“This is what power looks like.” – Scandal Gif-Cap

Scandal Season 5, Episode 7
“Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance”
Posted by Kim

Fitz has avoided impeachment.  Cyrus is back in place as Chief of Staff.  Mellie is on a spa vacation (WHERE WAS SHE THIS WEEK?).  Olivia has essentially moved into the White House.  Rowan Pope is a free man.  Jake is out for blood.  LizzyBear is scrambling for power.  And David Rosen is just exasperated with all of these idiots.  So basically business as usual…right?  To the gifs!

“How proud and humbled I am to be your President and to say how sorry I am.” Are you though? ARE YOU SORRY, FITZ?

Fitz apologizes to parents for the uncomfortable questions they had to answer. GROSS.  Apologize to ME now.

“Let’s be honest this was a victory for the White House. This is not a day to gloat.” Cut to Fitz gloating, natch. Also this is the first thing that came up when I image searched “gloating”, so.

“To Congress, may their heads depart from their asses…”

“How did you do it? How the hell did you get the information to end the impeachment?”  Abby knows EVERYTHING and she knows that Liv pulled some shit.

“I don’t want to lie to you. Don’t make me.” At LEAST Liv is being honest about that.

“You get to date the most eligible bachelor in the country.” GAG ME.

“I could give you a ride in my motorcade.” Susan has a crush on David Rosen, guys.

“Mr. President we have an emergency.” “Well, that was fast.” Time for Fitz to find out that Rowan is MIA.

Liv acts like she doesn’t know ANYTHING. 

Liv makes eye contact with Abby and Abby nods.  TELEPATHY.

Liv comes home and her spidey senses tell her someone is sitting in her apartment in the dark.  

“I said SIT DOWN.” SO FORCEFUL. Jake is terrifying and I really shouldn’t be turned on by this but here we are.

“You…you preach about wearing some dumb white hat.” Jake is so done with Liv’s shit we need a new word for it.

“Are you BLIND, Olivia? Do you refuse to see or do you really not know what you are?” 

“My wife. She’s dead. He killed her. Actually, it was you.”

“Really, Olivia? You didn’t think about the body count?”

“How does someone as brilliant and accomplished as you not know what you are?”

“You are Rowan’s greatest achievement. Power hungry, entitled, dangerous. And the beauty of it is you don’t even know it.” This is SO SCATHING and I love it.

“You’re grieving and I’m so sorry for that but I want you to go.”

JAKE KISSES HER LIKE THE GODFATHER.

“We need a plan to reset your image.” First up is bestowing the Medal of Freedom on Feminist Author Frank Holland.  Cause he needs to get women back on his side.

“Hi Liv.” “Hi Cyrus.” Cyrus is super suspicious of Olivia always being around and Liv is DARING him to call her out on it.  Yes, I got that from them saying hi to each other.

“He’s going to bring back B613.” Huck is understandably freaked out by the fact that Rowan is out and about.

“OPA is out of the spy business. Is that clear?” I give this whole “We aren’t spies” thing 2 episodes.

“I saw you on TV and I figured since you know the President you could talk to him.” Liv’s new client is a young woman named Hannah Taylor, who needs OPA to handle her rape case.

“We can’t just go straight to the President, that’s not how this works.” 

“The man who raped me is Frank Holland.”  WELP.

“His dedication to feminism and freedom is truly American.” Oh no.

Did I mention that Abby, who is herself a victim of domestic violence, totally fangirled over Frank? I feel ill.

“Where is she going?” “To tell the President he may have just hung a medal on a rapist.”

“I hate the new normal.” SAME, QUINN.

Abby meets up with LizzyBear to catch up.  Their coat game is strong.

“I don’t have to explain to you how high Sally Langston’s ratings are.” Lizzy has been offered a tell all interview from Sally.  She tries to blackmail Abby in exchange for a job.

“Everything in this town runs on power. I’ve got to get mine from somewhere.” 

“He’s a person, it’s personal.” Aaaaaaaaare we calling Fitz a person though?

“I need an answer in 48 hours or else I’ll become a Lover of Liberty.” 

Fitz calls in Jake to track down Rowan.  Liv: “Oh.”

“That’s a shame.” “It is.” Jake plays along with Liv’s innocent act.

“Maybe Jake and I should talk in private first.” “Whatever you say about my father you say in front of me.” Subtext: I need to know exactly what’s going on so I can maintain my web of lies.

“When I do, I’m going to look him in the eye and put a bullet in his head.”

Cy calls David and tells him he needs to keep LizzyBear from giving the interview. 

“I didn’t ask you to sit. I said take a seat, Elizabeth, so take a damn seat.” Everyone is SO forceful in this episode and I love it.

“I think she dropped the class though. I am not sure why.” Frank plays dumb when Liv and Quinn confront him about Hannah.

They call Frank’s wife in to see if she remembers Hannah.  “Nice girl…the plagarism thing, right?” OF COURSE there is something to discredit Hannah. OF COURSE.

“What matters is what I can prove.” Liv decides the only thing they can do is try to track down other women that may have experienced the same thing.

“He said I was special.”  Every woman has the same story about Frank.  Every single one of them.

“When a young person is looking for guidance they can become…fixated. It is my job to be an adult and I take that job seriously.” Keep telling yourself that, asshole.

The school smeared all the women who reported Frank so they wouldn’t be taken seriously. “That man has lived in a bullet proof tenured bubble for 20 years.”  SORRY I HAVE TO.  YOU SHOULD BE PROUD I HAVE HELD OUT TILL NOW.

“What does that say?” “David Rosen.” “It doesn’t say Attorney General?” HAHAHAHA. 

“This is Cyrus, isn’t it? This isn’t you.  You’re a weasely little troll and I don’t like you and I don’t respect you and I think you’re pathetic.”  “Is there a point here?” “You believe in the law.” Has the David and LizzyBear banter always been this delightful?  I’m living for them.

“I’m gonna give that interview with Sally and you’re not going to stop me.” 

“That’s your job! Your job is to find a legal reason to hold her!” 

“You’ll have to find another way because I let her go.” 

“What’s this about?” “The fact that you rape women.” 

HIS WIFE KNEW. 

“Do you know how many women in this country had a college degree in 1973.  It was a another world back then. A world Frank helped change.” I CANNOT wrap my head around another woman, much less his WIFE, defending his actions.

“Do you know how many women writers have careers because of him?” “So if he raped a few of them here and there, that’s alright with you?” Liv is NOT standing for this.

“My husband’s created quite a legacy and it’s my job to protect it.” 

“We have a situation with Elizabeth North.” Cyrus, bless him, keeps trying to run the show here.

Fitz is so whipped.  He looks to Liv for every choice and takes all his cues from her.  Cyrus is VERY aware of this.

Liv says that SHE would just let Lizzy go on the air.  “She could say anything!” “Yes. Yes she could.” I SEE the wheels turning.

“I hear you’re mad, Liz. As well you should be, being the patriot you are.” Sally is practically salivating.

“I know for a fact the President is a good man.  A great man who simply happened to fall in love.” So they got to her then.

“You gave her a job?”  “Liz is going to be Susan’s Chief of Staff.” You can actually SEE the steam coming out of Cy’s ears.

“A job working for Susan Ross, who is actually a good person. Unlike you.” David is NOT happy that Lizzy is working with his BFF.

“You don’t like me, do you?”

“I wasn’t trying to be subtle.” DAVID.

“I don’t like your blonde hair. I don’t like how tall you are. I don’t like your cold and haughty demeanor.” THIS JUST TOOK A TURN. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Helllllloooooooo kiss or kill distance.

“Everything about you feels Alpine and pointy and wrong.” THEN WHY ARE YOU SAYING IT LIKE IT’S OH SO RIGHT?

“You like me, don’t you?” “Yes.” 

“Say it.” “I like you.” OH MY.

MAKE OUT MAKE OUT MAKE OUT. 

“TAKE A SEAT, ROSEN. I’M NOT ASKING. I SAID TAKE A SEAT.” OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

“I’m not wearing any panties.” 

OH NOOOOOOOO Susan has decided to surprise her crush with wine coolers. 

“I’ll wait.” Her battle over whether or not to stay is adorable and upsetting.

“These are wine coolers. Can you make sure he gets them?” I wonder what David’s reaction to the six-pack was though.

All of Frank’s accusers parade into one of his lectures in front of all the press and it is GLORIOUS.  

The wife accuses Liv of setting back the feminist movement.  “I’m a feminist and I don’t love Frank.” The wife is HORRIFIED but Liv has no time for rapists masquerading as feminist saviors.

“Frank has GOT to go.” 

“Surely you’ve got a minute for an old friend.” Time to call Olivia out on her shit.

“I know I have an ego. I can be competitive, vindicitive…” UNDERSTATEMENT.

“Lately I’ve started to think I’ve become the guy behind the girl who’s behind the guy.” Cyrus knows EXACTLY what’s going on.

“Here’s why you are so brilliant: you didn’t have to give up your career, you moved into the white house, and you are not saddled with any of the prisoner duties that come with being First Lady.”

“He is not running the world.  He does whatever YOU say. Without question.” At least we are all acknowledging that Fitz is a puppet and ALWAYS HAS BEEN.

“You have pulled off a clean, bloodless coup in the United States of America. That is one for the history books.” 

“This is what a couple looks like.” Ha. Okay. Keep telling yourself that, Liv.

“You have the Oval. This is what power looks like.” 

“He’s not President anymore, Olivia. You are.” 

Liv pours herself a scotch while Fitz prattles on about Presidential things.  I think it’s all she can do to not roll her eyes.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to find him.” The search for Rowan has hit a dead-end.  THAT gets her attention.

LIV FAKE CRIES. She is such a stone cold bitch, I love it.

Once she is done fake crying, she starts telling Fitz how to run the country.  She stands in the middle of the Presidential Seal. Fitz takes notes on the couch as if he were her secretary.  Yep.

So just HOW drunk on power will Olivia get?  Where was Mellie this week?  (I MISSED HER.) Share your theories in the comments!