Exploiting A Murder For Fun And Votes

Treason Not The Need

Situation: The public story about Daniel Douglas Langston's death is kiiiiiiind of not accurate, and a small group of truth warriors are trying to correct the official record (and maybe get a current presidential candidate prosecuted for the murder).

What Makes It Awkward? Now that too many people know about Deep Throat Club's plans and the identity of its members, Jake's role as Command of B613 pretty much requires him to deal with the situation.

How is order restored? Rather efficiently, considering: Jake arranges a meeting of Deep Throat Club and shoots Vanessa Chandler and Shelby Moss. When James runs, Jake shoots him too; he then leaves David alive to assist in the cover-up: while Jake will deal with the ladies' bodies, but James is too important to be disappeared, so the official story will be that he was killed by a carjacker. This might be a case where the living envy the dead...?

Flashback! Meet-Cute!

In a hotel bar around the time of the Indiana primary, a leather jacket-clad James approaches a mossily scruffy Cyrus looking to get some comment on Grant's position on immigration. After looking James up and down, Cyrus is sniffy about the little publication James works for, though he knows about/is still smarting from a major piece James wrote about Hollis. Cyrus smugly suggests that James dress the part if he wants to be taken seriously, to which James shoots back that he's not about to take styling advice from someone with a neckbeard. Point James! But also, these two are just never going to get along and that is final!

"The Grant Campaign" Is An Anagram For "Genuine Class"

Alert Type: Opportunism Alert.

Issue: Now that the husband of the White House Chief Of Staff has been shot to death, the Grant campaign has to figure out the best way to respond.

Complicating Factors: Grant is already considered to be soft on gun rights, particularly relative to Sally...and there's about to be a huge gun lobby event in Texas that Fitz will miss if he exercises some respect for the late James by suspending his campaign for a few days.

Resolution: Fitz agrees with Liv that suspending the campaign is the right thing to do -- and Sally calls Fitz to say she's going to suspend her campaign too, in solidarity.

Spoiler: Sally has no problem breaking the Commandment about bearing false witness.

Learn To Delegate???

The first thing Liv does after noticing that Vanessa Chandler isn't at the press briefing about James's murder, and figuring out that James probably wasn't actually killed in a random carjacking is call Jake to say she thinks James was killed in order that he not reveal the truth about DD's death and ask him to look into it...which is when we see that he's in the middle of burying Vanessa and Shelby. Himself? Look, I get that we're going to find out soon that he regards his having personally taken out three-quarters of Deep Throat Club as his ethical obligation, but surely he has enough people working for him that he could just order one or several of them to dispose of some corpses without saying where they're from? Come on, man, quit being such a micromanager.

Not-So-Sweet Marie

Who called the meeting? Adnan.

What's it about? She's paying Marie's retainer, so she wants to talk about their next move.

How'd it go? This phase goes okay: Marie says that their next step is to find a terrorist. Adnan says she thought that's what Marie was -- after all, she did blow up a plane -- but Marie says that was personal. "I don't make bombs, I make money." But before too long, Adnan sees that she may be in over her head: Marie ends their meeting with some actual terrorists (or representatives for a terrorist, named Ivan, anyway) by shooting one and sending the other back to home base with the message that Marie Wallace looks forward to meeting with him. Adnan goes on to find Harrison to ask for his help, but let's face it, it's probably already too late, and anyway, when's the last time Harrison actually solved a problem?

Flashback! Gay Shots Fired!

We're back to the early days of the campaign, as James plops down next to Cyrus to ask why Fitz hasn't taken a position on marriage equality when he has a gay campaign manager. Cyrus is like, WHO'S GAY NOW?! and James is like, haha, oh, okay. But he notices that Cyrus has lost the neckbeard and says he looks better without it, which he most certainly is.

To Liver Die In D.C.

If this carjacking story's going to fly, B613's going to need a patsy, and it looks like Quinn and Charlie have found a pretty persuadable one.

Flashback! It's Your Move!

In Defiance, Cyrus is pacing and reciting along with Fitz's stump speech when James comes out (in a jacket and tie, so he did take Cyrus's styling advice after all, much as Cyrus took his), brazenly hitting on him. Cyrus is awkward and says he doesn't "indulge" that often, at which James scoffs that he isn't a dessert. He makes it known that he's into Cyrus -- "Even though you're a Republican, you have a very hot mouth" -- and says that's his "move." When Cyrus doesn't respond, he makes to leave, but then Cyrus grabs him, shoves him against a wall, and kisses the hell out of him, coming up for air to say that's his move. James: "Damn right that's your move." Aw.

Shooting, Fishy

Alert Type: Strategy Alert.

Issue: The Grant campaigners figure out that Sally is totally not suspending her campaign, despite what she said, and is planning to go to this gun lobby event in Texas after all.

Complicating Factors: Fitz really can't go, in light of James's murder, but they also can't risk letting Sally pick up all that support uncontested.

Resolution: Cyrus delays Sally's departure by grounding Air Force Two, and sends Mellie and Andrew to Texas to schmooze instead.

Spoiler: Since Fitz never really had any hope of dominating Sally on this issue, it's probably for the best when Cyrus decides to go the other way: let Fitz steal votes from Reston by going hard on gun control. And after Andrew and Mellie see Fitz sell them out in a presidential address, their own argument over gun rights leads directly to hot hotel-room floor sex.

Jake vs. Liv

When Huck tells Liv that he has Quinn on the SafeCam stealing the DD file, Liv marches straight into Jake's office to yell at him about whatever part he had in the murders and demanding to know who gave the order. Jake is like, uh, me? I'm Command? It's my job? Liv angrily reminds him that he was supposed to be different from her father, and Jakes says that he is, because instead of finding some broken shell of a person and torturing him or her into doing that (and lots of other things such a hypothetical person would have nightmares about forever), Jake sacked up and did it himself, and furthermore that Liv needs to accept that James was killed in a random carjacking and realize that the only way the world keeps spinning is if she does. (Unlike last week, this encounter is not capped off with sadness-sex on or near any cheese fries.)

Winner: Jake.

Flashback! Balled Out!

Cyrus promised James that things between them would be different after the election! James brought a tux so that he could wear it to the inaugural ball, which he expected Cyrus to escort him to! But Cyrus isn't ready to tell Fitz that he's gay! Betrayal!!!

Daddy-Daughter Time

Who called the meeting? Liv.

What's it about? Jake's most recent kills.

How'd it go? Pretty much the way any reasonable person would have guessed. Liv summons Rowan to "their" special memorial to get her disillusionment all over him. "If there are no white hats, if everyone is evil, if the deck is always stacked, if everyone I love is a monster, if no one is worth saving, what's the point?" - Liv. "OF THIS SHOW!" - Me. I mean, honestly. She tells him about the latest in Jake news, and Rowan tells her that he is responsible for killing 183 people while he was Command, because that was his job: "You become the hand of God." Whatever she thinks of Jake, being Command is already the world's worst punishment, but the point is that if there are no more white hats, then there is someone worth saving, and that someone is...everyone? "Even the monsters. Even the demons." And apparently that's all on Liv: "In the face of darkness, you drag everyone into the light." If it really is her responsibility to set the moral universe aright, she really needs to get better at her job.

Flashback! Cyrus Loses His Nerve!

Cyrus visits the Oval obviously intending to tell Fitz, at last, that he's gay, and even though Fitz responds with questions about this "person" that Cyrus is seeing, suggesting that he already knows, Cyrus chickens out, merely confirming to Fitz that "they" make Cyrus happy. Cyrus, you big coward!

It's bad enough that they keep making it seem like Huck might be just about to kill Quinn and then he never does. But now they're making out, too? UNACCEPTABLE.

Liv tells David to quit blocking Lance McCollum's arrest and go with the program and not risk that Jake will kill him too! If David is alive to help her, the two of them can work together to bring down the real enemy: B613!

Having convinced David to co-sign the lie, Liv takes it to Cyrus, promising him that James's murder really was a random street crime! Cyrus is going to take the news of McCollum's signed confession to the press corps himself!

This sends Cyrus into a memory of the first Grant State Dinner, when he finally acknowledged his relationship with James and danced with him!

And Mellie and Fitz were happy for him because they weren't always dicks!

Finally, Cyrus is kicked out of his state of denial and starts ugly-crying, making everyone uncomfortable! Fitz gently leads him away and Liv takes over at the podium! And after we finish watching everyone watching her on TV...

...we're back to the night of the murders, as Jake explains to James that he hit him badly on purpose so that it wouldn't look like a trained assassin killed him, but that he's going to stay with him until he expires because James is not alone! What a prince???