SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
Given the preview of this episode, it looked like Liv and Team Pope – mostly Quinn – would have been going head to head over Liv’s flippant disregard for OPA now that she’s back in the White House. It and the episode itself made her look like quite the villain (and she kind of has been all season; I still don’t forgive her for Cyrus). But there really wasn’t much of a rumble.
When Quinn was speaking to Charlie in the car near the end of the episode, I finally realised that she was being groomed to take over OPA. That that was the direction the writers were taking her character in and that once Liv was too busy running the White House to give time to the agency, Quinn would just step in and fill the void.
What I didn’t realise was that Liv herself was pushing Quinn in that direction; testing her to make sure that she could take control of OPA. I thought​ that she would just neglect the agency and that the writers were positioning Quinn as it’s next leader, not that Liv was readying her for it. Looking back on the season, it becomes clear that that is where Quinn has been headed all along.
Quinn could not have had a more perfect case to prep her for her promotion. It was obvious that there had been a miscarriage of justice, but there was no hard evidence to support that fact. It was a case in which Quinn had to rely on her gut, just like Liv always has to and she did. And just like Liv always is, she was right.
I just wish that Quinn had been recording her conversation with the real killer, when she, Charlie and Huck went to the bar. I was expecting that to be what she was doing, since he shamelessly confessed to the crime without even the tiniest bit of goading. All because his friend got credit for a hate crime he planned.
I loved that Huck employed one of Liv’s techniques to get him to talk. It was so easy! It was only then that I realised that Quinn is what would happen if Liv and Huck had a baby. In fact, you could say that she is their baby since they both trained her.
I found it weird that David was so concerned about Marjorie-Samantha-Grace’s true identity. The justification was solid; he genuinely cared for her and wanted the truth of this woman who so thoroughly deceived him. It was understandable. But I thought that there had to be a greater narrative significance to his search. Especially because it spanned the entirety of the episode. And I was right.
Just when we thought that the whole Marjorie-Samantha-Grace and Payas debacle was over, it turns out that that was far from the truth. I knew it couldn’t be; it’d be strange that they defeated them with three episodes still left in the season. They weren’t even the final boss!I It was Mama Pope all along!
For a while there I thought that it had been Papa Pope. That would have been the ultimate, most convoluted hoodwink of all time and his being taken into custody by Liv and company only made me think that it was him all the more. Except that it didn’t make much sense considering what happened. So I had my doubts although I wouldn’t put it past him.
As soon as they started using feminine pronouns I knew that it had to be Mama Pope. Who else would Liv need her father to protect her from? Maya Pope remains his greatest adversary and it fit that she would be able to bring him to his knees the way Marjorie-Samantha-Grace and Payas had. I can’t wait to see how this unfolds.
Random thoughts:
- Lol Huck is maid-of-honour.
- I don’t blame Fitz for not trusting Abby.
- Why is David carrying the head to Abby’s, of all places, when Jake is going to get it anyway? Take it to his house!
