Scandal Season 6 Episode 4 Review: The Belt

This Scandal review contains spoilers.

Scandal Season 6 Episode 4

Cyrus has been claiming most of the screen time at four episodes into the season. But in “The Belt” we were treated to a harsh look of the dire circumstances Cyrus has found himself surrounded by in prison. He is quick to learn the prison rules: what to say, what not say, how to get what he wants, how to survive. For some reason the very foolish guard thinks Cyrus isn’t above the law and above playing these little games. Well, he had a rude awakening tonight.

Cyrus found himself in a few sticky situations tonight including his husband, Michael, filing for a divorce and being severely beaten up by his fellow prison mates whose families voted for Vargas. His prison guard definitely was not on his side of things and Olivia officially bailed on any sort of last effort to be Cyrus’ friend.

Watching Cyrus beg Olivia to trust her gut that he didn’t kill Frankie was mostly a character change for Olivia. Instead of listening to her instinct, she tells Cyrus that this is his time to atone for all of his past sins. It felt so much, in that moment, that Cyrus’ life was completely at the mercy of Olivia…and she served him a helping of…too bad, so sad (well, with a bit more sadness and regret).

One important trait we learned about Olivia in the very first Scandal episode ever is that she listens to her gut. While it got her in trouble in that pilot episode (muddled by her love for Fitz) it usually serves her well. For her to turn her back on it made me wonder: does she really believe Cyrus just deserves this karma as payment for all the terrible things he has done…or is it more that she is afraid of losing the presidency for Mellie again?

While it may be a mix of both, it’s not hard to feel like Cyrus deserves all of this, even if he is innocent of the crime he is accused.

Well, a seemingly completely distraught and desperate Cyrus tugged on the prison gaurds tiny heartstrings and convinced him to give him a belt to kill himself.

He really misjudged Cyrus Beene.

Cyrus had actually convinced another inmate to attack the prison guard and get him and Cyrus out and over to Tom Larson’s cell. While it seemed Cyrus’ new friend would kill Tom, he confesses to Cyrus that it wasn’t him who killed Frankie. So, as Cyrus is being dragged away by by more prison guards, he realizes his innocence as it is mirrored Liv and her team discovering it too.

Just when you think Cyrus has taken a turn, he steps right back into his old ways and shows us his true colors.

So what’s happening outside of the Cyrus world?

President Grant is still in a relationship with the FBI director. Things actually seem to be going well for the two…even if it looked like she got Abby into some trouble last night.

When Abby approached her and David Rosen about taking the death penalty off the table for Cyrus, she made it seem like the president was aware of this. But when Angela casually revealed this to the president in bed, it’s clear he had no idea of this. He later puts Abby in her place…something Abby didn’t like at all.

It doesn’t look like she is going to let that one go.

Huck too may be in a new, sweet relationship (what a change) with Meg, a friend of Jennifer who was the girl killed on Vargas’ team who said Cyrus had killed Frankie. Quite unexpected for Huck…but his calmer demeanor this season has not gone unnoticed and I am loving this revived “first season-esque” Huck.

So, will the country forgive Cyrus if he is found innocent? Will all of this turmoil he has created merely get swept under the rug, or is Mellie still a viable option to become president of the United States?

We shall see!