Scandal s3 ep.2; Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

The President’s mistress take two. Except this time Fitz actually did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms Locke.

Pope vs Pope.

As pointed last week, this season gets more personal for Liv so there were flashbacks in this episode and we get to see the  dissolution of the relationship between herself and her father, and I must tell ya Papa Pope is the OG of all OGs. He makes monstrous Cyrus look like baby Jesus. The lengths he will go to, to prove his point are terrifying to say the least. We meet Liv five years in the past en-route to her routine Sunday dinner with her father, (that weave though Liv…still No shade). Dinner is stifled, there is no love lost between father and daughter. Liv is cold, she only keeps the date because he pays her loans, Eli Pope, on the other hand, is there because he is desperate to bridge that gap between them. There’s more to this relationship that will come later int he episode, secrets to be unveiled and more of Liv.

We also meet homeless Huck from his outpost at the train station, he and Liv form a friendship, and he has always been her person. He saves her from being mugged and only then does she realise that there is more to Huck than meets the eye. In a series of events that unfold after Liv naively tells her father of her mugging and how Huck saved her, she finds out who her father really is and what he does for a living. And that he kidnapped her homeless friend, whom he disapproves of, despite saving his daughter’s life.

Liv strikes back by giving into Edison’s pressures and introducing him to her father in a bid to intimidate him, you know because he makes laws the prevent spies from making people disappear. Papa Pope is not best pleased with his daughter’s play but he gives her back what she wants; Huck and takes something else; Edison.

Liv severs all contacts with him from them on.

In the present day, Liv walks in on her old man getting all chummy with the Associates of Olivia Pope and Associates and Quinn is surprised to find that Liv has such a normal father. It prompts her to go digging up dirt on Liv and she soon stumbles upon the email correspondence between Liv and her father involving Huck. Dick move Quinn. I’ve never warmed to her, because she gets ahead of herself and seems to forget that she is first and foremost a gladiator and her allegiance is to OPA and that means sticking with her kind not working against them and snitching. She’s a rat and no one likes rat. She reveals the incriminating email to Huck and he goes all section eight on Liv when he put his hands on her…

Olivia has spent most of her influential life trying to fix the lives of those caught in the crossfire of hers. She feels the need to wear that white hat and go charging in to save the world and its mother, from the perils of people like her father, Cyrus, Hollis, Fitz and so forth. It is the cross she bears.

President-Mistress Shenanigans.

Fitz and Liv have this master plan to deal with their situation but I wonder who is running the country whilst Fitz is playing hookie with his mistress. Could he be any less Presidential? His intentions are honourable to save Jeanine but Liv has demands too and of course she’ll win his hand every time. Liv informs Fitz the she is representing Jeanine, again here she is wearing that white hat to save the victim caught in the crossfireof her own mess, she will pull no punches and go in for the kill. He tells her to go for the jugular and that she does; bringing the battle to the steps of the White House with her press conference. Its a brilliant play, but I can’t understand why he’d be so cavalier. In his bid to give her what she wants he throws Jeanine under a bus, not that she wasn’t willing to sell herself short, by admitting to the affair they never had. I don’t know that there were winners here but, Jake gets out, Jeannine will get her book deal and pay day and disappear to a small town, probably marry a boring boy and get a boring job…remember that was Liv’s advise to Amanda Tanner.

These two understand that there’s a doomed romance because as much as they love each other and want to be together, love is not a luxury they can afford, as much as they feel it for each other. They are aware of their fate and its a sad moment when they talk about this other life in Vermont where he is Mayor, they have four kids and she makes jam…its sweet but sad. A fantasy Liv quashes when she demands that he do something to bring Jake back to her, this is after all why they make the sacrifices that they make, so he can use his presidential powers to save her lover boy…okay then

The Others.

Mellie is looking for her “Bimbo on the loose” She will not stand by and watch Fitz make a fool of himself like he always is quick to do on account of Liv. You have to understand that Mellie is fighting a losing battle, doggedly I might add, She is out for her own portion of blood and would gladly take Liv down if only it wouldn’t cost her what little link there is to Fitz and of course the White House and being First Lady and what political capital she can gain from it. She wouldn’t dare try him, especially when he declared war on her last week. Still, she plays her cards by creating evidence of Jeanine’s tryst with Fitz. She will do most anything to stop Fitz from revealing to the world that Liv is his mistress even if her name is already out there. She bribes Jeanine with $2m (seriously? at least Amanda Tanner was going to get ten) and releases the cooked up evidence to Cyrus who arranges for the leak.

Quinn HAS GOT TO GO!! I don’t know how, I don’t know where, but she has got to get the hell up out of this and be hung out to dry. Hacking into Liv’s emails? That crosses several lines of several versions of unacceptable. Huck does try to warn her but she gets all baby Huck and disrupts the status quo. Quinn wants juicy gossip and stumbles upon something that is not her business. What is her play? Is she trying to pay Liv back for Defiance? Is she trying to take Huck’s place? What the hell is she playing at? Quinn Perkins has got to be handled.

Jeanine, Jeanine, Jeanine…she sells her soul out for $2m in the Cayman Islands. $2m? Seriously? What does that get you these days? A studio apartment in Knightsbridge, if that. And Liv, darling, didn’t you learn anything from Amanda Tanner? Do not leave a White House aide in your home unsupervised, because things go wrong. Two million dollars worth of things. Or people disappear. At best she should have hired someone to stake out her place…

Essentially its safe to say that the root of Liv’s problems is her father and Fitz. Pops for obvious reasons, he keeps meddling in her affairs and Fitz for getting in her head. This little plan of theirs, where will it lead? What do they think will come from it? And how long will they play it for. And does she REALLY want to be First Lady? I mean really? Cyrus is mean and Mellie is mad so those two will stop and nothing to win their corner and they are essentially fighting the same battles. Liv’s father has his own agenda and Remington may be his trump card. He is so desperate to have a modicum of communication with Liv that it is enough to consider releasing Jake Ballad for their Sunday dinners to resume.

And what is Liv’s deal with Jake? Why all this trouble to save him knowing what she knows? He’s back now, which can only mean tension and drama, maybe a resurrection of old feelings and competition for Fitz…

Fitz and his Presidential Balls.

Best line of the day; “How presidential are my balls now Cy?” Fitz asks Cyrus just before he admits having an affair with Jeanine in a White House press conference. Jake appears on Liv’s front door thanks to Fitz and his Presidential Balls. Balls which Liv has by the firm grip.

Liv has this habit of lecturing others in a way that is pertinent to her, she gives Jeannine this speech about how unwise it is for her to sell her self for $2m because she will be selling a part of her soul and will hate herself for it everyday she lives. So what you saying Liv?