So all of Olivia’s bravado’s last week came back to bite her behind this week and it brought all the boys to her yard pointing fingers at her screw up, literally, that has put them to this situation. Jake, Cyrus and Fitz. Men. Just bloody typical. Forget that half the time she is stuck fixing their messes.
Flesh and Blood was an episode for the most part about getting battle ready in a war brewing between friends, families and foes- Fitz and Mellie, Papa Pope and Mama Pope, Jake and Papa Pope, and in the other corner is Liv trying to bring everyone into the light, find a modicum of good in a shitty situation because at the root of it all, she is a good person. Its why she always looks so shocked when she is told the harsh truth. The look on her face when Jake tells her just who her father is, at the core, is one of shock, partly because she is now realising who he is and what B6-13 means to him but also because she is still trying desperately to believe that underneath the Command her father was, is a good man. Especially knowing what she knows about how her mother. Its obvious she craves some sort of normalcy, a modicum of hope that not everyone in her life is screwed up. But the truth is, they are.
B6-13 and OPA combine resources to find this bomb and bring Maya Pope to justice but Mama is several steps ahead with contingencies for the contingency plans. Knowing what they are dealing with Cyrus and Fitz decide to call in the big guns to deal with the mess Jake and his team of incompetent assassins have made. Enter Papa Pope…Snap! Jake just keeps getting told he can have all the seats doesn’t he? To rub more salt on his wounded ego, Papa decides he cannot with Jake and Liv tells sometime lover boy-recent shag to bounce. Blood son, blood. But that was not before Jake let Fitz know just how Liv gained access to B6-13 accounts… oh oh. Jake is definitely a bitch not a gladiator. Its not like Liv held a gun to his head, this was a mutually beneficial experience for the both of them.
Here’s the thing about Jake that he cannot handle- he will never really be Command. As long as Papa Pope lives he will never truly wield the power he craves, nor will it get him the respect from Fitz because he is ultimately covering POTUS ass whilst sometimes screwing the chick that belongs to POTUS… I mean its a no win for him.
In other news Mellie be drankin’ and she’s miserable. Bad enough they are in lock down in the White House now that we know Mama Pope is running around with a bomb with Fitz’s name on it, after the events of last week, even breathing the same air as Fitz is too much to ask of her. Her anger is reaching explosion point and she has set her own plans in motion to blow him away. Drunk Mellie is just as ace as it goes because she becomes seriously unhinged. She lets Fitz know his enemies are not just outside the walls of the White House and her play is just that big to make heads roll. She asks the White House doctor for a paternity test for her son, knowing fully well that this will somehow find its way into the wrong hands. Mellie, Mellie, Mellie… Liv, thanks to Papa, is able to intercept this and her showdown talk with Mellie reveals more than Liv is ready for but not enough because then that would impact her relationship with Fitz.
Oh the drama.
“You owe me everything Liv” Mellie is really the only one to whom Liv owes anything to because she has allowed her affair with Fitz to carry on. Not necessarily turning a blind eye but she allows it because she knows what good this will do for her in the long run.
Mellie and Liv’s stand off reveals what both women really feel about the other, underneath all that hatred, is grudging respect because neither is dumb. Liv may be less than smart by carrying on with Fitz knowing he is married, happily or not, and Mellie may be downright foolish for letting her husband get away with having a mistress, one who is a threat to the very nature of their marriage and her, but both women understand the power the other wields. But long suffering Mellie has just about had enough of carrying this cross around for an undeserving husband as it were. To make matters worse, this whole election malarkey coincides with the anniversary of big bad Jerry’s death, which only makes Fitz more antsy, because it echoes Defiance; he’ll never really live up to his father’s expectations if he is to be a sitting duck in the White House at a most crucial time.
The shocker comes in the last few minutes of the episode, as with everything Scandal, when David and Jake figure out that the bomb is not where everyone thinks it’ll be. But Liv is with Fitz in hopes that her mama will not blow him up knowing that she is with him. Or so Eli thinks. Either way, Mama Pope is the only one who seems to have a solid plan around these parts. Whilst Huck and Quinn are busy schtuping in the parking lot, Mama Pope walks calmly into offices of OPA and the next thing we know, Eli is fighting for his life. These two idiots. But Olivia was not even where the bomb was so… I don’t know… what is going on here Shonda?!
For the most part this was a fast paced episode of a lot of steam to get us pumped for the finale. There was a lot of talk but not a lot of action. Angst and emotion for some part but for the most it was all strategy. If the last few minutes are anything to go by, Cyrus is still the devil. Papa Pope may die. Sally could die…I have no idea the rationale behind keeping Quinn alive and killing off two characters that bring a great range to the show… Nah I won’t watch if Papa Pope dies.