SCANDAL: ALL ROADS LEAD TO FITZ (SEASON 2: EPISODE 5)

(warning, spoilers are below. all photos are from Scandal’s official website: http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/scandal)

Here’s the review for Scandal’s episode 205 titled ‘All Roads Lead to Fitz’ or, as I like to call it, ‘Good luck with that, Abby!’

Let’s knock out the Scandal of the Week involving Governor Samuel Reston and his wife Joan. He came home one night to find a man on top of her while she screamed ‘Rape!’ The Governor shot and killed the mystery man who turned out to be the contractor that the Restons hired to do work in their home. Then he called Olivia and her team to his home to help him handle this murder.

Governor Samuel Reston and wife Joan. Reston was giving me Jimmy Stewart tease throughout the whole episode.

Against Olivia’s orders, Reston had a stiff drink and Joan took a shower, which washed away any evidence that a rape kit could pick up. Reston had a drink not only because he killed a man who was hurting his wife, but also because he has history with Olivia. Turns out Reston ran against Fitz for president, and he was leading in the votes.  Olivia worked her magic and was able to swing over 4,000 votes into Fitz’ favor, and he became President.

Olivia tells Reston’s spokeswoman to give a simple statement and reveal no details about the murder. The smart ass spokeswoman ignores Olivia’s advice and let’s the press know that the Governor saved his wife and killed the bad guy, and now Reston is seen as a hero.

Olivia finds out Reston left some angry calls for the contractor and he bought a gun a week before the murder. Reston says he was angry because it was taking forever for the home fixes to be completed, and he’s a collector of vintage guns.

Harrison and Abby spoke to some of the contractor’s co-workers and they discovered that he enjoyed working on homes and sleeping with the women who lived in those homes. Olivia confronts Joan, and finally Joan comes clean about sleeping with the contractor. Governor Reston didn’t know about the affair, and he asks Olivia to find a paper trail. If a trail exists, then they’ll have to come clean about the affair, but if there is no trail then Reston plans to keep the ‘hero’ angle going.

It’s revealed that emails exist between Joan and the contractor, and now Joan is facing charges (more on this later!!) since her lie about being raped led to a man being murdered. She agrees to take one for the team.

Olivia’s nosy ass looks through some papers on Governor Reston’s desk and she sees photographs of Joan and the contractor making out. So Reston lied when he said he didn’t know about the affair! In a shocking ending, Reston admits that he bought the gun to kill his wife, the contractor, and then himself. When he came home and caught his wife and she yelled ‘rape,’ he knew that she was lying but he instantly realized something- if he spares her life and only kills the contractor, he can get rid of his wife’s lover and then revitalize his career as a hero. And that’s exactly what happened.

THE DAVID SITUATION, AND ABBY IS IN SOME SHIT NOW

Abby doesn’t realize it yet, but she’s about to go down. DOWN. All the way down.

At the beginning of the episode we see a meeting between Cyrus, Mellie, Verna, Olivia, and Hollis Doyle. Olivia promises she’ll get David off of their backs.

Later David meets with his boss, and he’s told he can have his job back if he stops looking into Olivia and Quinn.

Abby and David are still messing around. He tells her about a 3:30pm meeting with an ex-CYTRON employee. At the meeting, David is convinced that Hollis Doyle and his company are behind the CYTRON explosion. The ex-employee tells David that Doyle and CYTRON were working together- CYTRON was fixing a massive security breach in Doyle’s firewall and the job was half completed when CYTRON went boom. David looks defeated since he didn’t get the conspiracy info that he was looking for.

So, David decides to take back his ASA job and his first duty is to take down Joan Reston. Of course, Abby secretly handed him the email trail and then he shows up at Olivia’s office to arrest Joan Reston.

Throughout the episode we see Huck preparing for a date with a very aggressive woman who attends his AA meetings. While at the office helping Huck get ready for the date, Abby goes to his computer to look up a phone number and she sees a note about ‘The Griddle, 3:30pm’. That’s the place and time of David’s earlier meeting with the CYTRON ex-employee. So, that guy was a plant!

Abby’s loud mouth immediately runs to David and gives him the news. Then she drops a bomb: CYTRON isn’t just an internet security company. They also develop software that can be used to fix voting machines.

Do you see what Abby just did there? Do you see it?

That’s how Olivia rigged the election to help Fitz become President. Then she (and others) had the CYTRON building bombed to destroy the software and any other evidence. Quinn was chosen to take the fall for the bombing, and that’s why Olivia worked so damn hard to get Quinn off of the hook.

Olivia has a bug in David’s home, so she knows that Abby is a traitor and David will come even harder for her and Quinn.

CYRUS HAS DRAMA WITH THE HUBBY & CYRUS GETS ALL IN MELLIE’S FACE

James, Cyrus’ husband, is all the way pissed off because they aren’t having a child. James decides to work as a White House correspondent, and he spends the whole episode pissing off Cyrus. Blah, blah.

The best part of the episode is when Mellie tells Cyrus that she refuses to attend the secret meetings. She’s a political animal and she won’t go down if the CYTRON dealings are exposed.

Cyrus said ‘Oh hell no.’ Actually, watch the exchange here, where Cyrus gives the best line of the entire series:

“You may be an animal but I am a monster….and I am much more terrifying than you can ever imagine.”

Alright folks, what did you think of this episode? I can’t wait to see how Olivia takes down Abby.

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