SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
With Team Pope thoroughly thrashing Payas in the last two episodes, it was only inevitable that he would push back at some point. And this week, he did. Hard. Taking inspiration from Team Pope’s fake out drone attack last week, he executed quite a show of force when he placed nine drones, armed with bombs, above nine American cities, threatening to detonate them at random intervals if Team Pope didn’t give him back Mellie and Marjorie-Samantha-Grace.
The second that Liv challenged Payas and called his bluff on the bombs, I knew that he would have detonated one of them. He didn’t even wait for her to finish her sentence! The man meant business. Team Pope had driven him into a corner and cornered animals are dangerous and reckless. It seems like Liv had underestimated exactly how far she and the rest of her team had pushed him.
Liv once again sought help from Papa Pope and he once again refused, still insisting that they both run and save themselves. This wasn’t the only time in the episode that Liv asked her father for help; the second time she took Fitz with her and still he refused. I get that Marjorie-Samantha-Grace and Payas broke Papa Pope, but his stubbornness and cowardice was frustrating. All he wanted was to protect himself and especially Liv, but knowing that she was not going to give up the fight, helping her so that she could succeed in her efforts would have been the best way to do that.
When her first request to her father failed, Liv sent Jake to get information from Marjorie-Samantha-Grace. Which he surprisingly got considering how deft Marjorie-Samantha-Grace is. But he expertly played her and she inadvertently revealed a tracking device in her neck that Payas used to keep tabs on her. One that Team Pope could use to find Payas’ location. It was too good to be true though, because a kill switch was activated and it was rendered useless. I really thought that Team Pope had Payas then. I should have known that that wouldn’t work.
Jake pays Marjorie-Samantha-Grace another visit, this time armed with the lie that they had captured Payas and that they would offer her a deal if she talked. And she took it. I didn’t believe that Marjorie-Samantha-Grace had fallen for their little ruse; she’s too sharp. I was positive that she was acting since she was far too human – showing fear and desperation – compared to her previous demeanour. Plus, she never struck me as someone who could be shaken. What really solidified it for me was when she asked David if they could start over. Marjorie-Samantha-Grace is not a woman who would fall for her mark, so it was no surprise that David fell into her trap or that she’d been tricking them the entire time.
Before David went to Marjorie-Samantha-Grace, he’d given Liv invoices showing that she and Payas had been delivering boxes containing nine to eleven pound bricks to Papa Pope regularly. It struck me as odd that Marjorie-Samantha-Grace and Payas would leave any sort of paper trail for anything they’d done, no matter how small and seemingly trivial, given that it could be traced back to them. I would think that they would be so much more careful about their activities. In any case, Liv tells Fitz about the packages and he goes to speak to Papa Pope.
In their conversation Papa Pope reveals that the bricks were a threat to keep him in line; a human head weighs nine to eleven pounds and they would send him Liv’s if he didn’t behave. They both noted how important Liv is to Papa Pope and that he would do anything to protect her. It was because of that exchange that I didn’t think that Papa Pope was truly running away when he freed Marjorie-Samantha-Grace.
I did at first think that Papa Pope was genuinely running away and using Marjorie-Samantha-Grace as leverage to earn his freedom from Payas. But as the scene progressed and I remembered his conversation with Fitz, I quickly realised that it was all a ploy. Using Marjorie-Samantha-Grace to lure Payas so that they could follow him was genius. When Jake killed the person operating the drones and then paused to say a few words to Payas, I literally shouted at my screen for him to shut up and just shoot him already. It’s in those moments that the villain can and sometimes does get the upper hand but that was not the case here. Jake’s words were brief and he shot Payas in the head shortly thereafter.
With Payas taken care of, that only left Marjorie-Samantha-Grace and Papa Pope took her out with a dinosaur tooth. When he told her to look into the box, I expected Payas’ head to be in it. But it was to be the final resting place for hers.
Even with Marjorie-Samantha-Grace and Payas dead I was still uneasy. Their defeat was a little too easy and I was ready for another threat to rear it’s head at the very end of the episode, but nothing happened. If the preview for the next episode is any indication, I can rest easy on that front because their next big threat seems to be Liv.
Random thoughts:
- I really thought that Papa Pope would rub Payas’ retaliation in Liv’s face.
- Does Liv really think that Marjorie-Samantha-Grace would talk?
- I thought the boxes contained body parts. Close enough.
- “Emancipated” is such a word to say to a black man.
Scandal airs Thursdays at 9 PM on ABC.
