Scandal season 4, Episode 20: “Traitors die, miss Olivia. As they should.”

You guys, I’m prepared to make a somewhat surprising declaration: Last night’s episode of detraction was good. Not “good for this season,” or “good family member to all the poor episodes lately,” however legitimately, objectively good. The stuff going on felt interesting as well as like we were continuing to move with the plot, as well as even though last week’s episode had a quite considerable red herring, this week didn’t sluggish down when it reversed course. We’re lastly getting somewhere.

This week, we got directly back into the action with Quinn, who discovered Jake as well as responded to the last episode’s important question: Is Jake dead? Jake is not dead! He is thoroughly stabbed, though. They called Quinn’s ex-boo as well as took Jake to a warehouse where they got a physician with a literal physician bag to find as well as radiate a light in his eyes as well as be like, yeah, he’s gonna die. For reasons I might not completely follow, Olivia was emphatic that he might not go to an actual hospital.

The physician who went to to Jake was Russian, as well as in exchange for his services, he desired a favor for a KGB buddy of his. This is Scandal, so nobody can just, you know, phone call a physician from a listing on Jake’s HMO’s website. There has to be a Russian spy involved. The physician referred to David as “scared guy with glasses,” though, so he can stay.

The KGB agent who needed assist was masquerading as an American grandma, as well as she’d just gotten her very first murder assignment in 27 years since Putin is losing his grip on things in the detraction universe, too. Olivia tried to intimidate her handler into releasing her from duty, however as anyone with any type of sense already knows, you cannot intimidate a Russian spy fixer by being serious-faced as well as increasing your voice a bit at his day job.

She went back offering him her father’s head on a platter, as well as since murderous worldwide spy companies are competitive with each other, it was a more efficient tactic for currying favor. It wasn’t totally effective, though; Rowan was tipped off that it was all happening as well as executed the handler, the spy as well as her grandkids before Olivia even understood what was happening, since he is the pettiest person alive. Papa most likely wouldn’t let Olivia win a game of driveway basketball when she was a kid.

Elsewhere, Mellie was still trying to get elected to an office of her own. Sally went on her cable news show to denounce Mellie’s candidacy for Senate since she kept in mind discovering about checks as well as balances in middle institution as well as felt quite sure that the executive branch as well as legislative branch shouldn’t be actually boning. great news: I’m relatively positive they don’t do that anymore! dispute of interest, solved.

It appeared as though Mellie et. al. hadn’t thought about that people were obviously going to have that concern, or that a very first woman running for congress may not be legal. (It is, mainly since it was as well ridiculous a possibility to think about back when the constitution was written as well as women were basically chattle.) It seems like something that somebody should have considered, at some point, however perhaps being powerful for so long makes you fail to remember that you sometimes have to play by others’ rules.

The president sent Cyrus on to Sally’s show to protect Mellie’s Senate run, as well as he did a fine task of it–we would never, of course, expect a very first gentleman to abandon all of his expert ambitions to tend to the White home garden. Sally isn’t precisely an intellectual titan, as well as it’s always a enjoyment to watch her simmer with self-righteous, ineffectual rage when she gets upstaged.

Cyrus couldn’t repair everything, though. even after his appearance, polls showed that most Americans still believed it was a somewhat incestuous as well as uncomfortable idea, as well as the president’s personnel went so far as to suggest floating divorce rumors to drum up sympathy for Mellie.

Fitz lastly called Olivia, as well as she lastly provided him the correct answer–Mellie doesn’t requirement the country to vote for her, just the people of Virginia, who, you know, may really like having a senator who’s more powerful as well as linked as well as close to the president than any type of other in the country. Duh. That may screw up Fitz’s legacy, however I believe he already did a quite solid task of that just by being himself.

With all that unpleasantness dealt with, there was, of course, the little matter of Olivia, Papa Pope, Jake as well as the boy Toy. Papa Pope mainly seems to have ordered Jake’s murder since he desired Olivia to phone call him, as well as when she didn’t, he (correctly) surmised that he was still to life as well as sent Olivia’s boy toy back out to repair that. He tried to lure Liv into his clutches by offering her a bottle of wine as well as his naked body, but, despite a healthy dose of thought about hesitation on her part, it did not work.

When the boy toy went back to Papa Pope in failure, he shot him in the arm to put him in the hospital, anticipating that Olivia as well as her team would presume he was being targeted by the exact same people who came for Jake, as well as indeed, she swooped in as well as took Russell to the staphylococcus-covered battlefield hospital where Jake was being held. when there, he tried to kill Jake again, however since Russell was mainly hired for being pretty, he failed to do it again, in spite of the truth that Jake was actually strapped to a bed as well as he had a extremely sharp medical knife to use.

Because the team seemed to fail to remember that boy toy Russell even existed in the room, though, that meant they talked relatively freely around him–he’s exactly how Papa Pope understood about the Russians as well as that Olivia had offered them his head in a platter, which is why they all got shot. Olivia ultimately figured that out, as well as she closed the episode on top of Russell, with a gun to his head. He was shirtless, of course–Shonda understands what we like.