Scandal Season 7 Episode 13: Air Force Two Review

If you would like to read Dylan’s review of last episode, click here.

Synopsis: When Cyrus and David embark on a trip to Lisbon for the digital piracy summit, their plane is hacked, leaving their friends and colleagues on the ground little time to save them. (TVGuide)

Writers: 

Director: 

Rating: TV-14

Running Time: 43mins

After last week’s epic crossover event, you think the next episode would come down from that high but this episode continued on that high as Cyrus was in the spotlight here as a crisis put him front and center.

The episode started with Cyrus being satisfied with a speech he wrote for a donor dinner where he could kickstart a potential Presidential campaign. Instead, Mellie had different plans for him, sending him and Rosen on a trip to Lisbon for a digital piracy summit. This slight further fueled his disdain for Jake as he saw his opportunity slowly drift away in his favor.

Before leaving, Rosen made a reservation for him and Abby at a fancy restaurant. Abby immediately believed it was because Rosen was planning on proposing to her. Huck and Charlie offered to snoop for her.

Cyrus was in a bad mood and it soon got worse when they lost control of Air Force Two due and all communications due to a hack. Huck and Charlie’s snooping was put on hold when QPA got news of the hack. Cyrus did his best to keep everyone on board calm. The malware used to hack the plane was brought on board. An aide admitted that her laptop briefly went missing, meaning that it could have been used to orchestrate the hack.

Because Cyrus didn’t trust Jake, he suspected that Jake was responsible for the hack. He was adamant that no government employees could be trusted. Using the infected laptop, they found a way to send the virus down to be analyzed. Huck and Charlie got it so they and Quinn went to work, leaving Abbie to sit and wait.

Mellie questioned Jake’s motives as well when he suggested the plane be shot down but this was too elaborate for him. She called Fitz seemingly just to hear his voice. They had nowhere to go so Cyrus took it upon himself to give Rosen relationship advice. Fighter jets then assembled near the plane. Cyrus was hesitant in asking for help because he was still worried about Jake. He thought they should prepare for the worst.

A female passenger with a phone that didn’t get confiscated, managed to broadcast a powerful speech from Cyrus where he stood strong against whoever was trying to do them harm and tried to prepare the other passengers for what may happen while everyone watched from the ground.

Meanwhile, Olivia wanted to celebrate her mother’s birthday with some French food. Olivia loved celebrating Maya’s birthday so she was focused on that and that alone, shutting out other distractions. However, Maya questioned Olivia’s true motive for her visit. All Maya wanted was too be let out with a suitcase full of money. Maya claimed that it wasn’t her birthday as she always got lost in all of her aliases so much that she was always surprised when Olivia gave her a card for her birthday.

Olivia was worried about what was happening but Maya wanted her to relax. She grew tired of Maya’s behavior and Maya was disappointed in Olivia for caring. Jake was still adamant that he had nothing to do with it. The people on the plain were running out of time as they were getting close to being shot down all while QPA were trying to regain control of the plane.

Of course they saved the plane but this was shown off screen as our only evidence was Rosen showing up at Abby’s. Abby was ready to be proposed to but Rosen wasn’t planning on proposing to her. Knowing what he knew about Abby, Rosen knew better than to propose for her.

Olivia also gave Maya what she wanted, a fancy coat, a one-way ticket to Paris, and a Swiss bank account with all the money she’ll ever need. Now the big reveal of the episode was that Cyrus may have orchestrated the hack to make himself out to be a hero.

Overall, this was a good episode that was tense to watch considering it could have gone either way for Cyrus and Rosen with the show coming to an end although it would have been nice to see its resolution onscreen. Ultimately, it revealed what many of us already kind of suspected. Cyrus will do just about anything for his pride and maybe that’s what his future holds. The episode also gave Maya an ending which was fitting for her character. Abby and Rosen are great together so hopefully they will get a happy ending.

Score: 8.5/10

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Dylan Phillips