Put A Ring On It: Scandal Episode 417 Recap
I’m tardy for the pordee posting this Scandal episode recap but better later than never, right? Also, you could have read my Vulture one by now. This episode was directed by the awesome Regina King. Let’s talk about it!
Michael Mischief – The Gladiators are summoned in the middle of the night, and so is Cyrus Beene. Everyone rolls into the Olivia Pope and Associates Office when Huck drags Michael (Cyrus’ paid gigolo boo) in. Dude is drunk as a skunk and Cy flips out and reminds him that the reason he is a Kept Man is to avoid all these shenanigans. Michael’s been partying like he ain’t got a fake fiancé at home, licking other men’s faces and just acting all the way up. Bad part is that it’s been caught by the press, who already have more than enough reasons to question the realness of his relationship with the White House Chief of Staff.
Cyrus is feeling awful about the idea of marrying the hoe he has tried unsuccessfully to turn into a housefiance and he already pushed back their wedding 4 times. “I can’t bother the President with my hooker troubles, Liv.” Olivia tells him that now he has to go through it for real, so she gets Mellie to stand up for him and marriage equality in the press. This is cuz it will look good for her run for Senate.
Beene thinks about the first time he got married decades before. Young Cyrus, in a bad white suit and a wig that was so bad it made me cuss. He proposed to a woman named Janet, who he told was his soulmate, and she said yes! Seriously, doe. That wig was like a chia pet chilling on his scalp. Bless that mess.
Wedding plans – Mellie is all excited to be helping Cy plan the wedding and he is not impressed. She tells him she’s just trying to help and being the King of Shade that he is, he replies with “I cannot tell the difference between you and Mother Teresa.” HA! Michael is there looking all lost and Mellie says they’ll be inviting his parents to the wedding and he lowkey panics. He doesn’t want them there but no one is tryna hear him. We flashback to the day he married Janet. One of his groomsmen asks him for the next time they’ll play “racquetball” and Cy is mad because he is gonna be a changed married man.
As if the ring was gonna turn him allaway straight. Chile…
Reward for tea – VP Sally gets on her TV show (Lawd, who gave her one?) and says she heard from a good source that Cyrus and Diamond (aka Michael. Make that money, don’t let it make you) are fraudulent dinnamug. She offers $10,000 to anyone willing to come forward with receipts so she can spill all their tea. But wayment. Did VP Sally forget that she killed her husband and Cyrus knows?
Lashing for Lizzie – Liz North is officially Mellie’s campaign manager so she tells her that she should have run the “stand up for marriage equality” thing by her first. FLOTUS reads her for poetry and lets her know that there’s only ONE boss in their relationship and her last name is Grant. OOP.
Hole in Condom – Abby’s pissed that Leo went and told Sally that Cyrus and Michael are a sham and he flips it back to her and says it’s her fault. She knows they’re on opposing sides work-wise even though they go together so why did she even give him the tea to begin with? He tells her: “You poked the hole in the condom. NOT ME.” Fact.
Up in the Closet – Back to the past, we see Wiggy Cyrus come home to find Janet sitting in their closet, drunker than spring break in Cancun. He is excited because he wants to make a run for Congress and he feels he’s finally in the place for it. However, she wants a divorce after 16 years being married to him because “I will admit about having an affair if you admit that you are gay.” AW SHIT. He can’t even reply either because truth is truth. I just love that this conversation happened while they were both in a literal closet.
Flashback to Cyrus’ wedding day to James (may he rest), the men have a heart-to-heart before their vows. James is worried that getting married to the powerful man will dwarf him and his career. “I don’t wanna be Cyrus Beene’s husband the journalist.” They share a sweet moment when Beene promises him that he will never make him compromise his integrity. HAAAAAAAAAA!!! By sweet, I mean “a gahtdamb lie.”
Doux Bébé – That day, Liv is in Cy and James’ bedroom placing rose petals on their bed when President Ghost comes in. She’s not pleased by it but he’s staying like Effie White. He asks why she quit her job at the White House and she says it’s because she cannot stand to see his tall ass everyday. I hear you, Liv. This is why I unfollow my exes on social media. EHHEHWEIGH, he puts a ring box on the bed as has the Vermont instrumental plays.
He tells her that it’s his Great-Grandmother’s ring, and he was supposed to give it to someone special but Mellie wasn’t that. WELL SHIT. Ouch. The ring is called “doux bébé” aka “Sweet Baby, and he wants her to wear it so that he knows they will be ok, no matter what situations they go through.
It’s a silent symbol of their connection to each other. Liv accepts it and they make out.
So this explains a lot of things. This is the ring that Olivia wears all the time, and is the one she took off her finger and left in Lois’ apartment when she was kidnapped. It’s the one she’s thrown at him before when she did some Ain’t Shit thing. And this ring is called Sweet Baby is a callback to the first ever episode of Scandal. It was titled “Sweet Baby” and in it, Amanda Tanner accused the President of sleeping with her. Olivia didn’t want to believe it but when Amanda told her she fell for him because he called her Sweet Baby, she had no other choice. It also explained how hurt she was by it for him to use such a sacred title they shared for his… second… mistress. Fitz REALLY ain’t shit, y’all. GOSH.
In PRESENT day, Liv goes to the Oval Office and tells Fitz she needs a favor for Cyrus. She makes her hands visible and he immediately peeps that she isn’t wearing Sweet Baby. Her petty was in full display and it works because he got that butthurt look on his face
Dinner Downer – Cyrus and Michael are at dinner with Michael’s parents and Pops is NOT pleased about the impending nuptials cuz he knows it’s a sham. He rips into his son when the cameras present start taking their pics talmbout “They’re not paying us enough to have our pics taken.” DAMB. He tells his son how much of a disgrace he is, because they tried to “fix” him when he was young but it didn’t take. Him and Papa Pope must golf together on weekends because they know how to break their children down! Michael sits there looking all dejected, and even Cy feels bad for his faux partner.
When they get back home, Michael drops some things he’s holding and when Cy tries to help him pick them up, he pushes him. Aawwww. He’s all hurt and acting out.
It’s Handled – The plan is to throw Michael under the bus so Cyrus can keep his head above water but when Liv enters the room everyone is in, she sees Cy’s face. He clearly can’t stand to put the man in anymore pain and Liv reads that instantly and calls off the plan.
Liv goes to see VP Sally, who is getting ready to interview a guest with proof of the Sham-ship of Cy and Michael. She brings some receipts herself and reminds Langston that her dead husband was actually an old client of Diamond and if she outs Beene’s relationship, she will be outing him too. AW SHIT. Sally takes this more than strong hit and has a proverbial seat on her witch hunt. She cancels the interview, and Liv, in an all white jacket, actually handles something without hurting someone else. She has not rocked all white anything all season so this was definitely a change that was good to see.
Put a Ring On It – The day of the wedding arrives and the White House lawn has been transformed. Cyrus finds Michael sitting in a room by himself, with their marriage license in front of him. The poor dude is so downtrodden, and tells Cy that this is a day he thought would be a dream but he realizes that he really has nothing to show for himself and really, no one.
“You’re wondering what this is going to look like, our life. And I could lie to you right now. That’s how both of my other marriages began: with lies. So I could lie to you right now. I could tell you there’s a chance we will warm to one another. Maybe fall in love and live happily ever after. I could lie but I won’t. We’re not going to fall in love. And… that is a relief to me because I cannot disappoint you. I cannot hurt you more than I already have. I cannot destroy your image of me or break your heart of damage your soul. You don’t believe in me so I have nothing in you to break I am on no pedestals so you see me for what I am: a filthy monster desperately trying to hold on to the last shreds of humanity. YOU are a good person. I know that. Ella could use a good person in her life. I’m nit promising much but I will promise this. I may not do it well but I will do my best to be your someone. So you’re not alone. Okay? You’re not alone.”
Stevie Wonder’s “All in Love is Fair” plays as Michael buries his head in Cyrus’ shoulder and for the first time in the entire episode, I felt feels. That moment of brutal honesty and vulnerability by Cyrus was enough to redeem the episode. Just adorable.
Michael signs the license, and the ceremony happens as the President watches and Leo and Abby giggle. Liv is in the audience, rocking light gray (ok den!) and Baby Ella makes an appearance (finally! Where has she been all this time)? After they are pronounced Husband and Husband, and everyone starts mingling, Fitz sees Liv across the garden, wearing Sweet Baby.
I appreciate that this episode definitely clarified some background things, and the Sweet Baby callback was for original Gladiators to recall. Shondaland trusts us with this stuff and I appreciate that. We find out about Cyrus’ relationship with love, which seems to always be built on lies. However, we realize that he isn’t ALL beast and there is still a heart where his ice box resides.
Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic myself, but I’m actually rooting for him and Michael to fall in love. I wonder if we’ll see his ex-wife again. What is she up to presently? Most importantly, why is Cyrus’ wig life always in shambles?
For me, this was my least favorite Scandal episode ever. It didn’t have real conflict I cared about until the end. Plus, it felt like an episode that lived in a vacuum, not necessarily tied to anything else happening. It’s a like a filler, maybe to give us a break before shit really hits the fan since Huck don snitched on B613.
Apparently on the next episode, Jake loses his mind. I really believe he’s going to die this season of the show. Let me explain. Someone major-ish has died on every season of Scandal, though. Season 1: Amanda Tanner. Season 2: Verna. Season 3: Harrison, James, Jerry. Season 4 = Jake, in my opinion. Huck can’t die because if he does, Liv loses MOST of her power (that isn’t based on talking slick). He’s too important. David will NEVER die because he is Lemony Snicket and he’d be too lucky to die. He’s also the conscience of the show a little bit, with his white hat. It ain’t gon be Quinn so it just makes sense that it’ll be Jake. Also, I don’t see where his story can go.
We shall see, doe.
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Agreed about the vacuum bit. I felt like this was a filler as well. Gurl, can someone tell me what’s happening to Jake and if he dies I’m coming dressed as the mourning girlfriend with the short skirt and the bomb as heels and I will be throwing myself on the casket. Just so you know.
Ugh! I don’t understand. Although Papa Pope did promise him he was gon’ die. I guess I better get all this birthday wine ready for Thursday!
PS: Cyrus and his wig need therapy. That wig was acting out some serious childhood trauma.
I was in shock reading Luvvie’s prediction until this:
“if he dies I’m coming dressed as the mourning girlfriend with the short skirt and the bomb as heels and I will be throwing myself on the casket”
snapped me back to life.
Please come over to superglue our falsies on for the funeral together.
This episode that was well done and actually pretty good – old school Scandal. It was a slower pace which was appropriate for the flashbacks. A lot of social issues were touched on – gay rights, AIDS in the 80s, gay conversion camps, Cyrus’ political marriage to run for office and fear of AIDS, Cyrus living on the down low after marriage, Sally’s show on Faux News (haha The Liberty Report), what is marriage (Cyrus and his wife, Cyrus and James, Cyrus and Michael, Mellie and Fitz, Fitz and Olivia), separation of Church and State analogies, etc.
This statement from Fitz when he gave the family heirloom ring to Olivia and told her the history of the ring shows the Grant marriage was on shaky ground from the very beginning. He always had doubts about Mellie being his wife which was to appease his father:
“I was supposed to give it to my wife but I didn’t. It just never felt right, so I kept it. And now I know why because I was supposed to give it to you.”
The less we see of Huck acting crazy and Jake being useless the better. Mellie can only boss around Elizabeth because everyone else rolls their eyes at her trying to be in charge.
I’m loving Abby with Leo and their banter. I felt so sorry for Michael. He has a horrible dad like Olivia and Fitz. Bad parents can do a lot of damage.
I love Sally as played by Kate Burton. She is a complete functioning nutcase and hilarious.
Hopefully next week will be the beginning of the end for B613 – bye, bye Jake and Rowan. I absolutely hate all the B613 spy nonsense.
BTW Shonda tweeted that Fitz never called Amanda Tanner Sweet Baby. He was drunk and rambling when Amanda gave him the blowjob. Amanda heard Sweet Baby and thought he was referring to her but he was talking about Olivia’s ring.
If Jake dies, you may as well bury me too. I will be mourning girlfriend number 2, who think she is number 1, dressed inappropriately for service, very low v cut black dress with red bra cups showing, fish net stockings and red pumps with straps around ankles. With veil over eyes only and bold red lipstick. Trying to convince folks we was gone get married. WHY, WHYYYYY, they have to take my Jake away from me. Slides down side of casket to floor sits with legs wide open, cause there is no more care left inside of me.
I am glad I’m not the only one who remembered Sweet Baby! I love the way Mama Shonda trusts us to pull things from other seasons and notice details! How far ahead has she thought this tho? Lady Liv HAS worn that ring since day one……
Recap on point as usual… but Olivia did wear white in the beginning of season 4 after her and jake left the sun…
Ok. I have questions. You know how Fitz gave Olivia the ring while she was prepping James/Cyrus’ honeymoon suite? Weren’t Cyrus and James married AFTER the “Sweet Baby” episode? I’m 35 and I forget things. Help a sista out, please. The timeline just isn’t adding up. Am I thinking too much or did the writers flub the timeline?
No, by the time the series started, they were already married. And based on that time line, she really hadn’t been wearing the ring too long before the series started.
You may be thinking of Baby Ella’s dedication ceremony… Which DID happen after the first episode. I was thinking the same thing at first!
“Him and Papa Pope must golf together on weekends because they know how to break their children down!” You must add big Jerry in this trio…
Michael’s daddy, Papa Pope, Big Jerry, and Joe Jackson. That’s the foursome. Their tee time is 6:66 a.m.
*dead*
I can’t #menditmarysbaby
That slayed me. #tears
Susan really can’t die, because somebody has to stand in Mellie’s way at this point.
Leo could die, and I would be okay with that, but he probably won’t, because what is Shondaland gonna do, send Adelstein to Philly?
And i think i heard fitz say the wedding was in vermont. So thats where he gets the idea of vermont and liv and jam.
I agree, this episode was blah for me. It was a Cyrus backstory that really added nothing to how we view him. It seemed like details of truths we were already privvy to.
I am no longer anxiously waiting for new episodes. The lawn chair was the most powerful. The kidnapping was intriguing until she put herself on the auction block which was the most baffling. I can make Thursday night plans and dvr heh rest of the season if this episode is any indication of how things will be.
What I am looking for is some Olivia growth…can she please stop pining over Fitz? Ring or no ring, it’s old and not fun.
Instead of Jake dying, why not kill off Fitz so that Mellie has to relinguish her presidential dreams to her hand-picked VP? That would be amazing!!!!!!!!!
That boarding school has Ella locked up and won’t let her out because of Karen’s shenanigans! Give her free!!
I was actually more engaged in this episode because it was tying up four seasons of loose ends. Also because of ten years of Grey’s Anatomy I know that when Shonda ties up loose ends, pay attention because there is about to be an explosion and the ends are gone unravel faster than Kanekelon braid hair when it’s not burnt.
LMBO!!!! “Give her free” did me in!! And you are so correct about when Shonda ties up loose ends….I am a Grey’s fan as well and we know when that happens….we will truly be in for a huge shock.
That scene with Michael trying to eat his dinner after all the parents said to and about him. I liked this episode. I like all the background it provided. I am sure that we will b back on a rollercoaster next week.
After having a very in depth convo with friends about the whole ring shenanigan, I’m still left with one question. How/when did Olivia get the ring back? Did she throw it at Fitz after the kidnapping? I mean, Liv knew it was somewhere near the vase, but how did it get there? I may be forgetting something. I lose all sense of reality when I look at Fitz.
Huck found the ring when they were going through the neighbor lady’s apartment. I guess he gave it to Liv when she came back.
I was confused by the ring throwing too. Apparently, she threw it at Fitz and he just let it fall to the floor (after Huck found it at the dead lady’s apartment). So I am guessing that after she thought about what she had done, she found the ring on the floor and hid it in the vase.
I know they’re using the term because RL people use the term, but I’m with Forbes on “optics”:
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mee45hgmh/optics-n/
This comment…
“David will NEVER die because he is Lemony Snicket and he’d be too lucky to die.”
DID ME IN!!! Lolol! Because it’s soooo true! David, BKA Lemony Snicket (thanks, Luvvie, for this oh-so-accurate nickname for this Dude), wouldn’t be lucky enough to die on this show! Bwahhahahahahaaaaa!!!
Here’s my question… Where the hell is Papa Pope?!?!?! Is he just chillin somewhere.. Can we get a flash over to him.. A scene or 2…. I need my papa pope fix!!! Shonda stop playin!!!
I’m with you Jaz! Papa and Mama Pope, where are you??!! I can’t believe they have not contacted Olivia since she returned from the kidnapping! Come on Shonda. What’s up with that?!
Just when I thought Shonda spared my edges she just snatches them out the root when I saw the previews for the next episode. This episode was a filler and I enjoyed it. Not every episode needs to have me massaging my scalp with castor oil afterwards.
I agree, this episode was the calm before the storm so our edges can grow before she snatch them off for the remainder of the season. Luvvie you are a fool talmbout Cyrus’ chia pet wigs……….they called up Vidal Sassoon for his 70’s wig collection, smh.
I loved this episode, particularly because of Cyrus’ backstory.
Cyrus is a goon. An evil goon. But, he’s our evil gay goon, and the actor is so phenomenal.
I have watched the dinner scene and the before the wedding scene about a half-dozen times.
Remember, Cyrus was going to throw Michael to the wolves at dinner. That was his evil plan. He had envied Michael because Michael was so ‘ free’ sexually. Cyrus, who had spent 40 years in the closet, was envious of Michael.
Then, sitting there, at dinner, with his hideous parents, and them talking about sending him to camps to FIX HIM?!?!?
And, that they wouldn’t have been there without Lizzie’s PAYCHECK!
Cyrus was like what da phuq?
The change in Cyrus’ entire mindset could be seen on the actor’s face. If they had been somewhere private, Cyrus would have read them for filth, but he couldn’t in such a public place.
The monologue before the wedding was the most honest Cyrus has ever been. It was raw. It was beautiful. And, I loved it.
The part I could have cared less about is Olitz and the ring.
The wigs they put on the actor who plays Cyrus – hilarious.
I am sick of Olivia and Fitz. I liked that they showed that Cyrus does have a heart.
However, I think they need a whole new hair styling crew. Olivia’s wigs are always atrocious and Cyrus’s squirrel hats, well…it leaves much to be desired. I know some girls on YouTube who can slay a wig and it will look like it’s growing outta your scalp!
Tee Cee,
You are SO right. Olivia’s wigs look awful, Cyrus’s wigs look worse than awful. On Grey’s Anatomy, Dr. Bailey’s wigs look awful, and on HWGAWM, Annalise’s wigs look dreadful. I wanted Shonda to fix this, but then I noticed Shonda’s wigs always look awful! I mean they look so obvious and so cheap at the hairline.
Could you please have one of your YouTube girlfriends hook up ALL of ShondaLand? Like maybe a group rate or something? Please?
YAS! The wigs have their own storyline. The wig last week on Lena. Even Viola’s wig….she is so AMAZINGLY TALENTED and yall got plenty of budget PLEASE get her a better wig!!!! All these folks on YouTube working with less than HALF y’all’s budget have wigs that make folk ask you ‘how you get your hair to grow so pretty’ while Shondaland wigs got folk asking you ‘bs by what happened?!?!?’
Doggone autocorrect. I meant to type “Baby what happened?!?!?!”
Yes, but PLEASE Shonda! Stop putting little animals on Cyrus’s head!
Bellamy Young rocked that read scene like its back ain’t got no bone! Did anyone else practice that “you have a JOB. I have a POSITION” line but me? If not, you should have. It’s highly entertaining.
Anyway, Portia DeRossi’s wooden, meek response felt flat to me. This character was getting read like the back of the cereal box by a women who was her equal mere months (weeks?) ago, and there was not nary a damned thing she could do about it. I’d expect wounded pride, a bit of challenge or at least a moment of hidden aggression, but we got none of that. Just me?
Oh it’s coming! I’m not buying that meekness for a second. The last episode she said something along the lines of “I don’t want to be Cyrus Beene’s puppet anymore.” She’s going to turn her back on the team the second she feels safe to. Might just send her daughter off to whatever boarding schools Ella’s in lol.
Next time I dare fall into chuch (yes, chuch, not church) I hope I wear a hair hat like the one Cyrus wore on Flashback Fatalities. I live for the day I step in looking fresh like a zedonkey, nodding at all the ladies who didn’t pull out a glue gun and shave a tabby cat for the sake of style.
Cannot.catch.my. breath. Time of death, 9:58AM.
Y’all have no heart for Cyrus’s sad? Really? I was all in from his rage at the dawn phone call to the ‘vow’ he made before the wedding! And poor Diamond at dinner trying to swallow but looking like AnnaMae with the cake [sniff]. I’m enjoying the back stories & loose end tying much more than the auction Ms Shonda just left laying there, as if all the bidders just suddenly forgot about Liv’s thighs’ superpowers.
yep, Jake is going to die. From the innerwebs, looks like Jakey boy getting ready to head up another Shondaland greatest hits. He’s getting his own show! Can’t wait too see if it’s true or not.
YES. Most boring episode ever.
Agreed this was my least fave too!! I also think Jake is going to die.. sad
While the story of Cyrus’s latest marriage and reason why we will never ask where Ella is again (She will obviously be at the house with Michael) was engaging, I will need to some back story on what flips Jake’s switch this week. Olivia sleeping with someone else cannot be the reason. I won’t accept it.
I remember Fitz calling Amanda Tanner “sweet baby.” I guess Shondaland needs to keep this love thing going between Liv and Fitz. I’m over it. Ok, he has daddy issues. He has been mean and nasty to Liv too many times. Something so special between them, that nickname, he used getting it pippin with an intern. How many other women have there been?
I would love for baby Elle to wear that wig playing dress up. And it would be great if Cy’s ex wife needed to hire Liv.
We should bee seeing Mellie’s mom soon, BTW.
Cy’s ex wife should hire Liv to help her get custody of Baby Ella from him and his ho, I mean husband.
Yep, that wig, rug, animal or whatever the hell that was on Cyrus head was Bad and not in a Good way