Last week, in an episode called “Say Hello to My Little Friend” Pope and Associates dealt with a client, a congressman, who had been accused of killing a girl.  Before she was killed, the congressman had sent her pictures of his “little friend”, and not only to her, but to a number of young women.   Now, who would believe that?   No one who holds such an office of authority and responsibility would dare to do such a thing.   If they did, they would resign in shame and would certainly never consider running for another office, like, oh, maybe mayor of a major city.  Nah, couldn’t happen.  That’s just the stuff of television dramas.  It turns out that he didn’t kill the girl – his wife, who outsmarted even Olivia, did, and both of them got away with their crimes.

The bigger storyline, though, involved Jake and Huck, who have joined forces to take down Rowan and protect Olivia, and themselves, from his dangerous and deadly B613 group.  Which brings us to this week’s episode.

Olivia and Rowan are back to having Sunday dinners together, part of her bargain to save Jake’s life.  They’re not really having what you’d call a conversation.  She reminds him that she’s only fulfilling their contract and that he should leave Huck alone, stop making him kill people.  Rowan tells her that Huck’s decision to kill people is something he brought on himself.  If Huck leaves him alone, he’ll leave Huck alone, and that goes for Jake, too.  While they’re dining, Jake is downloading everything he can regarding Operation Remington from Rowan’s home computer, as Huck keeps an eye in things.

Olivia has another new client – Congresswoman Josephine Marcus (Lisa Kudrow), and she wants to run for President against Fitz.  Josie has a problem, though and wants Olivia to fix it.  Thirty years earlier, when Josie was 15 years old, she had a baby. She also has a sister, Candy (Sally Preston, from Army Wives) who just happens to be, yep, you guessed it, 30 years old.  Candy doesn’t know about any of this yet, but, before this is over, sadly, she will.   The gladiators head to Red Springs, Montana to speak to the handle of people who know about the 30 year old incident.  Cyrus has also sent his eager-beaver assistant to dig up dirt on Josie, but he’s no match for the gladiators.  In fact, after being made a complete fool of when he tries to outdo them, he calls Cyrus and says “We got Poped”.  Yes, you were kid – don’t try playing with the big dogs unless you’re prepared to get bit.   In his defense, he does find someone else to leak the information to and the secret is about to be revealed during a debate.

Fitz has Jake swooped off the street so that the two of them can play some basketball and measure their respective testosterone levels.  When Jake body clams Fitz, the president tells him that they weren’t supposed to play dirty.  Jake says, “When in Rome…”   Fitz, getting a little angry and jealous, says that Jake was just supposed to watch Olivia, not all that other stuff, but Jake tells him that he didn’t mean Olivia.   Jake knows he’s been made by Fitz and tells Huck.  He goes into the Pope offices and tries to retrieve information from Huck’s computer, when Olivia walks in.  She says she’s there because she forgot her phone but Jake tells her that she forgot her top secret Fitz phone.   He’s right, of course.  Olivia just got her invitation to the White House Correspondent’s dinner and is desperately waiting for Fitz to call and have her vet his jokes for the event.

Fitz is frantically trying to figure out a way to eliminate B613 and Rowan.  He suggests to Cyrus that they simply remove the group from the budget.  Cyrus becomes apoplectic at the mere mention of B613,  then tells Fitz that there was guy who found an item in the budget and, when he questioned it, he was found dead, supposedly having committed suicide.   Fitz then calls Rowan, hoping to out-muscle him, but Rowan tells the president,“I have never answered to any holder of your office…. It is you who should not test me.”   Fitz would be wise to  take him at his word.

If Fitz doesn’t have enough to worry about, his Vice President is also considering running for president – as an independent, hypothetically.  VP Sally is trying to hire Leo Bergen to run her possible campaign.  Leo already told Cyrus that he wouldn’t run Fitz’s campaign because the president looks like a loser and he doesn’t work for losers.  Leo isn’t any happier with the first lady, calling her the “wife is a frigid shrew” problem.  Ouch.  It’s true, but, still – that has to hurt.

Josie, with Olivia by her side, is about to take the stage in a debate among Democratic candidates and Governor Reston is looking like the cat that swallowed the canary.  Olivia whispers to Josie that she’s about to be ambushed but Josie says she isn’t admitting to anything.   As the questions turn to the president’s infidelity and whether morals matter – they don’t, we already know that – Reston looks at Josie and asks her if there’s anything she would like to tell the voting public.  She fumbles for a second and then says that he must be referring to the baby she had when she was young and stupid AND which she gave up for adoption.   Cyrus, watching with Fitz and Mellie in the Oval Office, jumps up and says that she just won America’s hearts.  Olivia congratulates her by telling her that she handled it beautifully.  Josie doesn’t agree.  “I just destroyed the most important relationship in my life.  I’m glad you find that beautiful.  You’re fired.”   Now Candy knows the truth.

Olivia is drowning her sorrows back at her office when she receives the call she’s been waiting for, after pulling the Fitz phone out of the trash.   She’s so excited that she’s out of breath as Fitz delivers his “I know just what to say to you to keep you hanging on” lines.   Oh yes, Olivia, Josie’s an idiot for firing you.  I need you to hear my lame jokes and make them better.  Then he throws in the biggie – I love you.  All the while, Mellie’s outside the door, listening to her husband and his mistress.

Olivia really wants to go to the dinner now and asks Jake to be her date.   They show up with Jake looking perfect in his uniform, but Olivia’s searching the room until her eyes meet Fitz’s.   She finally gets the signal from the Secret Service and makes her way to the Presidential Suite.  It’s not what she was expecting, though, because Mellie is waiting for her and tells her that she likes her boyfriend and wonders if he’s married.  Olivia is about to leave when Mellie apologizes and asks her to stay and hear her out.  She tells Olivia that she wants her back on Fitz’s campaign team.  Fitz is tired and broken and needs Olivia.  He’s nothing without Olivia.  He’s not alive and he can’t even breathe without her.   When Olivia asks Mellie is she knows what’s she asking, Mellie says, no, but she needs to come back to him – to them.  Both if them want him to be a better man, and is they’re on the same team, he can win.   I don’t know whether you’re Team Olitz or Team Olake, but any scenes between rivals Mellie and Olivia are pure gold.    When she returns to her table, Jake tells her that he’s done.  He knows that he wasn’t her date, but her excuse.

David Rosen was also at the dinner without Abby.  She told him that she couldn’t make it because she was still Montana.  He finds her at Pope and Associates and tells her that, as he remembered it, Montana had a lot more cattle and a lot less bull.  He wants to know what her excuse is this time and, when he gets home and finds her there, he realizes that her ex-husband was at the dinner.  The looked as if they’ve made up and are back together.

Olivia goes back to her office to find Harrison and Josie waiting for her.  Josie’s had second thoughts, and has decided to hire Olivia back to run her campaign.  It seems that her political ambitions are worth running over a daughter/sister for.   When Olivia tries to tell her that she doesn’t think it’s a good idea, leaving Harrison questioning his boss’ sanity, Josie asks her to sleep on it and let her know in the morning.  Huck has discovered some terrible information from the Operation Remington file.   Fitz was in Iceland when there was a plane crash in which over 300 people were killed.   They have every reason to believe that Fitz shot down the plane on behalf of the government, despite the fact that Pete Foster was listed as the pilot (and we know what happened to him) – and, even more likely, at the behest of Command and B613.  This might explain how Fitz could kill a Supreme Court Justice without even breaking a sweat – the first 329 are always the hardest.  One of the passengers was a woman named Maya Lewis – Olivia’s mother.  Olivia may not be mooning over those pictures of her and Fitz for very much longer.  Does Fitz know that Command/Rowan is Olivia’s father?   Was Olivia’s mother wife the target or just collateral damage in a much bigger mission?

Did I mention the souvenir Quinn brought back from Montana?   No?  Well, she has a gun now.

Kerry Washington news:  She’s four months pregnant.  Are they going to write this into the storyline?   If they do, who’s the baby daddy?   She’s also hosting Saturday Night Live this week, so expect some Scandal skits.  And, after it’s over, turn your clocks back and enjoy that extra hour under the covers.

Empress