SCANDAL – “Vampires and Bloodsuckers” – The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) GEORGE NEWBERN
This episode of Scandal heads straight into it with the aftermath of the airplane explosion. It is confirmed that President Rashad and his niece Yasmine didn’t survive the blast, though we’re treated to another viewing of it and honestly not much could survive that, so it’s not a surprising reveal. What IS though is a flashback showing that Olivia and Jake were the ones behind the explosion, immediately skipping over any guesswork for the audience. It seems that the duo believed Rashad returning home and kicking out the “New Regime” was too late of a plan, so they scrapped that and decided to reach out to the rebels of Bashran and exchange a nuclear peace treaty for Rashad’s death in return. It’s surprising to see Olivia go this far in her B613 ways, but she does seem to question throughout the episode if it really was the right choice…and if she truly has the stomach for it.
Before going into the main focus of the episode, I’ll address Mellie’s surprisingly short time in this follow-up to the death of her blossoming lover. After Olivia informs Mellie of Rashad’s death, she attempts the transportation of the caskets herself as Olivia is too busy with Quinn’s wedding. Mellie then holds a meeting with the ambassador of Bashran to see what the rebels have in mind. It’s actually not that bad of a deal, in that they want to continue forward with the peace treaty thanks to Olivia and Jake keeping their end of the secret bargin. All they want from Mellie in return is for the New Regime to officially be considered by the United States to be the rightful leaders of Bashran. Since Mellie believes that the rebels are responsible for Rashad’s death, she refuses and threatens war. She even presses Jake to use B613 forces to take out the rebels, but he refuses as not only would that be against his plan, but the President isn’t able to give him orders about B613, only his actual NSA job.
Losing faith in all those around her, Mellie turns to Marcus to seek some advice on what she should do. Marcus is still a little upset about being sidelined by Mellie, but he begrudgingly gives her his side of things, while also being as petty as possible in his word choice. He just wants someone in D.C. to do the right thing for once as everyone has to let their selfish desire stop blinding them from what is actually best for the country rather than picking the bad option for only themselves. Mellie only wants to go to war because she cared for Rashad, but going to war will cost lives and peace is already attainable if she jut agrees to the terms. So, Mellie takes this to heart and informs the ambassador in a 2nd meeting that she’s changed her mind, but reinforces that the rebels will have to sign the treaty before she acknowledges them.
In other news, that day is also the big day for Charlie and Quinn. A little scene with Cyrus and Fenton happens before, with Fenton making brunch for Cyrus and probing him for government info when Cyrus has to hastily leave. The only reason for mentioning this is that it ties into the plot later. The night previous, Quinn had contacted Olivia to meet her and discuss what Olivia thought would just be wedding jitters. It surprises her to learn that Quinn has instead found a source that made her believe Olivia was behind Rashad’s assassination. Olivia tries to downplay this and convince Quinn that this isn’t the right road to go down, but things seem iffy between them by the end of the conversation, despite Olivia telling Quinn to just forget about it, get married, and be happy.
SCANDAL – “Vampires and Bloodsuckers” – The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) KERRY WASHINGTON, JOSHUA MALINA, GUILLERMO DIAZ, GEORGE NEWBERN, DARBY STANCHFIELD
It’s easy to understand the next day why Olivia begins to sweat when Quinn is nowhere to be found on her wedding day. Everyone at QPA slowly goes from various states of denial to panic, especially Charlie being the groom. He seems convinced that Quinn wouldn’t have cold feet and this has to be something else, so this triggers a search for Quinn. Huck obviously becomes the head investigator in this, breaking into her apartment and searching for anything off. The last place he checks is her laptop and that’s what contains the secret. One of Charlie’s facts that Quinn didn’t have cold feet was that she was working hard on her vows the night before, but it turns out upon clicking into her vows folder, it is really filled with photos from Rashad’s assassination.
Olivia begins to start to severely feel trapped in her actions and quickly enlists the help of Jake, assuming that Quinn isn’t missing and actually is building a case against them to bust B613. Jake’s search doesn’t end up revealing much, but he begins to form a backup plan if Olivia gets close to being caught by QPA. Curtis happens to stop by the office and ask for Quinn, who apparently called him the previous night wanting to speak with him about the Rashad assassination. Seems she was ready to give him all the info she received and expose on live TV that the assassination wasn’t done by the rebels. Curtis continues his cold shoulder to Olivia for using him as she tries to use him once again by insisting he don’t investigate the matter further, but Curtis rightfully believes Quinn was onto something and departs. I’m actually starting to like Curtis when he’s against Olivia now.
Through hacking Curtis’ phone, Huck finds that Quinn called him on a burner phone and also recorded the entire conversation, even revealing her source on the assassination truth. A witness tipped her off that she saw someone plant a bomb on the plane, which is how she eventually put together Olivia was responsible. Olivia sends the info over to Jake, so he develops a plan to put the blame on Fenton Glackland, who can be tied to Bashran through a number of developments and also was present at Rashad’s previous assassination attempt in the White House. Olivia is not sure she likes another innocent having their life ruined, but Jake insists it’s the only way for B613 to not be exposed. He also deals with the witness by forcing him to overdose, making it seem like Fenton did this as well.
In the middle of all this, Charlie decides to head out on his own and take care of Fenton himself, kidnapping him seemingly while Fenton is out grocery shopping. He then attempts to force out where Fenton is keeping Quinn, despite Fenton’s pleas that he really knows nothing. Abby heads to the White House to have Cyrus help out with getting dirt on Fenton, but learns that Cyrus is romantically involved with Fenton and is hesitant to believe this. Calling back to Fenton asking him about government secrets earlier in the day, Cyrus suddenly believes that Abby could be right and chooses to help. David uses connections to obtain the tape of where Quinn was last seen in order to find out who she meant with the night prior, but Olivia had previously had Jake tamper with the tape, so it reveals nothing. QPA assumes this had to be the time that Fenton took Quinn hostage, but Cyrus is there to deny this claim as Fenton was with him at that time and into the morning, clearing Fenton’s name and messing with Olivia further.
SCANDAL – “Vampires and Bloodsuckers” – The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Mitch Haaseth) GEORGE NEWBERN, DARBY STANCHFIELD, JOSHUA MALINA, KERRY WASHINGTON
Charlie is still torturing Fenton in the meantime, but Huck is able to track Fenton’s phone and stop Charlie right as he’s about to cut Fenton’s hand off. The night ultimately leads to no targets and no Quinn. This causes Charlie to demand the wedding items to be removed from the office, breaking a few things along the way. David and Abby reconnect romantically through the pain of the situation. Lastly, Jake finally manages to get some info about Quinn’s whereabouts. Even though Huck had went through the QPA office footage earlier, he missed a corrupted file that happened due to it being recorded over. Jake was only able to salvage a single frame from the old file, which reveals Quinn in the QPA office elevator. She didn’t leave to build a case against Olivia, she actually came to the office to be married, but someone got to her before she could make it upstairs. Now who could that be?
This wasn’t the way I expected Scandal to deal with the aftermath of Rashad’s death, but that’s not saying it in a bad way. I was actually surprised for the quick reveal of who was responsible as well as Quinn showing not even a few scenes later that she was onto Olivia. I maybe was expecting more Mellie scenes, but the main wedding/missing Quinn scenario was interesting enough to make the episode. It was good to see Olivia’s increased panic over if she’d be caught for her actions and if it was actually all worth it. Maybe a crisis of conscience is to come next episode? And as for who took Quinn, I feel that Rowan and Fitz would do well with someone that has the info to take Olivia down. Kidnapping on a wedding day doesn’t seem like Fitz though, so I could be wrong.
Vampires And Bloodsuckers – 4 out of 5
Pros:
- Quick to the reveals and aftermaths of last episode’s explosion.
- Seeing Huck in Best Man mode was funny to see, especially since he hasn’t been utilized much this season.
- I’m glad Fenton wasn’t killed/falsely convicted as I’m growing on him and it’s about time things don’t go right for Olivia.
- Curtis is starting to redeem himself.
Cons:
- Was expecting more on the Mellie side of things this episode.
- Jake really is just turning into a Yes Man for Olivia.
- Why does Mellie state she’s lonely at the top and not realize Marcus would gladly fill that void?
