'Scandal' Review/Recap: "Honor Thy Father"

By Nora Dominick ‘17/ Emertainment Monthly Assistant Stage Editor

Scandal continued to build to its sure to be crazy finale with the latest episode entitled “Honor Thy Father.” This episode sets up the entire rest of the season and in the last five minutes Scandal drops the biggest season changing bomb.
In the last few episodes, David Rosen (Joshua Malina) has begun to build a case against B-613. Taking down this top secret spy agency has proved harder than he thought when Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) doesn’t want to testify. With Jake seemingly going crazy and wanting to kill everyone linked to this B-613 trial, David must take things into his own hands. This storyline with Malina has become a big one for this season and it’s refreshing to see his character have a storyline that is in the forefront. Since season 2 when he tried to take down the President for rigging the election, David has fallen into the background and simply became the character that Abby (Darby Stanchfield) slept with. Malina is an incredible actor and his ability to play the naive but strong character is simply astonishing. This week the entire B-613 group banded together to take down Jake Ballard and it was one crazy, hectic and bloody ride.

With Jake Ballard going rogue, it’s up to the other ex-B-613 agents to help David take down Command/Papa Pope (Joe Morton). Quinn (Katie Lowes), Huck (Guillermo Diaz) and Charlie (George Newbern) help David track down other B-613 agents and keep them safe. Of course, this plan doesn’t last very long. Charlie returns to find all three of the ex-B613 agents slain on the floor of a safe house and Jake Ballard in the room. The team declares that they have to kill Jake. Lowes, Diaz and Newbern are incredible in this episode. The three actors are able to portray people that have lost it all but still have hope that justice will be served. Newbern has gone from a villainous character on the show to someone intricate to the B-613 storylines. His ability to have this character go through a significant character arc without a lot of screentime is extremely impressive. Huck and Quinn eventually find out that Jake has been surveillancing Olivia’s (Kerry Washington) house and that’s the last straw. The Gladiators snap into action and decide that Jake needs to go once and for all. But, when Jake threatens Olivia’s life, the team has to back down.
One of the best scenes of the night comes when Huck, Charlie, Quinn and David meet on the steps of the Lincoln Monument, completely and utterly defeated. The four characters have become a fan-favorite group on the show and to see them have an emotional scene together where they step back and try to protect Olivia is astonishing. The four characters have gone through some of the biggest story arcs on Scandal. In the end, the four of them leave and decide they need to hide from Jake Ballard, who has gone rogue. David tries to convince them to tell Olivia because she could help. In an emotional exchange Huck tells David, “She’s family.” Protecting Olivia comes first which is something different from this group. Talk about character development.

Elsewhere in the Scandal universe, Elizabeth (Portia De Rossi) and Mellie (Bellamy Young) continue to prep for Mellie’s congressional run. When Harmony (Lauren Bowles), Mellie’s half sister, shows up and could ruin Mellie’s image, Elizabeth invites her to the White House so the two sisters can sort things out. Mellie has been in the background of episodes lately so, it was refreshing for her to have a storyline this episode. Bowles and Young do an amazing job and help provide more of a backstory on Mellie’s troubling family life. This storyline also allowed Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) to step to the side and help Mellie out for a change. He took on more of the “first-lady role” and tried to help Harmony and Mellie come to an understanding. This storyline could have used more this episode and here’s hoping the “Mellie for Congresswoman” storyline begins to take a better shape and come to the forefront for the rest of this season.
In the last few minutes, the rest of this Scandal season was altered drastically. With David losing Huck, Quinn, Charlie and the rest of the ex-B613 agents to testify against Jake and Papa Pope, David realizes he can testify because he is a witness to Jake brutally killing James Novak (Dan Bucatinsky). This is where the episode really starts to pick up. It’s revealed that Jake was trying to protect David because his secretary Holly (Stefanie Black) was a B-613 agent hired to kill and spy on David. It’s always the quiet ones. And if that wasn’t enough of a game changer, Huck confronts Olivia about the Jake problem and Olivia reveals that she has been working with Jake this entire time and she knows everything. We always knew Olivia would be kept in the dark forever. Jake sums up this episode of Scandal perfectly when he says, “We’re the good guys, but you won’t always be able to tell.” And if all of this wasn’t enough, in the last jaw-dropping minute Olivia opens the door to find her father and the man she’s been sleeping with working together. Scandalous. Looks like Scandal has set up the rest of the season and it’s sure to be one crazy, bloody and hectic ride.

Scandal returns in two-weeks with a brand new episode on Thursday at 9/10c on ABC

Overall grade: B+