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Thursday 22 August 2013

Scandal 2.8 "Happy Birthday, Mr President" Review


                                              
As news gets out of Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) being shot, several times over as broadcast by the news, we get plenty of flashbacks.  The Secret Service appeared to be a a bit slow off the mark when they rushed to the President's side, as well as with Britta (Keiko Agena) and Mellie (Bellamy Young).  At the hospital, Mellie is frantic and a man's voice is heard to be telling Fitz he can't die.  Which is heard by Olivia (Kerry Washington).  She finds his US flag pin on the floor and picks it up.  Cue first flashback where Olivia gave him the pin after he was elected President and before his inauguration.  It was a genuine flag pin belonging to Eisenhower.  She pins it to his lapel and Mellie sees it too but is oblivious to their attraction.

Later they meet in the Oval Office and Fitz can't resist being with Olivia and neither can she, to the point where they get physical on his desk of all places.  Of course no one's told him about the cameras, he must have been naive, at least not until the next day when the agent tells him where the cameras are located, when Fitz is out jogging in his Navy shirt.  He hates jogging.  Edison (Norm Lewis) calls Olivia to tell her they're being taken to the bunker.  On the news it's said Fitz is in surgery and Langston (Kate Burton) wants to be flown to the South lawn.  No one lands there except the President and Cyrus (Jeff Perry) loses his cool with her.  She's not the President yet since Fitz is still alive and until he dies or she takes office under the Amendment where the Cabinet signs her in, she is not the President and will have her forcibly removed if necessary.

We also get to see how Langston came aboard based on their promise she'd pick the Supreme Court Justice, of course the job was promised to Verna Thornton (Debra Mooney) and she demands her position. Also Olivia sees Cyrus with Jack (Ray Bucatinsky) as the two of them break up.  Olivia takes hold of the crisis and comes back to the Whitehouse for as long as they need her.  Telling Jeannine (Samantha Sloyan) she needs six outfits from her place.  She then holds a press conference telling them the President is holding on.  In another flash, Olivia is told about a reporter who is looking into vote rigging at the election and she relays this to Hollis (Gregg Henry).  As the name Cytron comes up and Huck (Guillermo Diaz) tells her their employee Jesse Tyler leaked this info.  Huck all long haired and dirty has been living on the streets, is given Olivia's key so he can stay with her.

Olivia meets Fitz once more and he tells her they're in this together.  They belong to one another and she can't drive him away.  "I exist for you."  Kind of another moment they will have in the future in the park when he went hunting and she told him that she's not his.  Britta is declared dead and the newscaster, Reed Wallace (Stephen Collins) can't hide his emotions as she used to work there.  Britta was press secretary and was under Olivia's wing as she let her go to the inauguration ball.  Edison calls to tell Olivia Langston is lobbying the Cabinet for their signatures to take over as President.  Olivia tells Cyrus and says Mellie is the only one who can stop this.

Olivia reluctantly approaches Mellie who won't let her sit beside her since they're not friends.  She sends Olivia for clothes and Olivia finds his Navy sweatshirt and weeps into it.  Er, it wasn't placed on the top of the other shirts, it was between them Olivia, but funny she didn't have any tears showing, red eyes or even a runny nose after she cried.  She takes an outfit for Mellie who assures the people that he is alive and is a believer in hope.   They shouldn't give up on him cos he hasn't given up on them.

Cyrus gets Jack to write a story about Langston's nominee for the Supreme Court and his juvenile record is disclosed.  Langston's angry and says that from now on, she's in it "for me."  Harrison (Columbus Short) Quinn (Katie Lowes) and Abby (Darby Stanchfield) watch the news from the office and Quinn mentions Huck being in the CIA.  He's meant to be on a date.  Don't know about you, but did anyone get suspicious at Huck not being here.  No really, at such a time of crisis, he's on a date!  He'd be back there quick smart seeing if Olivia wanted his help and to find out if she was safe!!

Another flashback where Olivia is told about an explosion which just happens to be at the Cytron offices, which Hollis says was 'taken care' of by him.  He's going to make an employee called Lindsey (Quinn) the scapegoat.  He's not perturbed that he killed seven people and Cyrus calls them collateral damage and patriots as well as heroes.  If they expose this, it will signal the end of the Presidency even before it's begun. Olivia finds this disgusting but she manages to go along with it and has been ever since.  Though she did try to help Quinn.  Mellie notices Fitz's pin is missing and one of the agents hands it to her later, when she finds out Fitz had been to see the Constitution, saying he'd have taken her with him.  Infact he took Olivia and she became the seventh person to touch it.  Mellie returns the pin and senses there's something not quite right.

The doctors have removed three bullets from Fitz but there's no change.  Olivia walks into the room and hands Mellie the pin which she places beside him on the bed.  Langston is sworn in as president and Cyrus loses his cool by wrecking his office!  The news broadcasts the description of the gunman, wearing a red hoodie with dark hair, which Harrison says describes plenty of men in Washington.  But this one describes Huck to a tee!  Knew it was him, like I said before.

Olivia's face when he finds Mellie turns up with Fitz to have dinner with her!  Olivia declaring she loves Fitz after touching the Constitution, makes you wonder if she'd feel differently about him if he wasn't the Pres? Well it does, since she didn't want anything more to do with him tendering her resignation, well she still found herself back there many times over and they still continued their illicit affair, so who was fooling whom, or rather us.  Course we weren't fooled  I mean if she really loved him she could have exposed the 'scandal' (!) re vote rigging and they could have run away together!  SO she either believes he wanted to stick by and do his job, or he wanted the job and her.

As for Huck, many reasons behind him having to shoot the President, cos think if it was anyone else as the shooter, he'd have been dead since he'd have a perfect head shot.  Sorry to sound so morbid but it's true. As we recall Hollis's threat of taking everyone down last ep, not clear what this would entail, but we've seen the man is merciless with the explosion at Cytron and framing Quinn.  Anyway we have a long while yet before we get any explanations, cos we're always behind!!

An explosive episode and I know a lot of fans loved the steamy scenes between Olivia and Fitz. Well we had to have those since that's what the entire show is about really when it boils down to it!  The relationship between two people who can't be together.

 

1 comment:

Joanne said...

Relived it wasn't Huck who shot the Pres...but his sinister girlfriend who he met st his Addictions meetings. Its all a set-up to frame him!