I’m not an effusive person, by and large, but occasionally, scandal manages to pull off something that makes me shout four-letter words out loud, in my apartment, to no one in particular. Last night, when it seemed like the story had mostly concluded, there was one last not-so-metaphorical twist of the knife that had me talking to my house plants.
The cold open to last night’s episode was…confusing. It started with Abby and Leo yelling at each other, and at first I thought I had missed something that happened at the end of last week’s show that had started the conflict, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, it was the introduction to this week’s guest stars: Lena Dunham and her bad wig. The wig was so bad that I assumed her hair should be part of the story in some way, based on the previews; instead, it seems to have been a strong indication of how the wardrobe crew felt about her.
Lena played Sue, a DC girl-about-town wanting to publish a memoir of sorts about her sexual exploits with Washington’s elite, powerful and typically married. The book proposal made its way into Abby’s hands after being distributed to every major publisher in the country, and although sue had given all 17 men in the book thinly veiled nicknames, she right away recognized The Dustbuster as her boyfriend, Leo. (Dustbustering is something I’ve previously heard Lil Wayne rap about. Don’t google it at work. Your IT man will get ideas about you.)
Abby (and her Reed Krakoff bag) went straight to Olivia, of course, and Olivia went straight to sue and her unconvincing pigtails, told her she’d be destroying a bunch of people’s lives if she published her book and thought that was that. It wasn’t, obviously, because nothing’s that easy on this show, especially when a guest star is involved. The next day, sue marched in to Olivia’s office, wearing her many convincing businesswoman attire, and demanded that Olivia come up with several million dollars to stop her from publishing the book. She also gave a really terrific speech about Olivia’s attempt to shame her for what she does with her own body; it was an episode full of terrific speeches, really.
Huck and Quinn distracted sue with that other B-613 man who’s name I can never remember, and while she was out, they made a copy of her manuscript. Her only copy was written on a typewriter to thwart hackers, a detail that Huck seemed to appreciate. through the magic of very Google, they identified all 17 men, one of whom was David Rosen. Abby sure can pick ’em.
At the same time, Huck was trying to “persuade” (that word always needs scarequotes when it concerns Huck) Rosen to grant him immunity in the B-613 investigation, for worry of retribution of some sort. The show wanted us to believe that immunity would somehow keep Huck safe from violent spies who want to put him back in his black hole of despair, but I’m not clear on exactly why they wouldn’t do that anyway, no matter whether Huck could be legally charged for what he did as part of the group. If B-613 operates outside the law, then how does immunity keep Huck safe?
Anyway, if we grant the premise that immunity would be important to Huck, time was of the essence. Olivia’s bid to get the people in Sue’s book to pony up money failed (largely because of Rosen?), and they tried to convince us that implied Rosen would have to resign when the book came out. In reality, Rosen is an appointed official with no constituency to embarrass, he was unmarried when he had his dalliance with sue and she alleged no wrongdoing against him. There is absolutely no question that Rosen would be able to keep his job. no one would even call for his resignation. There is a married us senator who has admitted doing some very fetish-y things with some women who he hired for the occasion, and he is still, like, chillin’ in Congress. Rosen would have been fine.
Abby also would have been fine, in objective reality. In Shondaland, though, we viewed her draft a letter of resignation, because her not-that-serious boyfriend, who is not a public servant, did some kooky stuff with a willing, unpaid partner at some indeterminate point in the past, before they var inblandad. That line of thinking is, again, not whatsoever based in what would actually happen in Washington. It did result in a spot-on speech about how challenging and dehumanizing it can be to be a woman with a public career, though, and I’m prepared to suspend disbelief for one of this show’s grand soliloquies.
Olivia wasn’t quite down and out yet, though. With the ransom payment off the table (and with the safety it would have offered being questionable at best), she had the team dig around in Sue’s past, and of course, they found her motivation. during her job at the EPA, her boss found her kinky dating profile and much more or less sexually assaulted her. She managed to stop him, but her refusals ended her career.
I utbyte mot sin tystnad hjälpte Olivia Sue i de första stadierna av att lämna in en talan mot sin tidigare chef och inrättade henne på ett par jobbintervjuer, vilket skulle ha varit en snygg, må bra slut. Skandal är dock ingenting om inte rörigt, så när Quinn och Huck åkte till Sue hemma för att ta med henne några kostym, hittade de en av hennes 17 manuskript män som höll henne på Knifoint och såg ut som om han inte hade någon verklig idé att göra nästa .
Huck och Quinn lindrade naturligtvis situationen, och efter att ha skickat killen ut genom ytterdörren tog Huck kniven och slog spontant Sue över halsen. Hon var naturligtvis död. Huck är helt bortom kontrollen vid denna tidpunkt, men han vet skillnaden mellan att skada någon och döda dem. Teoretiskt dödade han Sue för att hon fortfarande kunde få ner David Rosen, men faktiskt dödade han bara henne för att han är Huck och det är vad han gör när han är stressad. Personligen äter jag mozzarellapinnar från pizzaplatsen nära min lägenhet. Vi är alla på våra egna resor här, men Huck, helt uppriktigt, verkar som om han kanske närmar sig slutet av hans.
Vi måste vänta till nästa vecka för att se hur Olivia hanterar Sues mord och vem det så småningom blir fästat, men Quinn tog tag i den enda papperskopian av Sues manuskript på väg ut genom dörren, så teoretiskt kan det gå i en miljoner olika riktningar. Något säger till mig att Huck inte går ner för ett slumpmord efter att ha slutligen säkrat immunitet för alla inte så slumpmässiga.
Det fanns bara två andra berättande trådar som sticker ut från det här avsnittet; Först vill Mellie köra för senaten från delstaten Virginia, där hon och presidenten just köpte hem för att etablera hemvist. Att Mellie vill ha ett eget kontor kommer sannolikt att låta bekant för alla som, precis som jag, nyligen tittade på den fruktansvärda tredje säsongen av House of Cards, och jag antar att det kommer att gå till Mellie. Portia de Rossi kom tillbaka för några scener i den här historien båge nu när hennes rygg har läkt från vad Huck gjorde mot det för några veckor sedan, men jag kan inte komma ihåg, för mig, varför hon fortfarande skulle vara med. Denna show har två eller tre mycket mer regelbundna karaktärer än jag kan katalogisera effektivt.
På en mycket roligare not använder Olivia lite tid i det här avsnittet för att försöka spränga sig själv från sin återhämtning genom att få henne freak på, eventuellt inspirerad av Sues eskapader. Hon träffade en mycket attraktiv man i en hotellbar och lyckades ointressant hämta honom med nack-knäppande effektivitet, men sedan hade hon en PTSD-flashback i toaletten och flydde genom köket utan att gå tillbaka för att hämta honom.
I slutet av showen, men Olivia, omskriven sitt hemvist i hotellets bar, och det var samma man, fortfarande av sig själv, som fortfarande ville köpa vackra damer några drycker. Om detta var Twilight Zone, skulle han ha varit ett stiligt spöke som bor i hotellbaren, men detta är skandal, så istället gick han hem med Olivia och såg fantastisk ut utan sin t-shirt på. Utställningarna har slutat på sämre anteckningar.