‘Scandal’ Review: Seven Fifty-Two

The reason this write up took me a little longer was because I was too busy picking up the pieces of my broken heart for Huck and restocking tissue boxes in my house.  This episode killed me.  Every single one of the actors brought their “A” game, but Guillermo Diaz brought down the house.  The premise of the episode “Seven Fifty-Two” was the big promotional push, especially on Twitter, to hint at what Huck’s backstory was.  I admit to guessing it was his number of kills via his “trophies” of the victims’ watches…like Shonda wanted us to think. 

What it turned out to be – the 7:52 train that (wait for it) his WIFE AND CHILD – take in the mornings, slayed me and 99.9% of Twitter.  Watching happy, clean, good-smelling Huck in his hot uniform was so heartening…and then the government slowly and insidiously took away his soul piece by piece to turn him into a perfect assassin.  Charlie, Cy’s resident thug, taught him everything he knows to become a killing machine, which is simultaneously endearing and creepy.

Charlie, it turns out, saved Huck when their boss at the super-secret government agency learned of his family.  I use the term “saved” loosely because he did sit by and watch the government lock him in a pitch-black dungeon for 2 months.  So the assassin does have a heart somewhere in there; it’s just under his sociopathic tendencies. Also, where’s Huck family now? I need Huck to have some closure and see them sometime in the near future.

While my heart was breaking for Huck rocking in the corner repeating, “752752752752…..” the glimpse into Quinn, Abby, and Harrison’s mindset was unbelievable, in the best possible way.  Katie, Darby, and Columbus took those monologues and set the Scandal sets on fire.  I’m not a huge fan of judge-y Abby, but her confliction over her loyalty to Liv, even when it destroyed her relationship with David (which is nowhere near being over) was palpable.  I need to know more about Harrison next season; I bet he’s got a whole car full of baggage we don’t know about yet. I found it very interesting that he didn’t mention figuring out Liv’s affair to Abby or Quinn, mainly because he, like the rest of America, knows they can’t hold water, let alone a world altering secret like this.

I did get my Olitz moment and WITH their theme song.  Fitz didn’t leave Liv’s side, much to Mellie’s raging, homicidal anger and Cy’s truth-spinning self.  Positive side: Fitz’s presence at the hospital protected Liv from a visit from Charlie (and for all I know, Jake the Snake); negative: Mellie with her deep voice/big hair is pissed off.  Like boil a bunny pissed off.  So that’s gonna be a problem for Fitz.  Also, if she calls Olivia a whore one more time, those pearls need to end up in her throat….

BUT life is good because Olivia and Fitz are talking to each other; except they’re Olivia Carolyn Pope and Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III so this means they can never both be on the same page at the same time in the same room. I do give them credit for actually talking to each other like the grown-ups they *cough* should be. I actually give them more credit for their usual super hot kissing, but that’s a different kind of credit.  That’s a, “Thank you, Shonda, for realizing the chemistry between these two pretty people” credit.

Cyrus remains miffed that Jake the Snake is moving in on his work husband. Of course, getting Charlie to look into Jake the Snake means someone is going to end up bleeding and it better not be Olivia, again. That’s how Charlie rolls though, so someone get Olivia a helmet and bulletproof vest.

What is Olivia’s backstory?? Of all the characters that need to be explored more, like Harrison and even Abby, I never thought I would have to add Liv’s name to this list.  Why was she all alone for all that time?  Where is her mother, father, or any living relative for that matter? I’ve said before that Huck is her person, so Liv breaking down and talking/begging Huck to come down off the edge just made my heart swell for both of them. She’s the only one who can reach him sitting on the floor in a corner, just like he was the only one able to get her up and out of bed when she had her meltdown over Defiance.

Looking at next week……Who is the mole and why is Joe Morton, (since he’s character-nameless right now), willing to use Olivia as bait to catch him (or her)? How many people does Jake actually work for and how does he keep their names straight? Will Fitz take a golf club to Jake when he learns about him bedding Olivia?