Scandal Season 4, Episode 18
“Honor Thy Father”
Posted by Sage
Happy Easter, Gladiators! Have we got a second coming for you. Let’s get straight to the gifs.
“I can’t. This is my death warrant. You understand? I sign this, I die. We’re all gonna die. So, Jake, are we gonna die, or…??
“We are taking down Command, and you were once Command too.” Jake won’t testify against B6-13, so David Rosen thinks it might be a good idea to threaten him.
So Jake shoves David’s face into his own desk.
“Charlie?” “Max!” Charlie “accidentally” bumps into an old friend, who’s also former B6-13.
Team White Hat is rounding up former agents to testify. This will go well, I’m sure.
“They’re credited with 37 assassinations, from Hamburg to Grenada.” “Yeah, but some of those were bombings.” “So?” “So, that’s cheating.” Do not have sex with this man again, Quinn.
David gives away the whole plan for the witnesses – safe house, immunity, secret grand jury – unaware that Jake is listening in.
“You shout. In your sleep. About a red door and a ring. In other languages.” Olivia’s mustachioed piece of ass’s name is actually Franklin Russell, and they are still doin’ it.
“You don’t have to call me ANYTHING.” “Here’s the thing, Alex. I don’t think it is.” He’s known all along that Olivia is using a fake name too.
“She was 14 when things started between them. 14. He was 29.” Olivia meets with Congressman Reed, whose sister killed herself after her affair with her math teacher went south. His father then confessed to killing that math teacher. I’m mostly impressed that Reed managed to get elected with a family member on death row.
“Should have been more. Should have emptied that entire gun into the son of a bitch.” Reed has been making appeals, but Fitz rejected his plea for a stay of execution. Republicans.
“Maybe he wishes he killed the guy. I don’t…I don’t know.” Mr. Square Jaw did it and we all know it.
“When’s the last time you went to church?” “You are down south, honey. You are in church right now.” Lizzie Bear is looking way out of place doing her thing as Mellie’s campaign manager and interviewing a voter in a kitschy BBQ joint. It’s rather delightful.
“Haven’t talked to that girl in a long time. Folks always ask, ‘why are you still so loyal to her?’ You know, after everything. And I understand that, I do. But you know why? ‘Cause she’s family. And I always got her back. You tell her that for me.” Delightful southern-fried voter is Mellie’s SISTER. EVEN BETTER.
“Mellie, she smiles, she’s polite. But right under the surface, she is 50 shades of angry. I saw it.” Half-sister actually. And she’s piiiiiisssed.
“Make her an ‘us.'” Sucking up to Harmony (HARMONY) is last on Mellie’s list of things she wants to do, right after bra-fittings with Olivia.
“Let me tell you: once you’ve stood on a dollhouse in your little girl’s closet and tried to lift her lifeless body with one hand and loosen the noose around her neck with the other, you’re not alive any more anyway.” Oh.
“I’m gonna make sure you walk out of here a free man.” A lost cause! Olivia’s favorite.
“Who’s up for charades?” Charlie wants to turn the former B6-13 agents’ hideout into a summer camp for assassins. Everyone else just wants to sit quietly and contemplate their looming deaths.
“There’s a strange wind. It’s too warm. It’s coming, it’s scary.” Cyrus has a horse in the Harmony race because of course he does.
“Team FitzMel or MelFitz whatever, it’ll be over.” Fitz will get all ashamed about Mellie’s issues with Harmony (because he doesn’t do ~lady feelings~) and stop supporting Mellie’s run. Cyrus is the puppet master.
“You look…festive.” “How’s it going with that prostitute of yours you got mixed up with?”
“He’s like a stormchaser in a van hurling down the highway, but he’s pressed up against the windshield, grinning wildly, waiting for everything to go to hell and wanting to be there when it does.”
“Do you wanna know what I would have done if that was my kid?” “No.” Just write it in your journal, Huck.
“I was 16. It was awful. He was awful.” Dead-ass math teacher had quite a few conquests in his day.
And his ex-wife died of natural causes a few weeks prior. Well, that’s convenient.
Charlie gets back to the safehouse and everyone is dead. Except Max, who’s just dying. Jake is standing among the bodies, and he and Charlie go at it.
“If she doesn’t toughen up, she’ll never make it through a campaign. Whether I’m standing by her side or not.” Mellie is like mother-fuckin’ TEFLON, you son of a bitch.
“We got this, Rosen. You can go.” “Well, if you’re sure.” “Mr. Peabody” is released from body clean-up, so…
“Jake isn’t Jake anymore, Quinn.” “What are you talking about?” Indeed, what ARE you talking about? He’s been a murderer forever. Is this news?
Quinn and Huck search Lisa Hoffman’s house, and find a gun that seems to implicate her in her husband’s murder.
“I shoulda talked to your fancy chef back there, had him save me a bucket!” Harmony makes soap out of animal fat.
“You think you’re better than me.” “I am better than you.” And here it goes.
“Dirt I got on you, sis? It could come in real handy one day.” Like any embarrassing childhood stories could hold a candle to what Mellie’s gotten away with since she’s been First Lady.
“Oh my god, that’s Liv’s building.” Team White Hat figures out that Jake is hiding out near Olivia’s apartment.
“No one’s ever hated you.” Meanwhile, Fitz is the most vile human being on the planet.
“You just have to make her feel welcome.” “That was your job.” “I am the candidate now, you were supposed to be me in there. Not the sullen, beleagured leader of the free world, but the chipper first lady quick with a distracting anecdote to dissolve the tension and flatter the visitor.” BE THE WIFE, FITZ.
“I’m right here. I don’t want you to worry about Liv. She’ll be safe, as long as nothing happens to me.” That’s a rather polite threat.
“Huck’s right. There is no justice on this one. The good guys lose and the white hats burn. We’re done.” Charlie shakes hands with Huck, kisses Quinn, and tries to shake with Rosen as well. It’s rather sweet, actually.
“It’s been an honor, truly. Do me a favor. Stay alive.” Yes, you beautiful monsters. Take care of yourselves.
“You have what she wants more than anything else in the world.” Fitz lays it on really thick regarding Mellie’s feelings of inadequacy related to her father’s infidelity. I know it gets the job done, but it still makes Mellie small.
Harmony walks up to hugs her. Mellie gives Harmony a surprised little wave when she leaves.
“You’re gonna win this race, Mellie. And I’m gonna be right by your side when you do.” FEEL REAL GOOD ABOUT THAT, FITZ.
Cyrus listens from the doorway, twirling a mustache he doesn’t have.
Lisa Hoffman’s gun matches the ballistics on the bullet that killed her husband. But there’s no rust on the gun. It takes Olivia half a brain cell to figure out what’s up.
“I think you’ve been waiting for something like that to happen and I don’t think you want to see your father die for something that you did.” Called it.
“I am still your father. You need to do what you’re told. You need to respect me.” No, we’re done with that, thank you.
“For 15 years, I’ve tried to take responsibility for this, but he will not let me.” He’s in jail, bro. How’s he gonna stop you? GROW UP, CONGRESSMAN.
David flashes back to Jake killing James. And all those other people too. See? Murderer.
“We have another witness: me.”
Oh, bless it. Be careful, Rosen.
“You did this so he could be free, but he isn’t. He’s been trapped his whole life by a lie you made him tell.”
“I love him too much to allow that to happen.” Confess and save your father. BE A MAN.
“This is big, isn’t it?” “This is big.” David and his paralegal Holly walk to their cars, tempting fate all the way.
“Take two step to your left.” Holly has a gun! DRAMA.
Jake shoots her and hands Rosen a handkerchief. “Here, wipe your face.” Holly was B6-13. Duh-doy. She was the one who took out the witnesses.
“Do not lie. Do not LIE to me.” Liv was in the apartment with surveilling with Jake, and she is NOT pleased that her Gladiators have gone rogue.
“Does this mean you’re in?” “I was never out, Rosen.” Jake is a murderer, but he’s OUR murderer, you guys. White hats all around.
“We’re the good guys. But you won’t always be able to tell. That’s what it’s gonna take. He’s coming.”
There’s a knock at Olivia’s door. Hey, Franklin. Take off your pants.
“Hello, Olivia.” Franklin steps aside to reveal…ROWAN. Daddy’s home, and he’s got a secret spy agency to defend.
Does Team White Hat have a shot against Command? How long will Fitz pretend to be a nice, supportive guy to the woman whose life he ruined? Is Franklin in deep with Rowan, or was he just the Trojan Horse? WHERE IS LEO? Thoughts in the comments, Gladiators.