Scandal season 4, episode 15 found Olivia and Huck taking big steps toward moving on from their demons.
Our recap of tonight’s new episode breaks down the exciting and upsetting moments of “The Testimony of Diego Munoz.”
Cackling Susan
Susan Ross is being prepped to become the next Vice President of the United States at the top of the episode. Cyrus is impressed with Red’s work in preparing Susan — until the VP-to-be starts going off script and losing her cool, making ridiculous noises that become the talk of the town. Without Olivia interested in helping them, the White House asks Leo to help handle the situation. They decide to embrace the laugh, sending her on to Jimmy Kimmel Live! for a fun chat and getting her interviewed by a newswoman (a Katie Couric type) named Alicia Thomas.
With the laugh incident handled, they begin training her for the Senate Committee hearing, which’ll secure her the VP gig, but Leo drives her mad and she decides to quit. Later that night Abby decides to fire Leo from the gig in light of this massive screw up.
What will Abby do now? Talk Olivia Pope into handling Susan, of course! More on that in a minute.
Olivia and Rose
Olivia’s hitting the bottle and still reeling from her kidnapping when we first see her this episode. Cyrus tries to talk her into coming back to work on Susan, but she’s simply unwilling to work for the White House. Her chat with the Chief of Staff is cut short by Lois’ friend Rose (“Where’s the Black Lady” lady), who’s concerned about her old friend’s whereabouts.
At OP&A, Olivia asks Quinn and Huck to find Lois’ body. Time passes without any progress, so Rose brings in some information about an operation Lois had which may help identify a body. Olivia then realizes something: Rose and Lois where romantically involved with one another and knew each other since they were 16. Quinn and Huck find the body later, and Olivia makes up a story about where she was found so Rose can believe Lois died a peaceful death. We loved hearing about Rose and Lois’ relationship and loved seeing Olivia take it all in.
The next day, Olivia is still in the dumps. She’s refusing to clean the wine-soaked couch, but at least she’s willing to go into the office. Abby begs her to save the Susan Ross situation, and Olivia eventually agrees so she can get her mind off the bad things and get busy with a good task. Plus it’s a nice favor to Abby!
So Olivia digs into Susan. She accuses the VP candidate of being afraid of the job, and it motivates Susan to go through with the Senate Committee Hearing after all. She uses her honesty (“I can’t prove I can handle Russia if the President dies! But who knows how to use a nuclear weapon anyway? I’ll leave it up to my cabinet to help,” she basically says) and it impresses the committee.
Despite the good presentation, the votes to make her VP still aren’t there, and Olivia thinks it’s because the Senate doesn’t like Fitz (due to the way he handled West Angola). They go to the Commander in Chief for help, who grows upset because he’s being asked to beg the senators for votes.
Olivia yells at him and they have one of their signature stare-into-each-other’s-eyes moments. Olivia walks away from the situation — not falling for his beautiful stare. He, however, fell for her demands.
Senator Ross is confirmed thanks to Fitz urging Democrats to support his nominee (which is funny when you know that he really thinks she sucks. Remember, this is all to position Mellie to become the next President!).
Meanwhile, Mellie is celebrating the big news with canceled appointments, and Abby is celebrating by having sex with Leo. As for Olivia? She finally ditches her couch cushion and grabs a big glass of wine and popcorn. Perhaps after an evening or two of relaxation, she’ll be ready by next episode to dive head-first into her old scandal-ous ways.
Huck and B613
At David’s office, Huck’s wife comes in with some dirt on B613 from her husband named “Diego Munoz” — a name that doesn’t ring a bell with the Attorney General. While speaking with her, David acts like he’s never heard of the organization, but inside he’s panicking because she has hard-hitting evidence about assassinations, cover ups, and so much more.
David goes to Jake and Huck about the files, still unaware “Diego Munoz” is Huck. After contemplating the situation, Huck comes clean about his real identity and vows to take care of the situation.
Huck heads to his estranged wife’s home and asks her to forget about the files. Kim’s completely unaware that David already knows about B613, and asks Huck to testify about what he’s been through so he can obtain full immunity. While he resists this idea, there’s good news in this scene: She fully understands why Huck is the way he is now.
Jake and David suggest Huck testifies that the government didn’t do anything to him, while Kim wants him to testify to protect other families and himself.
He better side with his wife, because things are going much better at home — just like he’s wanted! Huck’s invited over for dinner with Kim and their son, and he’s smiling for the first time in a while. It’s these reminders about how nice life can be with a family that entice him to testify after all.
Testifying day comes, and Huck plays hardball at first. At first he “can’t” remember anything about B613, but flashes of life with his family begin popping into his head, convincing him to do what Kim said.
David is quietly upset when Huck starts to discuss his time trapped in a hole in great detail, and by the end of the lengthy tell-all, even David is brought to tears.
Moved by Huck, David decides to prosecute B613. This won’t end well, will it?
A preview for next week reveals Lena Dunham’s role on Scandal:
