Scandal Season 6, Episode 7
“A Traitor Among Us”
Posted by Sage
Last week, Scandal revealed Frankie Vargas’s assassin. And while it wasn’t much of a surprise that Rowan was wrapped up in the plot, it WAS a shocker that the man who normally doesn’t get his hands dirty was the one who pulled the trigger. Rowan was holding the gun, but he was doing someone else’s bidding for the first time in the history of the show. Who’s this shadowy organization who want Mellie in the Oval? Does Mellie know that they exist? And what’s their obsession with ponytails? (That one I can answer: it’s a low-maintenance hairstyle that any sociopathic black ops agent can pull off.) Brilliantly, Scandal shows us Rowan’s desperation through the eyes of his former foot soldier, Huck. And MAN was this an episode for Guillermo Diaz. So let’s get to the gifs.
“That’s some weak tea, Hucky.” Meg and Huck are sexy sparring, because he wants her to be able to protect herself.
“Don’t ever relax? Taught me that last week.” Meg’s picking it up quickly. (A little too quickly?) Huck is INTO IT.
Quinn and Charlie break up the ringside foreplay to tell Huck that Olivia has gone missing.
“You’re Jenny’s best friend.” “I was.” Friendly and pointed reminder that Meg was besties with Jennifer Fields, the Vargas campaign videographer who Knew Things about the assassination and who we just learned is still alive after Jake refused to carry out the hit. Meg still thinks Jennifer is dead, which sucks for her.
Huck runs out mid-conversation after kissing Meg goodbye. Everyone stares after him.
“I walked here, in these stupid shoes.” Huck finds Liv at some country-ass rest stop, exactly where he knew she’d be.
“I need you to kill Rowan.” Trying to kill Rowan never turns out how you want it to, Olivia.
“My father killed the President of the United States of America, I’m not going to sit.”
“Command always put the Republic first….killing Frankie is not putting the Republic first.” Huck uses his head to debunk Olivia’s theory. But she’s not hearing him.
“You are the only person I can trust.” She lays the “I need you and only you” routine on him. And usually that would be enough for Huck.
“You have to be sure, Liv. You have to be sure. 100%.”
Huck follows Rowan through a subway station. Rowan gets the jump on him, natch.
“You have 2 minutes and 12 seconds until they’re back.” Ponytail and her boys are still following Rowan and he doesn’t appreciate it, tbh.
“Nobody forces you to do anything.” “Exactly.” Huck hears in Rowan’s voice the difference between this mission and any other. These people have him scared.
“You are in the same position as me. Olivia’s life is in your hands.” Rowan turns Liv’s orders back around on Huck. He tells her that the people who had him kill Frankie have a standing threat on Olivia’s life. And killing Rowan would definitely set them off.
A train arrives on the opposite side. Huck looks away. When he looks back, Rowan is gone. Then he sees Ponytail and her boys, just as Rowan described.
Rowan reappears to tell Huck that the person who has Olivia in their crosshairs is embedded in the group – “A traitor among us.”
“Will you help me?” Rowan recruits Huck to help him sniff out the mole and god help me, he sounds sincere.
“Trust no one.” So much X-Files rhetoric in this episode.
Huck listens in on the bugged office. What he hears first is completely harmless: just Quinn and Charlie bickering about the wedding. Then they get onto the topic of Meg. Quinn is not a fan. “She’s a total rando psycho.”
“Don’t make cat noises just because a woman doesn’t like another woman.”
“I’m alone, yes. Have you found a place to put Jennifer?” Huck’s ears perk up when Quinn mentions the videographer.
So Huck confronts her on her way to meet with Jake and Jennifer. With a gun, because did these people kill the president?
“I am not a mole, Huck. In fact the only double agent I see here is you.” She shoves HER gun in HIS face, and again I’d like to remind you that these two used to have really weird sex.
“Are you going to apologize?” Jake thinks he knows who Rowan’s pressure point is. He has a picture of Sandra, and Quinn goes off to track her down. But she’d like some contrition from Huck first.
“Meg reads books about math. She squeezes my arm during horror movies. She’s still on Pinterest. She’s not a mole….or a random psycho.”
“I’m not mad…or jealous, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Huck and Charlie are both fixated on Quinn and Huck’s past (even though Quinn and Charlie are GROSSLY in love) because there can be no other reason for a woman not to trust another woman except jealousy over a boy.
“What are you doing here?” “Oh my god…this isn’t cool.” Meg uses her key to surprise Huck and takes his tepid reaction as a sign that she overstepped his boundaries.
To throw her off the scent, he initiates a floor bang.
“I wanted to ask you about your boss…Olivia.” Meg asks to meet Liv face-to-face…alone. Because THAT’S not suspicious.
“Jennifer Fields is alive.” Huck asks Abby for help to see high level inmate. Oh, right. She doesn’t know.
Side note: I can’t remember the last time these two characters had a scene alone together. This is a wild season.
“Abby didn’t tell me what this is about…which isn’t unusual.” David Rosen, the Attorney General of the United States and Abby Whelan’s bitch. This ship is deader than a door nail.
“How’d you play me?” Huck opens the door to seeeeee….Becky! Fitz’s would-be assassin who gained access to the President by making Huck love her.
TBH, this show has taken so many left turns since #WhoShotFitz, I had to look her up.
“I think I remember what she looks like.” Becky promises to help Huck if he’ll let her see her dying sister once last time. He agrees, and her point is proven. “You’re so gullible. I have a sister, but she’s horrible.” Foiled by the sob story AGAIN, dammit!
“So is she acting all sad and damaged all the time?” Becky describes Meg to a T, frankly. This is not what Huck wants to hear about another person he took the risk of letting in.
“He’s in love, he’s a different person now. He deserves a chance.” Huck makes one more appeal to Olivia to rescind her order to kill Rowan. Olivia is not convinced that Rowan has suddenly gone soft. Is Huck projecting?
“There’s no capacity for change there, there’s just HIM.” If Huck can’t do the hit by morning, she’ll find someone who can.
Huck is tailing Meg when PONYTAIL comes along and makes contact with her.
Huck calls Meg and invites her to come over. He says Olivia agreed to meet with her about Jennifer.
Meg brings a really expensive bottle of champagne to his apartment. Huck hug-searches her and starts apologizing for what he’s about to do: “I don’t have many old friends, I don’t like them, they’re just a reminder that you can never change.” OUR LONELY MONSTER.
“I don’t want to do this but you’re making me do this…who are you working for?” “My firm?” He pulls out an opiate syringe and sticks it in Meg’s face. This is a hell of a way to break up with someone.
“I TRUSTED YOU.” He throws her up against his fridge, demanding to know how she knows Ponytail. Meg is clearly terrified.
“Fine, do it.” Meg calls Huck what he’s always believed himself to be and dares him to do what he’s threatening. He lets her go.
Charlie, Quinn, and Jake dig up Sandra’s body at old B6-13 dump site. She has been dead for a WHILE.
“He was using you.” Olivia thinks Sandra’s corpse proves her point – that Rowan killed Sandra because she found out about Frankie.
“Why should I believe you?” “Because I am right and you are wrong.” Huck is HEATED, and he’s not yielding to Liv’s will like he normally does. Meet the hill you’re gonna die on, buddy.
“People change. People change. It happens.” Charlie shoots a “this guy” look at Quinn.
“No, I’m not going to kill the man who loves you most in this world – even more than me.” Huck begs Olivia to forgive her father.
“Quinn, call it off. Stand down.” As Huck is dumping Sandra’s body, he feels something in her neck. It’s a surveillance device. He shows the video of her execution to Liv. She recoils when Rowan fires the shot. (I’m still not clear how this proves Rowan deserves saving – this is more about Olivia’s own survival, since her dad is CLEARLY not in charge anymore.)
Liv comes to Meg’s house with Huck and tells her that Jennifer is alive. It’s a weird reaction.
“I need him to forgive himself. I need that. He loves you. He’s not a monster, he’s not.” Olivia explains Huck’s illness to Meg, while Huck silently cries behind her. They’re the strongest BROTP on this show.
“I promise I will never ever touch you again. I promise.” Forgive him, you heartless wench!
Huck takes Meg to see Jennifer, her ol’ buddy ol’ pal. As soon as she’s in the apartment, Meg pulls out a gun and puts a few right in Jennifer’s chest. Becky was right. They always know just how to play him.
“Is it done?” “It’s done. Jennifer Fields is dead.” “And Huck?” Jennifer takes out Huck too, though he appears to be alive at the end of the episode, if barely. Anyway, is that who I think it is at the other end of the phone?
“Don’t worry, Miss Whelan. He’ll have no idea you were a part of this.” ABBY WHY. ABBY. ABBY: LOOK AT ME. WHY.
Is Abby colluding with Evil Ponytail too? Who’s bankrolling this entire operation and why is Mellie Grant so important to them? Is Abby the one holding the metaphorical gun to Liv’s head without her knowledge? I know those two fell out, but this is ridiculous.
If you’ve got a theory about whose out-B6-13ing B6-13, we’d love to hear it in the comments.
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