‘Scandal’ Season 7, Episode 16 Recap: ‘People Like Me’

With only two episodes left, Scandal is aligning itself to complete the season.

Mellie (Bellamy Young) believes that there is only one way out of this mess, and that is to kill Cyrus (Jeff Perry). However, Olivia (Kerry Washington) does not want her to become a killer. Mellie knows that Olivia, despite her hesitancy, can get the job done. Millie asks her, “Olivia where is your patriotism? I am the state. He is the enemy of the state.”

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On the other end, Jake (Scott Foley) is ready to take down Olivia and the rest of her team, however, Cyrus tells him to hold off, because he does not want to complicate things.

Olivia then tries to get Cyrus alone, and she does so by tricking him into meeting with her after giving him a message. Huck (Guillermo Diaz) takes his phone away from him and walks out. Olivia tries to make an offer with Cyrus in order to save Millie, but he does not budge because he thinks he can’t be beaten. She brings up the idea of collusion between Cyrus and Lonnie (Michael O’Neill), however he isn’t worried about that because if Olivia had proof, she would have used it by now.

At the height of the Cyrus drama, Marcus (Cornelius Smith Jr.) visits Mellie in the Oval to check on her, but they have to be careful with what they say because Jake is spying on them. She assures Marcus that she’s fine because Olivia is helping her. However, Marcus leaves straight to Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) and tells him that he is worried about Mellie. Fitz is more understanding about the stress Mellie is under, but Marcus is not having it. Marcus calls out Fitz about his claims to have “survived” the White House, when he practically came out of the Oval unscathed. Marcus tells Fitz that he seems “haunted” and “tormented,” and that Mellie deserves someone better than that. Fitz realized everything Marcus said and calls Mellie to give her the support she needed.

Mellie then goes after Jake in the Oval Office. She confronts him through the ceiling cameras and calls him an “insecure little boy.” She then tells him how he has never led a life that was completely his own and that he has followed women his whole life.  “I see you. Olivia sees you. Cyrus sees you,” Mellie says. “Now see me.”

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Olivia sets out three bottles of wine for her meeting with Cyrus, one of them being poisoned. However, Huck is disappointed that Olivia would even resort to murder. However, she is certain that her first plan will work. While together Cyrus asks Olivia if she thinks she would be a better person if she never met Fitz, but she does not answer. Cyrus responds to her silence by saying “I’d be exactly the same.” He then hints that he knows what kind of person Fitz is. Olivia then begins to contemplate her plan to poison him. During all of this, Quinn and Abby try to track down Cyrus’s hacker but they find out he’s dead.

In the end, Olivia decided to not go through with her deadly plan, but rather have her and Mellie rise above Cyrus and his dirty ways. Mellie addresses this to the nation in a press conference. She says,” I am not guilty, and I will not be bullied.” she says to the world.

Vanessa (Jessalyn Gilsig) becomes worried about Jake’s involvement with the scandal, but he assures her that he is safe from it all.  “Everything I’m doing is for the two of us,” he says to her.  The episode ends with Cyrus coming to Jake’s house, but when he walks in he finds Vanessa dead on the floor, revealing that Jake killed her. Not being able to say no, Cyrus then agrees to continue working with Jake.