By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com/ originally filed January 29, 2015
This was what one would call "A Very Special Episode" of "Scandal."
Typical episodes are chock full of quips, declarations, arguments and speeches - all done in crackling, quick-cut style. Most scenes last maybe 45 seconds to two minutes. There are four - sometimes more - story lines. Some are serialized. Some are just for that episode. Some tie together - or will eventually.
Tonight, we return from winter break and "Scandal" decides to go unconventionally conventional. In many ways, it's a nice break from the usual, wham-bam-thank-you-m'aam storytelling approach.
There is one continuous story line. Most of the hour is set in a single prison. There are long periods of silence and virtually no trademark snappy dialogue. Virtually the entire regular cast is absent.
It's just about Olivia Pope's kidnapping and "escape."
And we have to put "escape" in quotes because it's all an elaborate ruse. Who are the kidnappers exactly and what do they want? We aren't 100% clear yet but we'll learn soon.
For the hour at least, they do a nice job messing with her.
We return to the last scene of the last episode. It's Liv at peace, not worrying about her crazy vengeful dad or her endless kvetching about whether to pick Fitz or Jake. Jake is in her apartment. He could take her or leave her. Of course, he loves her so it's a no brainer for him: he takes her. She wants to do it on the piano. He gets a blanket from the bedroom. This gives the kidnappers the opportunity to grab her right then and there and hide her in the apartment across the way. (Who's going to get rid of that nasty wine stain on the pure white couch?)
Jake is tricked by the kidnappers. He runs out on the street where he thinks they took her and sees a car leave. It's pure decoy.
We quickly learn Liv and the men are actually just across the hallway. Liv does leave one clue: a ring she slips off and slips under the rug with her foot. Once Jake has left, her neighbor unfortunately is killed and said neighbor's corpse (and live Liv) are taken away in a fake ambulance by the kidnappers.
They try to mock her by asking her if she is going to beg for her life. She says she knows they are just stools. The man in charge of this kidnapping is the only one worth negotiating with, she says, whoever that may be.
She is given a drug and is knocked out. She wakes up, thinking she is in some Middle Eastern country. They place her, oddly, in the same space as another prisoner Ian. This despite the fact it appears they could have kept her in pure isolation in another cell. We never hear another prisoner. Hmm...
Ian says he's a kidnapped journalist and acts cowardly, says there is no way out. He says he expects to die there. She says she'll figure something out.
Every so often, she gets five minutes in the bathroom. At one point, she notices a window. She uses her bra underwire to try to open the window but one of the kidnappers sees her. She kicks him in the nads. He wants to kill her, supposedly. The other guy says they can't. Instead, they go after Ian, who presumably is killed.
She is depressed and starts hallucinating, dreaming that Jake saves her. Then she imagines she is in Vermont making jams and hanging with Fitz in their dream home. But dream Abby informs her that this is not real or realistic but she points out a slip nut that might help her.
In real life, she decides to try again with the window but it's sealed. She cries in frustration, then sees the slip nut from her dream under the sink in the bathroom. She takes it off and uses the loose pipe to knock out one of the dudes who let her into the bathroom. She then shoots the other guy in the head.
She "escapes" only to find out she is in some elaborate studio, not the Middle East. "Ian" is the leader or someone relatively high up the food chain merely testing her to see how valuable she is. She had told "Ian" earlier when she thought he was an ally that the president would come to save her.
So "Ian" now knows she is a truly valuable asset. We see a trailer for next week with her saying America will have to start some sort of war or she would die. And we know Fitz would never let Liv die. Plus, that would end this series as we know it.
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