Campaign shenanigans
This week’s episode of Scandal focuses on Olivia Pope’s latest client and the president’s role in Operation Remington. Ironically, both these story plots involve gossip better left unsaid.
It is campaign season in Washington, and Cyrus and Mellie are trying to find Fitz the perfect campaign manager to help him win re-election. They know Fitz needs someone with a passion to win because Rep. Josie Marcus (Lisa Kudrow), the Democratic congresswoman from Montana, is a rising threat to Fitz’s position as president. However when Leo Bergen refuses the offer to help because he doesn’t “work for losers,” Cyrus and Mellie receive a rude wakeup call that Fitz needs to reshape his image as a happy, determined guy if he expects to win the race.
Josie is also searching for a campaign manager and hires Olivia for the job. However, we soon learn that the campaign is not Josie’s main concern. Josie has a problem she wants Olivia to fix immediately. At age 15, Josie had a child whom she for adoption. Josie wants Olivia to ensure that the news of this child will never be made public.
Olivia sends her team to Red Spring, Mont., in order to silence those who may leak the story to the press: the doctor and nurse who helped with Josie’s labor, Josie’s best friend from high school, Josie’s cousin and the baby’s father.
Along with getting the job done, the “gladiators” made two important discoveries while in Montana. Firstly, Pope & Associates found out that the White House sent a team to Montana in order to dig up the dirt that Olivia’s associates are trying so hard to hide. This means that Josie will probably be politically attacked soon by the White House.
They also discovered that Josie did not actually give away the baby for adoption. Instead, Josie’s mother raised the baby as her own daughter. This means that the child is none other than Josie’s little sister Candice. Josie tells Olivia nobody can find out about this because it would devastate Candice and that is not a price Josie is willing to pay for the presidency.
At first Olivia agrees to keep it quiet, but at a debate between the Democratic primary candidates, Olivia predicts that someone will attack Josie and put her reputation in a tough position. Olivia suggests Josie answer truthfully about the baby and admit to the public her hidden past.
Indeed, Gov. Samuel Reston alludes to Josie’s mishaps and sets her up for what he assumes will be her downfall. However, Josie takes Olivia’s advice and announces on live TV that she had a child 30 years ago and that she put the child up for adoption so the baby could have a better life than she could provide her with.
Olivia applauds Josie on a job well done; Josie just won the heart of America with her honesty. However, by doing so she also ruined her relationship with her sister. Josie is upset about her loss and fires Olivia for the ill advice; sure, Olivia averted one problem, but she unfortunately caused another one for Josie.
Meanwhile, Huck and Jake are still trying to figure out the secret of Operation Remington. They break into Eli’s home, steal some files and dig more into the mystery of the mission. Jake even tells the president that he knows Fitz is hiding something. They are desperate to find out more and want to learn the truth.
While they are searching, Olivia calls Jake and asks him to take her to the annual Correspondence Dinner. Jake agrees, although he knows Olivia is only going so she could see the president. However, surprisingly Fitz doesn’t summon Olivia to his secret quarters. Rather, Mellie does. Mellie asks Olivia to consider working as Fitz’s campaign manager because he needs Olivia to keep his will alive.
Ironically, Josie also wants Olivia back. She visits Olivia’s office and rehires her for the job. The obvious question left is what will Olivia choose? Will she pick a visit to the past or a chance to move forward?
Finally, toward the end of the episode, Jake and Huck uncover what they believe to be the truth unit B6-13 tried so hard to cover. Fitz was not in Iran the day of the mission. Rather, he was in Iceland and shot down a civilian plane for the United States government. However, that was not the detail that shocked Huck and Jake. One of the victims of the attack was Mia Lewis, Olivia’s mother. Could it be that the president killed Olivia’s mom because Eli ordered him to do so? Looks like we’ll have to find out next week on Scandal.
