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There are only two episodes of Scandal left after tonight, and anxiety is at an all time high! Tonight we begin with Charlie in jail. He’s the fall guy for the Cyrus plane hijacking situation. Cyrus’ right hand, special prosecutor Lonnie Mencken, tries to get Charlie to sign a confession claiming that he hijacked Cyrus’ plane for Mellie. If he signs he goes free. Charlie refuses to sign it so, he remains in prison and gets tortured by Mencken’s goons, who are trying to make him crack.
Olivia meets up with Quinn, who is obviously devastated and still pissed at Olivia. Quinn could care less about what Cyrus wants to do to Mellie, she just wants her man back and her family in tact. They decide to partner up to take their common enemy down and of course, they tap into the Gladiators for help. The Gladiators research Lonnie Mencken. He surprisingly comes up clean, and appears to be an upstanding citizen and a warrior for fair and balanced justice, which leaves them confused. Why would he work for Cyrus on such a dastardly mission? What does Cyrus have on him?
Cyrus realizes that Charlie might not crack so he goes another route. We see him have a conversation with Quinn to try to get her to convince Charlie to sign the confession. Quinn refuses to help Cyrus. He gives her a burner phone to give her some time to think about it. But later on Quinn tells the gladiators what Cyrus is trying to get Charlie to do. Quinn is strongly considering it. Olivia tries to talk her out of it because it’s messed up to save Charlie’s life by destroying Mellie’s but Quinn reminds Olivia that she kinda ain’t ish either in a not so nice way, and that she’s about her family, eff everything else. This hits Olivia to the core and causes her to leave.
Fitz tells Mellie what Cyrus is up to and Mellie doesn’t believe it. She doesn’t think it makes sense that Cyrus would do this, thinks that Olivia is behind all of this and she refuses to take Fitz word for it…at first, but then she starts to get suspicious. She tells Jake to investigate Cyrus and Jake tries to talk her out of it—as if he’s not aware that Cyrus orchestrated Frankie Vargas’ murder. Suspect.
But Mellie demands that he look into it.
Jake confronts Cyrus about what’s going on and Cyrus G’s up. He outright admits what’s up to Jake and tells Jake him he has a job working with him in his new administration if he wants it. Jake declines at first, but then Cyrus gives a convincing speech about how Jake will always be a second-class citizen if he doesn’t accept the offer and that he’s only talking to him right now because Olivia put a bug in Mellie’s ear. Psychological warfare for the win! You already know Jake is considering this offer.
Rosen confronts Mencken and demands to know why he’s working with Cyrus, and for Menken, it’s simple—gun control. Here’s the deal, his 7-year-old son died in his arms after being shot in a mass shooting at the mall. While Mellie is progressive on many issues including, being pro-choice and passing a free college bill, she’s all about the second amendment. In other words she loves her guns and that’s a problem for Mencken.
Dramatic much?
Marcus tries his hand at talking to Mellie to convince her that Olivia has nothing to do with this. You know Mellie loves Marcus so she’s more open to talking to him. She even reveals that she misses Olivia. Hold that thought, because this is going to be big.
Quinn finally tells Cyrus that she can’t have Charlie sign the confession. Cyrus tells Quinn that he no longer needs her help because he has made alternate arrangements and hangs up on her. Then we cut to Jake. Jake’s assignment is to make Charlie sign the confession by any means necessary. Jake hits Charlie in the heart. He threatens to kill Quinn and says it would be a shame of their baby grew up an orphan (B613 doesn’t kill babies). Charlie tries to convince Jake not to do this, but the allure of power is too much and Charlie has no choice.
Mellie learns there’s a subpoena against her for setting Cyrus up. She confronts Jake and tells him to do something about it. Jake is as unbothered as ever while informing her that she’s going down. Mellie’s last words before this blows up are, “Olivia was right.” And then news breaks that Mellie is the prime suspect.
Olivia is in tears because the old Liv is back, which means she has a soul again. Plus, she doesn’t like to lose so she feels defeated and knows that Mellie, of all people, definitely doesn’t deserve this. Huck comforts her and tells her they haven’t lost yet and that she still has some chess moves to make.
Finally, we end the episode with Olivia meeting up with Mellie who asks her to be her command again and asks her to kill Cyrus.
Challenge accepted.
Mellie got her Livy back.
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