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Scandal #406: Let the Sunshine In

Olivia skims across the surface of the water, exorcising her demons. We know from previous episodes that when Olivia is swimming, Fitz is on her brain (214, 220). In a meta, Inception-type move, we are privy to Olivia’s thoughts while swimming. She then appears in an artifice-free state—without makeup, her hair natural and curly—lying back, naked and expectant on her pillow. Where else have we seen Olivia with this hair? On her African island paradise in 401.

This is an indication that she was trying place herself back on that island, seemingly a time of summer breezes that made her feel fine, unlike what she must be feeling in present day. To support that, Jake’s face appears for a romantic embrace. But wait, there’s more. Suddenly, Fitzgerald’s curly mane pops up from Olivia’s nest as he crawls toward her face. She is both surprised and delighted to see him. She looks at him as if to convey, is this really you here with me? Let me feel your face to make sure. Of course by the end of the scene, we know Olivia was having a dream within a dream. It turns into a nightmare when her father shows up: “For God’s sake, Olivia, wake up!” That is an invocation to a literal and metaphorical awakening, the first of which we see play out immediately (she wakes up). The second unfolds over the episode because the waking up that Olivia needs to do involves embracing the inner truth that she knows well, but has been trying so hard to push away.

Before Olivia allowed Jake to “stand in the sun” with her, she told him that she was in love with another man (318). Jake implored her to leave that behind along with whatever else she was escaping. The entire act of leaving with Jake to be on an island was an attempt at shutting out the truth. Explained too many times to reference here, Olivia and Jake’s entire relationship has not just been built on a lie, it has been built on an escapist fantasy. “Save me”, “run away with me” are all supportive statements. An escapist fantasy is a lie, and it is temporary. There was no life to be built on that island, something that stands in stark contrast to Vermont—a place that literally contains a building specifically for the creation of a family, the leading of a life. The moment “Julia” and Jake (note that he didn’t need a fake name on that island) leave the island, their relationship starts to fall apart. They don’t work in real life because all they’ve been doing is pretending, something Olivia and Fitz decided to stop doing last season (313).

It’s interesting that we see Olivia pondering these thoughts in Jake’s absence. I mentioned in my 402 commentary piece, that the biggest things Jake has going for him are his presence and his dependability. By 406, Olivia can count on neither of those things. The distraction from the truth that Jake represents is gone. In that lacuna, free from performing normal, Olivia has space to ponder. This is why we get the jihadist dream sequence featuring Jake and Fitz. On the surface it seems that the inner struggle she is having is between two men. Not so. Those men are representative of what Audre Lorde calls pornography and the erotic.* Neither is about sex, per se. The erotic is that which comes from the deepest place inside of you—that which gives you satisfaction and pleasure; it is expansive and abundant, letting emotion in. The pornographic, on the other hand, emphasizes sensation over emotion; it is a form of denial that seeks to restrict, push away out of fear. What was it that Olivia needed to embrace this episode? The truth. Jake is not the truth, he is pornography. We know what and who the truth is, and Olivia does, too. As mentioned in my 404 analysis, we spent the first three episodes (and 405) hearing Jake refer to his sexual prowess with Olivia. In 404, Fitz literally breathed in Olivia’s direction, asking “Didn’t you miss me?”, and Olivia practically climaxed while fully dressed. That, my dears, is the power of a connection that is rooted in something meaningful. That is the erotic.

Let’s talk about the sex!

The song, Summer Breeze, at first seems to recall Olivia’s time on the island. Summer breeze is easy and makes you feel fine. Except she is at home, and the song is actually about enjoying the pleasures and comforts of life with the one you love. Olivia has love (manipulated as it is) for Jake, but he is not the one she loves. Attempts to recall serenity on the island with Jake fail because Fitz’s face, body, Cobraconda…keep infiltrating her fantasy. Because the truth is like the sun, you can’t shut it out for long.

I could write an entire piece on the actual sex, but I have other things to discuss. There are just a couple things I want to note. I get so much delight from seeing Olivia prioritize her pleasure because my fondest wish is for her to have what she wants, whomever she wants. And I love how the scene is tender when it needs to be (Olivia caressing Fitz’s face early on), and aggressive in appropriate parts (whoo chile, that wig grab). Their love is both tender and aggressive, uncomfortably so, at times.

You guys, can we talk about the fact that Olivia is thinking of Jake until he slithers down towards her nesting place (out of sight, out of mind). #iDied because we all know that’s Fitz’s favorite spot, so I thought it wholly appropriate for him to pop up at that point. Nobody does it better, apparently.

And were the following words from the scene pictured above not ringing in your head:

“We both know we’re not standing in the sun. You’re standing in the shade of 1600 Pennsylvania avenue and it’s his turn. As long as we’re back, it’s always his turn. Despite the fact that I’m the one you like to ride. That I’m the one who makes you moan. That I’m the one who reaches you in places that he can’t begin to touch.”—Jake, Randy, Red, Superfreak and Julia

At this precise moment:

All the welps that ever did welp in Welpington county, Welpishire, Welpistan.

Jokes aside, the look on Olivia’s face tells me that Fitz surprises and delights her in ways that reach beyond physical sensation.

“Falcon’s in the nest”

My single favorite line in the entire episode is, “Falcon’s in the nest”. It tickled me more than it should. The nest is home. Olivia is home. With the exception of his first time there (105), subsequent visits (220, 306, 406) find Fitz swaggering in like it is his home, too. What’s funny is that this dude wasn’t taking her calls all night long. Abby invokes his love for Olivia—something he cannot deny—and he goes to her, even as he is supremely hurt, confused and stressed about settling the matter of his son’s murderer. The matters that motivate Fitz to go ‘home’ to Olivia are always ones of dire consequence—when he cannot get an audience with Olivia otherwise. It’s interesting to note that Fitz calls Olivia to their new home in Vermont in 308, after the dispute in his 306 visit to ‘home’ was left unsettled.

I’ve previously written of an ineffable je ne sais quoi that Olivia has found in Fitz and he in her. That sense of home is the ineffable quality they have found in each other. When one is home, one can relax, stop performing, let all the abundance that is you roam free: all the crazy, the dirty, the nerdy and the sublime. That is why they continue to repeatedly choose painful, difficult, devastating, life-changing, extraordinary love with one another, despite all the bullshit. They have found that sense of one-ness in each other. Why look for it in anyone else? That is the conclusion to which Olivia had to come this episode. Whether or not these two people actually get to construct a home together (family) in the future, I cannot say. The desire for home and family, however, has never waned.

Lastly, I’ve noted earlier in the season that Jake is home-less (don’t know what happened to his apartment), living in a hotel. He knows he doesn’t belong in Olivia’s home, that her offer to stay with her (402) is a magnanimous gesture, not an invitation. His lack of home has been noted prior in the narrative, despite actually having someplace to live:

Olivia [from inside her apartment]: “Jake, go home!”

Jake [on the other side of her apartment]: “I don’t have a home! I asked you to save me, and you said ‘no’”—The Fluffer (316)

Knowledge vs. Knowing (looking vs. seeing)

The conversation that Olivia and Fitz have inside the home is really important, as it relates to a consistent theme since season one, and is relevant to the dream sequence at the beginning. That conversation concerns knowledge vs. knowing, or looking vs. seeing, as I have previously described it in The Fitz and Olivia Project (219):

“To look: to regard; to literally cast one’s gaze upon something, or someone.

To see: to behold; to peer into, or feel connected to something or someone.

So, in order to know the truth about someone, you have to really see them, see into their soul. A person can only be known if they let themselves be known. I can only know you if you let me see you, not just look at you.”—Katrina Pavela

Knowing ‘about’ someone, or something is tantamount to collecting knowledge. Knowing someone, or something is a matter of intimacy, an embrace of conviction. Olivia and Fitz knew each other before they really knew about each other. The knowing began here:

The moment of recognition, here:

Over the course of several seasons, we’ve seen them collect information about each other. The knowledge they collect is often a source of conflict between them, but their love always triumphs over that adversity (Defiance, murdering Verna, shooting down a plane, Command as Olivia’s father, etc.) Part of what I believe is being explored in this tale is: how much do you really know anyone? And is the love between Olivia and Fitz capacious enough for a lifetime of adversity, or will its resilience peter out?

Fitz: “Because you know him so well? The B6-13 agent who was spying on you?”

Olivia: “That was before.”

Fitz: “What, he changed? Is that it? He changed. You changed him, Liv? He played you.”

Olivia: “I know him. I know about him the way I know about you.”

Fitz: “No, you don’t know him the way you know me.”

Notice that Olivia quickly pivots from saying she knows Jake to saying that she knows about him. She cannot say with certainty that she knows Jake, as we saw her doubt this very thing just last episode. Watch Olivia’s face as her father tells her that Jake has an obsession with her as his personal savior. Her features are marred with uncertainty because that “save me” language is, indeed, familiar to her.

Jake himself later supports Olivia’s uncertainty when he tells her that she has no reason to trust him since their relationship has been built on a pile of lies from day one. Recall that in their first encounter at a coffee shop, they were literally pretending to be other people: a guy who sells paper and a girl who’s a DC tour guide (214).

Fitz consistently emphasizes knowing, and that Olivia does not know Jake the way she knows him. His repeated statements took me back to several occasions wherein Fitz calls on Olivia’s knowing of him to invoke trust, or vice versa (106, 211, 219, 306-308). But really, his words took me back to the opening scene. We are privy to Olivia’s carnal knowledge of two men, but she only knows one of those two men intimately.

Hope springs eternal

Now for my second favorite scene (the final one is my fave). Where do I even begin to explain why? Is it the part where Abby is officially inside the Olitz bubble (like I predicted) when she, at the fucking state funeral of President Reagan Cooper, whispers to Fitz that Olivia is waiting for him? Is it the part where that very act, once again, shows up Mellie (“my husband only listens to one woman…”)? Is it the part where Olivia appeals to Fitz’s humanity, standing in stark contrast to what her father encouraged him to do? Is it the part where Fitz’s ruination protestations exactly mirror what Olivia said in 404? Is it the fact that in the midst of anger and raised voices, the actual truth comes out? Or maybe I should start with the fact that Olivia was framed by two glowing lamps when she told Fitz there’s hope. I. Just. Don’t. Know.

Fitz: “Look what he did to you. To us. You and I are ruined. We don’t have a chance now. Too much has happened.”

Olivia: “If you hand him over…If you give him to my father to be killed, you and I will never, ever have any hope of ever being together again.”

Fitz: “Are you saying there’s any hope now?”

Pause for the cause. Can we talk about Fitz’s selective hearing? Lmao. His response reminded me of a scene in 103. Cyrus is telling Fitz about a sit-down meeting to solve the Amanda Tanner crisis, for which Olivia would be present. All Fitz hears is “Olivia”.

Ok, let’s be serious. What Fitz misses is not between Olivia’s thighs. It’s the knowing that comes from being in communion with Olivia that he misses. In that regard, he has no one. It’s partly why he’s ticking (207).

Does that look like the face of woman engineering emotion in order to manipulate a man—for whom she cares profoundly—into relocating her “boyfriend”? Or does it look like a woman who doesn’t, in fact, want to accept ruination. A woman who is appealing to the goodness of the man she knows? It’s the latter, people. You know how I know? Olivia didn’t even realize what she said. It wasn’t until Fitz replied, “are you saying there’s any hope now?” that she recognized what had come out of her mouth. She immediately pivots to a language of trust (”the man I know") before falling back on familiar, sobering and less intimate language: “the man I voted for”, “the man who took the oath of office”. Fitz–optimistic, idealistic, romantic that he is–uses that Harvard law degree and doggedly cross examines Olivia for the truth. Is there hope? Unable to deny any longer what she knows is the truth, Olivia, reluctantly affirms.

I recall from 401 that Huck, dressed as “Randy the Smart Guy” was purposely cold to Olivia because her presence back in Washington gave him hope, something for which “Randy” had no capacity, if Olivia was not there to remain. “Randy” exists, he doesn’t live. Hope makes “Randy” think about living. There are, of course, the times that Olivia has angrily expressed to Fitz that getting her hopes up about their relationship makes it that much harder when those hopes are inevitably dashed (220, 316).This is why Olivia adds the caveat “yet” when she tells Fitz not to sell the house (308). This is why Olivia then later tells Fitz to scratch the whole idea of Vermont (313). The fact that Olivia is the one invoking hope is a pretty big deal.

What has this entire episode been about? Surrendering to the truth that is the light of the sun. They are never over, remember (220)? I actually love how angry they both are over the matter of hope. I think it’s hilarious. Only a ridiculously passionate couple, who knows they can behave this way with one another, would do this. And this is why I love them. Always and all ways. And It’s also why I dismiss claims that posit Olivia as a victim to Fitz’s brutality; or claims of Fitz’s victimization at the hands of Olivia’s manipulation. Disabuse yourselves of Hollywood tropes of love and the protocols of the ideal relationship formula that are written nowhere. These people ruin each other with permission. I’m not saying it’s ‘right’, but it’s OK. Their baggage coordinates—from the roota to the toota.

Having said that, I don’t want Olivia and Fitz to hop back into a romantic relationship. I think they need to re-affirm what it is they really admire and desire in each other. Because ultimately, nothing about their circumstances has changed. Fitz is still married, so where can they really go at this point, but to find strength and partnership in their undeniable bond?

Weapons of mass construction

The final scene is my favorite for many reasons. It serves as a bookend to the opening scene, but also represents a turning point for Olivia (and for Fitz) because she has reached a moment of surrender. As I mentioned in this piece, to surrender is not to give something up so much as it is to embrace something else. That embrace is the power that lies in her love for Fitz and him for her.

Happiness is when you really feel good about somebody Nothing wrong with being in love with someone,—“Love and Happiness,” Al Green

The truth is that her love for Fitz will never go away. Frankly, Olivia has proven that she wants it that way. Life is cold otherwise. Instead of seeing love as a destructive element requiring eradication to live, it should be embraced as a life-giving force. Indeed, it is the embrace of that power to which Olivia appeals in the end in order to save the life of Fitz, Jake and herself.

Love will make you do right

Love will make you do wrong—“Love and Happiness”, Al Green

Olivia helped Fitz to see that not killing Jake is the right thing to do. For Rowan, it was the wrong thing to do. But in the end, it doesn’t matter what Rowan thinks, or what Rowan threatens. Accepting love to be a weapon enables Olivia to assert herself against her father, thus mentally dispossessing him of his primary weapon over her: fear. The Olivia I see in this scene had no fear, nor was she petulant or angry. She is self-assured as she swims away from her father.

At the beginning of the episode, Olivia awoke from a nightmare, brought on by a denial she had been living through for months—even as she stepped back into her role as fixer with vigor and focus. We talked about aunty Audre earlier in this piece, so we must draw to a close with her. As women, suppressing the erotic (an internal sense of satisfaction) within us, in order to display strength, is an illusion because strength is not dependent on male models of power. This is why the weapon that Olivia wields cannot be possessed by Rowan. Rowan sees power in narrow, masculinist and manipulative terms. He doesn’t believe in the transformative power of love, especially if it involves Fitzgerald Grant: a man who thrives on it.

“We know our worth. We know what we’re capable of. We know who we are, who we’ll always be. And we have a choice: we can hide in the shadows, or we can stand in the light.”—Olivia Pope, “Randy, Red, Superfreak and Julia” (401)

The truth is like the sun: inevitably rising and setting every day, and without it, there is no hope. There is no life.

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*Lorde, Audre. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power: “, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1984. 53-59.

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#thanks op!#read this for the first time almost ten years ago and it still stands

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