I really enjoyed last night’s episode of Scandal. It’s hard to believe we’re going to have to wait an entire month for another one! Still, I think Scandal, “Boom goes the Dynamite” gave viewers a lot to think about over the next four weeks. I mean seriously, there is a lot of information to take in!
Olivia Pope gets a sudden understanding
Before I begin, here’s the usual reminder. Anything beyond this point is a SPOILER for Scandal episode 15, “Boom goes the Dynamite” – got it? Good! “Boom goes the Dynamite” is a misleading title if you take it at face-value. Given all the highly explosive episodes this season it personally made me think there would be one huge revealing moment. Instead the episode was a series of small explosions…with a “tick-tick-tick going along in the background. Not to say I didn’t enjoy this episode of Scandal, because I thoroughly did. With all the high-level conspiracy that’s been going on the last few weeks, a more normal episode with a client and a case was a nice breather. Granted, a normal episode of Scandal is still pretty scandalous. When Scandal puts out an episode title, one of the things I need to remember is that the titles by themselves aren’t meant to describe the episode. This is why some of them can really seem strange – like “Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot.” (Come on, I know I wasn’t the only one going, what the Huck is that about?) The titles come from an obscure phrase that’s said somewhere inside the episode. Figure out what the phrase means in the moment it’s used, and you’ll get the episode’s theme.
“Boom Goes the Dynamite” is what Harrison (Columbus Short) says when the client makes the move that “seals the deal” in terms of showing a connection to the woman being interviewed to become his wife. Making the connection, the moment when the spark ignites, the light turns on, the meaning’s understood, and the secret’s revealed – that’s the “boom.” When thought of in that sense – as opposed to a huge and shocking life-changing moment such as the president murdering a supreme court justice – there were quite a number of “booms” in this episode.
First of all, the mystery of Captain Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) has been solved….for now. President Fitzgerald Grant – aka ‘Fitz’ (Tony Goldwyn) hired him to watch his former Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). In watching Olivia he became intrigued and romantically interested. So it’s pretty unlikely that he’s the person who killed Wendy. He’d have been much more concerned about the whole David Rosen thing if he were. He does have some useful information though, because he knows what “‘albatross” is. It’s the name of a notorious and maybe/maybe not fictitious mole within one of the security agencies that’s been around for at least two years. Given the nature of what was on Wendy’s flash-drive, I’d say maybe he’s not something made up by a desperate suicidal man. The other thing we learn about Jake, is that despite the way he touches the screen when Olivia’s on it, he’s not a complete creep. When Olivia starts to undress, he politely turns off the monitors. That move made me smile because it so typically Scandal! The man who is illegally spying on the Olivia is too much of a gentleman to watch her undress – despite the fact that he’s attracted to her! So, is he a bad guy or good guy? As usual, it’s a mixed bag. Both moments, finding out why Jake is spying on Olivia, and learning that he genuinely likes her, are real “boom” moments for the audience.
So, as Jake uses his secret access to call her, Olivia, despite herself, is finding herself intrigued and attracted to the captain. not that she says, “I’m intrigued and attracted to you Jake.” It’s all in Kerry Washington’s play of emotions across her face, a fleeting smile, an amused roll of the eyes, a brief desire-filled gaze before a phone ring pulls her out of the moment. She tries pushing him away, but as he says, ” he’s a navy man, and navy men never give up. ” As the episode continues it’s clear Captain Ballard is growing on her. Some of it may be the way that he seriously courts her. Edison was a man from her past and a part of her political world, they didn’t really “date” so much as just get back together for a bit. She and Fitz, well, they definitely did not date. Gradually, Jake starts to be able to lift her out of her moments of darkness or despair. Finally, when she’s at the fundraising event where Fitz is speaking, it’s Jake’s phone call that cheers her up, makes her laugh and actually forget about Fitz for a bit. The difference in her mood is obvious enough to draw Fitz’s attention. He’s been taking a kind of pleasure in knowing she’s miserable, so seeing her all lit up, does not make him happy. Tough luck Fitz, because that same night sets off the spark that leads to Olivia’s boom – via the client Olivia Pope and Associates took on. It’s the Will Caldwell (Sam Page) brother of Peter Caldwell (Eric Mabius) who’s a senator and former client of Olivia.
Quinn (Katie Lowes) calls the Caldwell family “One of the dirtiest republican dynasties in American history. Whatever, Olivia knows the guy pretty well and she’s helped Peter get the family out of a number of previous scandals. This time the issue is a bit different. Will is running for governor. Because the guy is single and hasn’t dated in ten years, the rumor, as Abby (Darby Stanchfield) gleefully informs the group, is that the guy is gay. That rumor is killing his campaign. Olivia Pope loves a challenge, and is all for Will coming out of the closet. The conversation leads to my line of the night. It’s from Olivia: “Gay I can work with; gay I can get elected; gay I could take all the way – give me ten years and I could make a gay president. ” Well, alright then! You go, Ms. Pope! If only Cyrus knew your talent in this area….
However, Will insists he’s not gay, and instead goes the route of a “fake wife.” As Abby and Harrison watch him interact with one of the categories, Harrison is ticking off all the guys heterosexual moves – ending with the title phrase. They’ve got the right woman. Watching this does something to Abby though – she runs after the woman and basically talks her out of it. When Olivia first finds out she’s pretty angry – even though she has an idea why Abby did it. The crux of the reason is in two lines:
Olivia: Not all political marriages – Abby: – end in three broken ribs a busted jaw and a restraining order?
Oh wow, that’s another reveal for the audience. While we knew that Abby’s ex-husband was a politician and had physically abused her, this is the first time we’ve heard the extent of it. It also seems that Abby could have been in a similar situation as these women are: chosen through an interview to marry the guy for the sake of his political image. Being that the man was very abusive it makes sense that he couldn’t convince a woman to marry him on his own. I’m not 100% on that part thought, so I’d love to hear other viewer’s thoughts on it. Olivia is still annoyed, however she’s also practical. At the end of it all, she tells Abby that “if all it took was one chat” with Abby then the woman couldn’t have handled it anyway. It’s a good point. Abby may have saved Olivia making an error.
In terms of Will, the client, the big surprise connection is that the guy really isn’t gay! Instead, he’s been having an affair with his his brother’s wife Marion (Lisa Sheridan) for the last ten years. Whoa! Okay, that makes sense, especially when Will says he’s in love with her. It’s a tour-de-force moment as Olivia (in a fabulous monologue by Washington) fiercely tells him that stolen moments and sex in closet’s isn’t love. He has to end it, and move on because otherwise he’ll stay “frozen in time” while life passes him by. Talk about a talk from the heart. On top of the surprise of Will’s secret, we later we find out his brother Peter has known about the affair the entire time. Why did he never tried to stop it? He didn’t want his brother to do something stupid and ruin his political chances of being president one day. Wow. That scene kind of blew me away! Family power before family….just…wow.
The speech that Olivia gives Will in order to convince him to end the affair, as I said below, an intense one. It’s her giving this speech that apparently gives Olivia the click of recognition about her and Fitz. Maybe she’s pinning for something was never love? Besides, but even it was, it’s over. Why isn’t she taking her own advice and instead staying frozen in time? The next day Olivia picks up the phone, calls Jake, takes a deep breath and accepts his offer of a second date. Boom goes the dynamite! Olivia is moving on!
The situation in the Oval office also blows up. Without Cyrus (Jeff Perry) and Olivia to guide him, Fitz isn’t doing so well. The hostages in Kashfar have already been held for eight days. All Fitz seems to be able to do is drink and yell about it. Without knowing who the mole is that is leaking his every move, he feels his hands are tied. The worst comes when they behead one of hostages on video and broadcast it to the world. Fitz is devastated. So is Cyrus, as he knows if Fitz had him as an adviser the situation wouldn’t have gotten that far. When Cyrus sees that all that’s been done is a statement condoning the incident, he goes to Mellie (Bellamy Young) complaining about how he’s still out of the loop, and telling her that a statement isn’t good enough. “Blood for Blood” he tells Mellie , saying they need to attack the country in question, because he knows the terrorist group has that country’s backing, overtly or covertly. Mellie says she’ll past it along to Fitz and make sure Fitz’s knows it’s Cyrus’s idea. Of course she doesn’t. She claims it as her own idea, which Cyrus finds out when he goes to tell Fitz that the press and polls have shown a favorable response to the bombing. Cyrus is expecting to be praised, so when Fitz says, “I should listen to my wife more often.” Cyrus makes the connection that Mellie’s been stabbing him in the back to keep him out of the loop.
That explosive information sets up another explosion, because Mellie wasn’t in the room when Cyrus found out the truth. Olivia tells Cyrus not to do anything, as Mellie will trip herself up. All he needs to do is be there when she does and pick up the pieces. Cyrus takes her advice – sort of. When there starts to be some pushback on Fitz’s decision to bomb Kashfar (one of the mother’s of the hostages starts a public campaign against it) Mellie gets the bright idea that if she just privately talked to the families about Fitz’s plans to get the hostages back it would calm everything down. Ever notice that Mellie’s solution to every national crisis seems to involve her talking to the families? Anyway, Cyrus doesn’t try to dissuade her. He mentions that Fitz might be trying to talk to secretly talk to the terrorist group. After that, he goes to a reporter to let her know that Mellie will be on a private conference call with the families the next morning – and gives her the call-in number.
Sure enough, the next day Mellie’s call gets publicized. What makes things even worse, Mellie used the Fitz’s misdirect about hostage negotiations. As the US has a standing policy to never do so that is a real problem. The reason that policy exists is because if terrorists think the US is willing to negotiate it raises the danger factor for every American around the world. In terms of being a trusted political adviser, Mellie is now out. Cyrus is right there as Fitz yells and dismisses her from the room, and she realizes that Cyrus must have found out what she’d been doing and therefore set her up in kind. Kaboom! Bye-bye Mellie!
On a slight side note, thank goodness for Mellie’s departure, because I’d rather not see any more American blood on her hands. Her selfish desire to be the only one connected to Fitz has overridden Fitz being able to run the country well – and lead to that beheading. While Mellie is brilliant at the public and personal manipulation that’s a part of politics, she really doesn’t understand the concept of governing or being president. Remember in, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” how she told Fitz he couldn’t make a wrong decision because he was the president and therefore all his choices were the right one? Just…yikes! There is a difference between being good at conniving manipulating, and covering your butt, and actual intelligence. Mellie has lots of the former, but far less of the latter.
Mellie’s crash and burn isn’t the end of the episode’s revelations. The next storyline that ends in explosion is David Rosen’s (Joshua Malina). David’s being followed and he is terrified. So he turns to Olivia and company for help. Olivia sends Huck (Guillermo Díaz) to trail him for a couple of days. Within those couple of days David and Abby end up having up sex a couple of times. Abby tells him the sex means nothing. David says he knows that. We all know they’re lying to themselves. However, is the hook up a “boom” – I don’t think so. The scene itself is explosive, ripping off of clothes, doing it on the desk. Yet, there’s no real revelation here. Everyone – including the characters themselves – know they’re hot for each other. That aspect has never been a question. No, David’s “boom” moment isn’t having sex with Abby. It’s discovering that the person following him isn’t the spy wanting to kill him for the flash-drive It’s Wendy’s best friend Molly (Mageina Tovah) who wants to talk to him because she knows who killed Wendy. Talk about an unexpected boom!
This is followed by Huck de-encrypting one of the albatross files and discovering it has the names of the leaked CIA agents who are being held hostage. Whomever this Albatross is – they’re the ones who leaked the names. As they come out to give Olivia the news, Molly has been sitting looking at pictures to see if any of them look like the man she saw arguing with Wendy. While they’re all there, a news report comes on. It’s Fitz with the head of the CIA – but Molly doesn’t know that. All she knows is that man on the screen with Fitz is the one who she thinks killed Wendy. (Remember, she didn’t see the killing. She saw them fight, and now is afraid he’s going to kill her, because she saw them. However, the team has already agreed that whomever she saw that night is the killer. We shall see.) This information is a pretty big boom. I wouldn’t put it on par with vote tampering or the president being a murderer – mainly because there’s still room for doubt. Nevertheless everyone is shocked and horrified because it makes perfect, sickening sense. The head of the CIA is Albatross!
The final reveal on my list is, for me, the most painful one. Yes, even more than Olivia moving on. I’d call the be-heading horrific, which isn’t quite the same thing. Heartbreak is more personal, and for me, Huck’s storyline through this episode really got to me. Maybe because at first it’s just a funny bit. Huck smells – really badly. Everyone notices it. When Olivia tells him to follow David, Abby quips that at least he’ll know where he is. Only Quinn realizes there must be something behind him not showering, some reason…but her colleagues brush it off as Huck just being Huck. Olivia thinks there something wrong, but she has no time to think about what it might be. Still, she knows it’s something because in previous episodes, Olivia has had no problem telling Huck to go take a shower. This time she pauses, and then just lets it go. The something going on with Huck is pretty big. While sitting in the car waiting for David Rosen it starts pouring rain. Huck stoically rolls up the window and then quietly flips out. He’s remembering, reliving even, being water-boarded It’s a powerful realization for the audience, and an informative one. In the real world the topic of water-boarding has come up over and over again in terms of does the US. consider it torture or not. Watching the after-effects of water-boarding was almost as painful as watching it occur. I don’t think I’ve ever thought about the specific aftereffects. Certainly I’ve heard of PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – I think most people in western countries have. What is happening to Huck though is specific to the torture of water-boarding and it’s visceral and all-consuming. Huck’s body reacts to the sight and sound of the rain as if he’s physically drowning, as if the water is stopping him from breathing. Quinn’s the one who figures it out and approaches him about it. She tells him that people who have been water-boarded often find themselves reacting in panic to rain – a terror of falling water – so much so that they can’t even even go near the shower. Quinn is sympathetic, but Huck has no empathy for himself. He tells Quinn that’s he’s fine, but his explanation as to why he’s fine…who didn’t tear up a bit when he says this:
I used to live in a box outside the metro, and before that I dismembered people for a living. Right now, I smell. When the rain stops, I won’t smell. I’m fine.
Oh, Huck…. While Harrison and Abby may snicker that there’s something wrong with you, out of all the gladiators, it’s you that in so many ways has the most heart…and are the most heartbreaking. I’m glad Quinn is tuned in enough to realize it wasn’t “Huck being Huck.” The question is…now what?
We don’t know because that’s it for this week’s Scandal. Now we’ve got to wait FOUR weeks for the next one! Ugh! I guess it will give us all time to think about what’s going on and what’s going to happen next. For instance, as much as I like Jake, I still think he’s somehow tangled up in Albatross. Maybe it’s just a feeling, but even though I do believe he genuinely is interested in Olivia, I think he may have something to do with how those secrets got out. There’s also the whole thing about his past buddy-buddy relationship with Fitz. Jake knows Fitz hates Olivia, and that whatever the reason is, it’s personal. Meanwhile, Fitz is seriously on edge. How he’s going to react if he finds out Jake is seeing Olivia may not be pretty, and Jake may be a gentleman, but he’s an obsessive gentleman. Never-mind a cat fight between Olivia and Mellie. These guys may be getting ready for a dog fight! Plus the hostages are still in Kashfar and apparently the head of the CIA is the mole that got them there. I say apparently because part of the Albatross legend involves Albatross setting someone else up for the fall – it could be happening again. Maybe the CIA guy was just trying to get information back to contain the leak and he had nothing to do with the killing. Sure, it could actually be him, but in Scandal nothing is ever what it seems at first – which is what makes me skeptical. Any thoughts or ideas on this? Did you enjoy this week’s episode of Scandal. Let me know in the comments!
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