Scandal 2.17 Recap - 'Snake In The Garden'
rating: 4.5
Another week, another series of revelations. Hello Scandalites (Scandaliers?) or just plain Gladiators as we get back to the messy business of Albatross, Osbourne the villainous CIA director and David Rosen in an episode that is all about children and the parents who screw them up or aren't there at all. Cyrus meets with assassin-du-jour Charlie (who really does have one hell of a sweet tooth - a few weeks ago he was putting a diabetic amount of sugar in his cereal and now he's sucking on a lollipop) in an underground parking lot and arranges for him to do some surveillance on Ballard, Fitz's new BFF. A jealous Cyrus tells him that Ballard is in a manner of speaking "sleeping with his husband". Someone's got the green-eyed monster! Ballard meanwhile is busy giving Fitz the latest about Olivia and Fitz implies he can secure Ballard a big, high-ranking job in the Oval Office. Unfortunately Ballard becomes scared when Olivia is confronted in her apartment by Osborne. He tries threatening her but she cuts him down and shows her lack of fear. Later on Ballard breaks into her apartment to change the cameras that mysteriously blacked out when Osborne arrived and steals the papers about the hostages. Ballard soon confirms that Osborne is probably the mole.
David returns home to find his place ramsacked and barely escapes being noticed. Still an enemy of the state. He ends sleeping in the Pope & Associates offices and observing the events of the episode. We reckon he's gonna end up being the newest Pope & Associate recruit before the season is out. Quinn and Huck are having a car ride chat as they track Osborne - Quinn wants Huck to find a new family to look over They soon discuss new families in apartments - Quinn bless her, is desperately trying to get Huck some stability. At the end of the episode, Huck shows her the family he's been observing is for Quinn, to help with her relationship with her dad (she's shown ringing him repeatedly for his birthday). However she has bigger problems to deal with when the new client of the firm turns out to be none other than slimy tycoon and thorn in Olivia's side Hollis Doyle who turns at the office with his 'favourite ex-wife' Deborah. The joy in the air is just palpable. 
Hollis and Deborah are in the offices to ask the team to help rescue their daughter Maybelle who's being held for ransom although Hollis believes it to be a fake. Liv gets Hollis to agree to help but he refuses to offer cash. The team manage to track down the location of the warehouse where the tape came from but soon Maybelle's severed ear arrives in the mail - things are getting serious! Hollis remains nonplussed however when he demands proof - something he gets when a photo of Maybelle with her ear removed appears. Cyrus and Mellie have another pow-wow over their uneasy alliance over getting Fitz's attention and soon an upcoming visit from the kids has them at loggerheads. Mellie soon cancels the visit, making the cute receptionist fill up Fitz's schedule and Cyrus soon is feeling threatened. Charlie's research into Ballard, however, distracts him. Cyrus confronts Fitz about an Iraqi mission where Fitz did dark, dangerous things and Ballard was part of the extraction team. Cyrus finally challenges Fitz over the vote-rigging and makes him see the parallels. They finally bond over Osborne - something that's overheard by Mellie. Killer dress sense, needs to work on her 'listening whilst not looking like she's listening' skills. Hollis is finally on board and agrees to Liv's orders to send half of the money over. As they wait for the ransom phone call, Quinn and Hollis finally have a conversation and she sees the vulnerable, human side of him as he laments the 'loss' of his daughter. The call comes in and Maybelle's kidnapper agrees to prove she's alive for the second half of the money. The team race to an old gas station - the meeting place - where they spot Maybelle alive, send the money and rescue her! Hollis thanks Olivia at Maybelle's bedside, a nice moment between the two. Liv and Ballard speak at her apartment, her previously awesome dress shed in favour of slob-out gear (and yet she still looks gorgeous - very jealous). This all comes after a Cyrus/Liv phone call where she enquires about Fitz and realises she's not over him. Ballard lists some of Olivia's awesome traits (wearing white, answering the phone with 'what?', and treating wine as a food group are things we all do, right?) and kisses her, leading to a weirdly cold and yet romantic moment before he leaves. My God will these two ever just go on a date? 
In the aftermath, Maybelle turns out to be her own kidnapper and Hollis is left sad and wilting (like his flowers). Huck intercepts Maybelle on the way to the airport and brings her to the office where she confronts her parents. Olivia calls out her sense of entitlement in a brilliant monologue that hints at her own history. Hollis offers her a deal - the $20 million or her family - and she shockingly chooses the money. He agrees to send her the cash and cuts her off from them, leaving the team pretty shocked at how evil Maybelle really might be. Osborne confronts Cyrus and shows his years-long commitment by missing out on his family - however Fitz orders Cyrus to fire Osborne. Later, in a stand-out scene, Fitz confronts his wife about cancelling the visit and tears her down, claiming that she doesn't love her children - Mellie furiously strikes back, revealing that the kids never wanted to come, not wanting to deal with their drunken, alcoholic mess of a dad who doesn't know them anymore. Mellie is still their mom but Fitz has changed since Olivia stopped being a perfect goddess and shattered his illusions - he's become his own father, a figure of hate for Fitz. It's nice to see Fitz's destructive behaviours finally addressed and Mellie's icy veneer thawed, even for a little, and the fact she actually loves her kids (though she's not good at it) is a nice turn for a character often seem to irredeemably wicked. Shockingly, Osborne is revealed to be the victim of a cover-up when he's found in his car, apparently having killed himself after being fired. A mysterious guy meets Charlie on a park bench and confirms that they set up Osborne to take the fall for being the mole - so who's the real mole?? A slow-burning delight of an episode which managed to make Hollis look sympathetic, even if only for a moment, and which set up plenty of new twists and turns with the second half of this season's main arc - now that Osborne isn't 'Albatross', who is the real mole? Who is the mysterious and dapper guy on the bench? MVP goes to Bellamy Young this week for that stirring, emotional scene in the last five minutes - she defends herself, confirms a heart to her ice maiden Mellie and actually becomes a force for something good: getting Fitz to sober up and stop wallowing. Whether or not that's entirely self-interested we don't know, but in an episode all about children, it's a nice touch. Whether or not it's Fitz's disintegrating relationship with his children, Mellie's interesting one with hers, Cyrus' breakdown with Maybelle, Quinn's own non-existent one with her dad or Osborne's sacrifice of one for his job, there's no doubt the theme of this episode was how much we might try, parents will never have a perfect relationship with their kids and from one generation to the next, things change and sometimes get worse. Time to meet Liv's mum and dad I reckon?