Source: Eric McCandless / Getty
Welcome to a Scandal flashback episode. Basically, this Quinn situation is a lot more twisted than you know. Of course! We know what show this is after all. We begin by watching how Rowan kidnapped Quinn… kind of. We don’t see all of it, but we do see that he put her in a suitcase after successfully knocking her out when she was in the elevator on her wedding night and he transferred her out in a suitcase.
He chains her to a bed in a bunker he built in his basement and tells her that her friends will think she got cold feet and ran off based on how he set things up. She thinks Olivia sent him to kill her because of what she knows, but he tells her that Liv didn’t send her. She’s just “currency for his freedom.” Quinn, being that she’s B613, reminds him that B613 doesn’t kill pregnant women. Rowan doesn’t even believe he’ll kill Quinn right now, though. He tells Quinn that Olivia will give in and that she will be back with her friends and family that night.
Let’s fast forward a bit. Now we see Rowan Pope buying a crib because of course, the stress of being kidnapped will most likely send Quinn into labor. She’s already in pain. It’s not active labor yet, but it’s coming. When he returns to the dungeon/bunker, Quinn starts complaining about how she’s not comfortable and needs to go home. Rowan informs her that Olivia said no and that he bought a crib. Quinn freaks out because she realizes that Olivia is playing him and that she’s probably as good as dead, but she urges him to stop allowing Olivia to control him. It’s also important to note that Rowan knows he’s being played so bad that he has snapped because we’ve seen him having angry conversations with one of his dinosaur figurines (that later turns out to be a hidden camera that Jake is watching on the other end, so he didn’t actually snap) about various things, but mainly about how he’s seriously going to kill Quinn when the clock counts down.
Somewhere in all of this, Rowan Pope becomes friends with the sales associate who sold him the suitcase and the crib. His name is Marvin. Rowan and Marvin are so cool that Marvin tells Rowan that he can get his 40% discount whenever he wants. The way they’ll set this up is that Rowan will give Marvin the money and Marvin will purchase the product in his name. Rowan has created this lie that his daughter is having a baby and that he will need a ton of baby items.
Quinn, in isolation, starts to hallucinate. She ends up having conversations with all the gladiators, but it’s Huck who reminds her that it has been 48 hours and she still hasn’t tried to get out. The Quinn he knows would be tearing down walls trying to get out of there and not laying down singing lullabies. Imaginary Huck gets through to Quinn and she starts making moves to find something that can help her get out.
Then Rowan convinces Marvin to get him a gun using his discount. Marv is hesitant about this because he doesn’t want it registered in his name, but Rowan convinces him with a lie about how there have been break-ins in his neighborhood and he wants to protect his family and how in three months the registration can be transferred. Rowan wins this round.
Now we’re at the moment Olivia confronts Rowan at his home. Olivia calls his bluff. He goes down to kill Quinn and she figured out how to unchain herself and fights back. She tries to strangle him, but she can’t get the best of him from what we can tell. The camera cuts to Rowan pointing the gun at her. We see her begging him to wait until the baby is born and then the camera cuts back to him as he presumably shoots her anyway. Then we see Rowan tell Liv that he did it and asks if she wants to see the body. Olivia says she doesn’t need to see it, but here’s the plot twist, Rowan tells her he has earned his freedom and Olivia tells him to wait a few days before the body is found because they can’t just leave her in some ditch somewhere because “she’s Quinn,” and then she sashays out.
This is the moment we realize Olivia is complete trash. For real, this time.
Let’s cut back to that scene where Quinn and Rowan fight. He actually doesn’t shoot her after all. He shoots past her and tells her to be quiet. Then he goes and finesses Olivia, which is back to that conversation they had where he asks if she wants to see the body (but he obviously lied). Quinn can hear the exchange upstairs and hears Olivia selling her out.
When Rowan returns to the basement, Quinn demands that he let her out. He doesn’t, but now they have to figure out a course of action. Quinn finally goes into labor, for real for real. Rowan Pope keeps her in his home despite her demands to go to the hospital and tells her that it’s going to happen the old fashion way. Then get this, Rowan has Marvin, who once told him that he delivered babies at some point in his life (possible during his time in the military), come to help Quinn deliver (he agreed to make a discreet housecall).
Now Quinn is holed up in Olivia’s old bedroom with the baby. Rowan tells her that she can’t go home just yet and he’s ironically happy. The site of Quinn and her baby tugs on whatever heartstrings he might have left. Quinn tells him that he’s a good person and he says, “We’re all good people when someone gives us a chance to be” before going back to the bunker to clean up (its where Quinn delivered). And by clean up I mean killing Marvin. Quinn gets up to look at some of the baby clothes Rowan Pope bought her and notices that there’s a ton of clothes and in a ton of different sizes up to at least kindergarten, so she goes to confront Rowan for answers. She walks in on him preparing to get rid of Marvin’s body. She’s freaked out, especially after the compliment she just gave him. Rowan is disgusted with himself too. He tells Quinn that he killed the man for she and her baby. According to B613, it’s mothers and babies first (a rule that Olivia obviously ignored). Rowan also says that this man was his only friend. Quinn gets it and helps him clean up.
Next week, there’s going to be an Olivia Pope intervention with Fitz leading the charge.
RELATED POSTS
‘Scandal’ Recap: Give Up Hope, Quinn Is Probably Dead
‘Scandal’ Recap: Can Olivia Live With Quinn’s Blood On Her Hands?
‘Scandal’ Recap: Olivia Pope Has Become The Monster Rowan Is Afraid Of was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
