On last night’s episode of Scandal, “Top of the Hour,” the lives of a prominent female CEO, potential US Supreme Court judge, Olivia, Fitz and Captain Jake Ballard were all in a state of ruin. Desperate times call for desperate measures, at least for Jake.
Copyright ABC Networks
By Tara Moore–
As usual, things are spiraling out of control for a powerful figure in DC society, only this time it’s a woman. Every week it seems the characters Olivia Pope is tasked with fixing are merely mirrors of her self, looking for a solution to ongoing problems they caused for themselves. But c’est la vie. As Abby realized last night, everyone and Olivia Pope and Associates must be a gladiator first, and a person second.
Speaking of gladiators, Quinn is overly eager in her how-to-be-Huck lessons with the master spy/assassination turned Olivia Pope protector, but could her eagerness have cost the team their advantage over Director Osborne? Following him into a dry cleaning service, first without any clothes to drop off or ticket to pick up clothes was a close call, but then assuming she could snag his pick up by giving them his number without anyone getting suspicious. Rookie mistake. And Huck, you should know better too. Obviously, there’s a connection with the dry cleaner and whoever is on the receiving end of Osborne’s intel, otherwise how else is an envelope full of cash just appearing in his suit pocket? Think it through guys.
Back to Olivia. The latest scandal is Sarah Stanner, the CEO of a large corporation in DC who just so happened to have an affair with a powerful judge who’s up for Verna’s seat on the Supreme Court bench. Detail after detail unfolds in the press as Olivia Pope decides to attack the accusations head on, advising her client to address them truthfully and set the record straight, before the White House tries to flip it back around on her. Of course, they do anyway. Somehow, the public outcry is not the biggest of Sarah’s problems–her job is at risk because of a morality clause. Interestingly enough, Abby (who still seems to be mad at Harrison) figures out a way to scare the board into abandoning the morality clause for fear of their own dirt being revealed and they save her job. Too bad the potential Supreme Court justice’s life is just getting messier.
But it’s Olivia’s intelligence on the location of the hostages we heard about weeks ago that saves the White House from their embarrassment of nominating such an immoral judge. Only Fitz didn’t know the intel came from Liv–it was hand delivered by Jake per Olivia’s request.
Jake is playing with fire, keeping up his cover with both Olivia and Fitz while he continues to pursue, and now even finds himself entering her home late night, covered in bruises. Oh, did we forget to mention one of the story hungry photographers and the Stanner home snapped a shot of Olivia and Jake? Talk about ruin. Jake figures it’s a small price to pay to break into the photographer’s home just to get the footage of him and Olivia, should the photographer get that image published and Fitz sees them together. That wouldn’t be the surveillance they agreed on.
It didn’t look like Jake anticipated the photographer coming home, so sadly our hot creepy Pentagon guy gets a little bruised before he heads to Olivia’s, who is none the wiser. Things are spiraling out of control and it looks like Jake is walking a fine line, Olivia is growing angrier and angrier with Fitz, and Quinn could suddenly become a problem for the CIA that they don’t need. Everyone’s life is somehow in ruins, but hopefully Olivia sees what’s happening around her before it’s too late.
And hopefully, Jake is gone before then. As creepy as he is for crossing the surveillance line, it’s still hard to say how much of his actions are straight stalker vs. genuinely caring.
Tread carefully Jake.
