The first half of Scandal season 4 concluded with a big cliffhanger, but may’ve left viewers feeling a little underwhelmed.
Our recap of Scandal season 4’s winter finale breaks down the events of episode 9, titled “Where the Sun Don’t Shine”! A lot happened tonight, so let’s cut straight to the chase.
The main event
At the beginning of the episode we learn that Rowan is hiding in light of Jake and Fitz’s attempts to take him down last week. Wanting to waste no time in figuring out where he is, the guys and Olivia pull Maya out of her hole to ask for his whereabouts. She apparently has no information despite seeing him nearly every day.
Rowan’s causing havoc despite being in hiding. One of his men tries to kill Jake out of the blue, but our man is able to do a very quick duck to avoid the bullet and discovers that his almost-murderer is someone who’s dismantling the staff members of B613 one by one using handy kill cards (Jake is a king, Quinn is a queen).
With Rowan on a rampage, Jake arms Olivia with a gun. She’s hesitant to take up weapon training because a) she already knows how to use a gun, and b) thinks her father wouldn’t kill her. But doesn’t she remember him saying last week that she’s on her own for the first time in her life? One must be careful during these dark times!
But it’s not all bad news: Rowan’s whereabouts aren’t too hard to figure out, it seems. Huck manages to track Rowan’s vehicle — apparently heading to a small town where there’s a safe house.
For a moment it looks like Jake is going to find him easily because the director of this episode — Fitz actor Tony Goldwyn — is switching between shots of Jake and Rowan, but viewers are being played. Rowan is actually at Olivia’s house when she walks in.
“Sit,” Rowan tells her.
“Leave.”
“Sit,” he says again after pulling out a gun.
The two family members exchange insults for a few minutes like they do on every episode they’re together. Papa Pope then puts his gun down and Olivia is able to grab it quickly. For a moment you assume this was a very stupid move on his part.
She tries to shoot her father, but the gun is not loaded (of course not — Rowan is way too calculated to place a loaded gun on a table in front of Olivia). Papa Pope is aghast that she would pull the trigger. “No matter how hard you try to deny it, you will miss me when I’m gone,” he tells his daughter.
And Rowan lives another day.
Olivia goes back to her mother. “Girl, you need to move on. All you two do is talk about each other,” Maya tells her, channeling the voice of every viewer. “He ruined you.” Too true. Olivia begins to sob, but Maya has no sympathy.
So? Olivia moves on… for the moment. She returns home and orders a pizza named after a First Lady. When Jake comes over she starts up a dance party, and Kerry Washington shows us her best moves. “Man do I love you,” he tells her. She says that she wants both of them. “I choose me. I’m dancing. I’m free. You can dance with me or you can get off the dance floor.”
Jake steps out of the living room for a moment to grab pillows so they can have sex on top of the piano — apparently this is one place in the room where she hasn’t had sex yet. When he returns, Olivia has been captured by someone working with the Vice President. He’s holding her hostage from Fitz because he wants there to be a war with West Angola.
Odds and ends
At the start of the hour Quinn fills in Olivia on the Lizzie-Kubiak-VP situation, but there’s not too much time to talk about this mystery trio because Lizzie has leaked the photos of Cyrus and Michael.
Olivia’s solution to the leaked Cyrus photos is to have the Chief of Staff marry Michael, because otherwise it looks like “just another D.C. sex scandal.” If Michael breaks any part of their marriage agreement, he’ll have to pay a hefty fine. While it seems like a good plan, Cyrus refuses out of respect to James.
Facing pressure from officials around D.C., Cyrus hands Fitz his resignation and argues it’s the best choice so that the President can look like the good guy. You would’ve thought that Fitz would refuse to accept this resignation, but he doesn’t, and from a story-telling perspective it was probably for the scene that comes next.
“So they’re mean girl-ing you?” Olivia tells Cyrus the next day. “Grow up! That’s how it is. The Cyrus I know […] doesn’t wet his pants like a little bitch baby.”
“I am NOT a bitch baby!” Cyrus tells Olivia in a huge moment of inspiration. This was one of the best scenes in the episode. Now motivated thanks to his friend Olivia, Cyrus and Michael do an on-television interview to announce their marriage — and boom, Cyrus is back on top! (Sexually and figuratively.) We wonder how long this marriage will last? Maybe they’ll find true love. It certainly seems like Michael has real feelings for Cyrus.
Things are happy over the next few minutes. The President refuses to go to war over West Angola, causing Lizzie to ask Mellie why that would be. The First Lady turns it into an opportunity to let Lizzie know that she’s aware that the Vice President has been getting it on with both of them.
And then, the revelation: The Vice President was in on the bomb plan with West Angola in order to cause a war overseas.
What happens from here?
The Vice President is working with West Angola for some reason, but we won’t learn why until the show returns next year. We also don’t know what will come of Rowan, who we were thinking would die by the end of the mid-season finale. How long are he, Maya, and now the Vice President going to lurk in the shadows?
Sidenotes…
– David finds out that Abby and Leo hooked up thanks to a subpoena investigating Cyrus’ ordeal. He didn’t like learning about this.
– Quinn finds a kill card for herself in Charlie’s pocket. She beats the crap out of him while “Endless Love” plays. After they get their aggression out, they decide to relax in a car and apologize to one another. This little chat ends up being helpful, because Charlie is willing to hand over some B613 files connecting Rowan with Jerry’s murder.
– Huck continues to bother his ex-wife. He asks her to read documents that reveal everything about him.
When does Scandal season 4 return? January 29, 2015. Yeah, that’s a while from now. See you then!