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'Scandal' Season Two Finale Event

Source: Michael Tran / Getty

Tonight’s season finale of Scandal drove one point home in particular — that Rowan Pope really is the ghost in the machine. Like, we’ve known this for years now, but just when you thought he couldn’t be any more of a puppet master, he popped up out of nowhere at an even higher level of mastery.

We picked up from last week with Mellie Grant and Frankie Vargas as the respective republican and democratic candidates. It’s time to figure out who their running makes will be. Cyrus wants David Rosen to consider running as Frankie’s VP. Say what?

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David doesn’t trust it, but he is considering. Mellie’s prospective candidate is Bill Wagner. He has everything going for him, expect his deepest, darkest secret is that he was a coke dealer back in college. He said that only one person in the world knew about it but that situation, which needed to be handled. At least he was honest, right?

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Yeah, that’s not going to work out because you know the public will get ahold of that news, so Mellie will have to find another VP. Hold that thought.

Edison delivered Jake’s message from last week about wanting to stand in the sun (meaning “HALP!”). At first Liv turned him down because she wanted to keep Jake alive, but you know she can’t turn down a challenge, not even when it comes to her father. She reconsidered her stance, more on that in a few too.

Speaking of Papa Pope, his next move was to get Jake on Frankie’s VP ticket. Cyrus was not about that life, but Rowan informed him that he was aware of his little shooting in Harrisburg and he will blow up the spot unless he gets what he wants. Yo…Papa Pope really is the hell, the high water and Black Jesus too! How does he know so much about all of these people’s shady activities? Anyway, Cyrus’ back is up against the wall so it’s time to get down or lay down, but Cyrus doesn’t want to back down either.

Cyrus goes running to Liv for help about Papa Pope’s strong-arming, so he confesses what he did with Harrisburg. Liv isn’t with it and tells Cyrus is on his own, but Cyrus reminds her, if Jake gets in then Rowan takes over and they all lose and you know how the Popes feel about losing.

She finally commits to saving Jake, but she has to figure out a plan that will keep him alive. Huck tells Liv that if she is to save Jake then she can’t be sneaky, she “has to go through the front door and take him.” But knowing that “you can’t take command,” Liv realizes that she has to become command.

Olivia’s plan to help Jake is to have him become Mellie Grant’s VP. And you know what? She went right to Rowan Pope’s house, where Jake sat on the couch as Olivia and Papa Pope argued back and forth about him. Rowan pointed a gun to Jake’s head and threatened to shoot, but in the end it was a bluff and Liv won this round. So now this leaves the question of, who is Frankie Vargas’ VP? Oh, we’ll get there.

The episode’s main event was the rally where all the candidates announced their running mate. Jake started having second thoughts right before he had to go support Mellie on stage. He told Liv that he wanted to take himself off the ticket, buy a house somewhere lowkey, settle down have some kids and live a “normal” life with Olivia. Liv said she didn’t want to live a mediocre life and made that quite clear in an emphatic mini speech.

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This was the moment that Jake finally realized that he is the Pope family puppy. Late boots.

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He accepted his fate, though, and went out on that stage with Melly like a good boy.

And now…

Frankie Vargas’ running mate is — drumroll please — Cyrus Bean!

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That shady mofo used Olivia to get Jake out of the way so that he could step up to the plate. Wooooooowwww!

Liv was pissed! She threatened him with leaking the Harrisburg info, but he reminded her that she killed the former VP so that approach wouldn’t work. She backed down for now but she definitely went into war mode, and for Liv, it’s now time to search, and destroy. She will land Mellie in the White House by any means necessary.

Papa Pope was watching the rally from home, proud of her, which goes back to the Ghost in the Machine theory. He wanted Jake to run for VP so bad that he didn’t even care what side Ballard was on and Olivia managed to make that happened. Technically he can take the credit since Olivia is basically mini-him. He knows she’s about to set off a firestorm that he set in motion by upsetting her. He also knows that he can probably jump back in and hit Jake with the mind games and once again be back in control. Puppet Master Level Expert. This is sick.

And the episode even ended with proud Papa saying, “That’s my girl.”

Gah! See you next season!

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