Scandal 515: "Pencils Down"

YO YO YO what's up party people!!!

I MISSED Y'ALL & I MISSED MY BLOG.

First to address the elephant in the room: I was unable to complete my blog post last week because of technical difficulties & my schedule. So this week I'm trying something different (b/c my weekends are stacking up to be pretty busy) I'm writing immediately after the episode now that HTGAWM is over. Let's see if it has a different feel, shall we?

I'M LITERALLY SHAKING RN AT HOW BRILLIANT THIS EPISODE WAS!! I MEAN, GAHDAMB! IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!

ONE TIME FOR SALLY LANGSTON & LOVERS OF LIBERTY!!

Ol girl is killing it in these streets. She has prepared the hardest test for these Republican candidates for their first debate. They betta put their pencils down b/c it's time to expose. 

THEE OLIVIA POPE, BIH.
The formidable Olivia Pope & 2 other irrelevants are conversing on the debate stage...having a well, debate, about what the Republican debate will look like. Olivia's not having any of their shenanigans. BNC's polls suck AND they're not planning to have light & buzzers to shut Hollis' big mouth up so ya know what? Liv's pulling Mellie.

And you know what else? She's gonna get Mellie an interview with BNC's biggest competitor that will go head to head w/ the debate and suck all of BNC's ratings. I mean, it doesn't get much more badassery than that.

THIS IS A WOMAN WHO KNOWS & GETS WHAT SHE WANTS except for in her personal life AND YOU ALL WILL DEAL.

Susan Ross
Are we sure she's Republican? Her stance on immigration? I mean....

She's soo good, she got Abby weak in the knees trying to recruit Olivia! But Olivia's too busy telling herself that she believes Mellie would make a great president.

But then things all went left when Abby absentmindedly told Susan about David's whorish ways and it got her all screwed up in the game. I mean, shorty was confusing Middle Eastern countries and then calling them women. That's what f*ckboy dick'll do to ya! Just ask Olivia Pope.

She confronts David about whether or not he's cheating, of course he says no & she believes him b/c she so badly wants to. But then later in the episode, Fitz had to give his own testimony to save Susan's life: "If you feel like he's cheating, then he probably is."

Terrific scene by the way. I love the way Fitz has been helping Susan. More so than that, I love how he played a small role this week and didn't get the f*ckboy title this week. Stay tuned for who does...

Mellie Grant
"Stubborn, arrogant, pain-in-the-ass"-Olivia Pope
I could say more but when she's at a roundtable with regular citizens giving feedback about her, they laid it all out there. Now I don't like the dig at her intelligence but Liv has a point--> she's not relatable at all. The Know-It-All persona doesn't work.

It's funny how Mellie Grant is "Woman of the People" & Fitzgerald Grant was "Man of the People". Both, brain childs of The Incomparable Olivia Pope

I enjoyed this moment:
Olivia: Lose the bitch face
Mellie: (rambles on about Hollis with a smile on her face)--
Olivia: Still bitch face
Mellie: I'm smiling
Olivia: Yeah, like you're better than everyone else

Every woman gets confronted about RBF. It's annoying b/c I don't always have to smile to make you comfortable. Men don't get confronted about RBF, is all I'm saying. But I just loved Olivia in that scene. So funny.
The American people apparently want "filibuster Mellie" although I don't want Mellie at all. All I'm saying is Mellie better listen to Liv and right quick. She screwed up canoodling with Hollis last week when Liv told her not to. It's time for Mellie to be all-in with Olivia and stop going rogue.

But I spoke too soon. Because of course, Mellie will Mellie, open her flap and flunk the Gettysburger test by lying to the American people. Gettysburger got that Chick Fil A spirit so hell to the no she ain't never been there on a Sunday after church w/ Karen b/c the joint is closed!

Then she gotta nerve to yell at Olivia when SHE is the one who messed up in the first place! Does she not know Olivia's first rule is to not lie?

Honestly though, at the end of the day, I don't want Mellie to be someone she's not to become president. And she's a natural born liar. It seems like that's happening to all the candidates. They're being pushed & prodded by the people surrounding them which is dangerous b/c the candidate can lose who they are. Is there some rule that says that's the job? Because it needs to be changed. I just wish Mellie looked at her out-of-touch, unrelatable self and said--you know what, maybe I'm not the best person to run for President. But she hasn't and she won't so here we are.

Edison Davis
Olivia looked into the rumors and alas, Pudding Pop is announcing that he is running for president. I promise this was me when he popped up on the screen:

Olivia promises Edison not to snitch about Meridian Terrace, which we find out at the end is the rehab center he went to when he was addicted to pain killers in 2009. I mean, he vouched for her when she confirmed she was Fitz's mistress so this seemed like a good IOU, right?

The nigga not only knows that Papa Pope's funding a Super PAC for him with dirty money but he's 100% down with "getting into bed with a monster's (read: Olivia) father" BIIIHHHH

At first I didn't want Olivia to turn on Edison, but after that!? He gets what he deserves. 

David F*ckboy Rosen
Shonda nem sure do like to rotate f*ckboy of the week! Fitz was on a break tonight...up next? David Rosen. How, sir, are you gonna complain about your harem of women to your ex-girlfriend? In what world does that seem like a good idea!?

Then Liz wants David & Susan to come onto the debate stage as a couple? Liz makes me sick.

The moment when David reigned f*ckboy supreme was when he sat and lied to Susan's face about not cheating. Then went back to Liz to cut ties.

But Glory to God, Susan broke up with David at the end.

The Vargas Campaign
Cyrus is dry as hell as campaign manager.  Nobody on the gov'nas team is barking up that tree. But Alex Vargas, the gov'nas broham came to light it up and he plays no games. In fact, he came to play dirty games.  Cyrus can't handle it, when he's the dirtiest of them all!  How ironic!

Side Shenanigans
While Liv is running Mellie's campaign, she's doing double duty stalking taking surveillance of Jake. She got Quinn watching him & stuff but it's not enough...they gotta up the ante & pull out plan B, which is Quinn pretending to be some chick named Jacqueline Horton that Vanessa Moss "went to college with".

But Quinn had excellent execution to infiltrating Vanessa's system. And by that, I mean, she finnessed her way into Vanessa's business like a KOD stripper in a rapper's wallet. Skills.

Quinn learned that poor Vanessa had to turn in her bank statements & tax info to Jake because he's the head of NSA...that's when Quinn's lightbulb went off.

Quinn runs into OPA rambling at the mouth about her knowledge of Vanessa Moss. I thought it was funny here how the queen of Scandal pace, Olivia Pope, wanted Quinn to slow down. Then she eventually got bored & told her to get to the point. Point is --> Jake's forming a Super PAC behind Edison.

Hollis Doyle
Ignorant behind talmbout he don't need debate prep...so he shoots guns all day & eats bacon. I'm glad I don't have to talk much about him on this post.

Sidebar: phones that aren't iPhones can airdrop information? Because Liv don't have an iPhone and it didn't look like Alex did either.

Daddy/Daughter Time
Liv called her daddy to make her feel better about her decision to take dirt from Alex Vargas about Susan Ross in exchange for dirt on Edison. There's some things to unpack in this scene:
1) Olivia is fact checking her gut. She knew what her instincts were saying but ever since her father slithered his way back into her life in season 2, her gut seemed to have taken a free fall to her feet never to be heard of again. She's starting to get her swag back but for whatever reason, she can't trust it until it has daddy's stamp of approval. She's gonna have to get over that right quick.

2) Red flags galore. SINCE WHEN DOES ROWAN STICK UP FOR PEOPLE? I mean, Edison is a man he literally put in a hospital so that he wouldn't investigate what he was up to as Command.  Olivia couldn't have possibly thought that her father truly cared about Edison, let alone her "loyalty" or "friendship" with him?

 Rule of thumb with Rowan: whatever he tells you to do, do the opposite.
3) Olivia is turning into her daddy. In her own words in the bathroom scene (which I'm coming to in a second) "...who takes whatever she wants no matter who gets bulldozed along the way" WHEW! But that got Rowan hot when she acknowledged how she's becoming just like him.

4) But Papa Pope had a point right here: "The reason Mellie Grant imploded today was because you were trying to make her into something she wasn't. I hate to see you make the same mistake with yourself" Anyways, too little too late Rowan.

THAT Bathroom Scene
This was me:

SHE HAD THAT MAN LOOSE! My goodness.

It could have been any man, tbh, & that scene woulda got the same reaction outta me. You a lie and a half if you don't agree Olivia was on fire! Gotta love the way Kerry commits, man. I wanna be just like her when I grow up.

Final thoughts: You niggas (& by you niggas, I mean the characters on the show) are gonna get tired of ignoring & not listening to Olivia Pope. She's right about stuff more often than wrong. But y'all go
'head witcha bad selves carrying on. It's all gon bite you in the behind soon come. & I can't wait to see what happens to Edison as a result.

Next week, Fitz is gonna be at OPA.

FANTASTIC episode. Felt like season 2! What'd y'all think? Hit me up on the twitter or the comments below!

-Candyce