Olivia, based on her phone call, meets Quinn at a club or a hotel or really big house, or something. Somewhere dark with only flashing colored lights, lots of drunk and high people kids dancing, and private rooms. Olivia drags Quinn through the place, searching until they find who they're looking for: an almost naked teenager in one of the rooms. Quinn is about to complain about rescuing yet another pampered Daddy's Girl when Olivia hands Quinn her own phone. Quinn snaps to attention when she orders Quinn to call Cyrus Beane's extra secret line. The one that can't be eavesdropped, so no one will overhear that the President's Daughter is puking into a trashcan in only her panties right now.
Cyrus is enjoying some pillow talk with Michael, fully reeled in now. Whatever game Michael is playing will have to wait once Cyrus hears from Olivia, and she explains that Karen Grant needs a quick, silent, dark exit from a party 500 miles from her boarding school. Cy panics when he hears that Karen slipped her Secret Service protection, but he immediately acts to protect his boss's daughter. Olivia has Huck perform a magic trick on cell phones all over the party, which suddenly and inexplicably go black. Karen Grant is supported under both arms by Olivia and Quinn, as they have to drag her to the nearest fire escape, which somehow wasn't in the bedroom they just left.
Karen Grant doesn't get just any ride out of there; Cy has arranged for a chopper to bring her directly to the White House, where Olivia expects Karen to explain all this to Fitz. Karen, now in full spoiled rich girl mode, demands that Olivia do that- isn't that her job? Olivia reminds Karen that Karen doesn't pay her bills, so she doesn't work for Karen and Karen doesn't decide what favors Olivia will and will not perform. Olivia tries to guilt Karen for ditching the Secret Service and reminds her that they're supposed to protect her, not Olivia. Karen reminds Olivia that that didn't work out so well for Jerry Jr., did it?
Karen's cell phone interrupts; someone has sent her a video that shocks even Quinn and Olivia. Olivia immediately gets Cy on the phone, and rants, in a panicked voice, that the President's daughter has made Kim Kardashian proud, and Fitz will have to be woken up to see his daughter doing something that should never be Googled.
The Oval Office has witnessed policy discussions, meetings with Heads of States, Watergate conspiracies, and even the unfortunate use of a cigar. And now, the Oval Office gets to witness a President ask his daughter, in a desperate voice, if the sex video he's just had to watch of his daughter was sexual assault. Karen won't be intimidated into accusing anyone of rape, though. She rebelled for a reason; she wants to rub her disobedience in her dad's face. She ran away from school in a friend's parents' private jet. She got so wasted she's still drunk. She shot up something awesome with no guilt whatsoever. So, she definitely had sex that night because she wanted to. Because, it's not a proper rebellious cry for help unless it ends with a sex video.
Olivia, who had her own boarding-school-rebel phase after her mother died and her dad couldn't face raising her, is a little sympathetic to Karen. She manages to get Karen out of there and sent to a doctor for a pelvic exam so she can tell Fitz that the real problem, right now, is getting that video erased before it can be uploaded. Fitz, realizing Olivia is right, then guilts her into doing just that. He needs her. Olivia realizes that he will always need her.
When Huck and Quinn appear in the White House offices the next morning, ready to get to work, Abby is instantly suspicious, trailing them like a groupie and demanding to know what they're doing. Abby declares the White House her turf, but Cy appears and tells Abby to back off, sending Huck and Quinn in to get started. Abby tries to have a tantrum; Cy simply tells her that since she's not Olivia, and never going to be Olivia, she should just accept that everyone lets Olivia do what she wants and Abby can just go do Press Conferences and try to salvage Mellie's career as First Lady. Cy leaves her already plotting revenge.
Mellie is also kept out of the loop when Fitz presents Karen to her mom the next morning. Mellie is at first concerned, but Fitz blows the whole thing off as a quick vacation that Karen will be seeing what Dad does all day. No need to worry, Mom. Karen's just going to spend the day with Huck and Quinn and photos of every single male at the party last night. The three get the job of trying to use Karen's extremely hazy memory of a drunken, high hookup to find who it was she had sex last night. The guy's arm tattoo finally gives him away, and Huck and Quinn are off to do what they do best.
Rowan meets with the agent assigned the task of killing Jake. Tom is stoic as he tries to explain that killing Jake will be a wee bit hard. Rowan doesn't care. B-613 is supposed to kill anyone, including one of their own. Might want to ask Charlie about that, Rowan. When Tom wants a little slack, Rowan delights in giving him none. Instead, Rowan runs through the list of emotions he feels for people for fail him. It includes anger and resentment, and ends with indifference. When Rowan feels nothing but indifference for you, guess how much your life matters to him?
When Rowan leaves after threatening to kill him, Jake follows almost immediately after. Does Rowan know Jake is following him? Anyway, Jake plays Good Cop to Rowan's Diabolical Cop. Jake suggests to Tom that even if Tom succeeds, Rowan will still want to kill Tom. Tom is the loose thread, the Guy Who Could Talk. While Tom may not trust Tom, he better not trust Rowan. Either way, please at least give Jake today, 'cause it's too sunny to die.
Olivia tries to keep her next meeting with Fitz professional, noting that they've found one of the boys on the video. Fitz decides to launch into guilt mode, confessing that he was wrong to send Karen right back to school. He hoped returning to normal right away would help. Olivia notes that work is a poor refuge from grief, advice she clearly means for him and his ambitious legislative goals after Jerry Jr.'s murder. Fitz looks like he's passing a gall stone as he asks where she went. Like a little boy wondering why Mommy abandoned him. Olivia doesn't want to say, and she lets Fitz also believe she left alone, just for some alone time. Olivia doesn't mince words about her mother, despite Fitz wanting to be sensitive about her. Olivia declares that her mother traumatized both their families and ruined any chance she could end up with Fitz. The guilt would just always be too much for her to bear. After an awkward silence, Olivia simply leaves Fitz. Did Fitz really not notice that Jake Ballard left about the same time she did, and returned with her, too? Or, does he not want to notice?
I mean it, this time we're not getting back together
We get to see David Rosen look guilty and tortured as his TV interview self confidently asserts that he's just always right and persuasive. And certainly hasn't blackmailed his way to successful Attorney General. Jake bursts in, and Rosen is pretty calm until Jake demands that Rosen release the B-613 files if anything should happen to Jake. Jake's realized that B-613 will get lucky some day, and those files are his chance for his death to mean something. When Rosen demurs, Jake demands the files back. Rosen then attacks Jake, insisting that those files are a curse, and shouldn't even exist and should be destroyed. Rosen is certain that those files would bring down more than B-613. They'd bring down the entire government. Rosen only relents when Jake chokes him on his own desk. He throws Jake the keys and gets the files out of his life for good.
Jake's next step is to call Olivia, but that call is interrupted when Mellie, wandering around, maybe looking for Karen, sees her husband's former mistress instead. Back at the White House. With no warning she'd be there. Mellie goes into full-scorned-wife mode, chasing Olivia down as if Olivia is a purse snatcher, and grabbing her by the arm as if Mellie is security. Olivia manages to shake off Mellie and walk away. So, Mellie decides to burst into the Oval Office while Cy is informing Fitz that Karen's old Secret Service agents are already gone, and demand that Olivia leave, right now.
You give me back my husband right now!
Cy leaves, and Mellie fumes that Fitz was supposed to tell her if he saw her again. Fitz gives her part of the truth, that Karen called Olivia, because it was a situation that Olivia knows how to handle. Mellie can't handle that Olivia might replace her as a mother; she demands that she'll handle Karen's situation, without even knowing the full story. Mellie insists that Olivia be nowhere near her daughter. She's the mother here, not Olivia. Fitz lets loose at this point, yelling at her that she hasn't been a mother since Jerry Jr. died, to anyone. Their baby now thinks the nanny is his mother. He has a point. But he goes on. He starts by insulting the stages of her grief, then tells her he respects her grief. He reminds her that he can't lose his shit because he has a real job. Well, Fitz, who decided that the First Lady really has no voice in policy here? Who decided it's just a fluff position to make Fitz look like a good husband? Who just needs her to appear at a speech now and then?
Fitz's point is that he's tired of Mellie acting like she gets to be the wronged party. He then screams at her that their daughter was recorded performing a sex act named after a 1,000 foot-high tower. Mellie needs a moment to deal with this fact. But hey, she followed the rules and got raped. So, she uses her scorn and judgement on Fitz, instead, telling him his daughter is just following his example. Uh, Mellie, she caught you getting adulterous nookie. Not Fitz. But it's still a good exit line, and Mellie simply wanders off, back in apathetic mode.
Note, Mellie and Abby are both powerless to get Olivia out of their workplace/home. And both are made to feel that Olivia is better than them. How many episodes before Abby and Mellie team up to get Olivia permanently out of Fitz's life?
Quinn is having a good day. She gets the fun task of confronting the boy Karen could remember. She rattles off his life story and dirty laundry as he's emptying trash into a dumpster. So when Quinn also shoves him against the dumpster, holds him by the neck, and demands the video, Olivia can do her part. Little Tripp Morgan, Jr., according to his parents, has been in trouble for years. The parents just don't know what to do, because making little Tripp face consequences for anything, ever, has never been considered. The Morgans completely understand that Olivia wants the video completely deleted, and are happy to allow her team to do so. But, they'd like to discuss money first. Tripp may be a trouble maker, but for once, that trouble is going to pay off, because they don't care about Karen Grant's future. The First Daughter's reputation is simply a payday for them.
Fitz, later that night with Olivia in the Oval Office, stalks around the room, indignant that he's being blackmailed by the boy's parents. Sure, their kid also engaged in a shocking sex act with an underaged girl. But it will be the girl and her family that lose their good name. The boy's parents, who are actually trying to blackmail a sitting President, will lose no sleep and no friends. The girl and her family must pay. Fitz rails that he's a President who can order a nuclear strike, but two really bad parents can ruin him. Olivia tries to comfort him with the fact that they're just two of many bad parents.
Olivia's only advice is to pay, because the sex video will ruin Karen's chances of doing anything better than Dancing With The Stars. She reminds him that there's no sexual leeway for girls with the public. Fitz loses himself in self-pity, moaning that he's failed as a husband and father. We know that he really means that his marriage and kids didn't turn out the way he expected.
Fitz turns to Olivia for comfort, and Olivia really has to start carrying pepper spray into the White House, because Fitz is the second person to grab her that day there. Fitz's daughter disobeyed every rule. Fitz's wife has rejected and mocked him. Can't Olivia at least make him feel like he's worth something? Olivia, who always says it's over only to kiss him again, won't take herself out of his arms. And once they're nuzzling, they both try and fail to kiss a few times, always drawing away right before their lips meet. They eventually stop torturing themselves and lock lips for a few moments, but Olivia ruins the moment by admitting she didn't run away alone.
You guys know what personal space is, right?
Fitz's moment is done. He steps back, looking at Olivia like she's a dead puppy, then asks if she was with Jake. Then demands she say it herself, which she does. Fitz decides that since Olivia would rather run away with Jake than him, he must be nothing. Fitz ends by declaring that he'll just do what his dad would do, then. Pay up and forget the whole thing as soon as possible. Be just like his dad, because hey, it works!
Olivia is paying off the parents the next day, but they've decided to get even greedier, stating that Karen's reputation will cost an extra half mil. The Morgans are smug and self-righteous, and Olivia has never wanted to channel her inner Rowan more. She learned from the best how to blow up and and find the right words and the right tone to make someone, anyone, feel small and stupid and worthless. Remember when Rowan did that to her in last season's premiere, at the airport? Olivia finds Rowan in there somewhere, and lets loose. And every girl or woman who has ever been slut-shamed needs to find this clip.
Olivia starts by getting the Morgan's picture on her phone, making sure they feel uncomfortable being photographed before reciting the long litany of things she'll accuse them of- setting up the President's daughter for ruin, and that they planned on blackmailing the President. She reminds them that Karen is not an adult, and technically, Tripp's video is child pornography, and they are trying to make money off of it. While the Morgans have the sexism of the world in their corner, Olivia makes it clear that she knows how to defeat that, and make the Morgans so miserable they'll wish they'd never given Tripp a cellphone. Olivia knows heads of media, she knows how to frame a story, she knows how to get there first, and she knows how to construct fake evidence. And she'll happily use it so a teenager acting out her grief can go on with her life. Olivia tells the Morgans that they'll have to move to an island by the time she's done with them. Just not the one off the coast of Zanzibar, because that's Olivia's island. And Olivia sends them packing after threatening them so thoroughly they sheepishly sign over the video and their silence.
Mellie, while impotent with her husband, at least can outsmart a teenaged girl; Karen finds out that Mellie has taken her cellphone and watched the video. It gets Karen's attention long enough for Mellie to have a good, solid, mother-daughter talk. Mellie gets Karen's numbness, she gets that Karen would just like to feel anything except waves of grief, and that is why the girl rebelled so completely- that feeling of exhilaration is all that can cut through the pain. Mellie tells Karen that this is her freebie, and that Karen doesn't get another. So, Karen better listen up while Mellie explains that the President's daughter doesn't get to have sex while her dad is in office. Mellie at least has some sympathy for Karen. She knows it's not fair. She knows Karen would get unlimited freebies if she was a boy. But they have to live with the gender they have, for the sake of Fitz's Presidency. Is Mellie telling Karen this, or reminding herself that she'll have to get out of that bathrobe eventually?
Fitz is looking over an early picture of the family when Cyrus comes in with a new guy. George Fox, from the Inspector General's office. Fox is the ultimate head bureaucrat in charge of other bureaucrats. His neat, short hair and glasses are a perfect match for his efficiency. He's already given the Secret Service's documents a complete review, and found something worse than simple negligence. He's found Tom's travel records. Which include a trip to Fort Dietrich, Maryland, home of deadly toxins, right before Jerry Jr.'s poisoning. Fitz wasn't expecting this. He just found a way to save Karen's reputation; does he have to re-live his son's death, too? Fitz is already putting the pieces together as he picks up the phone. Lucky for Fitz, he knows who to call.
Can't tell if this guy's going to be important
Jake's phone rings. Tom realizes the jig is up the second the IG wants to question him about his trip. Tom wants to bolt. Jake advises him to make a deal. Tom doesn't think anything can take Rowan down. Jake says he's literally got the goods and is coming over, but he takes too much time putting on a suit, and Fitz can't even stand looking at him as he and Cy ditch Jake just outside the Oval Office. Jake realizes he's too late. Does he realize what Tom's going to have to do?
The IG grills Tom, who tries to insist he was completing an assignment. Tom is wondering what he should confess to when they're interrupted by Rowan. Called in by Fitz, Rowan takes over George Fox's grilling. He doesn't have George's efficiency. Instead he stages an elaborate session of showing Tom all the evidence against him. Tom is petrified. The guy who ordered the killing is the one the President trusts. The same guy who can kill him with a word. The same guy who is demanding a name. The name of the person the President should go after next with the full weight of B-613. Tom, still not sure he's going to live through the night, names Jake.
Is it even plausible? Jake had already given up Commanding B-613 by then. He was literally sitting at home drinking a beer. Does Fitz realize that? Will Fitz ever realize that Rowan is playing him, as Tom is led away in handcuffs, and Jake is arrested right there in the White House? Jake goes so peacefully. Maybe he's really not worried. Or, maybe he's accepted his fate, and made arrangements for the files to be released. Only Olivia is left to worry, checking her watch when Jake doesn't come to see her. Looks like she'll be the last to find out.
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