Scandal 2.20 Review - 'A Woman Scorned'
rating:4
Another week, another suspect in the Albatross case - hello gladiators and welcome back to the criss-crossing storylines of Capitol Hill that can only come from Scandal! Picking up from last week's fantastic Huck-centric outing, we're back to a new episode, ably directed by Tony Goldwyn (Fitz) and some simmering, delightful new developments. Exciting! Olivia opens the episode enjoying a nice swim - apparently that's how all the cool people of the word relieve their problems - when she's interrupted by Ballard who's been following her as her bodyguard, however unwilling. She chews Fitz out over the phone, demanding Ballard gone, but he refuses, threatening to have her arrested for her own safety. Nothing says romance like threatening to arrest your one true love, people! Meanwhile Pope & Associates are busy trying to hunt down the dude in the baseball cap who attacked Huck, only for the man himself to emerge, slowly coming back to his former self after his harrowing last week. They soon find out that it's Charlie, indicating that Cyrus might be the mole in the government, deeply shocking Liv. Liv defends Charlie and Cyrus but allows them to investigate.
The team continue digging, using Charlie's major sweet tooth and using maps and tracking to a bookstore where David finds a book club that Charlie has joined. Charlie has an entire life no one knows about and soon they bring in his girlfriend Tami, geeky and adorable. Tami gets stood up for her date with Charlie, until it's revealed that Charlie wanted her laptop because she's a court stenographer, the same one who looked over the Defiance trial. Cyrus is innocent of being the mole! Ballard seems pretty damn likely. Liv meanwhile is summoned to the White House where she and Fitz have a head-to-head, Olivia unleashing a hell of a tirade that she needs to be earned, not summoned. Fantastic empowering moment there. Ballard watches her decompress from the argument afterwards, looking concerned. James lets Cyrus know that he's been offered a TV spot and a distracted Cyrus lets him know he approves. Cyrus is too busy dealing with Mellie's ultimatum - 36 hours for Fitz to try and commit to their marriage and family or she goes on national news and denounces him. Cyrus tries to get Liv to help but she refuses, not getting involved in this latest endeavour. Fitz ignores Mellie's threats and tells Cyrus to use scare tactics to get her to back down - which he does so, threatening her with the destruction of her career if she doesn't take his very generous offer of a huge political career. This backfires spectacularly, although Cyrus soon has a stroke of inspiration: what if he gets rid of Olivia? It's not over for Olivia though - Huck lets her know that Charlie killed Amanda Tanner last year under the orders from Cyrus. Liv is shocked, Huck telling her this shocking nugget of information as a warning. He wants to keep her safe, something which seems in danger when Ballard is called away by a fake Presidential call, orchestrated by Cyrus, leaving Liv in danger. 
However, Ballard stays, smelling a trap and throwing off Cyrus. Go Ballard! Redeemed some brownie points there. Cyrus retreats and Olivia, having witnessed the whole thing, invites Ballard in for some wine and a confessional. They discuss Cyrus, secrets and Liv's suspicions about Cyrus which are growing to her chagrin. Ballard admits his true feelings for Fitz, his admiration for her - and to stop him asking about her relationship with Fitz, she kisses him, then leaves for bed. Awkward... Cyrus' restored relationship with James is offset by his increasing anger and irritation at dealing with the Mellie scenario. He grabs hold of Fitz, telling him that Mellie's dangerous, a political bomb waiting to go off. Fitz goes to Liv's apartment, telling her that he doesn't care about Mellie's interview and will give up the presidency for you. A shocked Liv agrees while a sad Mellie waits. The clock runs down and the pair kiss, reunited. Aww! Ballard checks out the CCTV footage and finds Charlie digging around in Liv's apartment, watching the same feeds. Meanwhile Cyrus is enraged when James turns out to Mellie's interviewer and she admits Fitz's betrayal live on-air. However, Mellie turns the thing on its head, making them out to be working through the infidelity together while Fitz and Liv share a loving embrace under the shower, blissfully unaware. Uh-oh! 
Another great episode this week and one that explored Charlie's background a lot more including the parallels between him and Huck as they both balanced 'normal' lives with their spy ones. It's not as revelatory or as brilliant as last week's, but there's still so much to enjoy here, particularly as Fitz finally mans up and embraces Olivia fully. The love triangle between Olivia, Fitz and Ballard keeps moving forward and Tony Goldwyn does an impressively fine job behind and in front of the camera. Things are being quickly set up for the finale - now that we've eliminated Cyrus from our roster of Albatross suspects, is it really Ballard? His intro did coincide with the introduction of the Albatross arc but I can't help but feel like this is too easy an out or an option for Rhimes and her crew of fantastic writers and crew. So, who do you think the elusive Albatross is? Charlie? Ballard? Lauren the plucky secretary? Leave your theories and comments in the boxes below!