On last night’s episode of Scandal, “Snake in the Garden,” Olivia questions her instincts; Doyle’s daughter is not an angel; Cyrus takes matters into his own hands; Jake goes in for the kill; Fitz becomes his father.
Copyright ABC Networks
By Tara Moore–
Let’s get one thing out of the way up front. Captain Jake Ballard, aka Captain Charming, is not at all who he seems. No more going to bat for his instant charm effect on Olivia Pope, it’s clear now he’s a really good liar. The Osborne business was being taken care of carefully and precisely by Olivia and her team, but one frantic visit from the director himself to Olivia’s apartment, and Jake’s feed gets cut while his intelligence instincts kick in. Must find a way to get what’s on that flash drive. Sadly, it looks like that line separating work for the president from curiosity about the subject just got crossed, and Jake’s on the wrong side. Too bad Olivia still has no idea.
While Jake is snooping, Hollis Doyle is busy accusing his allegedly kidnapped daughter of faking it to get his money. Unfortunately, he was right. After his daughter cuts off her own ear and spends the episode communicating with the team and her parents on behalf of her kidnapper (we never hear his voice or see a masked man) Huck’s instincts kick in, and her plan goes up in smoke. Guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Fitz on the other hand made a terrible discovery about himself last night. But was it really a big surprise? He is the splitting proverbial image of his father, Scotch in hand, angry lashing out at the people closest to him, destroying what he had with Olivia over her winning him the presidency, it’s all so melodramatic. Now that Mellie’s put him in his place about why his own kids don’t want to see him, let’s hope he gets back on track.
Back to Olivia and the White House. While she was working secretly and practically in the “Osborne is the mole” case, Jake gets his hands on all her data and takes the info directly to Fitz. Meanwhile, Cyrus is having Jake looked into, but not to the extent that he’s discovered Jake’s connection to Olivia. In a bloody turn of events, Osborne committed suicide on the discovery that he’s been accused of being the mole. Or at least, that’s what the media is saying, and that’s exactly what Jake wanted them to say.
Something doesn’t quite add up about Jake’s role in the mole situation, especially since it wasn’t even a blip on his radar until Fitz brought it to his attention. The fact that it wasn’t Osborne and there’s a random new black guy entering the stage is curious, but is Jake really the villain he portrayed last night? How could he be after the beautifully spoken monologue about making Olivia happy and the breathtaking kiss that gets Fitz out of her head? Time will tell, but either way, amid all the lies, Olivia will hopefully get back to relying on her instincts again, even if they led her so astray on the last few relationships.
RIP Osborne, the gladiators will fight for you beyond the grave, don’t worry.
