Sorry so late with this. So much to absorb with this episode that it took a couple of days to get my thoughts down. Not complaining at all. I love a show that gets into my head.
Pandemonium. Mellie is screaming in the ER. Cyrus is in shock. Olivia is about to hyperventilate.
It all falls still as we take a deeper look the Fitz and Olivia pairing and get answers on the unlikely partnership of Hollis, Cyrus, Liv, Mellie and Verna Thornton. The pairing is beautiful. The answers are ugly. 
The thread woven through this episode is an American flag pin. It was worn by Dwight Eisenhower and Olivia gives it to Fitz on Inauguration Day. She’s so happy for him and he’s so happy being with her. Touching and talking like any married couple. Fitz goes in for the kiss, when Mellie flies in screeching about Dolly Madison and whatnot. No pride for her man, no ‘did I just see something?’ Just bliss at backing that Mayflower moving van up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This is her day.
Liv and Cyrus beam like proud parents as Fitz takes the oath of office. It took a lot to get there and I don’t just mean campaigning. 
Poor James. He shows up for the Inauguration Ball and Cyrus has to tell him he can’t come. They aren’t ‘out’ yet. Liv watches the two men argue with a heartbreak of her own. She won’t dancing with her man at the ball either. Cy leaves for the festivities and both secret lovers watch the Fitzgerald’s swirl across the dance floor with heavy hearts.
Unlike James, Liv gets her dance.
She’s called to the Oval Office and Fitz enters. Sparks. He’s been to 4 balls that night, but now he’s where he wants to be. “Mr. President,” Liv says. Say it again. He grabs her. This can’t happen. They kiss and it starts getting hot. She pushes him away. “I can’t just stop, can you?” Fitz asks. She thinks for a moment and slowly backs up onto the desk. THE desk. She hikes up that dress and President Grant goes to work. This is the best network sex scene I’ve watched in a long time, if ever. I literally fanned myself and glanced at my sleeping husband, but I wanted to continue watching. The camera pans to the Eisenhower pin.
We’re jolted back to reality with the news replaying the shooting in more detail. A very believable scene. There’s not much to report since the press secretary was also shot.
Remember that sanctimonious twit of a Vice President? She crawled out of her nesting hole and bounced like Tigger to the White House South Lawn, despite protestations that only the President does this and you’re not him. There are protocols and lots of 
symbolism in Washington, D.C. This troll knows exactly what she’s doing. Once there, she offers up prayers and lets America know that she’s in charge. Thirsty. Inside, Cyrus lights into her ass for her actions, complete with a meaty finger in her face. Know your role.
Olivia gives out taskings to the staff. She’s in crisis and leadership mode. Please get her some outfits and underwear, too. The White House will be her house for a while. She turns towards the Oval Office as Cy’s rage continues and it fades to the post-inaugural meeting with Fitz and Sally about the Supreme Court nominations. Sally has ‘her man‘ and Fitz wants Verna who angrily reminds them that her part in getting Fitz elected was not going unrewarded. “Make it happen!”
The things one learns in their new White House. The staff, the schedules and where the surveillance cameras are. Fitz gains that last bit of knowledge on a run with the Secret Service. It’s tactfully brought to his attention and he answers like a man in love and in power would: “Where aren’t the cameras?”
Camp David for Fitz, Liv and Cy. More like a honeymoon for those two, doing what they love best. Days are spent in meetings hammering out what’s best for America and evenings are spent in each others arms. More hotness, more steam. I continued to let my husband sleep.
Cyrus and Liv stroll outside together. Fresh air is kind of foreign to them. Her outfit is fly. She lets him know that he and James are the worst kept secret in D.C. Mellie pops up to the camp to kill everyone’s joy. The woman needs a pharmaceutical in her honor. Pop one and you can tolerate being in her wind shear for 4-6 hours. Mellitol.
Fitz is still in surgery and despite the actions on the South Lawn, the President is still the President. Why isn’t the Veep briefing? For security reasons like Cyrus throttling her, but let the press think it’s from the shooter.
Stepping back to the early days of the administration, Liv gets a quick hallway brief about a phone call from a ‘Tyler’ about a breach in voting security. This is when Liv digs up Huck, looking like a cave man. Liv also tells Hollis and his devil horns tremble in anger. Liv can’t know who she’s dancing with at that moment.
It’s night and Olivia meets Fitz in their garden meeting spot. He’s upset that she made the comparison to them and Thomas Jefferson with Sally Hemmings. Fitz doesn’t play the race card and it was low of her to bring that up in their last lover’s spat. This part took me back to season one when I’d see the same comparison on internet forums. I wasn’t happy about those assertions for the just because fact of their race and professional roles.
Awesome scene that fills in the depth of their emotional relationship for the viewers. Liv is feeling the pressure of their love and so is he. Fitz says, “I belong to you. We’re in this together. I can’t breathe without you. I exist for you. You are the love of my life. No Sally or Thomas here. You’re nobodies victim, Liv. We’re in this together.” Who wouldn’t want to be receiver of such powerful statements? I got weak and wobbly here and I’m not a romantic type of woman, which is good, because these were cerebral statements.
The news tells us that the White House Press Secretary has succumbed to her injuries.
Vice President Langston is making trouble at the White House by trying to get her promotion. Liv pops a Mellitol and goes to Mellie in the hospital. She’s looking teary and shocked. I’m not buying a sudden rush of love concern here. More of a loss of position and power before his term was even out. Mellie proved this when briefed on the trolls activities by sighing that she needed something to wear. Self-preservation. She took the AP class in that. She speaks to the press and makes it abundantly clear who the President is and to not give up on him.
Back when the Supreme Court Justice discussions were going on, Sally Langston was firm on her choice of nominee. Easy fix. Cyrus and company made sure a teenage arrest story about the guy is leaked. Sally is fuming about this. She only put her sanctimonious self on the Fitz ticket to make it happen.
Another hallway walk/brief for Liv. There was a bombing in Palo Alto, California at Cytron, a software company. Seven people were killed. Word is a jealous girlfriend did it. Clarity pops into Liv’s eyes. She meets with Hollis again. Did he do it? Yup. Collateral damage. Jessie Tyler could have killed the presidency before it began and now seven people are dead and a fall guy selected. More than campaigning.
The President made it through surgery, but he’s not awake. There was a lot of damage.
Liv tells Cyrus, ‘It’s over!”
Glimpsing back, Liv walks in on James and Cyrus kissing. He leaves and Liv tells Cyrus the Cytron explosion was all Hollis. Cyrus had a hunch. He’s set up a Lindsay Dwyer to take the fall. Cyrus agrees with Lindsay’s sacrifice of her freedom for Fitz to be President.
Hallway run in with Mellie. She has the Eisenhower pin. The Secret Service were kind enough to give it to Mellie after Fitz had gone to the National Archives one night, not with her, but with Liv. Her, Liv, Cyrus are a team. They got Fitz elected and they’re going to keep him there. You will make sure Fitz gets the pin? In English: Here, stunt wife, give this to your man. This shakes Liv into a decision. See? If she’d taken some Mellitol, but I digress. Liv watches Fitz give his first Presidential address from her office TV. She puts her resignation on his desk along with the pin. He returns to find both and slumps in his chair.
After that not so favorable medical update on Fitz, Sally Langston swears in as President in the Oval Office by Judge Verna Thornton. Cyrus tears up his office in a rage fit. Olivia arrives at Fitz’s bedside and hands Mellie the flag pin. She puts it next to Fitz’s hand. The symbolism in that? Your love is here, Fitz and she wants you to come back to us. Come back to the country. He’s connected to several tubes and unconscious.
The hotel room is shown as the shooter breaks down his weapon moments after the gunfire. He crosses the room and bends to pick up shell casings and we see his face. Huck! Didn’t see this coming at all and don’t believe it’s what it seems.
He may have shot someone, but is he THE shooter? Is the troll behind this? Are Senator Davis’ hands clean?
Are you, like me, happy to have a ‘grown folks’ show to watch and discuss?
Follow @tvfishbowl for your Television, Movie, Celebrity, Pop Culture, and Gossip scoop
— TVFishBowl (@TVFishBowl) April 9, 2013
Recent Comments