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| Photo Credit:ABC |
After dealing with the salacious sexual
politics of “It's Good To Be Kink,” this week's “Put A Ring On
It,” tackled more traditional territory with a wedding. Then again,
when the nuptials in question are the result of one partner getting
caught hooking up with a guy at a bar called Down The John, things
are anything but traditional.
Such is the pickle Cyrus finds himself
in after his arranged engagement with call boy Michael is threatened
after the latter is spotted straying from the “love of his life
(notice the air quotes).” The ensuing fallout puts things into
crisis mode, and causes Liv to suggest a wedding to Michael as the
perfect PR fix to put out the fire.
The hour takes us
through both of Cyrus' failed marriages. First up, there's Janet, a
good Catholic girl whom he weds in part because of the then
burgeoning AIDS crisis, and partly because he needs a wife by his
side if he's going to climb the ladder from comptroller to
congressman. Of course, things fall apart, as the night Fitz wins
governor she, now worn out, lonely and bitter, asks for a divorce.
Since we already know his union with James was, um, tumultuous—like,
Cy nearly ordering the assassination of his own husband
tumultuous—the flashbacks pick at the finer points. On his wedding
day, Cyrus promises James he won't use or manipulate him or his
status as a journalist for his own purposes, a promise he breaks
before their honeymoon even begins. And well, we all know what happen
once that door was opened.
Cyrus'
legal arrangement with Michael, drawn up so he could save political
face, doesn't even have the pretense of romance and genuine emotion.
And the grand scheme that is their White House wedding is even more
disingenuous. After the first plan of obliterating the cheating
scandal via a love story goes bust due to the discovery of Michael's
side piece Philip Reid, the narrative is cynically changed to depict
Cyrus as a jilted lover and him as an amoral whore.
It's
not a problem for Cyrus, who doesn't even flinch when Olivia reminds
him they're throwing Michael to wolves to save his own skin. He pays
even less attention to Michael's objections to inviting his
homophobic parents, whose acts of loved included sending their son to
camps to “cure” him of being gay. At the most uncomfortable
double dinner date in the world, they reveal Elizabeth is paying them
off to pretend to be supportive of the marriage, and while we haven't
spent much time with Michael, Michael Del Negro does a good job of
selling a lifetime of anguish in a short scene. It's enough to touch
something in Cyrus' black heart, and one look across the room at
Olivia lets her know the wedding is back on.
But
lest you think things are about to get all Disney, think again; as
Cyrus tells Michael before the ceremony, both of his previous
marriages started with lies, so he won't go through the motions the
third time around. He tells Michael they won't grow to love each
other, but counts it as a good thing, because he won't have the
chance to hurt or damage him the way he did Janet or James. Cyrus
knows that he is, in his own words, “a filthy monster holding onto
his last shred of humanity,”; the great loves of his life have been
and likely always will be power and prestige. But that aforementioned
shred of humanity does acknowledge Michael's goodness, and promises
he's not in this alone.
It's been a while since the show
focused on Cyrus or delved into his personal history, and while this
is all very entertaining, I'm more than a little curious as to why
Scandal is choosing to do it
now, at this point in the season. “The Lawn Chair” was a bottle
episode, but one that dealt with an extremely topical issue, so it's
separation from the rest of the action is understandable. While “Put
A Ring On It” does a pretty seamless job of tying Cyrus' marriage
into say, Mellie's political ambitions—like say, the way Olivia
masterfully pitches to Mellie that throwing her support behind the
wedding as a way to define herself separately from Fitz—it really
doesn't fit into other plot points like B6:13.
It also looks like the sexual healing
Olivia experienced last week has reawakened her feelings for Fitz. As
we learn, Vermont isn't just a fantasy the two throw around when
reality and good sense conspire to convince them how destructive they
are together; they actually were in The Green Mountain State once for
Cyrus's second wedding. In the flashback—during which you also
realize Liv really has simplified her coifs since that first fixed
election--Fitz gives Olivia a ring (whose name translates to“Sweet
Baby,” which if you recall, is an Olitz term dating back to season
one) that belonged to his grandmother.
After another dream montage showing the
highs and lows of their affair, she searches through her apartment
and finds the ring, but leaves it off when she goes to see Fitz,
instructing him to give Sally Langston, who has risen from the
political dead as the host of a right wing talk show,
some leverage/quid pro quo so she'll end her witch hunt and cash
reward to expose Cyrus' sham wedding. Fitz signs off on putting Sally
up for secretary of state, but Sally content, with her new role as
talking head, is like chile please. But after Liv threatens to reveal
her late, closeted husband was one of Michael's clients, she relents
and cancels the interview with Philip Reid.
Later,
as Cyrus and Michael go off into post-faux wedding bliss, Fitz sees
Olivia with the ring he gave her back on her hand, and she gives a
look that says “jam.” Aww hell.
Other Thoughts:
--Cyrus answers
Michael's question that he wants to kill him by saying he wouldn't do
it himself, as that's an amateur move. Yeah, that's your husband.
--Apparently, in
Leo and Abby's world, church and state is code for separating their
work life from their relationship, a rule Abby slips up and breaks
when she spills some tea to Leo about the war room congregating to
pull off the faux love story of the century. Oh Abby, you
hypocritical secularist!
--Next
week: Jake's gone cray cray.
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