HEAT IS ON: “Scandal” viewers learned that Olivia (Kerry Washington) and President Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) have had a relationship for years. (
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If it took you a bit to process what happened on last night’s “Scandal,” you’re not alone.
Former CIA operative and dedicated hacker Huck (Guillermo Diaz) was revealed to be the would-be assassin of President Fitzgerald “Fitz” Grant (Tony Goldwyn). In a stunning, out-of-nowhere final scene last week, the president was gunned down on his way into his 50th birthday gala.
Given that Huck works for Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington), the love of the president’s life (and not the very pregnant first lady), the disclosure is a doozy.
Usually, the big whodunit reveal of a presidential shooter would be the highlight of an episode like this.
But because of everything that’s happened before it, the shooter’s identity almost didn’t register on “Scandal.”
The real meat of the episode involved Olivia’s flashbacks — as she meanders around the hospital in shock — to her romantic relationship with Fitz.
And what a steamy, lusty, needy affair it’s been.
The flashbacks establish that Olivia’s relationship with Fitz existed long before he took office — and begin to fill in the gaps in the political soap by the prolific writer producer of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice,” Shonda Rhimes.
It starts with Olivia — a “professional fixer” of all things unsavory in Washington — looking absolutely ruined watching Fitz dance with the first lady at the inaugural ball.
She is subsequently summoned for some grope-y, sexy time in the Oval Office.
“This can’t happen,” she protests weakly.
“I think it could happen right here on that desk,” Fitz says.
Cue the throbbing electronic bass.
The sweaty summits continue at Camp David, where there are no cameras and Fitz can leer at Olivia while she pitches ideas for the State of the Union speech. These scenes are woven with others showing romantic, candlelit romps, and still others with bedroom banter over immigration policy.
OK, maybe that was the only bit that wasn’t hot.
The upshot is that instead of a familiar tale of the powerful politico romping about with the naïve intern, these are consenting adults with genuine feelings for each other.
The we-shouldn’t-we-have-to back and forth culminates in a meeting in the Rose Garden, where they both choke out desperate and angry pleas of love. “I can’t breathe because I’m waiting for you,” says Olivia.
“My every feeling is controlled by the look on your face,” Fitz huffs back.
In between staring into space at the hospital and taking wistful whiffs of Fitz’s sweatshirt in his walk-in closet, Olivia manages to blow off her current job, reappoint herself White House communications director, run a press conference — and attempt to keep the vice president from taking office.
Via Olivia’s flashbacks, we learn that a very hairy Huck used to feed Olivia information when he was living in a halfway house. She took him in, which apparently earned his undying loyalty.
By the end of the episode, we know that the information Huck fed Olivia ultimately led to the deaths of seven people in an attempt to cover up voter fraud that resulted in Fitz’s election.
After Olivia learned of this, she resigned her position at the White House.
In the present, thoroughly evil Vice President Sally Langston (Kate Burton) has convinced the Cabinet to sign over the presidency to her while Fitz remains incapacitated.