Scandal recap: “Vermont is for Lovers, Too”

Scandal Recap: “Vermont is for Lovers, Too”

So it looks like Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) is back to her once-every-few-episodes “physical encounters” with President Grant (Tony Goldwyn) after finding out that that he only bought her a three-story home! Oh, and Maya Pope (Khandi Alexander) looks like she is finally going to talk to Olivia for the first time in 20 years.

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But let’s backtrack to the beginning. Olivia began the hour by conversely making attempts to ignore President Grant by trying to hide the phone he kept attempting to call and by slamming it with a stone repeatedly. Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) noticed this and smartly explained that despite her efforts, President Grant would eventually find a way to get in contact with her. This scene gave the impression that Olivia would once again turn on him for the President (an obvious repeated theme as the show goes on). Which is exactly what happened! Olivia was shown secret photos of her and her father, Eli Pope (Joe Morton), so the blackmail attempt forced her on a helicopter trip to Vermont. The flight brought them to a vacant three-story home, which President Grant explained was supposed to be their future home, but was now for sale. And then, as the name of the episode foreshadows, Olivia succumbed to her inner love and she and the President released their sexual tensions. The scene ended with Olivia telling the president to not sell the home just yet.

We also got an inner look at the current situation regarding Maya Pope. All she wanted from Eli was to see her daughter, but despite her requests, was still denied by Eli. She revolted by biting her wrist until she reached an artery, which made her lose a lot of blood. When seeing her recovering in bed, Eli slightly caved in to Maya’s earlier request by showing her past articles about Olivia’s high school academic and athletic prowess and current success as a lawyer. I have a feeling that he was hoping that the newspaper clippings would suffice rather than actually seeing Olivia. But when asked why Eli didn’t have any actual photos of her life, he was left speechless and requested that the doctor heavily sedate her before being transported to the other prison. This furthered Maya’s step-ahead plan of escape, and when Eli returned the day of transferal, found a heavily sedated doctor with no Maya in sight. Maya escaped and set up the final scene cliffhanger where she called for Olivia and was about to talk to her.

On the Pope & Associates front, the episode focused on who killed the last person with knowledge of the flight. As I referenced in my last recap, this was Quinn Perkins (Lindsay Dwyer), who was still confused on how to handle the situation. She tried to delete the information after stealing the video feed from that night at the site. However, when she began to delete the files, Huck (Guillermo Diaz) took the computer and began to study the little video feed that was left. He found the reflection of Quinn in the mirror by the entrance, but it took a day to enhance the quality. When Quinn arrived home the next night, she was met by a disappointed and angry Huck trying to cope with his want to kill her while also wanting to know what was going on. I don’t know why Quinn didn’t just tell them right away what happened. Pope & Associates had represented her before, and they would understand that the situation she was forced into was an accident.

Pope & Associates also ended up losing their presidential candidate, Josephine Marcus (Lisa Kudrow) after her sister Candice Marcus (Sally Pressman) tried to accuse the other campaign of a Watergate-esque robbery of their campaign computer. Candice placed the computer in the other campaign’s headquarters, but when the police went through the computer, they realized that nothing was really on it. Josephine told Olivia that she would release Candice from the campaign to handle the situation positively in the public’s eye, but instead resigned from the campaign.

From a prediction standpoint, as more episodes go on, I have a feeling that Jake is only putting up with Olivia’s issues because he has the task of getting information for B613. Any person not controlled by a potentially criminal organization would have left the situation long ago. I also feel like the show hasn’t forgotten about the ending of Episode 2 when Jake Ballard was finally free from the torture brought upon by B613. The end of the episode featured a preview for Episode 3 with the hashtags #goodjake #badjake. I feel like the show wouldn’t put a question like that out there if he were good, and also would not forget about it.

Potential Stories for New Episode

  • Maya Pope’s first conversation in 20 years with Olivia
  • Quinn and Huck’s encounter with the kill-kit
  • Quinn’s plan to escape B613

Memorable Quotes

Harrison (Columbus Short) to Candice Marcus

“Maybe if you’re good, I’ll let you stay up till 9.”

President Grant to Olivia

“This was going to be you and me and growing old together.”

Olivia to President Grant

“You have to go. You have a world to run.”

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Scandal: “Vermont is for Lovers, Too” — Michael Ansell/ABC