Scandal Season 3 recap: Episode 2 – “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”
By Sterling Silver III
We learn more in this episode on what terms the relationship is established between Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and her father, Rowan “Eli” Pope (Joe Morton), and how it ultimately fell apart. The first scene backtracks five years to a forced-upon dinner between dinner between Olivia and her father. Olivia was not pleased to be there as she referenced the “agreement” to have weekly Sunday dinners with her father with the return of her law school loans being paid off. Fans also learn through this exchange that Eli supposedly has a job with the Smithsonian that is not worth talking about, and that Olivia is currently in a relationship with Edison Davis (Norm Lewis). Her father also referenced that Wonderland Ave. has great wine as Olivia liked the wine she had at dinner (foreshadowing). The scene ends with Olivia being jumped by some homeless people in Union Station with Homeless Huck (Guillermo Diaz) coming in to save the day.
The next scene goes back to the present, where the presidential affair follows Olivia wherever she goes. She then receives a call from President Grant (Tony Goldwyn), who had a low moment and needed to talk to Olivia. In one of the underrated scenes of the show, the president said that, “Somewhere, we have four kids, and we live in Vermont.” Olivia responded with, “And I make jam,” once again hinting that their potential relationship really has no potential.
The next relevant scene was when Olivia returned to Union Station in a flashback to approach Huck, curious as to where he learned to fight people with such skill. Huck told the whole story to Olivia: that he was a trained CIA assassin and a participant in the B613 program. After hearing this, she had dinner once again with her dad and asked him about her most recent encounter with Huck. She asked him about the B613 program, which elicited a noticeable lie from her dad. He eventually backed off and said he would do it to make her happy.
The episode then flashed back to the present with Cyrus (Jeff Perry) telling the President to “grow some balls” with First Lady Grant’s (Bellamy Young) support and to publicly state that he had an affair with Jeanine (Samantha Sloyan). The president completely ignored this request and told them that they owed Jeanine a world-class apology. Cyrus and the First Lady then sneak off, and plan on finding days that the president and Jeanine were the only two in the White House to frame them.
The media then received the false information and began to report it while Pope & Associates began to respond. They learned that Jeanine had a friend, Ethan (IMDB wasn’t responding), who she texted while he was in the White House at the same time, and sent Abby Whelan (Darby Stanchfield) to get the texts.
This is followed with Olivia pleading with her father to know if Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) is still alive. Her father scoffed and laughed as he told her to ask Huck about it (foreshadowing). She then called the president and demanded that he find out if Jake was alive (although it was not under his jurisdiction to be able to).
The commercial break is followed with Olivia wanting to know everything about B613. Huck explains that after a kill request, they don’t kill the participants, but rather try to “reprogram” them with the use of the hole! This dispirits participants, and makes them wish they were dead.
Olivia takes us back in time again to her asking David Rosen (Joshua Malina) for any crime records on Huck. He explains that she was lied to, but does give her a pen with “ACME Limited” labeled on the side. She then went to Wonderland Ave. and found the ACME building.
At dinner that night, she quietly gave her father the pen and burst into tears wanting to know if her father taught people how to kill. Her father told her to sit down and continue eating, but Olivia walked away.
Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes) then makes an appearance, beaming to Huck about being able to hack into Olivia’s emails. Quinn found out that Eli and Olivia emailed each other about dinner every Sunday until they all-of-a-sudden stopped emailing each other. Huck basically dismissed what Quinn told him.
Olivia then began to plan Jeanine’s public statement that she did not have an affair with the president. As she stayed at Olivia’s home for protection, the First Lady called her right after Olivia left, to talk to her about the current situation.
Olivia then returns to the past, where she unexpectedly showed up to her father’s home the next Sunday with her groom-to-be, Edison. She explains that he was recently assigned to the Senate Intel Committee as a threat to get Huck back. She later finds Huck beaten, but alive in the Union Station. As she began to console him, she got a call from her father saying that Edison was alive, but injured in an “accident” at the Washington Memorial. He threatened her to break of the marriage, or more would happen.
As scenes from the past intertwined, the episode returned to the present with Jeanine about to go live saying she had the affair. After Olivia told her that the money ($2 million) was not worth losing her soul for, she was about to speak when the president interjected and admitted he had relations with Jeanine.
The last scene starts with Quinn discovering that a homeless man was bargained for the marriage to end and that he lived in Union Station. When she and Huck realized it was Huck, he ran to the parking garage and choked Olivia, wanting to know if he really was trade bait. She said yes. Her father then called her at home, telling her to open her front door. She found a battered Jake Ballard alive on her doorstep.
Great Quotes from Scandal Season 3 Episode 2
Huck:
“I can kill with very little effort and a lot of joy.”
Eli Pope:
“We are family. We are never done.”
RELATED: SCANDAL SEASON 3 RECAP: EPISODE 1 – “IT’S HANDLED”
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Samantha Sloyan and Kerry Washington in Scandal Season 3, Episode 2: Danny Feld/ABC
