James Novak has gone home to be with our Lord! Mama Pope is Cray Cray!

 

 

Last week’s ‘Scandal’ started off with a bang — literally.

We picked up from last week’s cliffhanger to find that Jake had killed Shelby, the NSA contractor, “Style reporter,” Vanessa Chandler and … James. Poor, poor James. I will miss the way he softened Cyrus’s cold, black heart, his Middlebury references and his questionable journalistic practices (though, to be fair, no one on this show understands the phrase “conflict of interest.”)

It turns out that he shot James. The police are investigating the scene and brief David, who’s pretending he doesn’t know what happened and is also leading the investigation. So now, David has been unofficially hired by Jake for B613. Oh lawd..

We cut to Olivia and Cyrus. The latter is naturally in shock, and Olivia swears they’re going to capture the person who did this. Her first step: She decides that Fitz has to suspend the re-election campaign for a few days out of respect to Cyrus. Mellie suggests that Fitz bring gun control into this for political purposes, but he’s not interested in politicizing this tragedy. He gets a call from Sally who says that she too will put her campaign on hold as well. But she and her campaign advisor will use the free time to plot an endorsement from gun lobbies. Y’all know Sally is the devil,  or nah?

Olivia gets confronted by Huck, Abby, and Harrison with separate issues all at once (those issues are Quinn, Jake, and Adnan respectively). She sits in silence, but then heads to speak to David. Keeping in mind what Rowan told her, Olivia tells David that they need to take down B613. “Lose this battle,” referring to James, “before we can win the war,” Olivia says.

We flashback to Jake over James’ body as he’s dying. He apologizes for the slow death, but he says he had to make it messy so it looked like an amateur killed him in a carjacking.

 

Olivia realizes that James’ death was actually a hit when noticing that one of the reporters involved with the Publius case is missing from the press room, which suggests she’s dead (press don’t miss White House events!). Abby goes to David and senses he’s lying. Olivia calls Jake and asks if he can look into it too. He says he can’t right now because he’s in the middle of something at the moment… burying the two women he killed.

Despite his husband’s death, Cyrus doesn’t want to stop working because he’s afraid Sally is going to steal the gun lobbyists. He equates her plan to killing himself (and Fitz’s campaign, of course). Meanwhile, Huck notices that Daniel Douglas’ file has been messed with, and he learns it was Quinn. He presents this information to Olivia, who then goes to Jake over the problem of B613 knowing everything about the Daniel Douglas murder. The fake couple have an intense fight over Jake becoming just like Rowan in terms of B613 management. He tells her to accept that James died in a car-jacking, and told her there will be consequences if she continues snooping.

Scandal and Olivia’s focus is clearly headed towards taking down B613 because the problems it has caused have become way too huge.

Other notes

– Olivia’s mom is working with Adnan. We see Marie is in control of Adnan and in a meeting with two men. She kills one of them point blank when he’s not cooperating. Adnan goes to Harrison for a brief moment to look for an escape from Marie, but then comes up with a different solution. Mama Pope is CRAY CRAY!

 

"#Scandal” at 10 earned a 2.9/9 — the highest rating of the night — and 8.9 million viewers." WOO HOO!!! #GladiatorsNotBitches

— Tony Goldwyn (@tonygoldwyn) March 21, 2014

 

 

One of the most touching scenes of the season came at the end of this episode, when Cyrus tries to speak to the media but breaks down on the podium. Fitz takes him off stage and Olivia steps in to detail the car-jacking story that Jake has put in place.

Can I just say the end of this episode was EVERYTHING? Cyrus almost had me in tears! Lawd! I was fighting them back! That scene deserves some awards, whooo child!

In his Emmys acceptance speech “Scandal” actor Dan Bucatinsky pointed out that he was one of the few actors who could thank his real husband and his TV husband, Don Roos and Jeff Perry, respectively, in the same speech. We’re going to miss good old “James Novak.” The gladiators have already had his services, you can view the program below:

Here is another program for your viewing pleasure (I saw his online from Awesomely Luvvie and almost passed out):

Dress Code

The family of James Novak is asking that you come rocking a white rose on your chest. There will be no white hats allowed in that building because what y’all ain’t gon do is lie in Jesus’ house. None of you have enough behavior to justify that. Please respect these wishes.

Seating

We’re gonna have assigned seating at Mr. Novak’s homegoing because we know some of you ain’t there to wish folks well. We also know everyone can’t get along and that ain’t the place to start something you can’t finish. This will be a peaceful gathering. Furthermore, press will be relegated to the back. TMZ, you’re not allowed in. Neither are YOU, Jaheim.

Music

At the actual church service, we’re keeping the song selections to 3 hymns. Y’all are not gon have us in here all day when we still got a repass to go to. Sister O’Dell has been told that she gotta sit this one out and she understands. These ain’t hymns but we did make some exceptions because Sister Shirley Caesar is gon sing us “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” while Brother Stevie Wonder’s coming through for “I never dreamed you’d leave in summer.” And when Cyrus goes to pay his respects to his boo for a last time, the song playing will be “I Will Always Love You.” Please bring your own tissues to mop up your feelings with.

At the repass, the following people will perform. If you aren’t on this list but wish to be added, be mad that your publicist ain’t let us know in advance.

* Tamela Mann (she’s gon take us to the king)
* Bebe and Cece Winans (because love songs to Jesus are always it)
* Kirk Franklin (to remind us that Jesus is better than silver and gold)
* Yolanda Adams (what’s a gospel gathering without her? NOTHING!)
* Bone Thugs N Harmony (so Cyrus can get the message to James that he’ll see him at the crossroads)
* Elton John (because James is a Candle in the WIND!) – @Dynamo_Diva

It’s gon be a holy concert. We’ll live stream it on Google hangout until the data plan we use to tether to the computer runs out. You’re welcome!

Food

We will not be allowing food inside the sanctuary so y’all gon need to wait til the repass to eat. We need folks to bring the following dishes to James’ repass: sweet potato pie, mac & cheese, vegan german chocolate cake, orange soda, kale salad (some people wanna be healthy. whatever), chicken (baked and fried). Please sign up with Ethan to let us know what you plan on bringing. If you aren’t bringing nothing, you better not eat nothing either. Just selfish. You could stop at the store and pick up some napkins or something. It’s not even that hard. Anyway…

Ushers

We will need some willing, able and experienced ushers for this occasion. We need them to be able to get people together with one look, even if they’re super important. You’ll be trusted to keep folks in them pews until the end. There will be many goons in that place and we need y’all to help us keep order. Think of yourself as holy bouncers.

 

LOL OK…

So long James! Can’t wait to see who Cyrus will manipulate next!