By JEWEL WICKER/ jewel.wicker@ajc.com, originally filed Thursday, March 10, 2016
Fitzgerald Grant has never been a one-woman man so this shouldn’t be that surprising.
In the latest episode of “Scandal,” titled “The Fish Rots from the Head,” the president spends most of his time in his bedroom. Along with Abby and his secret service agents, Fitz has come up with a step-by-step plan for his sex life that is both efficient and safe. Non-disclosure agreements are involved.
When Mellie Grant visits the White House to drop off her son she discovers a woman in the bedroom she once shared with Fitz. The woman is wearing a bathrobe. Appalled, Mellie tells Fitz that she expects him to be this way, but not around their child.
Earlier in the episode, Olivia told Mellie that she needed to convince Fitz not to endorse his Vice President Susan Ross in the primary election. After seeing what her ex-husband has been up to, however, Mellie decides she doesn’t want Fitz’s help.
Susan Ross feels the same way. While pillow talking with David Rosen she tells him that she knows the presidents’ sexual encounters will one day become public knowledge and she doesn’t want her campaign associated with it.
Olivia, who has been called out for slut-shamming in the name of her clients in previous episodes, is back to her usual antics.
When Abby calls her to help with a potential scandal, she heads right over to the hotel room of four secret service agents. A dead woman, who worked as a prostitute, appears to have overdosed on heroin, fallen and died.
In order to prevent the news from leaking, Olivia and her team clean up the scene and wipe away all traces of the agent’s presence in the hotel room.
Marcus, the newest gladiator, is bothered by this and asks Olivia if they’re really going to cover up what happened.
"It was an accident and she was a hooker so, yes,” Olivia says.
Luckily, Marcus remembers that prostitutes are still people. He looks into the woman’s death and discovers that the Secret Service agents killed her and pumped her body with heroin to cover up their actions.
Elsewhere, Cyrus continues to try to manipulate Pennsylvania Gov. Francisco Vargas into running for president. The governor is completely uninterested. He just wants to get home and make sure that his education bill is passed.
Cyrus promises to set up an appointment with the president, but it’s a setup, designed to push the governor into going on Sally Langston’s show to defend his bill (and gain more publicity).
After discovering that the governor has a young daughter who has cancer, Cyrus appears to back off. He tells the governor that he got into politics to effect change after his brother was paralyzed in an accident.
Cyrus Beene is an only child. And very convincing liar.
The next day the governor returns to Cyrus’ house to announce that he will run for governor with Cyrus as his campaign manager. He believes his daughter will live to attend college and he wants to make sure it is free when she does.
Olivia eventually pays a visit to Fitz to tell him about what his Secret Service agents have done.
“The fish rots from the head,” she tell him, insinuating that his promiscuity has affected the productivity and morality of his staff.
She compares Fitz to his father, the man who abused his power and raped Mellie.
Fitz isn’t happy about any of this, for obvious reasons, but it does inspire him to hold his staff responsible for the murder and focus more on his job as president.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), it looks like Olivia and Fitz are actually done with each other for good.
Olivia might be done with Jake, too.
She spends most of the episode spying on him and watching as he courts his new girlfriend, Vanessa. She appears to be a saint so, naturally, Olivia figures something must be up.
Jake appears in her bedroom one night in a scene that looks like it’s straight out of “50 Shades of Grey.” Jake tells Olivia that his new girlfriend is perfect. Still, he says, she doesn’t compare to Olivia.
Jake tells Liv he’s comes to give her what she wants and the two engage in a sexual act. During the steamy sex scene, he tells Olivia that he’ll leave her alone if she just asks him to do so.
It takes her a while, but eventually she tells him to stop. Jake leaves.
The next time we see Jake Ballard, he is popping open a bottle of champagne at Rowan’s house to announce his engagement.
Scandal” airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. on ABC.
