Episode Report Card Kim: B | 41 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Mellie Can't Hold Her Liquor
By Kim | Season 3 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.17.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.OPA has a new client, Mary Nesbitt, who tells the gladiators that she has a "private family matter" then rushes off to a "meeting on the Hill." Turns out that Mary's son was killed in an FBI raid of a domestic terror cell fifteen months ago, and Liv finds Mary in a Congressman's office wearing a vest bomb, holding the congressman and a bunch of staffers hostage. She wants to read the sealed file on her son's killing. Olivia plays mediator and gets Mary to let everyone but her and the Congressman go. Eventually, Harrison, David Rosen, Cyrus and Fitz all get involved in the negotiations, as you knew they would.
Fitz finally tells Olivia via phone call that Mary's son was actually an undercover CIA agent who had infiltrated Al-Qaeda, and was then accidentally killed by the FBI, who didn't know about his cover. But Olivia can't tell Mary that because there are 57 other agents also undercover, and if Mary's son's true identity got out, their covers would be blown. Olivia tells Mary that her son was truly Al-Qaeda. Mary lets Liv and the Congressman go and then blows herself up.
How's Fitz and Mellie's war going, you ask? Great! They hate one another and can barely be in the same room. This leads to the best scene of the episode, where Mellie gets drunk on some moonshine that her daddy sent her and tells Fitz that she's psyched that Liv didn't die in the explosion, because then Fitz would martyr her. As long as Olivia is still alive, Mellie can use her as a tool to get back at her husband.
Meanwhile, a guy bum rushes the Oval Office and gets tackled by Secret Service, all the while yelling that he needs to talk to the President about Operation Remington. Cyrus sees the man's name on the post-incident report and says they can let him go, then calls Rowan. Huck has taken a personal day to track and probably kill Rowan. This all works out great for Rowan when he visits Oval Office Invader and pays him off for his continued silence about Operation Remington. Oval Office Invader says he needs to talk to the President, and Rowan is all, "Sure! We can do that!" Then Rowan somehow uses voodoo to get Huck to A) let him live and B) kill the Oval Office Invader instead.
A possibly-concussed Olivia is terrified that Huck might have killed Rowan, but Huck breaks down and tells her that Rowan can still control him. Olivia goes home (where super-healer Jake is hanging out) and demands to know how he got out, and why her father let him go. Jake doesn't know. Olivia tells him that her father controls everyone, so he still owns Jake and he still owns her too.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Liv sits on her bedroom floor (wearing all white) (in an all-white bedroom) and watches a nearly-naked Jake sleep in her bed. He's covered in bruises and cuts, but he still looks pretty decent, all things considered. She flashes back to asking her father if he teaches people to kill, and Huck asking her if her father is Command, and Jake showing up in her doorway and collapsing, for those of you just joining us and wondering why Jake is in her bed, all beat up.
Fitz calls and wants to talk about Jake and how he got to her place. Liv says she can't and hangs up on him. Then she calls Huck to talk to him about, you know, how he assaulted her in the parking garage and then extracted the one piece of information that might send him finally over the edge into insanity. Huck insists that he's fine, but just needs some time. He sounds convincing, so Liv hangs up. But then we see that Huck is tracking Rowan. So that's not good. Or maybe it's really good? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to want Huck to kill Rowan or not. I think Liv might feel the same way.
Liv walks into OPA where the staff and a new client are waiting Said client is Mary Nesbitt (played by typically mousy Cynthia Stevenson). Remember that show Hope & Gloria? Why did I watch that show? It was on NBC on Thursdays, in the pre-DVR era, I'm guessing. Anyway, Mary wants to retain OPA for a "private family matter," but she can't explain now because she has "a meeting on the Hill." She hands over a check and promises they will speak soon, then peaces out.
After she's gone, Liv looks at her team like, "What, now?" Abby points out it's a new client (although I wonder if the old clients are coming back now that everyone thinks Jeannine was the mistress) and Quinn says the client has handed over a $25K retainer. Before Liv can react to that, Quinn asks if she's heard from Huck, because he's not answering calls and texts. Liv says awkwardly that Huck is taking a personal day. Abby says, confused, "We…get personal days? What, do we get vacation now too?" Yeah, working for OPA would be the worst job ever because you're subject to Olivia's whims and flights of fancy, and you never get any explanation as to why. And also no paid time off, apparently. Olivia shoots her a dirty look and heads into her office.
Over at the White House, Cyrus is in the residence trying to convince Fitz and Mellie to take a trip to Camp David to show the media that they're working on their marriage. Fitz and Mellie are fighting over how to feed the baby; Fitz wants Mellie to let the nanny do it. Mellie says she wants to do it; they have a bunch of photo ops coming up and she wants the baby to look at her and not the nanny when they tell him to look at mommy. Then they start fighting over how Fitz could "barely get it up to conceive" the baby, which is GREAT! Maybe they could stop fighting over their marriage in front of the baby, who looks to be close to a year old now? And will soon start understanding that they're fighting? Anyway, Fitz and Mellie insist that they don't want to get stuck at Camp David with one another. Cyrus insists that they will, and the whole thing is going to be photographed. He yells a lot and the baby doesn't even flinch. Are they drugging that baby? Anyway, Mellie is pissed that the baby is filthy now (like she has to clean him up) and Fitz is just pissed and wow, that White House seems like a fun time. No wonder the older kids went away to boarding school.