Olivia Pope is downing that wine like the alcoholic she's become. Why? As the name of this episode helpfully says, there is "no sun on the horizon."
She is seeking light but there is only darkness. And Shonda Rimes shot most scenes at night this week. Everyone is working late, looking miserable to boot.
The prevalent feelings are regret, sadness, guilt. Being in the midst of all this scandal is not fun and games.
And at the end of the episode for Liv, there is acceptance of the darkness, that this is her life. An AA meeting or three, though, may be in the future as well.
Here are the six storylines worth tracking this week:
"The Office," this is not: Quinn is placed on Pam duty at the fake Acme Paper Co. that B613 "runs." (An ode to Bugs Bunny there, eh, Shonda?) Quinn is placed on phone duty by Jake so she can't do any "freelance" work with Charlie. Her phone manner, let's just say, is not Pam-worthy. Where's Jim when you need him? She later apologies, but Jake changes his mind. He has a simple project for her. (The joy on Quinn's face? Irrepressible!) She breaks into Cyrus' office and safe (easy!) and gets all the evidence about Cyrus' involvement in Sally Langston's murder of her husband.
Confessions, Part 17: Sally Langston is in a dark place during debate prep for the first presidential debate. At one point, she goes after a fake Fitz with a pig analogy that is probably the funniest moment of the hour. "Yum yum crispy piggy, yum yum!" was probably Tweeted a few thousand times after she uttered it. Leo brings in a preacher to calm her down. Instead, she wants to confess to the murder of her gay husband Daniel Douglas, who she killed accidentally in a fit of rage, which was then covered up by Cyrus. She tells Leo how God is no longer speaking to her, that only the light of truth can set her free, even if it sends her, Cyrus and Mellie to jail. Cyrus, Leo and others tell her not to go through with it. "Shine the light," Leo tells her desperately, arguing for her to stay in the race for her beloved constituents. "Be the beacon." (And save his hide, too, he adds.) They all prepare ready for the moment she tells the world she offed her husband on live TV. Jake has a solution. He prepares his inside Secret Service mole to shoot her if she tries to say anything during the debate. Fortunately, Fitz decides to say something stupid (as suggested by Liv) about taking "pride" in his failures to get Sally back on track. It works. Confession does not happen. Sally lives on. The secret remains.
Cyrus loves James. He really really does! Cyrus discovers James is "Probius," the leaker, thanks to a buzzing sound emanating from the mic James planted in the digital photo frame on his desk. But Cyrus doesn't go and kill or punish James in a fit of rage over James' actions. That's what we'd come to expect. But love prevails. He can't blame James for trying to take Cyrus down. Cyrus deserves it, he tells James. Cyrus' sincere expression of devotion causes James to tell DA David not to move forward with breaking open the scandal at a clandestine meeting that was not set up by either James or Davis. Uh oh. More in a moment.
Fake boyfriend is rejected: Jake opens the show revealing his lack of a past, which makes him a perfect candidate to live in the shadows as head of B613. But he has hope in Liv. He hopes that he can live a life with her, even if it's "pretend." He tries to get her to run away with him, to escape this hell he's living. But no. She goes back to Fitz - as usual. So he gets Quinn to find out what happened with Langston, gets all the people involved in it and kills at least three of them. Two are not consequential to this story, including the reporter "Publius" had contacted. But he does shoot at least one of the other two (James and/or David) to death. We don't see who. James is the likelier first target. I bet he keeps David around given David's position in government and the knowledge that he would not say anything.
Into the abyss we go: Liv is pretty down all hour. She sleeps with Jake out of sadness, not joy. She finds out about the Langston situation and realizes there is no clean campaign to be won here. She confronts Cyrus, then laughs ruefully when she realizes she's surrounded by murderers. She tells Fitz about what had happened. 'There is no clean," Liv says to Fitz. "There is no Vermont." But they always have each other. The first time this episode Shonda sets up a "light" scene through the White House window is when they kiss.
Other characters have easy weeks: Shonda kept this episode relatively focused. No sign of Liv's terrorist mom or that lady Harrison used to date. Rowan gets one short scene threatening to "fire" Leo after last week's effort to take down Fitz failed. The First Lady does some debate prep but is otherwise absent. Charlie has little to do except to say no to Cyrus to "freelance" work. Huck does no damage. Abby wants to protect her husband David Rosen when he wants to blow open the whole Langston scandal.
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