While Fitz and Jake go at it over the evening's fiasco, Olivia stares into the distance between them, and soldiers invade B-613. Rowan's office is empty; only a pre-historic skeleton, a nod to his cover, remains in the darkness. It's a headless aquatic waterfowl of some type, the spine dissolving into nothingness. It's not the only fossil they find; Maya Pope is dragged out of the underground box and handcuffed to an interrogation table.
She thanks Olivia for getting her out of there, calling Olivia her baby, while Olivia stands off to the side blankly staring at her mother. Maya is a little cocky as she declares that Olivia is getting her out a free woman. Instead, Olivia rattles off what Fitz should have her charged with, then instructs both Fitz and Jake to find Rowan and kill him. She casually strolls out while Maya keeps yelling for her.
Huck has decided the best thing to do when your son sees you kill someone and runs away frightened, is to follow the kid home and scare the shit out of his mother, too. Kim didn't even know Javi was home, let alone back from seeing Huck, and after she checks on him, she's furious at whatever screw up Huck committed. As a piano tones ominously, she slams the door on him. Huck turns to his ride, Quinn, who doesn't even try to hide her pity for Huck.
The next morning finds the West Angolan ambassador, receiving Fitz's assurances that he's not going to screw over her country. So, that means there's a lot of pressure to screw over her country, especially since terrorists from West Angola bombed the VP's car. Fitz, while not enthused over invading West Angola, says there has to be some consequences for the bombing. Cy points out the utter futility of a ground war.
Olivia arrives at Gladiator HQ, and finally charges her phone, and gets a call from Quinn, who's frantic to update her. Over the phone, where she tells Olivia about Huck killing Kubiak. Which is kind of foolish, since they know she's under somebody's surveillance. Olivia finds out that Kubiak was linked with both Lizzy Bear and VP Andrew, and that Lizzy Bear and Andrew are schtupping. Just as Olivia wants to demand the truth from Lizzy Bear, she storms into Gladiator HQ, demanding the same. As a betrayed client, she's got a legitimate beef, but Olivia tosses it aside, saying she owes nothing to someone so vile.
Both Olivia and Abby have bombs to drop on the White House today. Abby informs Cy that someone's leaked the news that he's seen a prostitute to the DNC, which went right to the media. As Olivia updates Cy, Fitz and Mellie on the relationships between Kubiak, Lizzy and Andrew, Mellie's face sinks as she realizes Andrew doesn't love her, and is much more devious than she ever gave him credit for. Abby alerts the team to the release of Cy's prostitution photos, and Ethan nearly faints with the sight of his bad boss's private bits. Abby will go out and successfully fend off questions with stalling tactics. But, since Cy deleted most of his digital communications after realizing Michael is a spy, that could spell legal trouble for the administration. Rosen calls Abby, warning her that he may have to investigate. She hangs up as the team asks Fitz if the White House will go to the mattresses for Cy. Fitz hesitates, but confirms that's the plan.
Olivia's solution is for Cy and Michael to marry. It's quite a contract, but the gist is that they stay married for at least three years, with the option to renew. Cy basically has Michael under his thumb for the whole three years. But, if Michael successfully completes a three-year term as Cy's bitch, he gets three million dollars. If Michael breaks any contract terms, he'll owe Cy a million dollars. Neither man is happy. But Olivia tells them that it's just a sign of the love they'll pretend they feel for each other, and that love will be the only thing that allows Cy to keep his job.
Michael can see his freedom slipping away, and he and Cy will have three years to debate whether being a kept man is worse than being married to Cy. But, Michael reluctantly agrees. Cy, however, quietly and methodically tears the whole idea apart. He advises Michael to write a book, star in a gay porn version of his story, and informs him that they're basically strangers. Michael looks slightly hurt as Cy states that he actually would rather re-live the twenty-year closet he endured pretending to be straight, than fake a marriage that is a mockery of the love he had for James.
Jake's having a fun morning back at the restaurant from the failed capture attempt, getting a flash drive of all the restaurant's cameras, inside and out, for whatever use. As he leaves, via a deserted alley that definitely isn't a great place to attack somebody, Jake spies someone closing in via a mirror, and whips out his own gun, shooting the man dead with a barely heard gunshot. Silencers must be really small these days. But, it gives Jake the chance he needs to search the body for any clues as to where he came from. Instead, Jake finds a playing card. He's the King of Clubs.
Is this a nod to the playing cards distributed to soldiers during the Iraq War, to identify targets for capture or killing from the old regime? If so, who's the Ace of Spades?
Jake goes to Gladiator HQ to update them, and fill in some background. If B-613 is ever compromised, the contingency is for Rowan to issue a deck of "kill" cards, with agents considered loose ends on the cards as targets. Jake vows to pursue Rowan; he leaves Huck with the flash drive , to glean what he can and come up with Rowan's latest location. Quinn suddenly looks concerned about something, and declares she's taking some Quinn-time to Huck as she leaves.
She, of course, finds Charlie and lets the lying killer into her car to tell him things he, doubtless, already knows. Considering that Charlie has always been Rowan's go-to guy for housecleaning, is this a wise choice? Charlie appears touched by Quinn's concern, and after some holding back, he and Quinn get to business. Hey, everyone affirms life in their own way.
Quinn returns to the office to Huck confirming that's she's late and Olivia giving her a icy stare and folded arms. Huck's been busy tracking Kubiak, Lizzy Bear and Andrew via old cellphone records, and the last time were together was, literally, the night Catelyn saw whatever awful meeting she saw, at her dad's law firm. Since hacking into the law firm's databases turned up nothing, Quinn uses the severed finger of Kubiak and her girlish charm to sneak into Winslow's firm and find out the firm's conference room schedule. Along with the record, is a client code, which could reveal what exactly these people were discussing. The only thing Huck gets is.... Waco, Inc. Quinn is confused. Is it oil? Something else from Texas?
With Olivia in her office, Jake quietly arrives and places a powerful little handgun on her desk. He updates her on the kill cards, and informs her that she's going to be targeted too. Olivia is adamant that she doesn't need it, and that Rowan would never try to kill her. Jake points out that Rowan probably thinks the same of her, yet she's ordered Fitz and Jake to find and kill him. Together, Jake holds her as he shows her the aiming angles for shots that will either stop or kill an attacker. When Olivia expresses some exasperation with the scenario, Jake offers to taker her away, and find the sun, wherever it is. Olivia looks like she's considering it, but she eventually raises her head and tells Jake that the sun set. And they're in permanent night now. Jake calmly seems to accept that there's no happy end for them. But, she does keep the gun.
Let's just kill your dad and get some burgers
At the VP's residence, Lizzy Bear and Andrew forget their worries over Kubiak's disappearance by affirming life. And at the White House, Cy waits for Fitz to arrive back at his Oval Office, so Cy can offer his letter of resignation. Cy is disappointed with Nixon's resignation letter, and hopes the one he holds out to Fitz will be better. And he's got their lines all decided. He wants to be thanked for his service, so he can tell the President he was honored to serve. Then, he wants to be met at his office by security who will take his badge, and escort him off the premises.
Fitz is totally unwilling to play his part. But Cy is ready for that, too. The ominous keyboard piece from all throughout the serious parts of the episode plays. He informs Fitz that with this scandal over his White House, he'll probably have to cave and invade West Angola. He tells Fitz to take Abby's future advice and throw Cy under a bus, preferably one headed back to California. He's not willing to listen to any other words out of Fitz's mouth than the ones he's already dreamed up. So, Fitz, after a hard moment where he loses his only friend, has no choice except to play his part.
In between grueling press conferences where Abby is made to answer for her former boss's illegal behavior, she must also appear before Rosen, who's investigating Cy's data purge. Lionel Richie plays while Abby squirms as she has to confess to Rosen, with whom she had a wonderful, loving relationship, that she spent the night of Cy's data purge affirming life with Leo fucking Bergen. Rosen sends her away, clearly getting the hint that they're really, finally, over.
Quinn and Charlie decided to affirm life again, this time at her place. When he's off in the bathroom, his phone rings and Quinn decides to find the damn thing. She finds it along with another playing card. Turns out, Quinn is the Queen of Hearts. What would that make Huck? I'm thinking Jack of Spades. Quinn doesn't ask about Huck's card, though, as she insists on pummeling the living crap out of Charlie. Not just for trying to kill her. But for having sex with her before killing her. Charlie explains that he only agreed to kill her under duress. They brawl it out.
Huck, using Rowan's license plate off the footage, kind of tracks his car to a known B-613 safehouse, which it didn't occur to Jake to search before. He does so now, finding it empty as Rowan opens a bottle of wine just in time to greet Olivia when she arrives home. She's understandably spooked, but Rowan is at her place to reminisce. About music. Specifically, Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life.
Rowan wants to remember the night he played this for her, to calm her anxiety the night before starting kindergarten. Which raises the question: how high strung is a kid that she worries the night before starting kindergarten? Exactly what did Rowan tell her about the place?
Do you remember how scared I made you of everything?
Anyway, back in the present, Olivia tries to kick Rowan out. So, he pulls out a gun and waves it a bit before placing it the crook of his arm. He then insists that Olivia sit. So she does, and they face each other across her dining table as Rowan informs her that she's basically the apple falling close to the tree. Olivia grouses that Rowan told her he was going to leave her alone, and instead he's still wandering in and out of her life and apartment. Olivia taunts him with thinking the world can't run without him, calling him sick and lonely.
Rowan screams at her that she's ungrateful. As she quakes in fear at his outburst, he states that she wouldn't exist, either physically or professionally without him. He tells her that she's become just like him. That, since she can't love him, she must not know what love is. And that if she hates him, then she's going to hate herself as well. He leaves the gun unattended long enough for Olivia to grab it, stand away and point it at him. It stops his loud rant. She points it shakily as Rowan calmly waits to see what she will do. Discordant piano notes run as she shakily breathes, then pulls the trigger. There's no bullet, just Rowan crying out in betrayal and anger. He advances on her as he berates her for doing what he never imagined.
I would have been a little pissed and maybe looked to see if I could get the gun my boyfriend just gave me, but Olivia is too worked up to think about anything except how ungrateful and weak her father finds her as he yanks the gun away from her, looks fondly at the old Stevie Wonder album, and slides out. As he goes, he promises Olivia that she'll miss him.
Charlie and Quinn have fought to what must be a stalemate. She's lost her replacement tooth. They're bloody and broken and tired. Her apartment is a shambles. Charlie admits he can't kill her, because she's it in his life. His Granny just died, partly through his benevolent help, and Quinn commiserates, while they try to hash out their horrible relationship. But, Charlie has a little something something for Quinn. He has files. He stole them from a storage locker somewhere, and kept some for himself, realizing they'd be good insurance.
Olivia rushes to Maya, demanding to know where Rowan could have gone. Olivia's been checking something that told her Rowan visited his treasonous, violent wife every fucking day in that hole, and somehow, she must have gleaned something useful now. Olivia escalates the pushing, eventually slamming the table as she insists that her mother must know everything about Rowan by now, and Olivia will get it, goddammit. Maya seems resigned to her fate in federal prison, after being an unofficially disappeared person for over twenty years. One wonders why there isn't anything in the episode about Rosen actually filing charges. She tells Olivia to cut her strings to her dad. She reminds Olivia that Rowan would talk about her as much as Olivia talks about her dad. That they are just obsessed with each other.
What, no obsessive mania for me?
Maya decides that her daughter has turned out just like her husband. Olivia denies it. But Maya points out that Olivia serves the President, that she's surrounded by former B-613 agents, that she's now visiting Maya in Maya's new imprisonment. Will it be every day, just like Rowan's visits? Olivia looks horrified, and about to cry, when Maya literally rattles her handcuffs, shutting Olivia's tears down. Olivia's face slowly hardens, and she tells her mother goodbye. Maya is cocky and sarcastic at first. But when that door closes, Maya has to face being alone. For good.
With her new battle-ready hardness, Olivia pays Cy a visit. Cy is busy packing for Europe, where gay stereotypes can still find work. Is he packing his daughter, too? Olivia looks a little flustered, like a kid, at first. But when Cy finally stops to breathe, Olivia gives him her all. She tells the Cy there that she's going to channel the real Cyrus Beene as she starts viciously tearing apart his pity party. She relentlessly tells Cy that he doesn't get to let the Mean Girls, meaning people who object to hiring prostitutes, get to him. She pushes and pushes. She gets Cy over his limit. He counters that he runs the world, that he's the most powerful man in America. He might actually believe the self-promoting bullshit he's now spouting. She and Cy end by screaming at each other that he's definitely not a bitch baby.
Which leads to Cy and Michael splitting their loving gazes between each other and the camera. Cy sells his love as something that erases all his law-breaking and indiscretion. Pundits bicker as Cy moves back in. Fitz waltzes in, asking Cy what to do about West Angola and for Scotch. They gather in Fitz's office, and actually let Abby drink with them, gleefully congratulating themselves on foiling Lizzy Bear. They're about to be joined by Olivia, triumphantly striding up to the Oval Office. But she stops. The three look so happy, especially Abby. Fitz and Cy finally want her! She's braved the press, held down the fort, and hopefully gotten Cy cleared from more scrutiny. And Abby, despite the snubs and pokes and the fact that neither still knows her name, can't help loving her moment. And Olivia decides not to take it away. Let the guys fawn all over their new go to girl. Her work is done. Olivia slowly walks away, with no regrets.
I'm blowing this popsicle stand
Lizzy Bear storms into Mellie's office, pissy that there won't be a war against West Angola. Mellie, who has absolutely no authority to declare war, plays dumb until it's time to throw Lizzy's affair with Andrew in her face. After advising Lizzy to get tested for the clap, and praising Andrew's sex abilities, she tells Lizzy that she's got claws, and messing with her again is going to cost Lizzy more than the price of some antibiotics.
Kim gets home from whatever day she had, to find Huck on her doorstep. All he asks is that Kim read the super secret, super scary files he got from Charlie. Because nothing helps your relationship with your ex-wife more than proving you actually are a torturer and killer.
Huck arrives back at Gladiator HQ to find Quinn is back at her research, and she's figured out that "Waco" is actually "WACO", and it stands for the West Angola Commercial Organization. They still can't figure out what that has with following Olivia around.
VP Andrew Davis invites himself into Fitz's office. He tries to coax Fitz into fighting West Angola, but Fitz doesn't take his bait.
Olivia greets Jake at her apartment with every bit of comfort food and beer Jake's every craved.
Welcome to the party!
She's gotten so much food, she tells Jake that he'll need to unzip his pants to fit it all in. And she's got some great dance music going (Stevie Wonder's Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing). Jake wants to obsess over his failure to kill Rowan. She's manic. She's exultant. She's done with Rowan. She's done hunting him. She's dancing awkwardly, so Jake can't help but to join in. He re-declares his love for her, but Olivia declares that she's taking some Olivia time, that she's not choosing between either of them anytime soon. Jake, and this is why I prefer him, accepts this without bickering. Instead, he avidly seconds her idea that tonight will be about discovering whether a piano makes a good place to affirm life. He's happily stripping and finding pillows for their life affirmation.
Huck and Quinn figure out that VP Andrew knew about the bombing before it would happen. Jake leaves Olivia alone far too long, and he comes back to find the inevitable kidnapping remains. Olivia's wine glass is spilled all over her white couch. It was seconds. And Fitz figures out that Olivia is taken at the same time Jake does, when VP Andrew asks Fitz what's the one thing... I mean, who's the one person Fitz would bomb a small African nation for? Jake dashes out the open apartment door as Fitz demands to know what Andrew's done with Olivia.
So, how will Scandal proceed? With Olivia knocked out of action, how will the Gladiators rally (because they fight, not run)? Will Jake and Fitz put aside their differences? Did Rowan know anything, and refuse to even warn Olivia? Will Fitz beat the crap out of Andrew, Lizzy Bear, or both, demanding to know where Olivia is? How will Mellie screw up the rescue effort? Will Cy and Michael team up and discover true love while finding Olivia? Is West Angola screwed?
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