Scandal S-3 Ep.16- The Fluffer

I’m trying, really trying not to lose my mind, with each episode, at Olivia and her simpering lips and weakness when it comes to Fitz, a man who has shown time and again what kind of person he really is- untrustworthy at best. It’ll take more than a Hail Mary at this rate. To think we fell in love with and were rooting for these two in the previous episodes but with each reveal of the other characters, Mellie especially, we find ourselves taking sides, away from them together. There’s been a lot of agro, especially over this part of season 3, and we are all just done with Fitz and Liv. Its time for them to call time and move on. I don’t think there is anything that can salvage them or get them sympathy from the audience.

But enough whinging here goes.

Whilst Liv is busy doing B6-13 take down things Abby is her proxy at the White House which no one is really here for. White coat or not. And Abby/Gabby is shown that within minutes of walking into her meeting with Mellie, Fitz and Andrew… tense room. Poor dear. The White House is set to flames when news breaks with Jeanine Locke’s new book, Taken For Granted…hey Jeanine, its been a minute. Fitz’s faux mistress has written a book about Fitz and his “baguette” which has Abby already in a bind; who needs this mess when Olivia is out for the day.

The Fluffier was in large parts about Liv doing what she always does best for Fitz, clean up his mess and fix his house, but it showed us glimpses of the old Olivia Pope with her affirmative self. You know, just in case we forgot that she is indeed a fixer of things and not professional mistress to the President.

Fitz is not happy about Andrew and Mellie’s dalliance, despite not feeling an iota of emotion for his wife, he wants it to stop. Liv has to put an end to it because Fitz cannot or does not want to deal with this dirty business, no, that role is suited to his mistress- the lover, the wife and her lover, with a mistress caught in between. But, fix it is what Liv does, with a swift string of words and affirmative attitude with Andrew. It shouldn’t have been so easy for him to put ambition before emotion if he claims to really love Mellie. A part of me believes he does but this is a mess even he has sense to stay clear of, matters of the heart regardless. Liv’s words might have helped make the decision easy but Mellie was too easily robbed by Fitz. Again. This scene gave us a glimpse into the Liv of old, remember how she took down Amanda Tanner, Fitz’z lover, again cleaning up his mess amongst other things. It has become very obvious that Fitz is just a completely deplorable and amoral person who will stop at nothing to eat his cake and have it too.

Fitz is not the only person Liv is being a “fluffer” to, Papa has set his daughter up to take the fall by laying her out to be a pawn in his game to make Jake look as incompetent as we know he is as Command. You know when he fed her that whole, we are family line? Yeah…not quite what he meant; he feeds Liv info about B6-13 and how they operate and with a  bit of sexual cunning Liv is able to get what she needs from Jake and pulls the plug on their operation which ironically, was to save the life of her boyfriend. Huck did warn Liv about trusting her father, knowing how Command operates but Liv wouldn’t listen. Daddy issues.

Mama Pope is up to shenanigans with Adnan her sidekick and B6-13 is waiting in the wings to take them down. Too little too late though because OPA shuts B6-13 down and Jake is none too pleased about it. This storyline feels a little bungled and unrealistic- if you know someone is up to madness like say, dropping a bomb to take out the President of the United States, I would say that’s reason enough to go busting in there and taking them down shouldn’t you. Or should it even get to the stage where they are still contemplating a course of action whilst a known terrorist is in dealings with another?

But I am still not clear on this agenda of Mama Pope… what is going on there? This story has taken us out of left field we need more background here or have I missed something or a lot of things?

One thing good will come out of this- we will get to see the Gladiators get back to what they do best- fix things, at least I hope they will because I for one am bored of every single one of their independent story lines, much as I wanted that for dimension, nothing much has been down to lift this episode. Also it will be a good diversion from Fitz and Liv’s bullshit dance. Because I really just can’t.

And the other things…

There is a poignant moment when Fitz and Liv are arguing about their situation, one of the first times they have been honest with each other. Liv is still living in hopes about the two of them and Vermont, a thing that plagues her at night. She is able to admit the glaring emptiness it brings and the fact that this thing with them is so messy. But Fitz, and I hate to say this, is right when he says, he didn’t just happen to her, this is something they knowingly got into together, they are consenting adults who, damning all common sense and consequences, got engaged in a tawdry affair. So this is their mess to handle. He has a point.

Fitz asks Liv to break Mellie and Andrew after she instructs him to make nice with the both of them for the sake of winning the election. And once again we see a flash of the old Olivia Pope, doing her job and going to bat because its her reputation essentially on the line. Fitz keeps pushing Mellie and I for one cannot wait for the second she blows up and takes him down.

Mama Pope is a monster but damn she’s good. She rattles Eli’s cave so easily its almost enjoyable to see him come apart because of her. She is the only one who can go toe to toe with him, no fear. But I wonder what the story really is between these two…you know, besides the whole plane affair, what more is there?

Why exactly did we need to be reminded of Jeanine if her story did not serve a larger purpose in this episode? Before it could get juicy it died… why was it here in the first place?