Mellie against allegations that she’s “crazy” and slams the reporter for blaming Mellie when he is the one who had the affair. And, what’s more, he means it. This time, he wasn’t just putting on a show for the cameras.

In flashbacks, we see Fitz meet with his campaign team. Mellie raises a glass in thanks, and prepares them to run for Governor of California! But, she doesn’t drink – she’s pregnant. Is the baby Fitz’s or is it Jerry’s?

Quinn Belongs To B-613

Finally, Pope & Associates find out that there was a passenger who was taken off the commercial flight Fitz shot down all those years ago. And there is only one witness: a man who now works as a security guard. Kept out of the loop, Quinn goes off with Charlie and allows herself to be seduced and tricked into poisoning the guard (she thinks she’s just knocking him out) and killing him.

Oh, and Charlie has it all on video: she belongs to B-613 now. Jake gets there just in time to see their one lead being put in a body bag.

Fitz is having Olivia tailed for fear that B-613 and Rowan (Joe Morton) will have her killed, but he also ordered an investigation on Liv’s past. He wants to know how she knows Rowan. At the end of the episode, Fitz gets his answer: Rowan is Olivia’s father. Speaking of Rowan, Daddy Pope is walking through a prison and pulls up a chair in front of a cot in a dark, damp cell. From the blankets emerges… Liv’s mother! She’s alive. “Our daughter is asking questions about you,” Command says.

Scandal airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.