TV and Movies

It’s Hard Out Here for a General: Scandal Episode 510 Recap

SCANDAL IS BACK, SNITCHES!!! I wrote a piece the other day on what I’ve thought the trailer meant, so read that. But let’s get right to it. I’m thirsty.

scandal squad goals

Dining Pope – We land 6 months past where we left, and Sally Langston is still being Petty Labelle on her little commentary show. Eli is at dinner with his daughter, who is rocking a bright orange dress. Off the bat I’m uncomfortable. This ain’t the Liv we’ve known. Papa is fussing at her because he can’t believe she walked away from the Oval Office, by dumping Fitz when she coulda been FLOTUS. Our girl said she felt like she was in prison, doe. And then he tells her “Jake has come home. You should too.” Is AirBnB busy? Why is Jake from State Farm now living with Papa Pope?? Lawd.

Liv gets home and finds Jake standing in front of her apartment. Here, she’s rocking a pink and red cap over her dress. She don went full Skittles on me in one #alphet. This is gonna take getting used to. At first, she tells him to leave but a switch went off because next thing I know, she literally jumps his bones and they hustle into her apartment and get handsy in the dark.

Liv Jake OWWW

At one point, Liv goes on her knees in front of him and I thought she was about to see what that IQ do! HEY THEN. It was such a hot scene.

No Sleep – Abby’s phone rings at 2am and it’s a chipper ass Fitz, asking for her to clear his schedule for three days. Sir, why couldn’t this wait til 8:59am?? At Olivia’s place, she hears someone knock on the door, and she opens it with the chain still on the back and it’s Huck. Iunno why no one sleeps. They all need some melatonin. Liv is clear mid-coitus and she asks him what he wants. He says they have a new client that she has to come attend to. Huck has terrible timing, and Liv closes the door and Jake is in her living room, shirtless and looking satisfied. WELL THEN.

New Client – Olivia gets into the OPA office and finds out their new client is Diane Peters, the first female director of the NSA. Her home computer was hacked, and hundreds of top secret files were copied from it. She wasn’t supposed to have those files on her personal computer, so this is even doubly bad! Plus, the files being copied are about Project Mercury, the name for the initiative that spies on leaders’ phonecalls and texts.

The Gladiators determine that the hack had to happen from inside her home and who had access to her comp? Her boyfriend, Billy, who was a programmer, and has been missing for the last 18 hours. Diane is stunned, because she vetted him and did all those background checks before she started dating him. BUT DID YOU VET HIS PEEN? Aw man.

Mellie’s Book – The next day when Olivia gets in to the office, she’s in a black caped jacket and a bright yellow skirt. Mine eyes have seen the coming of the brand new Liv. All these damb colors! Anywho, waiting for her is Mellie Grant. She came with a giant encyclopedia Brittanica ass book and tells Liv that this is a book she’s wrote telling all her business so when she runs for President, her skeletons are out in the open. Olivia is all “NAWL. I can’t apply to your campaign on LinkedIn. I’m busy.” Mellie’s all “read this book, doe.”

Nice View – Abby gets a member of the media that she’s been ignoring to come up to her to bargain that if she stops ignoring him, he’ll make sure word about Project Mercury doesn’t get out. She fakes the funk and tells him she ain’t pressed because she already knows about it. She goes to her office and tells her staff to give her info on what Project Mercury is. WHO SNITCHED TO THE POST??

President Ghost is sitting on the White House balcony when Jake from State Farm shows up to join him. He has been summoned and his mission is to find out who hacked the director of the NSA and told the Post. He asks Fitz if he’s talked to Olivia and he says no. When the question was volleyed back to him, he says no, which is technically not a lie. Them two did not do much speaking. Tearing off each other’s clothes can be a mute sport. Jake then looks out unto the WH lawn and says “I really have to get myself this view.” It was his 2nd time remarking about how nice the view was. Fitz responds with “Only one way to get this view. Trust me. It’s a bitch.” And I started squinting my eyes.

White House view

New Wife – Another night, and Abby’s getting another call from President Ghost, who is clearly out here in need of a nap. GO TO SLEEP!!! Our girl rolls into Cyrus’ office the next morning going OFF. Why is Fitz on her nuts like this? Beene says “You are the new wife.” Fitz does not know how to function by himself and in the absence of Liv in his life and Mellie ain’t thinking about him, he has no one to take care of him. So she’s that person now.

First and Last – The Gladiators go to a house they trace Billy’s phone to and find Jake there. He’s there on President’s assignment, and he got to the phone first.

Olivia goes to Diane’s house to break some bad news to her: she is officially under investigation for the hack. She is extra hurt because she didn’t think Billy could have really hacked her. She thought he loved her. She thought he was exceptional because “It’s not easy finding someone when you’re a general. Men find my stars threatening.” Listen, Linda. LISTEN. She also makes the great point of “If the President fires me, I won’t just be the first female director of the NSA. I will be the last.” YUP! Way too true.

Its True Though gif

Scotch Friends – Fitz calls Abby late at night for the 3rd night in a row and she lies and says she has to go because her fake boo Leo is at the hospital. Really, she’s at Olivia’s house. The besties sit on the couch, and instead of drinking wine, they’re drinking Scotch. And Liv is wearing a cobalt blue cardigan. WHO IS THIS WOMAN AND WHAT HAS SHE DONE TO OLIVIA CAROLYN??

Antywho, Abby tells her friend that her ex-bae Fitz is tripping because he keeps calling her at all hours of the night, not wanting shit. Liv says “He isn’t lonely. He is alone. He doesn’t have anyone. I was the last person he trusted, the last person he had.” Pretty much.

The topic of Project Mercury comes up and Olivia knows she could fix this for her client if she called Fitz but does she wanna open that Pandora’s box? They haven’t spoken in months. After Abby leaves, Liv calls Fitz’s secretary Charlotte and asks to be put through to him. This is clearly to show that this is a purely business call. President Ghost, with a face all contorted in emotional anguish, tells Charlotte he’s unavailable.

Warning Moments – Olivia, in a red sweater jacket, acts all salty towards Jake in her bedroom. It’s the next morning and it seems she might be salty that her call was rejected by Fitz.

She goes to Diane to tell her the bad news, as President Ghost has a press conference. She’s basically being fired as head of the NSA, because she made a costly mistake by dating who she did, and he hacked her shit and leaked some top flight info. Diane wonders who her replacement is, and Liv tells her there isn’t one yet. GIRL STAHP. You out of the loop for real. There is.

President Ghost announces that the new head of the NSA is someone he trusts his life with: Jacob Hamilton Ballard.

Fitz Jake

When she returns to OPA, Quinn runs in and tells her that Billy wasn’t the hacker and whistleblower. Somebody set him up. Liv and the Gladiators go to the house where the cellphone was traced to, and she opens up the fridge. A body falls out and it’s Billy’s. JAKE KILLED BILLY! Jake is a gahtdamb snake. A FAHN ASS, SEXY ASS, BLUE-EYED SNAKE.

Papa’s House – Olivia figures it out and storms to Papa Pope’s house to go AWF! Jake why the hell did you frame that man? Eli tells her that Diane was weak and she couldn’t see shit happening right under her nose. She needed to commot from that NSA seat. Jake is sitting there all calm eating dinner and Papa Pope scolds Liv with “You’re standing on the sidelines screaming at the referee like a sad, drunk parent as a high school football game.” He’s pissed that she let go of the power she could have had as FLOTUS and he is hellbent on controlling 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He says his “son” will get the power she didn’t want. Sir, you don’t even know your faux “son” is sleeping with your actual daughter.

Hotline Bling – Fitz calls Abby in the crack of night again and she hangs up on him, sick and tired of his shit. She shows up to the White House and storms into his office and tells him to stop being a spider monkey. With his lonely ass. He needs a hobby, a buddy and a puppy. She’ll do work that is relevant to her but “I’m not a companion animal.” TELL HIM, ABBY. She storms right back out and calls Cyrus to tell him she did something good.

No New Friends – At the OPA office, Huck and Quinn are on the computer doing spy shit when Marcus the newbie Gladiator comes in. He asks if they wanna go grab food and Huck gives an immediate nope. Quinn says she would but Huck declines on her behalf. OH OK DEN. When Marcus leaves, she asks 752 boy why he’s being bogus to him. His answer shows more concern than I would have expected. “He’s a normal person. We have to protect him. We can’t let him be friends with us.”

Normal Huck

Try Again – Mellie shows up to see if Liv read her printed out Wikipedia book and she has. And it is boring as shit. Olivia says the book she needs to write needs to actually show vulnerability and it needs to be hard so folks can remember it. So that they can want to make her president. The current book? NAH, SON. Snoozefest. She tells her to call her tomorrow so they can get started writing that book. And I’m geeked because I want them two collaborate so they can dominate like the BAWSES they both are.


So just so it’s crystal clear, everyone gotta know that Mellie Grant is basically Hillary Clinton. Her ambition and her need to become President clouds everything else she does, and her motives are forever questioned because of this. Also, she catches flack for her husband’s fuckshit, even when it ain’t got shit to do with her. And people always think she stayed in the broken marriage purely for political reasons. On top of that, she became a Senator, and now she’s focusing on becoming president.

Liv Mellie

Now, I wonder who her opponent will be. If Scandal wanted to make art reflect life for real, they’d bring Hollis back as her opponent. A big insensitive, Southern, old money dude who is only motivated by his own interests. He’d be Donald Trump, obviously.

But what about on the same side? Well, this Jake being director of the NSA is clearly a ploy from Papa Pope to get him into that Oval Office. I was certainly side-eying the moment Jake mentioned the view from the White House balcony the second time. Now we see that he will be gunning for it.

Related, Fitz is DUMB, yall.

dumb gif

He makes things so easy for folks when they need to pull his strings. They don’t even have to try hard, because he lays down as expected each time. For him to appoint Jake as head of the NSA was so simple. Like I’ve been saying, the weakest person on Scandal is Fitz. He can be so useless, because his circumstances and decisions are always fully dependent on someone else. He is a reactive character. He’s like the unpaid intern of Scandal, and the worst part is that he thinks he actually got power. SADDOWN!

This episode, though. Olivia’s white hat is for real gone. We saw her toss it in the trailer but our girl did not even wear ANYTHING white, grey, taupe or neutral. She was rocking every color of the rainbow, Skittles-ing it up. She wore yellow, pink, red, cobalt, orange. I had to adjust my eyes. Basically, this ain’t the White Suit-wearing, wine-drinking, popcorn snacking Liv. Now she’s in Technicolor, sipping on scotch. Whew. I’m trying to learn what each color means. You know I be reading into it hard. Gimme 2 more episodes and I’ma be telling you what it means when she wears certain colors again.

Olivia in Color

YES, orange!

If y’all have figured out what the different colors means, drop comments on it.

Gladiators, ROAR.

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39 Comments

  1. Marie
    February 13, 2016 at 10:37 am

    Thanks for another great recap, Luvvie ! I am loving all the Skittle colors on Olivia, but that curly hairdo…that’s a hairdon’t ! Are Liv & Mellie going to the same beauty shop now ?

    • Kerika Fields
      February 13, 2016 at 2:36 pm

      I didnt like the hair either.

      • Purple Dove
        February 13, 2016 at 3:44 pm

        Agreed about the hair….

        • Marie
          February 13, 2016 at 3:59 pm

          KW’s hair always looks great on talk shows and at awards shows. Same with BY. Too bad they have to wear some ugly ass wigs on Scandal.

    • Milaxx
      February 14, 2016 at 3:29 pm

      I really think they are trying to deliberately draw parallels to Mellie when she was in the white house and Liv. The difference is post white house Liv has sored onto bold, saturated colors and looks and poor Mellie is fading in to limp, dull pastels.

  2. Kiss1122
    February 13, 2016 at 11:20 am

    Shonda is brilliant just for the way she keeps us guessing. These colors on Liv have my head spinning. I want her and Mellie to team up and do a Who Run The World dance routine on the white house lawn during the annual Turkey Pardon once Mellie gets elected.

    • Sya Meze
      February 14, 2016 at 1:49 am

      LMAO, ROTF & LML/HELLA LOUD @ [Kiss1122] “I want her and Mellie to team up and do a Who Run The World dance routine on the white house lawn during the annual Turkey Pardon once Mellie gets elected.”

  3. Lalarochelle
    February 13, 2016 at 11:35 am

    Notice that Mellie wasn’t in red when she came in to OPA and she’s usually in red when it comes to her wanting to grab power.

  4. February 13, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    Did it ever occur to anyone that there’s another way Jake can get that “view”? If Mellie wins @ president, she and Jake can get together! I can see that happening and Papa Pope ( I love him dearly), would be behind it all. Papa wants the oval, Jake wants revenge. Jake is salty that Liv chose Ditz instead of him even tho as he says “I touch you in places he (Fitz) never can”… See season 4! Mellie is a scorned woman, don’t let her fool you. She’s got a bone to pick with FITZ/DITZ! Plus she’s done Papa Pope a HUGE favor…. Signed those papers to get him out of jail!! We shall soon see Mellie From State Farm! Mark my words! Liv will be super jealous but she’s forgotten the number one rule… All is fair in Love And War!! Somebody PLEASE drop Fitz off in Vermount… ALONE!!!! He’s useless!

  5. Lola
    February 13, 2016 at 1:17 pm

    Liv’s orange dress is the same style fab FLOTUS Michelle Obama wore to this year’s SOTU, I’m pretty sure. There were some tweets by KW and the Scandal costume designer about it around that time. I like the change to bright colors, but am still bored by the relationships in this show, except for Olivia-Abby and Olivia-Mellie. Here’s to the women partnering for a show of some serious girl power, and to each of them finding men who are worthy of them and realizing it. All of the men in this show are fuccbois and/or psychos (except, so far, Marcus, bless him) and it’s just not a good look.

    • Milaxx
      February 14, 2016 at 3:31 pm

      Yup, same dress. They had Liv’s picked out first.

  6. jojo
    February 13, 2016 at 2:03 pm

    I am sorry but this show is making no sense to me!
    For 4 seasons this successful admirable career woman Olivia Pope had a secret she was dating the married President of the USA. The fact brought her unhappiness shame and guilt and she spent 6/7 scandal years on her own unable to move on because of him.
    The idea of a sitting president getting a divorce and the affair coming into the open was presented as political and career suicide for both of them
    Then comes end of S4 and Fitz says to hell with it and throws Mellie out
    The season 5 I thought I was going to watch was a Presidential divorce and the coming out of their relationship and most importantly how the Star of the show navigates her professional and personal life in the eye of this storm , now that she is the first girlfriend.
    That would have being intriguing to watch especially as it has never happened in America in real life.
    Something that could have taken one if not two seasons to unfold and would have made for compelling television was instead rushed over in 8 episodes.
    DIVORCE? One episode and it was done!
    DATING? Did we even see them date?
    COMES OUT ON NATIONAL TV to talk about Fitz as her great love. Weeks later she decides he is not and moves out!
    EFFECT ON HER BUSINESS? Barely mentioned.
    And what was the compelling tale they rushed over everything to tell?
    Mellie running for president.Jake being head of the NSA?
    There is nothing the scandal writers can come up with that could rival the current real life Presidential race.
    Sorry they are just not that good!!
    And strangely enough by rushing over everything they made Olivia very unlikable!
    E509 would have worked and actually have made sense if it had happened half way through or at the end of S6.
    The ratings are way down so apparently a lot of people are just as confused as I am!!

    • Sya Meze
      February 14, 2016 at 2:35 am

      Jojo, you & me us never part ma-ki-da-da!

    • Krystal Walton
      February 19, 2016 at 9:06 am

      Yaaaaasssssssss!!! That is my frustration. They’re losing me again. I opted to watch Blackish last night and just catch Scandal sometime this weekend. Me, who used to host WEEKLY Scandal parties!!!!
      They need to turn this ship around… 🙁

  7. nichole
    February 13, 2016 at 2:10 pm

    I could be wrong but I would guess Papa Pope knows Liv is hittin’ it with Jake. He doesn’t like it when she’s with someone who is not in line with him. Jake is clearly in line, marching step by step to 1600.

    Fitz doesn’t need a woman. Fitz needs Cyrus. And yes, he was played like a fiddle on the NSA change-up. So clueless.

  8. kerika
    February 13, 2016 at 2:35 pm

    Red is Power. Fire. ORANGE is flow, sexuality, creativity. (See 2nd Chakra) I’m a Pisces= water and my color is orange that’s how I know. Ur welcome:)

    • Mi Simone
      February 13, 2016 at 9:15 pm

      ooh, I love the Chakra connection. Good catch

  9. Sheila
    February 13, 2016 at 3:04 pm

    I am becoming less and less of a fan of this show. Jake just killed a person for power and for his dad but this is the person everyone wants that ho Liv with yes that right because she has become that over the past three seasons. Papa Pope means no good to anyone. Everyone calls FItz dumb but his love Liv has been played a lot lately also. If jake really cared for Liv he would not have moved in with papa he knows the kind of person he is. I hope that this show moves in the right direction soon or they will lose me as a fan.

  10. Purple Dove
    February 13, 2016 at 3:41 pm

    Papa Pope told Liv she was standing around like a 12-year-old…. that’s when I tapped out…. No mercy….

    • AC Slater
      February 17, 2016 at 9:59 am

      LOL @ “that’s when I tapped out…”, this was the first comment I actually laughed out loud at. Hilarity.

  11. yasPapa
    February 13, 2016 at 8:42 pm

    Great review…I don’t care what ya’ll say…I like Papa Pope…what happened to Mamma Pope

  12. Mi Simone
    February 13, 2016 at 9:02 pm

    Ooooh! Color theory!! I’ve watched this show on and off, so I could be off on some things.

    A lot of the time Liz wore white. The color white is seen as pure and innocent, at the same time it represents a clean slate/new beginnings, protection (think of a white knight), and is seen as a color of efficiency and organization. White can also be a color of isolation and caution. Think of how careful you are when wearing white, you’re afraid your next step is going to mess your outfit up. Liz fits almost all of these qualities. She also doesn’t let people get too close, which white can also represent sterility and coldness.

    Now sis is wearing orange, which conveys happiness and warmth. Orange is also thought to help people recover from grief and disappointments. Orange is optimistic, confident, risk-taking, and un-inhibited. Orange also stimulates appetite and is adventurous. Which could explain that slide down the wall, but Imma stop right there.

    Also, I don’t know about that pink and red extra-extra that was going on.

    The black/yellow combo is pretty much a danger warning. Think bees, caution signs, etc. Considering whats about to go down with Mellie, I’d consider that a pretty powerful symbol.

    Finally, that RED? Liz is about to BE RUTHLESS. At the same time, red represents anger and fear. It can represent passion and passion can be romantic or stem from anger.

    Source: 3 semesters of colour theory.

  13. Diva
    February 13, 2016 at 9:46 pm

    “Sir, you don’t even know your faux “son” is sleeping with your actual daughter.”
    I’m pretty sure he knows. He knows his daughter be looking for love in ALL the wrong places. And he knows who to put in her path. And he most certainly knows how Jakes feels about her. Yeah… PapaDark will stop at nothing to gain power over the Oval.

  14. Milaxx
    February 13, 2016 at 10:11 pm

    I have some theories developing. Clearly the theme this 2nd half of the season is power, and everyone is aiming to get theirs. Liv’s brief stint as FLOTUS lite has changed her into a sort of Liv/FLOTUS hybrid. She nearly lost her power. Now she’s going for hers and rocking strong jewel tones and saturated colors. I doubt we’ll see her in any pastels or whites unless they are there to compliment the power colors. So we get firery, passionate colors like orange/pin/red when she with Jake. True blue with her bestie Abby. When she’s gladiating she’s wearing “Get Businesses Done” red like Mellie used to wear as FLOTUS, but since she’s no longer wearing a white hat, it’s almost always accompanied by black. In that last scene when she agrees to help Mellie write a real book, she wearing a black dress with a red sweater. She’s not only not wearing the white hat, she’s snatching her power along the way. That books is gonna be a doozy. On the other hand, poor Junior Senator Mellie is wearing this mousy pinkish coat.

    I am always nervous when Jake is following Eli’s orders. I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t setting Jake up to run for the party’s nominee against Mellie. There’s a reason they wanted Jake in that NSA position and Jake constantly remarking on liking the view from the balcony makes me nervous.

    As for Fitz, I always wonder about him. He’s dumb as bricks but everyone seems to think he’s the great, white hope. Groomed by his dad to the point where they covered up his part in operation Remington. Mellie, Cy & Live sold their souls to rig the election in Defiance and get him elected. Yet they all still seem to think he deserved and should be president.

    Anyway that’s my color theory so far. I think the underlying main color will be power red, but the other colors she wears will depend on what she is doing and her relationship to the person she interacts with. I’ll have to see how it holds up in the weeks to come.

  15. Milaxx
    February 13, 2016 at 10:25 pm

    I forgot to comment on Liv’s new drinking habits. Another connect to the white house and her getting her power is seen in that she now drink Scotch like Fitz and Abby do. Even at dinner with Rowan she’s not drinking any fancy red wine. She’s got a glass of brown liquor.

    My best laugh of the night was when her and Jake were in bed and she reaches over to the night stand for her water. Girlfriend has 2liters but when Jake ask for a sip, she’s all, “No!” Liv ain;t sharing thangs no mo’.

  16. s
    February 13, 2016 at 11:57 pm

    I’m here for all of it. That a$$ slap was the business. I’m so curious where all of this is going. Shonda is serving some new millennium mythology so it ain’t gotta make sense all the time.

  17. Absurdist
    February 14, 2016 at 12:32 am

    I thought Sally Langston was more Meredith Grey than Patti LaBelle, but that’s because I had just watched Grey’s Anatomy right before. Of course, it helps that Sally Langston is also Ellis Grey.

  18. Sya Meze
    February 14, 2016 at 2:51 am

    Luvvie’s review had me laughing so hard, I *knowd I’m in the next “lbl” (light bladder leakage) commercial!

    The trailer for the new season & the cast being on GMA the a.m. of the new season, warned me bout all them colorful outfits /images to come. I was ret-to-go w/my “IMAX 3D 4Reel shades” I was ‘posed to recycle b4 leaving the movie theatre. Don’t judge me.

    My next “lbl” moments were OldLivia’s (had to say it like The Color Purple) physically guided reciprocation going down on Jake from State Farm, after his lips was all up on her secret garden. I actually cackled! Ima keep calling *hur OldLivia til I see a new #formation!

    Jojo, you & me us never part ma-ki-da-da! All *dem need to be in their messy colorful garden w/Black Jesus, cleaning there mess like Mackenzie Allen Phillip (fictional cx from bk The Hack, by WM. Paul Young).

    • Sya Meze
      February 14, 2016 at 3:46 am

      Correction to my post: Mackenzie Allen Phillip (fictional character from bk The *Shack, by WM. Paul Young).

  19. howlingbanshee
    February 14, 2016 at 6:52 am

    All of Olivia’s colors seem to be in the warm, fiery family to me. No cool blues or greens.
    It’s because she done turnt into a devil, tell you what LOL

  20. Nisha
    February 14, 2016 at 8:13 pm

    I think the colors are because she’s finding herself again after everything she went through ( break up, abortion) she’s not completely the Liv she (and we) knew from before. Seriously, Jake from state farm was able to set her client up right under her nose. I think the colors represent different things for different scenes right now, depending on what their meanings are. Before she had a strong belief in Olivia Pope, and now she’s depending more on her wardrobe to get her mind where she needs it to be.

  21. Alta
    February 16, 2016 at 1:10 pm

    “Sir, you don’t even know your faux “son” is sleeping with your actual daughter.”

    I snorted.

    When Jake mentioned the view a second time, I thought it might be foreshadowing for Liv eventually running for office and Jake becoming First Gentleman (since Liv sneered to Papa about Fitz expecting her to be First Lady).

    I also think her changing her mind and working with Mellie is her taking Papa’s words to heart. She did like the taste of power, but she ain’t gonna do it as First Lady. Here Mellie is offering it to her on a platter. She’ll help Mellie win the election and then instead of leaving, like she did after Fitz won, she’ll stay and run shit through Mellie.

    That’s my theory. I like the thought of Rowan and Liv wielding power through these (White) people, (I love both Mellie and Jake). Unlike Mellie, though, I know Jake knows or suspects what Rowant is up to.

  22. February 16, 2016 at 4:09 pm

    First of all: “Jake is snake. A SEXY ASS FAHN ASS SNAKE.” I was literally crying lol

    Second of all: Duh. I still don’t know why ANYBODY is trusting Jake on this show, but he’s always and forever suspect to me. About ANYTHING.

    Third: I’d like to jump into the color theory pool, if I can. I didn’t make my choices based on the general (although, usually correct) color theory that most would go by, but some of my theories do follow that logic. I based mine off of pretty much what was going on in each scene we saw her in that color because this could really lay the foundation for how those colors are used moving forward.

    Yellow: When Liv is feeling generous, compassionate or optimistic. For this scene in particular, I think yellow applies because she wants to correct old mistakes with Mellie and raise another woman up to be the BAWSE that she is.

    Pink/Red: Love complications and various levels of intensity associated with that love. Peep the mixed red and pink in the scene with Jake. (That’s that “I love you, but I’m also bout to break you off with this good stuff” lol) I think the promo with the red leather (BAD ASS) jacket was more about serving us a more colorful Liv in the backend of this season, tbh. No color catches the eye better than red. It’s also provocative and appropriately got all of us in a tizzy.

    Cobalt (or any shade of blue, honestly): I’m thinking pure vulnerability. Period. Whomever she is with when she’s wearing blue, we will likely witness a moment of clarity or vulnerability on Liv’s part. It could even be retroactive; as in: whomever she’s with will open up to her in a way that she may or may not want to deal with, but she’s gonna receive it anyway.

    Orange: Work flow/keeping her guard up. That orange dress at dinner with her Dad is no accident. And then later seeing her at the office, hands on hips, in full-on work mode…if she’s in orange, watch for elements of Liv doing what Liv does best, and/or her protecting herself in any capacity – mind, body or soul.

    Looking forward to seeing what your Inspector Gadget ass comes up with, Luvvie! LOL!!! (I low key live for the color breakdowns in your recaps!) 🙂

    • February 16, 2016 at 4:11 pm

      *EDIT*

      (“That’s that I HATE you, but I’m also about the break you off with this good stuff”)

  23. SIPort
    February 17, 2016 at 7:53 am

    I love the recap.

    Huck was being Huck-sweet. Trying to protect the newest Gladiator.

    People really think that Papa Pope doesn’t know that Olivia and Jake are knocking boots?

    Really?

    So…Olivia’s having buyer’s remorse?

    She likes the power more than she thought she did.

    So, she’s NOT ‘above it all’…eh?

    Jake From State Farm: At the NSA, Advisor to the President..knocking boots with Olivia and no Fitz in that picture..his life is pretty damn good right now.

    I don’t know how I feel about Olivia in all those colors.

  24. lbrass3
    February 18, 2016 at 12:21 am

    “A FAHN ASS, SEXY ASS, BLUE-EYED SNAKE.” Lol!! I guess that’s why I forgive him for damn near everything! And I’m not so sure Papa Pope doesn’t know that the two are sleeping together. He clearly doesn’t have a problem with it since that’s what he originally sent Jake to do in the first damn place! (That STILL makes me shudder!)

  25. February 24, 2016 at 7:53 am

    The problem with Olivia is that we do not know her true motivations. There is no character on this show that Liv is able to confide in. That is why the Mellie/Olivia scenes in episode 511 were so good. She told Mellie her reasons for leaving Fitz (she is afraid of true commitment). During season 1 of scandal she used to confide in the lawyer Steven, but his character was dropped after the first season. During Season 2, it looked as if Olivia and Harrison may have been developing a close friend relationship, but his character was killed off in season three. We still do not know this woman and why she behaves the way that she does. Why did she resume a purely sexual relationship with Jake? The sex scenes with Jake are cold. (The elevator sex scene was ridiculous and definitely not sexy) I can barely stand to watch Olivia and Jake together now. Why did she have the abortion? Was it because she wanted to cut all ties to Fitz, or because she was afraid that she would be a cold distant parent just like her father? (Papa Pope is nerve wrecking with his lectures and long monologues) I thought that his storyline was brilliantly wrapped up last season when he was sent to prison. Why is he back? We are into season 5 and Olivia Pope is still a mystery to the viewers. I am beginning to dislike this character and I don’t know if I can continue to watch a show in which I do not like or respect the main character. We always know the motivations of Cyrus, Fitz and even Mellie, but not Olivia. When the show first started Olivia Pope was a DC fixer who was a mother hen to the people in her office, who literally had no one else. She cared about them. They were a family. She also acted in the best interest of her clients. She no longer seems to interact with her OPA family. She seems cold and distant.

  26. mhlmh
    February 25, 2016 at 9:47 am

    “Jake is a gahtdamb snake. A FAHN ASS, SEXY ASS, BLUE-EYED SNAKE.” Yay! I hate when he’s just a sucker for Liv. I have been waiting to see whether he has any true mettle!

  27. Gina Gene
    March 9, 2016 at 1:42 pm

    Okay, I swore off watching Scandal ’round about the time Liv was about to enter the White House as the new “Mrs. Grant in Waiting,” so I don’t even know what the hell is going on (Jake lives with Papa Pope the Goon?). But this makes me want to get back Gladiator-watching mode! Why do people even trust Jake?

    That said, I still don’t like Liv lusting after Jake, nor the Huckleberry Quinn duo. Nor do I think Liv is ever really in charge like she used to be in S1/S2. So…I may keep up with these recaps for a bit first…