Scandal recap: 'Robin'

Well, here we are: body in a trunk, doused in gasoline, set on fire, and naturally Rowan is holding the match.

This is Scandal.

I’m gonna get personal. Six-ish years ago, I was all about this crazy show. Fit me for my Gladiator Suit. Hell, I’ll drown Amanda Tanner myself (even though I have some theories that Amanda Tanner never died and is now BONNIE WINTERBOTTOM and we’ll get that confirmed at the How to Get Away With Scandal crossover, but more on that later). But I didn’t sign up for a lot of that nonsense in the later seasons. The car was heading toward the cliff, and I nervously laughed at Olivia and was like, “You gonna break?” And she kept going.

So is this it? It feels too far…to think that the woman some could argue kickstarted this story could be dead, along with Robin, the baby she was pregnant with. The day after the events of the midseason finale, Quinn’s remains are found. The cause of death is two gunshot wounds — one to the head, one to the chest — and, of course, being burned alive. Even President Mellie shows up to offer her condolences. It seems that everyone in Scandal’s world is shellshocked by everything that has happened. Speaking of shells, Charlie wants Quinn’s remains packed in bullet cases, which honestly sounds about right. The team is initially against it, but Olivia agrees that if it’s what Charlie thinks Quinn would want, then that’s what they’ll do.

As Huck sorts through the coroner’s report and Olivia prepares a eulogy, he comes across a note about the hairpin…you know, the one from the Smithsonian that Olivia got for Quinn to wear at her wedding. It just makes it all the more real. Quinn Perkins is apparently no longer with us. Huck goes to her charred body to promise Quinn that she will not have died in vain.

When Jake meets up with Rowan, they discuss it so coldly, which I guess shouldn’t surprise us at this point. When Jake says that Olivia lost her friend, Rowan simply responds, “I lost my child.” Oh, okay, not really but you do you? It takes a few minutes, but when Fitz shows up to Olivia’s door with booze and condolences, she loses it. She blames Fitz for everything that happens, slams the door, and takes quite a big sip out of that bottle.

And if you care for the small details, it’s not just Quinn’s friends who are in mourning. Fenton Glackland broke up with Cyrus, and he wants answers about it all. Listen. I’m all about nursing a broken heart, but it’s not time, ya know? Still, in a borderline irrelevant plotline, Cyrus goes to see Glackland to shake out why they broke up, and Glackland reveals that he knows Charlie was B613 and that Cyrus had a hand in all of it. That’s when he calls Cyrus a “bad guy,” which is a bit triggering for ol’ Cy. He screams at Glackland to admit that he’s no better than Cyrus, but Glackland says that if someone tried to buy him with a painting, he’d never allow it. That’s a Rich Gay Burn, double entendre intended.

Elsewhere, Abby stumbles upon Huck in a dark room in full-on conspiracy theory mode. He traced that hairpin to the Smithsonian and back to Olivia. And though his final answer that Olivia killed Quinn wasn’t correct, the work he did to get there is correct. It’s like doing long division and switching the digits at the very last minute. Stay strong, Huck. THINK HARDER HUCK. And think harder he does. Huck heads to Fitz for help in getting Olivia straightened out. And maybe there is no answer, but Huck does confirm what he believed to be a delusion: Olivia has changed. (Recap continues on page 2)

In the days following Quinn’s death, Huck heads to AA, which is code for Killers Anonymous, while Olivia literally downs an actual bottle of whiskey. But it’s not enough to bring Quinn back. David Rosen shows up at the crematory to find Abby clutching Quinn. She says that she wanted more for Quinn — something else, because cremation seems so final. Back at OPA-turned-QPA-turned-Sad Times Bar and Grill, Olivia is in Quinn’s office, wasted, trying to write her eulogy. Huck comes in with a gun to kill whomever the intruder is, but it’s just Liv, trying on that white hat again like some drunk crazy ass. You can see in Huck’s eyes that it’s crossed his mind to shoot her, but Olivia is too far gone to be saved by death. That’s saying a lot.

At the team table, Abby helps Charlie pack Quinn into bullets (yes, that’s a sentence). Huck joins in to help them, loading her bullets into a clip, and you know what? I bet you if Quinn actually is dead, she’s going to kill at least one more person.

Meanwhile, Rowan is putting his bones back together. Why does Rowan get his bones back? Have you guys been thinking that at all? Like, when you kill Quinn, you don’t get your bones. But that’s not the main point; Quinn is. Jake drives Olivia out in the middle of nowhere to meet with the rest of the team and say goodbye. But Olivia’s eulogy is barely one at all. All she can muster to say is that Quinn’s death is awful, and it’s nothing in comparison to Charlie saying, “Goodbye Robin. I love you.” They all take turns shooting her off with memories flashing of the woman they knew. It ends with Olivia, and her memory is turning over OPA to Quinn. If you’re like me and you’re still waiting for our girl to reappear, this is your official permission to throw that red wine glass against the wall because it’s starting to feel like a (very unceremonious) goodbye.

With nothing left to do, Abby and the team get drunk and trade hilarious stories about Quinn. But when Abby tells Huck that she called Olivia to join, he excuses himself. He’s still too suspicious, and with good reason. An hour later, Olivia hasn’t shown up. Where is she? She’s gone to visit Fitz, who welcomes her into his apartment in silence. She doesn’t want to talk or sit — she just leans her head on Fitz’s chest and says, “Just tonight,” and then they kiss. At this point, it feels played out.

But of course, that’s not how the night ends. David finds Charlie sitting in his car, where he says, “I don’t know where to go. I can’t go back to the apartment. Everyone keeps sending us stuff for the baby.” So Charlie gives David his keys, and David and Abby take everything down — and then find a USB hidden in the crib. But it may already be too late because Charlie has retreated back to the very man who killed his wife, begging for his old life back. As he turns to walk away, he hears the cry of a baby, and when he chases down the noise, he screams, “WHOSE BABY IS THAT?” There, in front of presumably Robin, Charlie chokes the life out of Rowan.

Is. Quinn. Alive? Are you off the cliff? Still in the car? Or is it finally all just too much?