S06.E01: Survival Of The Fittest

[thewhiteowl]

Quote

The election results for the presidential race between Mellie Grant and Francisco Vargas are announced, and the shocking results lead to an explosive outcome.

[WhosThatGirl]

Part of me wishes this episode had been the season finale. Nothing happened in the last episode last season. At least this was somewhat exciting.

I was kind of hoping Fitz would announce a random as the next president elect. 

Where did Jake peace off to btw?

[Spartan Girl]

Of course the one halfway decent character on this show gets gunned down after being elected President.

Drunk Mellie lying in the bathtub pretty much sums up how I felt after the real election. 

[TheOtherOne]

6 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Of course the one halfway decent character on this show gets gunned down after being elected President.

Did something happen to Susan Ross when I wasn't looking?

[maraleia]

It's hard for me to watch any scene with Josh Malina after he blocked me for calling him out on his tasteless joke about Meryl Streep.

Aside from that personal issue, only Shonda can think of a crazier scenario than what we're living through right now.

I have no idea what happened to Susan Ross because my brain is filled with so much new information.

This show is so damn insane and wonderful at the same time.

[Chaos Theory]

I was curious if Shonda Rhimes could out crazy a our real election so I watched for the first time in awhile.....what does she do,  she throws in a murder.   Sure why not? 

Plus we got the return of Drunk Mellie.

[Anela]

I don't remember much about last season. Events in my personal life, and then that bloody election, eclipsed everything. This would have worked as the season finale, setting up Olivia against Cyrus. I do remember that most of them are just awful people, though.  The marriage proposal between the hired serial killer, and his apprentice? And didn't huck rip some of her teeth out? Sorry, I don't know why I watched.  I don't remember what happened to their trump-like character.  If only ours hadn't won the real thing. 

Edited January 27, 2017 by Anela

[Guest]

Susan Ross stepped aside when she found out David had bribed the governor of Florida for the endorsement.

I thought the episode sucked. I still don't buy Cyrus having any credibility from switching teams after so many years. It would be like if Karl Rove was suddenly on the Democratic ticket!

[Emma9]

I'm sorry, Liv was kind of ridiculous tonight.

Olivia: MY FATHER DID THIS!
Papa Pope: Totally wasn't me. Betcha Cyrus is your culprit.
Olivia: CYRUS DID THIS!
Cyrus: *sad face*
Olivia: Huh, guess not.

And considering Liv, Fitz, and Jake's respective murders (to say nothing of Huck, Quinn, and Charlie's combined body count), the idea of them as the righteous team saving the country from The Evil That Is Cy is a little much.

At this point, I have no clue whether he actually did it. On one hand, it doesn't seem like the wisest tactical move; he'd have had to know that by timing it like this, he'd be putting himself at Fitz's mercy, and surely he's had enough of being in that position for a lifetime. Why not wait until after the inauguration? Not to mention the obvious suspicion issue.

On the other hand: Cyrus. Wouldn't exactly be a shocking moral departure.

Really, all I'm hoping for is that we get some actual political storylines with him holding the reins. He's always been the most interesting character on the show for me (sociopathy notwithstanding), and I'd love to see how he handles something on that level.

[Tetraneutron]

1 hour ago, WhosThatGirl said:

Where did Jake peace off to btw?

I wish he'd been killed or something because his character is pointless and F428 is stupid, but I assume he'll be heavily involved in the coming weeks if all the shots of that blonde lady I assume is his new wife getting drunk are any indication.

So. In the world of Scandal, three Presidential elections in a row have been stolen, every high-level politician is a murderer, a terrorist, or is blackmailed into supporting same, and the whole country is being run by a secret terrorist organization headed by a misogynist loon no one is smart enough to stop or kill, and it is an escapist, utopian fantasy compared to real America right now.

[Artsda]

I don't even know why I attempted to watch. I thought Fitz was going to declare himself President until the next electoral year in 4 years. 

Jake probably did it and Olivia won't care probably just like when he murdered James. I don't think Cyrus would have all Vargas's kids be fatherless. He would create drama for votes but not murder the man. Liv's daddy and her precious Jake would do anything for B6 whatever.

[KaveDweller]

27 minutes ago, Emma9 said:

I'm sorry, Liv was kind of ridiculous tonight.

Olivia: MY FATHER DID THIS!
Papa Pope: Totally wasn't me. Betcha Cyrus is your culprit.
Olivia: CYRUS DID THIS!
Cyrus: *sad face*
Olivia: Huh, guess not.

For someone who claims to have such great instincts, her gut sucks. She only started thinking it was Cyrus because Pope told her. Then she decided she was wrong based on seeing Cyrus in shock, and missed that he was faking. Or maybe he wasn't, but in that case her gut is wrong for changing her mind at the end. I don't know why she was in such a rush to get evidence though. If she releases proof that Cyrus killed Vargas, the electoral college wouldn't vote him in no matter what Fitz said in his stupid little speech.

I had a feeling Vargas was going to get shot though. Because I read some ridiculous story on Facebook before our real inauguration about how if Trump got killed before being sworn in Obama got to pick the next president, and my first thought was, "that sounds like something they would do on Scandal." Plus, I knew we weren't going to get a fairly new cast member as president.

Abby totally sucks for not letting Vargas's wife call her kids. She has now officially moved off my list of semi-likable characters on Scandal. It is now a very short list, but not as short as my list of totally likable characters on Scandal.

Edited January 27, 2017 by KaveDweller

[Tetraneutron]

5 minutes ago, Artsda said:

I don't even know why I attempted to watch. I thought Fitz was going to declare himself President until the next electoral year in 4 years. 

Jake probably did it and Olivia won't care probably just like when he murdered James. I don't think Cyrus would have all Vargas's kids be fatherless. He would create drama for votes but not murder the man. Liv's daddy and her precious Jake would do anything for B6 whatever.

Why do you think Cryus wouldn't kill Vargas? He almost killed his own husband, leaving his own child fatherless. His whole deal is that he wants to be President and he's angry because he knows he will never be elected so he has to wield the power behind the throne. I don't think it's Cyrus because it's too obvious and they can wring a few more episodes out of the mystery.

Is this the last season? I vaguely remember reading that. If it is, R074 probably killed Vargas.

[reggiejax]

You know the show is creatively bankrupt when you watch Olivia threaten Cyrus by telling him she will prove he murdered Vargas, and all you can think is, "yeah, that's not gonna happen". Truth is Liv will devote an episode or two to her quest to take down the Beane, but then she'll forget all about it after Jake promises her the sun, or Fitz promises her Vermont. And once that's done, the show will completely forget that Vargas ever existed, and then it will get bogged down in some Papa Pope/Vitamin B-12 nonsense. No matter how confidently she sashays out of the room, we all know there will be no follow through. 

Edited January 27, 2017 by reggiejax

[FilmTVGeek80]

18 minutes ago, Artsda said:

Jake probably did it and Olivia won't care probably just like when he murdered James. I don't think Cyrus would have all Vargas's kids be fatherless. He would create drama for votes but not murder the man. Liv's daddy and her precious Jake would do anything for B6 whatever.

 

 

Cyrus started off this series by killing a pregnant woman. His first bid to get a job with Vargas was having a guy commit murder just to get Vargas in the spotlight. Cyrus barely cares about his own kid, let alone Vargas's. Cyrus's moral fiber isn't any better than Jake's or Papa Pope's.

One of the main problems with this show is they continue to believe that Olivia - or any of these people at this point - are even within spitting distance of wearing a white hat. I rolled my eyes at Liv's self-righteous speech/dressing down of the others for giving up their search and allowing Cyrus to murder his way into the White House. She doesn't give a shit about that. She only cares about winning and "running the oval" again. So, she can STFU with her moral outrage over this murder.

Edited January 27, 2017 by FilmTVGeek80

[KaveDweller]

4 minutes ago, Tetraneutron said:

Why do you think Cryus wouldn't kill Vargas? He almost killed his own husband, leaving his own child fatherless. His whole deal is that he wants to be President and he's angry because he knows he will never be elected so he has to wield the power behind the throne. I don't think it's Cyrus because it's too obvious and they can wring a few more episodes out of the mystery.

Is this the last season? I vaguely remember reading that. If it is, R074 probably killed Vargas.

I agree Cyrus would absolutely kill someone to be president. But I feel like he would wait until after Vargas was officially in office and he was officially VP. Then he wouldn't have to worry about Fitz's endorsement or the electoral college or any bullshit like that.

A twist would be if Mellie did it. She could have had a back up plan all set up in case she lost. She does have motive to kill him between the vote and the inauguration. But I don't think she has the resources to pull it off.

[buttersister]

The Cyrus I know would wait until after the inauguration to kill Vargas, if that's what he needed to do to get into the oval office. Because, sure thing.

The Liv I know is trying mightily to resurface, but I'm not buying it. Too easily manipulated by Daddy Doom.

Jake? Poppa Pope? Could have killed Vargas without batting an eye. The only other character with a motive is, hey, how pissed off was Vargas' brother that he got pushed out of the picture? (Of course I can't remember where they left him, so there's that.)

Shut up, Fitz.

[WhosThatGirl]

Jake could have done it. I know in the season finale last year he was all, "I don't want to be vice president, let's run away to a nice house Oliva!" or something, but the character changes personalities on a dime-or when the show needs a crazy plot point, hi sweeps week! or you know when they need something crazy for a promo- so he could easily do it too. 

[thewhiteowl]

Any of these whack jobs could have had it done, any of them. They all suck.

[Emma9]

The only other character with a motive is, hey, how pissed off was Vargas' brother that he got pushed out of the picture?

There's also the ex-Secret Service guy Cyrus dumped in the last finale - either he's still loyal and did it so Cyrus could be president, or he's not and is also setting up a frame job.

[Bama]

When did Marcus become Press Secretary?  

They'll probably have Susan Ross be the murderer because in Scandaland it's a prerequisite that all the leaders also be killers.

[bobbyjoe]

Quote

I agree Cyrus would absolutely kill someone to be president. But I feel like he would wait until after Vargas was officially in office and he was officially VP. Then he wouldn't have to worry about Fitz's endorsement or the electoral college or any bullshit like that.

Yeah, pretty much nothing whatsoever in this episode made any sense, so it's pretty typical Scandal from the past couple of seasons.  We're supposed to buy that Cyrus had a cunning plan to get rid of Vargas, but not the smarts to think of the super-obvious "hey, if I wait just a few weeks, there won't be any question that I'd assume the presidency." 

So, okaaaaay.  But then they want us to believe that the lame-duck president would be the one making the decision who would be his successor.  I'm still not sure how that was supposed to work, as the outgoing president would be pretty much the last person anyone would turn to in the given situation of this episode.  The Supreme Court?  Yes.  The guy who's leaving office?  Uhhhhh, no. 

Oh, and California, a state that hasn't gone for a Republican presidential candidate since Cher won the Oscar for Moonstruck is the key toss-up state in a presidential election?  Right.  They might as well have made it Alabama.  Oh, who will Alabama go for: the Democrat or the Republican?  Yet more evidence that Scandal takes place in some science fiction alternate universe.

I'm starting to think that the only person in the country who knows less that the Scandal writers about the way politics, the constitution, and how the US government really work is Donald Trump.

Edited January 27, 2017 by bobbyjoe

[tabbybear]

I thought, after the season 5 finale, that Liv had once again played right into Papa Pope's hands by making Jake Mellie's VP pick.  I still kind of think that.  Which would be why I think Papa Pope had Vargas killed.  .Because I think Pope thought Fitz would name Mellie then he would just have her to destroy to make his boy Jake President.  Or maybe he hoped Fitz would name Olivia so his actual daughter could finally really have the oval.  Anyway what do I know I am just a fan, though last season nearly did me in with all of Liv's evilness.  I would have loved to see Fitz name Susan Ross president.  How novel would that be an actual decent person as president?  Anyway still watching.

Edited January 27, 2017 by tabbybear
hit edit by mistake

[J-Man]

Quote

Did something happen to Susan Ross when I wasn't looking?

Yes. She became a regular on "Son of Zorn."

So ... Huck is all excited about our first Latino president, but no one's mentioned that now we have our first GAY president! (Well, OPENLY gay, anyway.) And that he's married to a former hooker! (Well, I guess that part isn't so far-fetched ...)

The whole thing with San Benito County (a real place, population 55,000) was ludicrous. Such a small county would statistically have little or no impact on the overall vote in such a large state (population 39,000,000), and if it did come down to something that small, there would surely be a recount.

[Dowel Jones]

So much overacting, so much ludicrousness, but at least no one spilt any red wine on a white couch tonight.

Just once, in tvland, I would like to see the head of security, when faced with someone snarling at him "call your boss about this", would reply "Just a moment, I'll do that".  And follow through.  Even if the end result is the same, it would lend some reality to the situation.

I can think of no action that would undermine the public confidence more than delaying a death announcement of any high elected official a full day just because you don't have a plan in place or know what to say.  Conspiracy theories would abound because the actual time of death would leak out soon enough.

Somebody on the writing staff live in San Benito County?  Whatever happened to Defiance, OH?

[WhosThatGirl]

I agree that the problem for me with this episode isn't more of "who did it?" It's more like.. "who wouldn't?" There are no good guys or bad guys here in this show-EVERYONE IS A BAD GUY!-anymore so it's not like when they reveal who shot and killed Vargas, am I going to be surprised? Because all of these people have killed or be an accessory to some sort of a killing. At least our main players.

Edited January 27, 2017 by WhosThatGirl

[slade3]

I thought this episode was ridiculous. And disappointing. Shonda's shows used to be pretty good with twists, but right now I would be stunned if we don't learn that Papa Pope forced Jake to kill Vargas. I think Cyrus is very capable of having this done, but the look on his face at the end when Olivia said she would prove it made me think the "twist" is Cyrus really was in shock.

I'd have to watch the episode again - and I'm not sure I want to - to see where Jake and Charlie were when Vargas was shot. If they were in the room, I'm going with Papa Pope forcing Jake to choose a hired gun to do it. If they weren't in the room, I'm going with Jake or Charlie as the killer. It just seems so obvious to me.

Either way, last night's episode was a sad reminder for me why I keep giving up on the show. And can Olivia be any more annoying? I'm just so tired of everything she says being a shout or a demand or a silent stare that ends in a melodramatic drink. I wish everyone would just say "No" and walk away.

[mwell345]

7 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I agree Cyrus would absolutely kill someone to be president. But I feel like he would wait until after Vargas was officially in office and he was officially VP. Then he wouldn't have to worry about Fitz's endorsement or the electoral college or any bullshit like that.

Quote

 

I didn't watch, changed to it a couple of times during Top Chef and all I saw was more of the same old Olivia blah blah blah.  I also read a recap this morning but watching during TC commercials pretty much got me caught up without having to listen to all of them.   I did think immediately that it would have made much more sense for Cyrus to kill Vargas after the inauguration.  Why in the world would he do it before then?

 

What DID happen to the Trump like candidate?

[Chaos Theory]

I was just curious how this would play out considering how off the rails our real life election has gone.

i have my suspicions and conspiracy theories. I think Fitz did it.  Hear me out.  He pretty much confirmed it with Mellie he has never had any real political ambition most of it has been thrust on him.  I think he fears that if Mellie became President Olivia would stick around and help her run the country and HIS big ambitions of a quiet life with Olivia would never happen.  But if Mellie loses and loses BADLY he might be able to talk Olivia into walking away with him into the sunset.

Its just a theory. 

Edited January 27, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[Happytobehere]

8 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

I was just curious how this would play out considering how off the rails our real life election has gone.

i have my suspicions and conspiracy theories. I think Fitz did it. Gets me out.  He pretty much confirmed it with Mellie he has never had any real political ambition most of it has been thrust on him.  I think he fears that if Mellie became President Olivia would stick around and help her run the country and HIS big ambitions of a quiet life with Olivia would never happen.  But if Mellie loses and loses BADLY he might be able to talk Olivia into walking away with him into the sunset.

Its just a theory. 

Well, Fitz was the line who outed his relationship with Olivia to further his quest to be with her, so...

[Guest]

1 hour ago, mwell345 said:

What DID happen to the Trump like candidate?

I feel like he (Hollis Doyle) met with Mellie and said a lot of really negative things about his supporters, and she was secretly taping it. She leaked the tape and he lost big.  But I could be making that up as I didn't rewatch last season like I've typically done with Scandal - it wasn't worth the rewatch.

[Primetimer]

As the season starts on Election Night, we have semi-burning questions!

View the full article

[Good Queen Jane]

There was so much wrong with this episode that I hardly know where to start. However, the thing that bugged me most was the balcony scene between Fitz and Mellie. Not their conversation (which I liked; a nice honest conversation from two people who know each other well) but the fact that Mellie was lounging around in her sweats in a house she doesn't live in any more and that both of them were out on the balcony in DC in November without a coat and the porch furniture not even covered. The White House is not in California, writers!

[Empress1]

[quote]Does anyone else feel like it's too soon to watch even a fictional female candidate lose a close Presidential race?[/quote]
Yes. And then when David started talking about the Electoral College, I was cringing. With the clusterfuck that the current administration is turning out to be, I wasn't sure I could deal with Scandal.

Who cares about Quinn's personal life? I don't.

[slade3]

1 hour ago, deaja said:

I feel like he (Hollis Doyle) met with Mellie and said a lot of really negative things about his supporters, and she was secretly taping it. She leaked the tape and he lost big.  But I could be making that up as I didn't rewatch last season like I've typically done with Scandal - it wasn't worth the rewatch.

I'm pretty sure he met with Olivia. Olivia secretly taped him trashing his supporters.

I rewatched the beginning of last night's episode. When they announce Vargas has won, Jake looks disappointed and puts his head in his hand. But not disappointed because they lost possibly disappointed because he has to do a job. After the loss, Abby asks Jake's wife where he is and the wife shrugs and says "He left." Abby says he can't leave, they still have to concede. Cut to Olivia and Mellie drinking, a scream, and news that Vargas has been shot. Next time we see Jake, he is rushing into the war room/briefing room where Fitz and his people are discussing strategy.

We also do not see Charlie, Quinn or Huck. Which gives me this sinking feeling we're going to spend the season with Olivia going back and forth believing Cyrus or Jake killed Vargas, destroying her relationships with both of them, only for it to be Charlie under orders from Papa Pope, destroying his engagement to Quinn.

The Fitz theory from upthread would be an unexpected twist.

[J-Man]

Why was Olivia telling the Mellie supporters to go out and vote (on the East Coast) when the polls in California were already closed?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, J-Man said:

Why was Olivia telling the Mellie supporters to go out and vote (on the East Coast) when the polls in California were already closed?

To make sure the popular vote count wasn't affected.  While the electoral college is the vote that counts technically, for public perception, the popular vote is huge.

[J-Man]

The point is that the polls in Virginia, DC and Maryland were closed well before the California polls closed. 

[ForeverAlone]

For me, I had to laugh, because in Scandal-verse, California is a state that a Republican is expected to win. Whereas in the real world, it has been reliably blue in presidential elections for numerous election cycles. 

 

I tend to think that Cyrus didn't do this. Like others have said, it would be too risky to do it before the electors had declared Vargas the winner. Plus I think it just a bit TOO convenient that the woman happened to so easily name him as the suspect. She was likely in on it all and the real killer (s) bumped her off to prevent her from talking. Though if Papa Pope or Jake are involved, I have to wonder why they didn't just rig an election. Because killing Vargas to get Jake anywhere near the White House seems super convoluted. But that is what this show has become.

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, J-Man said:

The point is that the polls in Virginia, DC and Maryland were closed well before the California polls closed. 

Ha! Sorry - I'm on cold medicine and not exactly thinking clearly. :)

[mwell345]

I'll throw this out there.

If Cyrus didn't do it, then he is a legitimate president.  So what does the show do with Mellie and Fitz then?  What would their roles be?  Does Mellie go to Santa Barbara and Fitz to Vermont to forever pine over Olivia?  

Now, if Cyrus was involved in any way, clearly he has to resign the presidency....if they find this out before the inauguration, it opens the door for Fitz to give the Presidency to Mellie and life in Scandal land goes on.

[Empress1]

10 hours ago, bobbyjoe said:

Oh, and California, a state that hasn't gone for a Republican presidential candidate since Cher won the Oscar for Moonstruck is the key toss-up state in a presidential election?  Right.  They might as well have made it Alabama.  Oh, who will Alabama go for: the Democrat or the Republican?  Yet more evidence that Scandal takes place in some science fiction alternate universe.

I had the same thought, and it was particularly weird since we just watched an election be decided by swing states. Like, how hard would it have been to swap in a county in PA?

11 hours ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

Cyrus started off this series by killing a pregnant woman. His first bid to get a job with Vargas was having a guy commit murder just to get Vargas in the spotlight. Cyrus barely cares about his own kid, let alone Vargas's. Cyrus's moral fiber isn't any better than Jake's or Papa Pope's.

One of the main problems with this show is they continue to believe that Olivia - or any of these people at this point - are even within spitting distance of wearing a white hat. I rolled my eyes at Liv's self-righteous speech/dressing down of the others for giving up their search and allowing Cyrus to murder his way into the White House. She doesn't give a shit about that. She only cares about winning and "running the oval" again. So, she can STFU with her moral outrage over this murder.

If they would take a page from HTGAWM, which titled last night's episode "We're Bad People," we'd be better off.

[J-Man]

11 minutes ago, mwell345 said:

If Cyrus didn't do it, then he is a legitimate president.

I disagree. As David pointed out, the vote in the electoral college is all that matters. There's no such thing as "the popular vote" or a national election. Cyrus hasn't been chosen by the electoral college, so he has no claim to the presidency.

[Dowel Jones]

4 hours ago, Good Queen Jane said:

The White House is not in California, writers!

I think it was Mellie who said she wanted to go to Santa Barbara and lounge on the beach, and I said to the tv, "You do realize it's November, right?"

[reggiejax]

Quote

I agree Cyrus would absolutely kill someone to be president. But I feel like he would wait until after Vargas was officially in office and he was officially VP. Then he wouldn't have to worry about Fitz's endorsement or the electoral college or any bullshit like that.

This is my belief as well. If Cyrus was going to kill Vargas, he certainly wouldn't do it where there was even a chance that he could get aced out of the Presidency.  

Edited January 27, 2017 by reggiejax

[Dowel Jones]

In such a high profile assassination, it doesn't make sense to leave the shooter behind.  I have no idea who is behind it, but letting your first line guy get caught is just stupid.  Which, come to think of it, probably absolves nearly everyone in the cast.

[democrattotheend]

Hi, I'm a new Scandal fan. I binge-watched the first 5 seasons after the 2016 election as a way to escape political reality. So I didn't exactly appreciate the first 10 minutes of the episode, which hit way too close to home and forced me to relive the sickening, heart-breaking, gut-retching trauma of the real election night.

Contrary to what some people have said, I don't think it was completely unrealistic that California was in play. I think a pro-choice, pro-gay rights Republican who used to be first lady of California could potentially be competitive there. However, no rational Republican campaign would COUNT on winning California as part of its strategy. Isn't Olivia supposed to be the best?

Even more ridiculous than that, though, was the idea that it could all come down to San Benito county on election night (while the polls are still open in Virginia, which closes its polls at 7 pm EST, no less), when anyone who has ever followed Dave Wasserman on Twitter knows that Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and other urban areas in California take WEEKS to count all the votes.

After the trauma of watching the scenes that felt way too much like what Hillary's campaign HQ was probably like on election night, I took solace in the fact that unlike in real life, I actually liked the candidate who won, and in fact he is probably the candidate I would have voted for in real life. But I had a feeling that if he won he wouldn't last long, and Cyrus would end up becoming president (don't even get me started on how ridiculous it is that a Democrat running for president would choose the equivalent of Karl Rove as his running mate). Sure enough, we didn't even get to see Vargas give any of his victory speech before he was shot. I still can't decide if Cyrus is responsible or not.

If it wasn't Cyrus, I am hoping it was Jake, and that will be the end of his relationship with Olivia once and for all. But that would be too easy. I actually think it might have been Jake's wife, and that they will turn her into what Mellie was in the first few seasons.

I can't decide after last night if there is any hope for Olitz. I really hope so. Everything about the way they got together was so wrong, and it's part of why I was rooting for Mellie to win the election even though I am a staunch Democrat and I couldn't stand Mellie in the beginning. But as morally wrong as Fitz and Liv's affair was, they are so amazing together on screen that it's hard not to root for them. I am still angry about the way they built up the idea of Olivia being first lady for 5 seasons only to tear it down way too quickly in a way that cheapened everything they had done building up to it.

[LeeLeePanda]

6 hours ago, slade3 said:

I'm pretty sure he met with Olivia. Olivia secretly taped him trashing his supporters.

I rewatched the beginning of last night's episode. When they announce Vargas has won, Jake looks disappointed and puts his head in his hand. But not disappointed because they lost possibly disappointed because he has to do a job. After the loss, Abby asks Jake's wife where he is and the wife shrugs and says "He left." Abby says he can't leave, they still have to concede. Cut to Olivia and Mellie drinking, a scream, and news that Vargas has been shot. Next time we see Jake, he is rushing into the war room/briefing room where Fitz and his people are discussing strategy.

We also do not see Charlie, Quinn or Huck. Which gives me this sinking feeling we're going to spend the season with Olivia going back and forth believing Cyrus or Jake killed Vargas, destroying her relationships with both of them, only for it to be Charlie under orders from Papa Pope, destroying his engagement to Quinn.

The Fitz theory from upthread would be an unexpected twist.

I thought Vargas accepted his win in Philly, then was airlifted to D.C. after he was shot. Then again, I was having trouble with my TV signal and missed a few things.

I think it would be an interesting twist if none of the Goon Squad had anything to do with the assassination. Like, it really was a lone gunman, and now they have to deal with the aftermath. 

[reggiejax]

Despite the insistence of all the promos not to miss the first 10 minutes, I in fact did just that. I just watched them on Hulu, and while it lived up to the explosive nature promised in the ads, there was a hell of a lot of stupid shit.

Most notably the idea that  Liv would urge Mellie to concede so quickly. At the time this occurs, Mellie has lost California by 4000 votes. Liv counters by saying that in a few hours it will be 20,000 votes, so Mellie should just accept it. What is bothersome is that 20,000 is a thin margin to lose any state by, but for California it is practically a tie, statistically speaking. Back in November, Californians came out to the polls to the tune of over 11,954,000 votes cast. Even if we go by Liv's prediction of a 20,000 vote margin, that is a just a difference of 1/6th of one percent of the vote. I don't know the laws that govern a recount in California, but it would seem to me such a razor thin margin would more than warrant a recount.

I get that it was done for the sake of moving the story along, but how are we supposed to believe Liv would give up so quickly?

The other thing that bugged me was Abby at the hospital. I get that they like to give the characters their "you go girl" moments, but her showdown with the head of the Secret Service detail was unrealistic, a) because the Secret Service would obviously have secured the hospital long before Abby showed up, and b) despite the factual truth of her "don't you know who I am?" spiel, she would not have any authority over the Secret Service when it comes to security. Even the President doesn't dictate to the Secret Service how to handle security. At least not in any way that remotely resembles the shit Abby pulled. Not to mention that, while she is chief of staff, she is Fitz' chief of staff. It isn't Fitz in that hospital, it is Vargas, the new President-elect, and a Democrat. He would have his own staff to pull lame power moves like that. They hardly need Abby.

I am usually an Abby defender, but in that scene, she was annoying as all hell.

Edited January 27, 2017 by reggiejax

[J-Man]

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I thought Vargas accepted his win in Philly, then was airlifted to D.C. after he was shot.

I believe they said he was shot at the Pennsylvania state capitol building in Harrisburg.