Scandal Season 5, Episode 4
“Dog-Whistle Politics”
Posted by Sage
The White House is still in fallout mode after Olivia admitted publicly to her affair with the President. Shonda Rhimes uses this plot to expose media tactics and coded language used to draw lines in the sand and prod the American people to choose sides, get angry, and (mostly) keep watching. Scandal is at is best when it’s imitating life, so let’s get to the gifs!
“Who are you working with?…What happened at the Louvre was Larzarus 1?” You mean this, Jake? I think it could have been planned a smidge better.
“He once told a colleague that he was on a quest to do the impossible: to raise an African American girl who felt fully entitled to own the world as much as any white man.” Can’t fault Papa Pope’s intentions, can you?
“It’s as if you’ve learned nothing from me. I think I’ve failed with you.” Papa is playing the disappointed father role with Jake, but Jake is unmoved.
“Is Olivia Pope still seeking to fulfill her father’s dream?” Some ho is telling Olivia’s life story on TV and it’s all such condescending yellow journalism, I want to reach into my TV and then into Olivia’s TV and pull her hair.
“Boy, I am always free. No one will ever cage me.” Demon!
“But you don’t have a date with Layla, Marcus, you have a date with me.” I mean, finally. The Pope & Associates offices were looking deserted.
“You won’t just be some corporate spinner, you’ll be one of us.” You may remember Marcus from such scandals as boning the mayor’s wife. He’s also a friend of Clarence Parker’s and helped the family push the Brandon Bill.
“And I am not crazy. I’m a gladiator in a suit…Do you want to be a gladiator in a suit?” “…No.” Marcus knows a lost cause when he sees it.
“Liv’s blindfolded on her knees in front of a firing squad and we’re doing nothing.” Fitz tries to fire Abby AGAIN, but Lizzy Bear won’t let him.
“I’m not asking you to work for free, I’m asking you to work for your life.” And for a salary, hopefully?
“Did you just call me an idiot?” You want to hear how women really feel about you, Fitz, give me a call.
“I do not need to be rescued. I find it offensive.” Why are they having this personal conversation in front of all of Fitz’s advisers though?
“My dream job? The White House. I want to work there.” The TV documentary includes a clip of Olivia as a young woman, setting her sights on some lofty goals. Then it implies she slept her way there.
“I know the drill.” Huck and Quinn help Liv go into hiding, going so far as to rent the apartment across from hers so that no one can monitor her from there again.
“Whatever’s going down, you two should be able to handle it. Understood?” Liv doesn’t want any rookies joining the team in her absence. Huckleberry Quinn have got to de-weird themselves enough to keep the client list happy.
“She’s got more kills than you and me put together. She’s legend. Oh, and she’s hot. Like, sexy hot. I’ve been working on her for years.” Jake and Charlie are on a man-trip to Paris to meet their European contact, Elise. Well, now she’s Elise.
“Jake? That’s what you’re calling yourself? Well, Jake. Deal is off.” She knows Jake, and shuts down the second she sees his face. What happened?
“This isn’t about Republicans and Democrats. This is about peckers. Too many peckers.” This lady for president.
“They wanna impeach them. All the women of the Senate.”
“They wanna impeach a man because all they ever hear is that women are controlled by their hormones but what is more hormonal than a man who can’t keep it in his damn pants? They wanna impeach a man because he broke his vows and disturbed the office of the presidency with his libido and the only person who gets raked over the coals is the woman he screwed.”
“This is it. Your chance. Either you go after your husband now and claim the White House for your own or you do nothing and be that sad, well-meaning freshmen senator sitting on that do-nothing sub-committee…” YES, Cyrus. I don’t care if this is for your own selfish vendetta, you get your boss heated enough to take Fitz down.
“Cream? Where do you guys keep the cream?” Marcus reconsidered the offer and is now on board at OPA as their media mouthpiece. Get the man some cream.
“Eventually we both know you’re going to let me in because you always let me in.” Jake shows up to Elise’s door. They keep up use of their new codes names, even when they’re alone.
“I was late but I was there.” “I waited.” Some time in the past, they were supposed to meet each other at Grand Central to escape their lives, but Elise didn’t show up. The nightmare. The exquisite tragedy. The Susan Heyward of it all.”
“I thought you were dead…I thought…I grieved…I really loved being married to you.” Mar-wha?
Senator Gibson is a Republican who wants Fitz to meet with a group from the party to answer some questions about the affair and how it affected his service.
“How do we lose a whole boy?” Fitz puts his human mask on to play with Teddy, one of those kids who never once factored in to the decisions he’s made.
“If you don’t hurt me, I won’t hurt you. Okay?” Mellie softens to see them together; she won’t be the one to destroy the father of her children. This time.
“Keep an eye on her. She’ll be a household name. Mark my words.” Past Cyrus praises Olivia, and do you think Kerry Washington and Jeff Perry will get a scene together this season?
“So you’re not here for the money?” “I’m here to help a sister out who helped me out when I needed it.” Marcus sees how the media is painting Olivia and he’s using his OPA position to fight back.
David doesn’t want to appoint a special counsel; they’ll destroy Fitz and Liv publicly.
“Where are all the other paintings?” Something uber-shady is happening at the meeting that Jake and Charlie set up for Elise. Their surveillance cameras go out and we hear gun shots. Who shot who and when? I don’t trust this lady at all.
“You’re gonna be okay, Elise.” I’ve got my eye on you, Elise.
“I’m willing to offer some things in exchange for your mercy.” Fitz meets with a bunch of grey-faced Republicans who smell blood in the water.
“Sit, Mr. President. This has been fun. But as far as I’m concerned, we’re in the foreplay stage of the evening.” Gibson pulls out a presentation. They want to backtrack on all the progress Fitz made in his second term, including equal pay and the Brandon Bill.
“Stanley, this isn’t politics. This is extortion.”
“Oh, and sir? Next time you decide to go outside your marriage, choose a girl who’s a little more palatable to the base.” KILL KILL KILL
“Knowing this, is it any wonder than Pope would set her sights on the most powerful man on the planet?” What CHANNEL is this documentary on? Fox News Slut-Watch?
“Did you know that there’s a porn version of us?”
“Do you think if I told them I survived being kidnapped and tortured they would get that their weak little misspellings barely make me blink, that I’d welcome the chance to take out a little PTSD on the next man who puts his hands on me?” Olivia makes the mistake of dipping a toe into the internet comment waters. NEVER READ THE COMMENTS, LIV.
“I never showed up at Grand Central Station. We’re not spies. There’s no forever for us.” I remember this episode of Chuck.
“Why are you so hell-bent on revenge? Let go already.” But why are you NOT, Mellie?
“Mellie, I devoted my life to him. To you…he kicked me in the teeth and didn’t even look back, and I’m supposed to just let it go?”
“The difference between you and me is that you’re heart isn’t broken because you never loved him.” Accurate. Who could?
“Your child is dead, you can visit his grave and bring him flowers…my child is breathing and talking right down the block from me at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but I can’t see him.” Cyrus compares Fitz’s betrayal to Mellie’s son’s murder and then quits. That’s one way to go out.
“For a black woman.She’s usually well-spoken for a black woman, isn’t that what you meant?” You better let ’em know, Marcus.
“You went off script.” “This. Is. War.”
“It’s bigotry in a form of a language so coded only the person it’s targeting is offended by it. Like a dog whistle.” Teach the world about this, Shonda!
Marcus, Quinn, and Huck go on various news talk shows to scold anchors about the words they use to describe Olivia (angry, sassy, outspoken, etc). Quinn’s past self makes its first appearance since season 1, and Huck just recites “dog whistle politics” over and over again, like a good foot soldier.
“So. Who’s going to tell Olivia I work here now?” “Me. I’m damaged. She doesn’t like to yell at me.”
“Do you always do what Liv would do?” Do you always need to question Abby’s methods, you jag?
“We don’t work for Liv…we work for the American people. Our playbook is the Constitution.” Fitz’s administration won’t bow to Gibson’s blackmail, he decides. I love it when Fitz remembers to do his job.
The President’s motorcade takes unscheduled ride…into Olivia’s development. “What are you doing? Don’t you dare.” No.
“What the hell are you doing?” “The right thing. I’m taking my girlfriend on a date.” HOW IS THIS THE RIGHT THING
“That’s why I’m here. I wanted to talk to you about impeaching my husband.” Fucking finally.
What did you think of this week’s episode, Gladiators? Kim will be back to gif for you next week, and I’m horribly jealous because she gets the return of LEO. Be gentle with him, Kimmie. And the rest of you: leave your thoughts in the comments.
westwingwolf says
I want to watch Fitz burn, but it’s not as much fun when he wants it too. He knew the only way to keep from giving up his work like the Brandon Bill was to force the issue of impeachment which is why he took Olivia out on a date. I can only hope that before all of this he went up to Mellie and said “Hey, I know you don’t want me to hurt you so let’s go with the idea that can get you elected President and allow me to save the work I’ve done by having you go forward with impeachment.” But this is Fitz, and I don’t place a lot of hope in Fitz. So maybe it is better that I just hope he tried to do something he thought could get him everything he wants and still gets burned.