Captain Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) seems to be at the center of all the drama on ABC’s Scandal. But who is he, really?
Copyright ABC Networks
By Tara Moore—
Things have started to unravel for our favorite creeper/stalker/spy Captain Jake Ballard on Scandal. Since the show is off air until April 25th, let’s take a breather and regroup on who exactly we’re dealing with.
Last week we saw things escalate both sexually and violently between Jake and Olivia Pope. To our shock, an impromptu trip to Jake’s home for an at-home dinner date leads to a little romp in bed, but what happens after Liv wakes for a little post-bedroom hydration, we did not see coming (maybe a little). After she discovers his wall of intel—on her life, via video—a quick wrestle leaves Liv unconscious and Jake trying to cover his tracks. But how many (potential) lies will he tell?
Lie #1
Whenever you start an explanation with “This isn’t how it looks,” or any version thereof, expect nothing but lies to follow. In his feeble attempt to explain the video feed, that Liv is not exactly buying, Jake tries to convince her he’s watching her for her own protection, protecting her from the masked man that arrived to, apparently, gun her down. But really, Jake. So far we can’t tell reality from fantasy when it comes to you! One minute he’s quite literally charming the pants off Liv and encouraging her to trust him blindly, but at the same time, we all know he’s spying on her AND that he crossed the line of surveillance when he coincidentally bumped into her at the coffee shop. Clearly, not a coincidence. But it’s not only Liv, it’s Fitz too!
Lie #2
Obviously, keeping his source on the mole intel and hostage crisis makes logical sense from a political perspective, but if we widen out that scope and remember that Liv is the source, keeping her anonymous was completely personal. If Fitz found out that Jake crossed that line, his go-to for classified intel projects that involve spying on his ex mistress would be forced to resign, if not executed for treason—because of course, stealing the President’s mistress would be the most unpatriotic sign of treason of all, right?
Lie #3
Breathing. It’s come to my attention that Shonda Rhimes loves a good scumbag disguised as a nice guy. (Remember McDreamy before he married Meredith? Yuck!) Every minute of on-screen time Jake gets, is a lie. Or at least, we’re led to believe it is. There’s probably some truth to his feelings about Liv but the fact that he isn’t drawing a distinct enough line between his mission for Fitz, the mysterious guy from the park bench that makes Jake look more and more like the mole or at least a knowing participant in the mole’s activities and any other official business he has, makes him a bigger creeper than we know. We can’t call him a stalker anymore because of the discovery that Fitz was behind it, but we can call him a creeper for calling when he knows Liv is feeling down, or showing up unannounced cause he knows she’s home not doing anything and then of course there’s his breaking in to steal things for work. Too many faces Jake, too many faces.
If we had to sum up Jake’s character in three terms: master manipulator; charming liar; super-secret agent man-turned lover-boy. We’ve got our eye on you Jake.
