Scandal Recap Seaon 4: Ep 13: I'm Just a Bill. AKA: Speechless.

Okay. Hang on. I think I can get through this. I had to watch twice just to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating. 

Papa Pope is back. 

Liv/Alex’s new boy toy Russell is Hydra and on Papa’s payroll. 

Seriously, I can't. 

Not yet. Just look.....Jake. *Sigh*

 

All I can say is this was me:

JAAAAAAKKKEEEE!!!!

Here's the whole shizzle that went down: 

Olivia had to get the mayoral candidate Marcus Walker, who was shagging the current mayor Verrano’s wife, out of the room where her bloody body was lying. During their daily love fest, someone came in, and Marcus hid in the closet. He hears a scuffle, peeks out to find three men in masks. One grabs her, stabs her then breaks her neck. While she’s on the bed, he continues to stab her in the gut. They ransack the place, leave, and Marcus comes out to find his lover in a pool of blood and calls OPP to help. Olivia and gang discover that the Mayor is the one that had has wife killed. So, Marcus Walker has a difficult decision to make: Keep quiet, have Verrano resign and gain power and the mayoral race, or gain justice and have Marcus testify against Verrano and kill his political career. Marcus chose justice.

The VP is the one that can tip the vote on the “Brandon Bill” – the one that resolves the lawn chair episode (somewhat) and calls for reporting from law enforcement agencies on race in an effort to eradicate racial profiling. Sounds good, except, she actually reads the bill and has multiple questions. She’s basically calling the bill a bunch of bull, and that without enforcement and penalties, reporting is a suggestion not a requirement. She frustrates Cyrus, Mellie, David Rosen, and Fitz but in the end, gets her way and the bill is pulled to be rewritten to really enact change.  

Justice was also the reason that Liv chose to disobey her father’s “request” to have her clear his name and make the whole B613 thing go away. Her new man Russell shows up, Papa drugs him, and Papa tells Liv that she needs to fix his situation. He leaves, and Liv pretends that her and Russell just got really really drunk. Later, she consults with David and Jake, and they decide to go after Papa with Jake’s testimony. He talks about Operation Remington and reveals to David that Fitz is the one that shot down the civilian plane that was thought to have Mama Pope on board. Liv returns home, calls Russell (who doesn’t buy her story about his missing memories from the night before), and convinces him to make her forget about her complicated life.

Jake gets a text from Liv (or so he thinks) and goes to her office to find her. Russell is there in a mask and starts to fight with Jake. When Jake rips off his mask and realizes he knows him, Russell taunts him and says “Rowan always went on and on about how special you were” and stabs him. Tells him “you’re not even making this a challenge.”

UGH...

Jake is down, Russell continues to stab him until he’s no longer moving. 

He KILLED JAKE!

 

They fricken killed Jake. You bastards! 

The previews show Jake layed out on the conference table for everyone to find. I'm still in shock. Damn you Scandal! Damn you Shonda! 

I have to go.....until next week. 

Game of Thrones. Season Premere "Wars to Come" AKA: Burn baby, Burn!

In a flashback scene, Cersei is seen visiting a witch about her children and her rule as queen. Cersei will be ”queen for a time, then comes another. Younger. More beautiful. To cast you down and take all you hold dear.” Hmm. Is she talking about Daenerys? 

Says she will have three children, with gold crowns and gold shrouds. Hmm. Seems like witchypoo knew what she was talking about. 

 Back to the present, Cersei and Jamie are mourning their father, and discuss how to keep those that would overthrow them out. Cersei is now the one in power, since her young king is too young to really rule. Cersei is only focused on finding and killing Tyrion. Says “At least Tyrion killed father on purpose” unlike Jamie to helped get his father killed by letting little brother go free. Ouch. Burn!

Cersei is seen later drinking some vino, while listening to others pay their condolences. Cousin Lancel is around, and Cersei talks to him about he wounds that needed healing. Lancel asks for forgiveness for leading Cersei into the darkness by tempting her into ‘unnatural relations’. Damn Cersei – getting it on with your brother, your cousin… 

Tyrion gets out of his crate, and proceeds to drink, puke, and drink again. Varys talks to him about the future of the country and says “Westeros needs to be saved from itself.” Varys urges Tyrion to align with Daenerys and create “a land where the powerful do not prey on the powerless.” 

Meanwhile, the golden angel/statue thingie comes crashing down off the pyramid in grand fashion. The Unsullied is seen smiling, then visiting a brother for a little comfort. The kind where he get to lay down, be held, and get his head chopped off by a member of the Sons of Harpy in a mask. No one can understand why he was at the brother, and Dani asks that the Sons be hunted down and the Unsullied be given a proper burial. 

One of the local noblemen tries to convince Dani to open the fighting pits as a wise political move. Dani replies, “I’m not a politician, I’m a queen.” She’s seen later in bed with Daario, who tells her she’s making a mistake and that she’s not the mother of Unsullied, she’s the mother of dragons. Dani confesses she’s lost control of her dragons. Daario shoots back: “A dragon queen with no dragons is not a queen.” She goes down to visit them and they freak out! They snap and  shooting fire at her. Bad dragons. Bad. Clearly they haven’t liked being chained up and left in the dark.  Daenerys backs away and leaves them there. At least she didn't get scorched like the goats!

Jon Snow (and I can’t say his name without saying in my head “You know nothing Jon Snow”) is training others. Stannis is plotting to take back the North but he needs Jon to get the Wildlings to join the fight. Jon talks to Mance Rayder about  and he says no way. He’s going to die standing and preserve his dignity than live and kneel, and the white walkers will come for them all. Mance refuses to enlist his people in a foreigner’s war. If he doesn’t concede, then he needs to burn to death. 

As he’s strung up and burned at the stake, Melisandre gives her speech about Stannis being the only king, those that choose the darkness shall perish. As Mance is burning and obviously in freak-out mode, John takes mercy on him and just like a popular 80’s song, shoots a [poision arrow] arrow through is heart-art-art-art. 

In other story lines: Littlefinger ditches his kid and goes off with Sansa to “a land so far from here that even Cersei Lannister can’t get her hands on you.” Brienne is in a bad mood and tells Podrick she’s not a knight, not a leader, not his mother. Maybe she’s still pissed that Arya got away from her. 

That’s all for this week. If you’ve been following the books, you know what’s coming. I can’t wait for the episodes this season as it should be another good one!

Scandal Season 4, Ep18: Honor Thy Father. AKA: Give me my hooch!

Jake is not the big fish, and will not be a witness against Papa Pope. He won’t sign. He won’t die. He’s not a white hat. According to Huck, he’s not even Jake anymore – he’s in Command-o, survival, mad-dog mode and cleaning house. 

David Rosen is taking down Command, and that includes Jakey if he doesn’t sign on to testify against B613. He convinces HuckleberryQuinn and Charlie to bring in retired B613 people and give them immunity to get to Jake. Only Jake is listening in on their plan and when three former agents are in a safe house, he makes it not so safe and it appears he's killed them all. Caught in the act by Charlie, they fight until Jake gets away. 

Charlie says he needs to kill Jake, and HuckleberryQuinn are convinced to get on board. Huck traces Jake’s cell phone movement and it leads directly to Olivia’s place. They get there and find Olivia with her Russell Franklin dude, and Jake is across the hall in Lois’s old place. He tells them Olivia is safe as long as they keep away from him. Charlie, HuckleberryQuinn and David pow-wow and decide they have to stand down. Rosen says he doesn’t need any other witnesses, as he saw Jake kill James Novack and others and he will testify. Jake is listening, of course. 

David and his assistant are walking to their car, Jake is waiting watching. He comes out and calls for David, telling him to take step aside. Holly is really the one that killed everyone and Jake takes her down. David has blood on his face again. Holly was B613 and was reporting to someone else. Geez - B613 is like Hydra! They're everywhere!! 

Each time Jake was listening, Olivia was there as well. She goes off on Huck telling him he needs to trust her. 

Jake tells Rosen “He’s coming.”  

OPP takes on Congressman Reed’s father’s case, who is accused of killing his daughter’s math teacher after she was found hanging in her closet. Seems the teacher was teaching more than math to the daughter.  The father confessed, and yet, Reed says he knows his father is innocent. When the gun is found in a dead woman’s house, Olivia discovers that it’s all a fake, and someone planted the gun. Reed’s father threatens him and tells him to shut the hell up. Seems dad is covering for his son, and said he would kill himself if Reed turned himself in. Reed confesses to Olivia. Olivia fast-talks Reeds father. Reed resigns and comes out to the public. 

Mellie’s half-sister Harmony is a crazy soap-selling hoot! Lizzy has her vetted but Mellie is not happy. Abby’s job is to keep her away from the press. The two get into some good ol’ fashioned mud-slinging and Harmony threatens that she has some dirt on Mellie that will come in handy one day. Mellie decides to drown her sorrows in some hooch. Seriously, it's her Daddy's moonshine! 

Later, Fitz tells Harmony that Mellie is jealous of her. Mellie’s bitchy ways are due to her own pain at losing her father to Harmony’s mother. The two hug it out and Harmony leaves. 

Seems like Olivia talks in her sleep about Red door and a ring. French, Farsi, Russian, and all kinds of other languages. Russell/Franklin and Alex/Olivia wake up together. She tries to say this was just a one-nighter, and he’s all ‘no way babe.’ Russell Franklin comes knocking, and Papa Pope is there by his side!! 

"Hello Clarice...." Um, I mean Olivia! Daddy's home! Holy Crap! Shizzle is goin’ DOWN!

Hold the phone, I have a few questions:

- First, who is this new dude that’s doin’ Olivia? Is he also B613 or did Papa Pope get to him and threaten him as well? 

- What is Jake really up to? 

- Isn’t it strange that HuckleberryQuinn and Charlie are all hanging out, when basically she’s lip-locked with both of them and told Huck he’s her lobster? And is Huck back with his wife so that would mean that Quinn out in the cold? Is Quinn with Charlie or is he just her booty call when she needs info? or something else?

- How many times is David Rosen going to watch someone get killed in front of him and have blood splatter on his face without screaming “What the HOLY EFF!???”

Deep by Kylie Scott (Stage Dive Series #4)

In the final installment of the Stage Dive series, Ben the broody bass player is featured. Haven't heard much from Ben in the previous books, except for when he went out with Lena (remember that?) in an attempt to help her get over Jimmy. 

This story starts with a dinner party celebrating Mal and Anne's two-month marriage anniversary. All the band members are in attendance. Ben is there with his new gal-pal, and Lizzy (Anne's younger sister) is there as well. As both Lizzy and Lena are feeling under the weather, Ben's woman starts to question them about their symptoms. Lena starts to freak, Lizzy tries to hide what she already knows -- she's pregnant with Ben's love child. The evening ends with blood and bruises as Mal and Ben duke it out. 

Flashback to the day that Lizzy and Ben meet. The story timeline goes back to when Mal has just moved in with Anne, and she takes her sister to see the band practice. (If you really want to see how they got there, visit this deleted scene from Play: http://kylie-scott.com/extras/). Lizzy knows the guys - but has never really felt anything for them until she is in the same room with Ben. They're introduced to each other after the band practice, and can't keep their eyes off each other. While both are attracted to each other, you find that Mal has told Ben to keep away from Lizzy. 

Lizzy on the other hand doesn't stay away from Ben. 

"You poor hapless male. You never stood a chance"

They develop a friendship over text-messages, until one night when she's out at a bar (really, a pick-up joint) and Ben goes in and drags her booty out of there. She thinks that the attraction is mutual and tries to kiss him only to discover he's just not that into her. She knows that he went out with Lena. Ouch. Angst. Heartbreak. She goes inside her apartment crushed. 

She ignores his text messages, and yet, still has feelings for him that she can't shake. The two continue to ignore each other until they are both at Mal and Anne's wedding and what happens one night in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas.

Ben freaks, Lizzy freaks, Mal freaks. Ben and Mal aren't talking, Lizzy doesn't want to be Yoko and break up the band. Ben and Lizzy decide to they have to get along and be friends, and when that doesn't work, Ben gets put in his place by Jimmy (who is also dealing with a preggers girlfriend). 

"None of us planned this, but you need to get yourself out of the running for dickhead of the year"
 
Lizzy feels alone, Ben keeps trying and messing up with her. 

"Because this is me, Liz. What you see is what you get. I like things calm, easy. But you and me, we've never been easy. Minute I saw you, it's been complicated"

The two struggle through their impending status as parents, while trying to resolve their feelings for each other, their siblings, and band-mates.This one felt a bit more angsty than the rest, but they try to work it out.


Again, the entire gang is involved, including Ben's sister/David's ex-Martha, Security guy Sam, and a few newbies (Why hello, Vaughn!) that add to the fun. Mal is still Mal, Jimmy steps up and kicks ass (he's my fav!), and the gals are just all kinds of kick-ass. 

While I know this is the last in the series, I hope that Kylie continues to provide updates / novellas / future stories with the gang in her next series "Dive Bar" as it follows Vaughn and his adventures.

 About the Author: 

Kylie is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. She was voted Australian Romance Writer of the year, 2013, by the Australian Romance Writer’s Association and her books have been translated into six different languages. She is a long time fan of romance, rock music, and B-grade horror films. Based in Queensland, Australia with her two children and husband, she reads, writes and never dithers around on the internet.
 
Contact her at kylie@kylie-scott.com
Or follow her fun on Facebook , Twitter and Pintrest for her character inspiration!

Get the series on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other retailers.  

Justin Bieber Roast...aka: Martha Stewart is gangsta!

Who says there’s nothing good on television anymore? 

I mean seriously, did you catch the Comedy Central roast of Justin Bieber? When I first heard that he was going to be roasted, I thought  “UGH? WHY?”   

But then, thought about all the shizzle that little turd has done (reckless driving, vandalism for egging neighbor’s house, arrested for DUI, and assault), and realized that the dudes at Comedy Central are genius! 

They found a bizarre mix of people to participate in the roast: Kevin Hart, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg/Lion, SNL's Pete Davidson, Jeff Roth, Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, and Martha Effing Stewart! Each took some jabs at his arrests and drama with the law, his sometime gal-pal Selena Gomez, and of course, those rabid tween fans of his. 

Snoop was lit and loaded, Ron Burgundy swilling some amber liquid, Shaq chillin’ and smiling wide, and audience members alternating between fits of laughter, and embarrassed, uncomfortable grimaces when the topics turned too close to home for them. 

A few of the best lines of the night thrown at the Beebs: 

  

“You are the King Joffrey of Pop.” (*My personal favorite*)

“Selena Gomez wanted to be here but she’s dating men now”

“Bieber has 10 million fans. Most of them are in middle school or standing at least 500 feet from one.” – Kevin Hart 

“When you get to the county jail, hear me, you're gonna be the first dude who ever had a girlfriend and a boyfriend named Gomez.” - Snoop

 

 “This kid has spunk, moxie, and probably a few other STDs.” - Ron Burgundy

Martha Effen Stewart showed that jail time did nothing to the queen of clean. Her thug life equipped her to deliver deadpan jabs at the men around her. 

“I’m here to give Justin Biebersome tips for when he inevitably ends up in prison. Change up those tattoos, you have an owl on your arm and the word patience on your neck. I would suggest the words white power full back so you don’t look like a 14-year old’s trapper keeper.”

“Justin, you have no idea what you're in for. I'm sure it's great to have 60 million followers on Twitter, but the only place people will be following you in jail is into the shower.”

Even better than the one-liners slung at the Beeb, those doing the roast got a bit burned as well. While commenting on Ludacris’ and his three baby-mama’s Martha dropped this one: 

“I believe the bedroom is the most important rooms in the house. But I don’t have to tell you that Ludacris. You have three kids, with three different women. May I suggest pulling out sometime, and finishing on some fine, highly absorbent Martha Stewart bed linens?”

Martha Stewart. Changing people’s lives for the better. 

In the end, Bieber got up and delivered a few one liners that weren’t nearly as good as those thrown at him. He also gave this, um, heartfelt speech: 

 

“There’s been moments I’m really proud of and a lot of moments I look back and I’m pretty disappointed with myself for. But the things that I’ve done really don’t define who I am. I’m a kind-hearted person who loves people and, through it all, lost some of my best qualities. For that, I’m sorry. But what I can say is that I’m looking forward to being someone you can look at and be proud of.”

*Cough* *Gag* Really dude? You want me to believe that you’re suddenly going straight, being a good little pop-star, and not going to get into more trouble? I’m not so sure. So what was that all about?  A publicity stunt? A public way to let everyone bash him so he can come clean and start over? Did he really just have another birthday, wake up, and realize that he was a giant douche canoe? The entire “Fallen-Angel” metaphor? 

People can grow up and get their shit together. Some do it, others….well, not so much. Just read the headlines, as there are sadly too many to name.  Only time will tell what will happen with this dude.