I know I said this about the last episode, but it’s true of this one as well; this was one of the best episodes of the season so far. It was most definitely one of the most tense. I was at the edge of my seat, leaning in toward the screen with my hands squeezed tightly for pretty much the entire episode and man was it such a thrill. I really enjoyed this episode.
From the moment that the plane was hijacked I thought that it was Jake and Mellie who had done it. Just because they seemed kind of shady and like they were lying to Cyrus when they rearranged his schedule so that he was no longer giving the speech. I didn’t think that it was along the lines of what Cyrus suggested, that they were trying to push him out to position Jake to succeed Mellie, I thought that they arranged it to give him the “turn” that he said he was being denied.
It was too perfect that just when Cyrus was complaining about being pushed aside that this opportunity for him to prove himself as an effective, cool-under-pressure, leader just happened to fall into his lap right after. With Mellie and Jake having been the ones who were responsible for Cyrus being there, I was sure it had to have been them who arranged it…until they realised that the hijacking was an attack. Jake and Mellie, I think, wouldn’t have gone that far.
I did begin to consider Cyrus’ assertion that it was Jake trying to get rid of him when Jake ordered the fighter jets be put in place to shoot down the plane, though. Even though I was pretty sure that Jake wasn’t behind it for the reasons that Cyrus thought that he would be. Then Mellie started to doubt Jake and think that he was behind it – although to be fair, I can’t really blame her – and it was like the guy just couldn’t catch a break in this episode. But like Jake said, he has always served at the pleasure of the President (or Olivia) and if one thing is true about him, it’s that he’s a loyal servant to whomever he’s in service of. I don’t think he would have gone off and done such on his own.
The reporter with the cellphone was kind of annoying. I understood that that was her job and that the hijacking was a huge story and as someone on the inside, experiencing it first hand, she had a unique perspective as well as a juicy scoop. Still, it was irritating that the first thing she did in the crisis was pull out her phone to record Cyrus. I started to suspect her a little when she snuck into (what I assume to be) the communications room and said that she still had her phone after everyone else had theirs confiscated. She quickly dispelled that by saying that people had a right to know what was going on in the plane.
When she did the live stream from the plane my first question was: “Is the person sitting next to her not seeing this phone that’s right in front of their face?” My second was how the news station even got the live stream and then I wonder why the hacker was allowing the livestream to continue in the first place when they’d cut off all communications to the plane? No one found it weird that they couldn’t communicate with the plane, but yet still they could get a live stream from it?
It all made sense in the end though because, as it turned out, Cyrus himself was behind the attack! The episode doesn’t go into specific details like if he arranged for himself to be rescheduled so that he could be on the plane and set the hijacking in motion or if he came up with and set the plan in motion after Mellie kicked him off of doing the speech and gave it to Jake. I’d think it’s the latter more so than anything, but it really doesn’t matter when he plotted this. It also explains why the reporter was a little shady and why he nodded at her toward the end. So she was in on it!
I was right about the motive behind the attack, but I was wrong about the perpetrator. I even considered Mama Pope when she told Olivia that it was embarrassing that she was crying over and worrying about the same people who kicked her out of the White House. She was trying to get back at them because of what they did to her daughter perhaps? But Olivia never accused her of being the culprit so I thought that it was unlikely.
Speaking of Olivia and her mother, I found it so weird that she was all smiling, laughing, happy and bubbly going over to where she was holding her prisoner to celebrate her birthday. I thought that she had an ulterior motive same as her mother did. She and Mama Pope didn’t have a great relationship at all and Olivia never liked her much since she came back into her life. However, Olivia was genuinely trying to have a loving mother-daughter moment of celebration with her. She ignored a phone call and everything! Which was just so weird! But Olivia is on a journey toward being a better person than she was as of late, so.
Another relationship that was in the spotlight in the episode was Abby and David’s. I was so confused as to why she seemed so freaked out by the idea of him proposing to her. I completely forgot that she had been married before and had been in an abusive relationship with her previous husband. Thanks to Huck for the reminder! She may not like fluffy and warm Huck and Charlie, but I love fluffy and warm Huck and Charlie. They were hilarious.
I appreciated that the episode subverted the trope of a woman who doesn’t want to get married suddenly wanting to, because a life or death event made her realise how much she loves her boyfriend and that she does in fact want to marry him. I loved that David came to realise that he did know Abby really well and said that since he does, the only way he would propose to her is if he wanted to lose her. It was so sweet that I literally cried.
Random thoughts:
- NO ABBY! Don’t look into what David is doing! If he’s proposing it won’t be a surprise and if he’s not you’re only going to be disappointed.
- Cyrus so salty that he thinks Air Force Two is a dumb. Cyrus please!
- You can hack a plane?
- Except Mama Pope deserves to be in prison.
- I could not tell if Mama Pope was happy to be out of her prison or sad that she was being separated from Olivia…or both…
- Holy shiznit! Cyrus did it! That thought never crossed my mind. I thought we were past this with Cyrus.
Scandal airs Thursdays at 9 PM on ABC.
