Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Down with the Sickness
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 17 | Aired on 04.06.2009
While futilely attending to his shirt, he gets a cell phone call from Seaton. From inside some command center, Seaton is reporting that there's a squadron of F-18s on the way, less than ten minutes out. The good news -- from Starkwood's perspective, that is -- is that they have three missiles loaded and ready to go. Hodges tell Seaton to call the president, and he'll be there shortly. It's 12:47:15.
12:51:42. As Olivia gets dressed, Ken has the nerve to feel sorry for himself from the depths of the bed: "You probably think I'm the scum of the earth right now," he whines. She says she just doesn't want him to run the story. "You were a sport, taking one for the team like this," he whines. He's refusing to look at her, even as she tries to make sure he won't run the story. "I'm sorry, Livvie," he says, as he finally does look at her. "I have to run it." He has to? Or else what? "Breaking something this big will put me over the top in New York." Oh, that's why he has to. Cleary he has no choice. "I'll make sure nobody knows any of it came from you," he promises. Until he needs something else from her, that is. She calls him a lying son of a bitch, and he claims, "I did what I needed to do get ahead, just like you." And to get some bouncy-bouncy. Olivia denies the comparison, but he condescendingly says he's been in Washington longer than her. "This is how the game is played." And that includes the coerced fucking? "Actually, Ken? This is how the game is played," Olivia says. Whereupon she walks over to where she left her cell phone, holds it up for him, and plays back a snippet of the two of them in bed together. Because apparently her phone can record video indefinitely. My phone, unfortunately, will only record fifteen seconds of video at a time, which means if I wanted to use it to record myself having sex I would have to get started as soon as I hit record, and I still might miss the end. Olivia threatens Ken, "You run that story, or ever try to blackmail me again, and I'll make sure everyone knows just how you get your leads." Well, to be fair, he knew about the Joint Chiefs meeting and the container yard shootout before he ever called Olivia, let alone boned her. "I think your wife will be especially interested," Olivia adds, resolving the question of whether Ken's married and exactly how big a slime he actually is. "You bitch," he says from the bed. Closing her phone, Olivia adds that Ken should find a new beat. "I don't want to see you around the White House again." Then her cell phone rings, and her exit line is a sarcastic, "Sorry. I gotta take this." I think we can chalk up another win for Olivia.