The Candidate: Scandal Episode 511 Recap

Sooooo the way my travel schedule has been set up and will continue to be, it will be hard for me to get these recaps up before Sunday. Scandal comes on Thursday nights and for the next 4 weeks, I will be out of town for the live-airing. It would be cool if ABC could send me screeners so I can watch in advance (hint hint cough cough). I’ll sign an iron clad NDA but I need them to make my life a little bit easier so I won’t be running so far behind to get these up.

Anywho, let’s talk about the latest episode!

Leaving – Cyrus is looking down on a sleeping Fitz, getting all these flashbacks of his journey as Chief of Staff. All the shit the bros have been through. He says “I have to go.”

Red Hot – Olivia is in her office, in a red shirt with black and white stripes. Her and Mellie are talking through the FLOTUS’ book. Liv wants her to show America who she really is. Why did she stay when her husband had a mistress. Why did she stay? “That chapter is what the American people want to read…when Fitz was screwing another woman, you didn’t seem to care and we want to know why.” Mellie is huffing and puffing and Liv reminds her that she hired Olivia Pope so she got her.

Mellie does not want to answer the question of why she stayed and Liv realizes that it’s because she doesn’t know. Melody turns the table around with “well do you know how you left?” OOP! You came into this woman’s office asking her to help you get elected. This wasn’t gon be easy. You shared a penis with her for years.

Legacy Interview – Abby is trying to convince President Ghost to do an interview with that journalist Lillian Forrester. Cyrus does not agree. Fitz tells them to set up the interview and the two meet with her to give her guidelines on what she can ask about. Right then, the President walks in. Off the bat, there’s sparks between them. “I want a conversation with the man. A meaningful one.” What I see is a woman who wants to jump in his pants. This is gonna be trouble.

Real Talk – Back at OPA, Mellie’s shoes are off. Talks about how devastated she was when she found out about the affair. She said she stayed because she thought Olitz was a phase. NAHHHH. That ain’t it. Mellie flips out. “You never had what we had, Olivia! 23 years. You may have had your cheap hotel rooms and your White House closets and your secret homes in Vermont that you didn’t think anyone else knew about… but as far as real relationships go, you were just a blip on his radar. A plaything he used to pass his time with until trash day rolled around and you got boxed up and shipped away.” WELL DAMB. She storms out and says she will send her a check for her work.

Liv’s face is the universal “bish you just went too far” look.

No Running – Liz North gives Susan Ross poll numbers that show that people would want her to run for President. She ain’t tryna hear it, though. Susan tells her NOPE. Liz North shows up to David Rosen’s office with the mission of getting him to get Susan Ross to run for President. “That muppet is in love with you. Use it.” And then she tells him she will withhold her cookies until he does. DAVID BETTER NOT. But he does.

He shows up to Susan’s office and she’s all geeked to see him. He asks her out on a date and basically has to spell it out for her because she is that clueless. Except everywhere he suggests, she’s already been. With her daughter Casey. Bless her heart. I need her to chill a little bit, though. She’s like a happy dog when its owner comes home. The two end up at Gettysburger for freedom fries and union rings.

Lame Duck – Cyrus goes into the Oval Office to talk to President Ghost. What is his legacy gonna be? Is he gonna spend the last months of his presidency sitting his ass around and doing nothing? ARE YOU GON DO SOMETHING, YOU LAZY SUMMAGOAT? Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall in his final year and Clinton reformed Welfare. Whatcha gon do, Fitzgerald? Nothing. He is not moved. All he says to his chief of staff is “Are we done?” If you could capture the look of heartbreak, it would be what Cyrus looked like in that moment.

Dropping Trou – Olivia is home in a black robe with white collar drinking wine. This is the old Liv we know. Someone knocks on her door and she opens it. It’s Jake. Wordlessly, she drops her robe and they go into her room. When they finish and Jake is getting dressed, Olivia tells him “this is not happening again” and he responds with a very confident “Yes it is.” See? The way my petty is setup, shit like that is what would make me betray my Love Pocket and make sure it doesn’t happen again. But lemme quit lying. That was kinda segzy.

The look on your face when you know he’s right.

Stuck – Cyrus goes to his favorite bar and sees Mellie in there, pouting. The realization that Fitz and Olivia are tied to them like spider monkeys they are unable to get rid of is driving her to drink. Cyrus says he ain’t feeling bad for her because her name is currently political gold. Her filibuster, her chance to become first female president. She gon be alright. She thinks he’s saying all that to run her campaign, doe. GIRL BYE. “We made him. We made him president.” Cyrus is all BISHWHERE? WE? GIRL BYE AGAIN.

Two Hoochies – Olivia gets a visitor at home and it’s Mellie Grant!! Liv is in a pink robe when she lets Mellie and her open jar of hooch come in. What do you want, girl??? She starts running her mouth.

She stayed with Fitz because the wife-mistress arrangement worked. Olivia did the job of handling his physical needs. She had space away from him. “I deserved you. I warranted you. I justified you. I had lost myself and in return, I got you.” Liv was her freedom. She stayed because she thought after all was said and done, Fitz would help her become president too. Chile… that’s deep. But that can’t go in a book. Now they need to figure out what can be in the book. She offers Liv some hooch.

At Liv’s place, the ladies are sitting on the floor, having finished the jar of hooch. Guess who has another jar, though! The two talk about their relationship with each other, as wife and mistress, and there’s common ground.

Liv admits that she was also happy that Mellie was around for Fitz because she was her “out. You kept him unavailable. I left for the same reason you stayed.”

Olivia gets an epiphany. What Mellie puts in her book is that she stayed because she was scared to stand on her own. She didn’t know she had the power but she finally did and that is what let her leave. Hooch comes in handy. After Liv’s mini TED talk, Mellie gets to writing.

The Bug – At Gettysburger, Susan is hella full and happy about it. David brings up the idea that she would be a great President. Susan says she was chosen to be VP because Mellie wanted her to be her opponent in the Republican primary. “She picked a bug she can crush in one blow. I don’t stand a chance in a primary against Mellie.” David kisses her and tells her to never insult herself in front of him again. He tells her she can win it and they kiss again.

David is a summagoat if the only reason he is doing this is because of Liz. It would be despicable for real. I want to believe he kissed her because he wanted to and not to just because he is being used asa pawn to get Liz power.

Crushing – We’re back to where we were in the beginning, with Cyrus standing over Fitz’s bed. He says his cousin died and he needs to go. So strange, because we ain’t never heard Cy talk about having any family.

Lillian goes to the Oval Office to interview the President, and off jump, you can tell neither of them is there for business. She turns off her recorder and tells him she has a crush on him. She’s a Pulitzer-award winning journalist who is now in puddles in his presence. He replies by asking her out to dinner. These two idiots.

Liz comes to David’s office and he says he is not going to help her try to bamboozle Susan into running for POTUS. She is too nice for that. That’s all good and dandy but decided to run. He don good, and Liz seduces him.

iSpy – At OPA, Marcus goes to see Huck and he’s watching a soccer game. He says he put a program into some traffic cams. He is watching his son Javi’s soccer games, since they moved away from him and he can no longer see him. Marcus tells him to go she is son. SIR, you don’t even know the half.

The Leak – It is the next day and Mellie is still at Liv’s. She just finished the book, and Olivia wants her to leak it. She doesn’t have to wait for a publisher to get this out. Get the chapter out NOW so folks can read it. The press EATS IT UP. Even Sally Langston, Hater at Large, is impressed. The commentary on a powerful woman who stepped from behind the shadows of the most powerful man in the world.

New Work – Abby calls Cyrus in crisis mode because President Ghost is now going on a date with the journalist. “This is 50 shades of wrong.” Cyrus says he ain’t gon be able to talk to Fitz about it. He hangs up and walks into a forum being held by a young, charismatic dude running for a small office.

Cyrus went looking for his next Fitz. Who will he pluck from obscurity and help ascend to glory next? Who is his next project? It might be this first generation Mexican-American who still has passion for politics and hope to change things. His smile at the end was excitement. He found the next person who will give him purpose, because what we have learned is that he needs to be needed. He needs to Father a Political Son. Without it, he has nothing else.

Also, I don’t trust this Lillian chick. I don’t think she’s just some journalist with a crush. She has an agenda here. Who sent her? And why is Fitz so stupid to fall into it without even one drop of question? He is the worst.

Now, let’s talk about color. Olivia’s red top with the black and white stripe. Not only did I want it because that is TOTALLY my favorite color palette, but it was like “pay attention to me.” As we know, red is Mellie’s power color. When she wears it, watch out because she does not lose. For Liv to be wearing it, I take it to mean that in that moment she owned Mellie’s power. The little white stripe makes me think that old Liv, who was sans motive and on her shit was in the building. The black, because don’t get it twisted. The white hat is not back. I doubt that we’ll see Olivia wearing anything that is dominated by white anymore. Any appearances of white will be balanced out by more black.

When Mellie showed up to her house, Liv was in fuschia, which is basically diet red. Mellie has been rocking a lot of blue lately too. That, I noticed. I think our girl is feeling off kilter and not as invincible as she typically is. She’s been very muted. The Mellie of the past wore a lot of jewel tones, and of course, red, when she means war. I look forward to seeing that return as her presidential campaign moves along.

One thing I loved about the Mellie vs. Liv scenes is how these two women, who shared this foolish man, now need each other. Not only have they lived through loving and losing him, but now they’re tied together because of it. Honestly, I want them to be friends.

Speaking of Fitz, that dude a plum ass fool. He does not know how to function when someone isn’t pulling his strings. Also, his ambition up until this point has been dictated by someone else. It’s his last year of presidency, and he doesn’t wanna do shit. THIS Fitz is the real one. The literal lame duck, who is content with not having a strong legacy. He is Jeb Bush, basically.