Domestic terrorism is familiar territory for Scandal, but Thursday’s episode — which claimed the lives of more than 100 Americans via calculated drone strikes — was so over-the-top, I fully expected Vin Diesel to pop out and save the day.
In lieu of Diesel, however, it was up to Olivia & Co. to stop Peus from blowing up half of the country. And while they eventually stumbled into victory, they took a treacherous road to get there, one that included a whole lot of insanity and betrayal.
For one thing, Rowan — the man who used to have all the answers — has completely fallen to pieces. I’m talking full Humpty Dumpty. (Actually, given Papa Pope’s “the Republic is dead!” speech, I suppose Chicken Little would be a more accurate comparison.) Either way, the former leader of B613 has been reduced to a paranoid wreck. “It’s every man for himself,” he declared, “and I very much intend to save myself.”
With Rowan officially marked useless, it was Jake’s turn to operate — literally — by cutting a tracking device out of Ruland’s neck with the same precision I once used to remove a squished Mike and Ike from my laptop’s USB port. (Look, we all have our demons, OK?) Jake even convinced her to give up major secrets about the Shadowy Organization™, an offer she rescinded as soon as David “No Poker Face” Rosen accidentally revealed that they did not, in fact, have Peus in custody.
Which brings us all the way back to Rowan, who eventually bonded with Fitz (shocking, I know!) over their shared brokenness, as well as (who are we kidding?) their mutual obsession with Olivia. Together, they executed a brilliant plan: Rowan convinced Ruland that he was on her side, at which point he took her to the museum to receive his official emancipation from Peus. Moments later, Peus was dead on the floor (nice shooting, Jake!) and Ruland was bleeding out — courtesy of a shanking from Rowan, who you know just loves a good shanking.
Barring any wacky twists — not that I’d put it past Scandal — I think it’s safe to say we’ve seen the last of the Shadowy Organization™. And I say, good riddance!
Your thoughts on this week’s episode? Hopes for the rest of the season? Drop ’em all in a comment below.
I have my theory on who’s REALLY behind it all but I’m wrong….I say it’s fitz…..
Nah, Fitz is not smart enough to pull off his pants, much less that storyline. I loved the ending of this Shadow Organization- can’t wait to see what happens next!
I say it’s Billy
It’s gonna be Olivia’s mother, I forget her name.
Can’t recall either, so let’s just call her Vein-Chomper
Seemed to end way to easy. This is Scandal…no way it’s over. Also did anyone find it weird that Fitz said,”This is not how I envisioned our last two weeks”. I understand he’s only President for two more weeks but why did he say our? LOL prob just overthinking it
My God, that was an awful episode. So many omissions and implausibilities. This, and the Huck rescue episode were so bad, I’m seriously wondering whether Shonda reassigned all of her writers to another show and let some NYU film school interns develop these scripts.
My favorite part of the night was when Rowan, who has killed Fitz’s son and directly killed the Pres Elect, just pushes his way into the Oval, unannounced with two hapless Secret Service agents apparently unwilling to even put up the effort to slow him down.
Second place goes to any of the bad guys actually falling for any of the setups that Rowan and Fitz came up with. They were so cliched and generic, if either Paus or his woman partner had watched any TV made in the past 50 years they would have seen right through the setup.
So, given that level of incompetence, you have to wonder how much of a threat those two buffoons ever were. Which in turn, makes Rowan’s sudden turn into a hapless, scared, powerless little man even more confounding.
Just terrible, terrible stuff. Its shocking the difference in writing quality between this season and even LAST season, never mind the early years.
Fitz is the one behind all of it…..
I thought Olivia’s mom was behind this all.
Missing something here! Don’t get it yet!
Anybody really believing only 2 people were causing so much panic? Likely they were just the tip of the iceberg, unless this storyline is even more illogical than I’m thinking
I’ve actually been enjoying this season and was looking forward to this episode but it fell flat. They caught the bad guys in a pretty cliched way and I guess I wanted a better idea about why they wanted to take over.
I agree – I’ve been loving this season and storyline, I think it’s the best they’ve had in several seasons – but then this episode felt completely underwhelming. They’ve been fighting these characters all season, or for six months, and you’re telling me all it took was Rowan telling them one lie, and five minutes for them to take them down? Way too easy and I’m going to be annoyed if we never revisit the storyline and find out who they were working for.
I was watching the John Adams miniseries on Amazon, but felt compelled to watch Scandal because I always do. It is shockingly bad, especially when juxtaposed next to Ada,s at the Constitutional Convention
All the killing is sick: no need for that. There is enough going on in DC to create tons of good story lines without constant killing. Use a different type of blackmail, boyfriends, girlfriends, extra children on the side, stealing, lies with and about other countries. And try a novel idea of having a few honest good guys.
Well, giving the recap and the comments, i guess, I’m skipping this episode. Next, please…
I’d rather have a recap of The Catch which is killing it’s second season that scandal where I can barely get through the episode.
With you on that one!
Agreed!! for some reason I thought that The Catch had been cancelled. So good to see it wasn’t.
According to many of the TV sites, The Catch is a long shot for renewal but I will say it is fun.. Haven’t caught last night’s yet
Agreed. I like this site but I think it is very biased for certain shows. Other shows never get a review or even a mention. A good example was NBC’s Trial and Error. There was nothing on this at all and it was hilarious, had a continuing storyline, great acting, everything you could want in a comedy.
Soooooo glad the Gruesome Twosome are history. That storyline is one that we can add to The Ridiculist! Good fodder for a storyline in X-Files Season 12, where the Aliens inhabit human political figures and take over…hmmmm…any country they dang well choose. Such a farcical storyline for Scandal. Thank you, Shonda, for killing the storyline
I have been loving Scandal again with these past 7 or so episodes and this one was pretty enjoyable up until the end. It just fell flat and the two big baddies were taken down way too easy. But with 2 more episodes left I’m sure Shonda has plenty more to come. Wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the season Rowan becomes president some how
Oh, wouldn’t that be nice … NOT!!!
Let’s think about this for a minute, having papa Pope as president would be totally intriguing and very Scandalous!! It would be a totally great twist that would play out tremendously with a the twist and turns that would come with papa Pope being the leader of the “Free World”
I didn’t mind the episode but then I have always had some sort of perverse pleasure watching Jake be a twisted SOB. I do wish however I had any type of understanding of why they did it… sure they wanted the power but for what purpose. It did all seem a little too neat and tidy but I don’t watch this show for realism.
This was my issue, and why I feel like there’s more coming in the next two weeks. We never got any idea who these people really were, what their motivations were, etc. There’s way more to that story than we were told.
Best line of the night ~ Jake to Ruland after he slashes her neck open “I’ll send somebody by with a bandaid!”
Let’s get back to the story’s that hooked us all…the magic of season 1 and 2!!!!
I can’t help but wonder if this is a concerted effort from Rowan and Fitz to get their Olivia into the oval. She took a gamble and got Fitz to the white house. Why not return tree favor? Fitz goes down in history with a sound legacy and so does papa pope (Olivia in the oval). Seems a bit rudimentary for a powerful organization to be run and commissioned by 2 individuals, seems to me like a bad rendition of the B613 renewal.
Am I the only one who thinks the end of the Peus storyline was anti-climatic?! Only 1 head shot for Peus?? Though I did enjoy the gutting of Ruland (she did some damn good acting!) by ROwan. I’m glad that is over but I think there are more players that will be revealed, there is no way those 2 were IT. The scenes between Fitz and Rowan were amazing – the acting – WOW!! Also the pep talk Liv gave to Madam President about not letting her become a puppet princess was serously great writing and delivery – well done there writers! Their relationship has taken so many turns – did any ever think you would have seen them together like this. I also appreciated when Fitz as President wouldn’t let Jake be Jake and do his “thing” because they were in the White House – despite all the wheelings, dealings, lies, deaths, etc., it was classy/refreshing to see such respect for the institution (but I was hoping to see Jake go all out on Rutland).
I knew the original crew would kill them, but I was hoping Huck, Jake, Quinn and Charlie would torture them. I couldn’t tell if that was a head shot that Jake gave Peus, but glad they’re gone
With the Shadow Organization apparently killed off, perhaps now Eli can start being a good honest man for the first time in his adult life … but somehow I doubt it. Also, perhaps now Fitz and Jake can work out a time-share plan with Olivia … talk about a treaty negotiation! But Mrs. Vargas as Mellie’s Vice-President? I think that’s a little far-fetched, don’t you!?
Ruland wasn’t bleeding out from Jake digging the tracker out of her neck. Eli put her head in the box, as payback from making him open all those boxes to see if it was Olivia.
This show can conceivably go on for years and I say bully and huzzah for it! Twists and turns describe winding roads, Scandal is way past that!!
This show has jumped all the sharks in a 100-mile radius of Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss. Time to put it out of our collective misery.
wouldn’t at all be surprised if we find Olivia in the WH, married to Fitz, who will become First Gentlemen and the show will refocus on these two, which is when it is best.
I admit I was sort of half watching last night, unheard of a couple of years ago but that is how this show has gone down in that they have to keep doing more and more outrageous stuff to top themselves. But I did get the gist of what was going on and then when it was all over the commentator says something like “the worst is now over, we can all rest easy” Really? A news anchor is going to say, well that’s over, let’s go back to our regular programming. No they are going to drag it out forever and fuel public fear which would reasonably be really high. This is what I didn’t like about Designated Survivor. You can’t do a mass scale terrorist attack and just pretend that the economy, transportation, etc aren’t affected. It also makes no sense that they didn’t just kill this guy before after he left Olivia’s office. She didn’t think to have him tailed and have someone keep tabs on him?
Getting close to “Jumping the Shark!” The essence of Scandal was always her GLADIATORS Taking Care of Business while weaving in and out of the WHITE HOUSE and POTUS affair. Secrecy being the bread and butter of this series. “IF IT AIN’T BROKE…” as the saying goes! Too many plots and unrealistic twists, i.e. Huck pushed off a Cliff, in a car trunk, bleeding out from multiple GSW’s and yet surviving. Let’s get back to plausible, this is not Marvel Comics.