When James and Cyrus met, Cyrus was in the closet, working for a Republican hopeful president. He had divorced his wife and shaved his beard when James made fun of it, but was still unwilling to be openly gay. Eventually, although unsure of how to express his feelings, Cyrus kisses James. The best part of this episode for me was Cyrus trying to come out to Fitz, who obviously already knew and was ready to be accepting, followed by Cyrus dancing with James at the Presidential Ball.
I also loved Fitz rescuing Cyrus from his public break down in front of the press. While Cyrus tried to hide behind his work, he loved James and couldn’t hold back anymore. The fact that it was Fitz who was there for him brought out more of that compassion from the earlier coming out scenes.
As for the other parts of the episode, they kind of took a back seat, with one minute scenes here and there throughout. Mellie and Andrew gave into their feelings for one another, but the acting was pretty bad and made the scene look completely fake. I support her relationship with Andrew if it gets her away from Fitz, but I don’t like how he always puts down Fitz in order to make himself look better. Huck and Quinn kissed. I thought their relationship was more on a friends / siblings level, but we’ll see where that goes from here. David and Abby had an important break through when he confided in her about what actually happened, rather than lying. When it comes to Olivia’s mom, Adnan, and Harrison, the scenes were too short for me to feel anything towards them!
Finally, I will address Jake. I know the final scene was meant to make us feel badly for him “having” to kill James and having to do it in a way that was messy and painful. Instead, I just felt more anger towards Jake. I find his character repulsive at this point. I hope Olivia and David’s plan to bring down B613 will work.
I’m already starting to be depressed that there are only a few episodes left this season. I really hope the writers pull it together and end it well. Next week is the episode Tony Goldwyn directed – can’t wait to see it!