Rowan and Mya Pope have a weird way of staying married: Rowan keeps Mya in a maximum security prison, presumably with no trial and no intended release, because of some real or imagined wrong of hers. Rowan tells Mya, that because Olivia is now digging into Mya's "death", Mya will have to be moved, far away, that night. Mya demands to see her daughter one last time before she's whisked away. Rowan refuses, slamming the cell shut as Mya screams for one last look at Olivia.
Quinn is Charlie's new source for complete information on what the Gladiators are up to. The upside is that she gets a free ride to work. She and her team commiserate over losing a chance to talk to someone who could have shed light on Omar Dresden, because he was killed minutes before they could talk to him. Someone gets the bright idea of getting security footage from nearby buildings, something with a view of the lobby where the murder took place. You can see the fear and panic in Quinn, but she hides it well enough from the others.
James is still huffy about Cyrus' complete lack of sympathy over his getting fired. So, when Cyrus apologetically offers James a puff piece interviewing the VP's husband, all is forgiven. James is ecstatic.
Josie Marcus has called with a problem. There's been a break-in at her home in DC, and the only object stolen, despite all the valuables, is Candice's laptop. With extensive campaign information. Candice wants to immediately storm the offices of their Democratic Primary opponent, Governor Restin, but Josie and Team Olivia talk her down and tell her that no one does anything public. Yet.
Mellie is watching the interview where Fitz defends his wife again. And again. Fitz decides it's the perfect time to call his mistress. But Olivia is successfully avoiding Fitz, mostly by not answering when the Fitz phone rings.
We have seen torture on this show. We've seen people die. But we have not seen anyone go undead on us. Mya, desperate for help or just a hospital room and a doctor who might care about her, takes her time as she literally chews through her wrists until she hits a major bloodline. With her own blood and tissue in her mouth, more drips down onto the prison floor. Later, the doctor informs Rowan that Mya can be moved, but Mya has problems that won't go away by moving her.
It gets bad. Real bad.
Quinn is ahead of the gladiators (no longer one herself, because, I think you know why), getting footage from a neighbor herself, disguised as some random IT tech and walking away, almost getting away with the footage, when she runs into Jake coming to get it. So Quinn has no choice but to go back to the office, with files she's corrupted, to pretend to find what the team wants.
Really hope I can outsmart the guy who taught me...
Abby goes to David's office, wanting Restin's office raided, but David needs something called probable cause. The Fourth Amendment, turns out, is a real bummer. Until then, it's the Capitol Police's problem. Abby retaliates by telling David his snoring is going to get him banned to the couch.
Mellie and Cyrus confab about their super duper plan to blackmail Sally through her closeted husband. Cyrus is convinced that James will rebuff Sally's husband, Daniel, and want to write all about Daniel's hypocrisy. It's up to Mellie to convince Daniel that James is ripe for coming on to. You didn't hear it from Mellie, but she's heard they have an open marriage. The cheese is in the trap.
Josie decides to pull Quinn from going over video footage she ruined to finding Candice's laptop once it is plugged in, turned on, and connected to the internet. Quinn waffles on this, hesitating to do as she's told. All discussion is stopped when the gladiators see Candice, Josie's sister/daughter, giving a press conference where she implies the Restin campaign stole her laptop and wants the press to know she's not making an accusation, just stating who benefits. One look from Olivia, and Harrison is off to do Candice-related damage control.
Olivia, already furious, gets another call from Fitz, and angrily tells him to leave her alone. She's had enough of his devotion to the War on Terror. He wants an hour, insisting she owes him that. She owes him an hour? Maybe an hour of tearing his hair out. Maybe an hour of kicking him in the balls. She destroys the phone, only to look up and see Jake. Jake, after realizing that it's Fitz she really loves and not him, tells her that Fitz will find a way of getting to her.
Breaking up or just upgrading her phone?
Harrison gets to Josie's home, where he delivers Candice her orders: Harrison is now her handler, because Candice's jumping the gun is only going to make Josie look like a bottom feeder. Harrison reminds Candice that Josie is a first-term Representative from some state with lots of livestock. That's enough work without The Gladiators also having to do damage control when one of her staff runs off at the mouth. Harrison is all business, but he has a great plan for making sure he's always supervising Candice.
Back at the Coliseum, Gladiators Huck and Jake have realized that someone completely fucked over the video footage. While showing Abby just how fucked up it all is, Jake manages to catch a reflection of the woman who they think is the killer in the window. Playtime! Huck has some algorithm that will enlarge and de-pixelate the image, so they can get a look at the killer. Abby proceeds from them to the next room, where a horrified Quinn is waiting for someone to hook Candice's laptop up to the internet. Which happens just as Abby is there, and can see the address. David promptly raids Governor Restin's offices, and Team Josie decides to let the NY Times call for Restin to drop out of the race. High road stuff.
James' first sit down with VP Hubbie Daniel didn't go well. All Daniel wanted to talk about was college football. James is beside himself. Daniel didn't want to talk about anything that might be considered an issue. Cyrus is a little disappointed that there were no advances. He tells James that Daniel isn't going to open up in front of his wife's assistants and staff. So, he suggests that James interview Daniel next in the VP Residence, the Observatory. Because there's no VP Staff there. I guess. He also gets James to wear a beautiful maroon V-Neck cashmere sweater. Casual, James, casual. And bourbon. But who will open right up, Daniel or James?
Rowan is in his office, interviewing Charlie, who is happy with Quinn's progress. Charlie likes having a protege, but Rowan is clear that if Quinn fails, she'll need to be killed. When Charlie leaves, Rowan starts digging through old press clippings of his daughter. He meanders over to his secret prison, where his wife is waking up after her suicide attempt, to show Mya her daughter. Mya is overcome with the sight of her daughter, but confused. Why doesn't Rowan have his own pictures of Olivia? Why are these all newspaper or magazine clippings? Rowan grudgingly admits that he hasn't had much of a relationship with Olivia, and insists it was Mya's fault he didn't as he storms out and tells the doctor to fully sedate Mya when she's moved. Touchy.
Olivia comes home to find Secret Service Agent #1 waiting for her. Thinking Fitz wants to come up, she angrily tells him to leave. But Agent #1 has an envelope for her instead. Olivia sees a picture, presumably from Fitz, of herself with her father. Proof that she knows the most dangerous and villainous spy in the world. So Olivia lets herself be helicoptered to… Vermont, where Fitz is waiting for her. She makes sure to tell him he has only one hour, which he agrees to. So we know she'll be there all night.
Fitz waxes poetically abut the house he's had Olivia brought to. Full of handmade details. Olivia reminds Fitz that he's supposed to be in New Hampshire. So Fitz throws the fact that she knew, for a long time, what her father is, and told no one. Not the Governor she was working for to elect President. Not the President she rigged an election for. Fitz feels he was entitled to know. Olivia reminds Fitz he's kept his own secrets. Fitz reminds Olivia that national security will always trump her. Olivia is sure Fitz would have wanted nothing to do with her if he knew what her father really did; Fitz insists that he would have wanted to protect her. Olivia reminds Fitz that she's not in danger. Just everyone around her.
Thirty acres of orchards! An amazing kitchen! Olivia has had it with his real estate description, and is freaking out when Fitz tells her it was his Olivia and Fitz dream home. Rooms for kids (what about the ones you already have, dumbass?). Fitz has brought her up to Vermont to see that, once, he had a dream. A dream that required a huge home with lots of handmade details. And Olivia. But, since Olivia doesn't love him anymore, he's going to sell it. Nothing moves a woman to savagely kiss a man faster than quality real estate.
Did you say marble countertops?!?!?!?!?!
Back at the Coliseum, Quinn and Huck are the only people left at the office. Huck is still trying to get the reflection to work from his algorithm-thingy, and Quinn offers to stay up and finish. But Huck tells her to go home. Quinn's betrayal is made all the worse, when Huck tells Quinn, as quickly and quietly as he can, that he knows Quinn does good work, even if he doesn't tell her that. So, Quinn goes down to some parking garage to threaten Charlie. She's about to be found out. She wants someone to blame. Charlie is pretty cool about the whole thing, reminding Quinn that they're a great team. He then gets into the car.
Mellie plays find-my-cheating-husband with a clearly embarrassed secretary. Her scene of getting the secretary to try Fitz and, then, on a hunch, Olivia, and getting no answer is juxtaposed with the steamiest scene of the season yet, as Olivia and Fitz are really enjoying that beautiful house. Nothing better than finding out that your husband can praise your faithfulness on TV and then literally turn around and spend the night out of town with his mistress.
Olivia has to leave the next morning, around dawn. Fitz tells her he's taking down B-613 and it's evil commander, and that he wants answers about the plane he shot down. Olivia gives him permission, and then tells Fitz not to sell the house. Not just yet. She slips out into the dawn, toward the helicopter that will bring her back home.
Abby and David are waking up to a phone call for David. David, by pretending that they're a normal couple, can tell Abby that Candy's laptop was scrubbed pretty clean, with the files deleted the day before the break-in. David insists that he's not accusing his girlfriend anything, even though he's highly suspicious. So, Abby calls Harrison to give him the news. Harrison is well-placed to tell Candy the jig is up; Abby is waking up next to him.
Cyrus and Mellie meet again to plan their trapping of VP Sally's husband. In addition to setting up the best date night ever, Cyrus also has a PI to take pictures of anything that happens. Mellie, though she is going forward with the plan, tries to warn Cyrus it could go badly and affect his marriage forever. Cyrus, still sure that James would never actually cheat on him, nicely tells Mellie that James is not Fitz.
Morning at the Coliseum. Jake asks Olivia what she was doing all night. When Olivia says, "Working", Jake gives her a knowing smile and tells her that Fitz does, indeed, have a way of talking to someone if he wants to. The other Gladiators are not so happy; turns out the video reflection they thought they could fix is unfixable. But they have bigger problems. Candy has committed an actual crime; a big one. Josie, Harrison and Olivia try to convince Candy how awful what she did was. It will practically ruin Josie's campaign. It could get Candy jail time, and a felony record. Olivia throws out Harrison and Candy, and has a heart to heart with Josie. Josie doesn't want to fire Candy, but she's a realist and knows that this will have to be handled. Quickly, with someone taking full responsibility. Josie agrees to the press conference that Olivia wants to set up.
Daniel's Man-cave is just the place for an interview, or a tryst. Daniel, while drinking bourbon, complains that his wife set it up for him to keep him occupied. James, while actually trying to interview Daniel, gets bum rushed as if it's a bad romantic comedy from the sixties. James is horrified when Daniel tries to kiss him, desperately telling Daniel that they're both married. Daniel both angrily demands that James not tell anyone about this, while at the same time accusing James of setting him up. James, as Daniel reminds James of everything Cyrus told him to do, realizes that they were both set up. James is heartbroken. After lying to cover up his husband's election-rigging to a grand jury, James has now been sent to expose that the VP's husband is a closeted gay man by the same husband. Even if James doesn't cheat on Cyrus tonight, his marriage is still ruined.
Some interviews are steamier than others...
Josie's press conference starts off well enough, with Josie admitting that it was all a fraud… that she staged. Candy is not mentioned, even though she outright admitted doing it. Josie apologizes profusely for her lack of judgement, and withdraws her candidacy. It really is stunning how much she's willing to do for Candy. Later, Josie reminds Olivia that she's not putting her daughter through the criminal justice system so she can keep running for President. Josie Marcus, the awesome woman who is probably too decent a person to be President, will go back to Montana. Candy makes it clear that her fling with Harrison is over. Maybe this is Candy's revenge on Josie for never telling her the truth. Maybe Candy decided not to let the Pope-heads (David's word for The Gladiators) have all the fun. But Candy has ruined Josie's good name and political career. We will never see just how Josie would have handled Olivia's father. Maybe that's a good thing, as watching Rowan try to tear Josie apart would probably kill Olivia, and definitely kill me.
Disappointed? You're still the luckiest person here
The news that Josie has dropped out inspires Mellie to coldly and disinterestedly ask Fitz how New Hampshire was, and offer to bring back Olivia, now that she's no longer working for Josie. She flatly tells Fitz to re-hire her. Does Fitz know she knows? Why does Mellie even want to be First Lady anymore? She hates the job. She hates the husband.
Cyrus is anxiously waiting up for James, who proclaims the interview when splendiferously. As James disappears to take a shower, Cyrus gets photos from the PI, showing just how splendid a night James had. With Daniel. Wow. I totally get gay porn now.
Quinn comes home to find that someone has put a picture of her reflection under her door. He's waiting inside her apartment, with his torture devices ready for his next victim. Apparently, they've got to talk about who Quinn's working for these days.
Maybe you should just run away, Quinn
Rowan arrives at Mya's prison, but finds her gone, and the good doctor naked, with the sedative meant for Mya in his neck. Olivia, on her way home after losing her client, gets approached by someone… someone familiar. Who knows her name. And looks like a woman who is supposed to be long dead.
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