SCANDAL Recap: Any Questions?

So I don’t think I should have to tell you this but just in case, this is a recap. That, by definition, means I am going to share everything that happened in tonight’s episode, including who the mole is, among other things. You might want to watch the episode before you read this recap. Just a heads up because this episode is crazy. Things. Go. Down.

Cyrus is holding a press conference to tell all the reporters that this accusation by the First Lady is just that, an accusation. It is a private matter and that is all he will say.
Cyrus makes his way over to Olivia’s apartment to talk to Fitz about what the heck he is doing. Secret Service won’t let him in, and do you know why? Because on Olivia’s door is Tom, down for Fitz, keeps his secrets Tom. Not that other Secret Service guy that spills all Fitz’s secrets to Mellie. He would have folded under the tirade Cyrus is unleashing.
Finally Cyrus gets through to Tom to be let into the apartment where he finds Olivia and Fitz in bed together. He screams, “Get up!” Olivia has the decency to look embarrassed.

At Pope & Associates Rosen is watching the press conference on the TV and making mocking comments about the President being a cheater. First the election and now on his wife, not that he is still bitter about that. David says, “I made my choice, I’m part of the team now. Go Gladiators!” The rest of the gladiators aren’t saying much because Rosen still doesn’t get who the woman is that Fitz is cheating with.

Back at the apartment Olivia is going into super fixer mode. She is ready to run all kinds of plays to find out what everyone outside of her bedroom is doing and or saying about this. Fitz stops her. This is his problem; he is going to deal with it himself. She has to stand down.

Olivia gets to the office to hear that they are no closer to finding Charlie. They fill her in on the laptop he stole from book club girl and how Cyrus can’t be the mole. However the mole knows about election rigging now. Olivia runs to her office and checks her safe, the Cytron card is still there.

Enter John Barrowman. Is there a better looking man out there than him? Honestly, it is difficult to look directly at him sometimes and he exudes swagger and charm. It’s almost too much. I’m going to try to push through it though. Deep breath. Okay, so he is a fixer and Mellie is meeting with him to go over her options. His only rule – no lies. His little speech about not lying ruffles her feathers and she goes to throw him out. He does a slower version of Olivia’s “I’m handling this” and it works. She is reeled in. He wants to know why she gave up her perfect looking life to drop this bombshell on National Television and also, why hasn’t she outed the whore. His words not mine.

In the Oval Office a think tank of people are coming up with ideas on how to spin this affair story. Fitz asks for the room and is left with a very angry Cyrus. Fitz says he is going to make a statement, one that says he isn’t seeking a second term. Cyrus. Mouth Drop. Commercial.
Cyrus gets he wants to continue the affair, Olivia is a great gal. However, he isn’t going to give up this office, they will figure it out together. Cyrus seems to think he can have his affair, his marriage and the Presidency. Fitz says he is in love with Olivia and he isn’t going to be with her in secret anymore, he is more than willing to give up his Presidency for her.

Jake is across town meeting with his boss. Turns out his whole mission was to get between Olivia Pope and the President. He failed and his boss isn’t happy. Jake gives his boss the pictures of the man that is on to him, Charlie. His boss says to find Charlie and bring him in, get him the video evidence of his dalliance with Olivia and he will handle Cyrus.

The Vice President takes a moment to find Cyrus in the halls of the White House and to quote the Bible to Cyrus. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Cyrus is less that amused and quips back, “That’s not from the Bible. Not everything is from the Bible, Sally.”
At Pope & Associates Harrison is speculating that the mole must be the Vice President. She is one of the only people who had access to those files. They are going to start doing some digging into Sally.

By the way Cyrus is mad at James for doing the interview with Mellie in the first place. James is less than apologetic. Cyrus for his part starts to laugh; interviewing Mellie wasn’t James’s lucky break. Cyrus tells James he can’t be so stupid that he doesn’t know Mellie pulled some strings to get James that job so he would be the one to do the interview with her. Cyrus storms out leaving a heartbroken James crying. It is the meanest I’ve seen Cyrus be and he had a woman killed in the first season.

The office is still trying to do some digging into Sally but it isn’t easy. They decide to send her teenage daughter an infected email so they can get past the White House firewalls and do some more snooping. Sure enough she falls for the bait and just like that they are in the system.

Olivia is in a park bringing Cyrus coffee. Cyrus wants Olivia to fix this, do something so that Fitz will run for office again. Don’t let him step down now. She won’t agree so he sends her away. As soon as she gets up Jake’s boss is there to talk to Cyrus. He chastises Cyrus for not shutting down the affair between Fitz and Olivia a long time ago. Jake’s boss knows Cyrus has a copy of the tape of Jake and Olivia; he wants Cyrus to use it. He subtly threatens Cyrus before leaving.

Fitz calls Olivia while he is trying to write his speech for the press conference tonight. He asks if she is having second thoughts and she says no. Does he? Never. She ends the call smiling. As she hangs up Jake calls. He asks how late Fitz stayed at her place last night. She asks him what he wants and he says, “I want a lot of things that he gets to have first.” Jakes says, “Goodbye Olivia.” in a very final way.

Mellie and her fixer are still meeting. He is trying to get the name of the mistress out of her but she seems to be off in some other place while she stares at her wedding ring. He says right now anything is possible, is she lying or is she the poor cheated on wife. The only way to let the public now is to name a name. Mellie wants to wait for Fitz to make his statement tonight before she names names.

Charlie and his good old sweet tooth are at the bakery. He doesn’t recognize the lady behind the counter though so after he takes his bag of pastries he goes into the bathroom to shine a black light on the bag. You know that is what I am missing from my purse, a black light. Anyway there is a yellow substance on the bag and now on his hands. He rushes out of the bakery and the lady from the counter calls Jake. She says he knows. Jake starts to follow Charlie in his car. The yellow substance is a tracking device of some kind. As Charlie is walking away from the bakery he makes contact with everyone he passes, trying to rub the substance off of his hands. It works and Jake loses him.

Olivia gets back to the office to hear the team announce Sally can’t be the mole. It was her password that was used to access the black ops information but physically she wasn’t in her office when that was happening. The team is upset and frustrated. Olivia tells them to take an hour and then they will regroup and keep working. David however stays behind.
An hour later the team comes back into the office to find Rosen being held at gunpoint by Charlie. As soon as he sees them he puts his guns on the table and says he wants to chat. He wants to hire Olivia.

Fitz has finished his speech and gives it to Cyrus to read. Cyrus reads the first few sentences and says it is fine. Fitz says it will be fine. They will go out proud of the work they did. After all they stole this term and Fitz is glad they got some mileage out of it while he had it. They sit next to each other on the couch and share a laugh.

Mellie’s fixer managed to get a copy of the speech as well and shares it with her. She doesn’t understand, why isn’t Fitz budging. Her fixer says that is why she isn’t naming the mistress, she knows when that happens Fitz will hate her and somewhere deep inside she wants to believe that he will come back to her. He says he can do a lot of things but he can’t make her husband lover her. She insists Fitz can write what he wants in drafts but at the end of the day there is no way he will give it all up. She will not divulge the name, not yet.

Abbey is holding a gun on Charlie while he talks. He won’t give up the name of the mole just yet. Huck has had enough, he is going to get the name of the mole from Charlie by any means necessary.

Having found out that Fitz never signed the candidacy paperwork like he was supposed to months ago, Cyrus rushes over to speak with Olivia.

In his apartment, wherever that may be, Jake is watching the video of Olivia and him. He ejects the DVD and puts it in an envelope for his boss. He brings it to him and asks for his next step. His boss tells him to keep at it. Stick close to Fitz and even closer to Olivia, screw this up again and he won’t be seeing daylight for a very long while.

Charlie is duct taped to a chair in Huck’s apartment. He thinks Huck is going to kill him and he wants Huck to do it, “quick, easy, neat.” Charlie gives Huck the name of the mole and Huck puts his gun up to the back of Charlie’s head. Just then Quinn is there. Huck tells her to go but she isn’t leaving. She asks Huck if he is a gladiator or if he is looking for revenge because you can’t have it both ways. If you remember that is exactly what Huck said to her when she wanted to kill Holis Doyle. Remember the good old days, the simple times when Holis was their biggest problem?

Olivia stops by the White House to talk to Fitz. She wants to know why he didn’t file his candidacy documents. She wants to know if he was going to run for a second term or not. He doesn’t want to talk about it. Olivia says she thinks he is quitting because he doesn’t believe he can do this, he believes he is everything his father said he was. Thanks to Defiance. She wants him to run for a second term. Run and win. Prove he can do it on his own.
He heads out to make his statement to the press, he looks at his notes and then he puts them away. Fitz says his marriage isn’t any of their business and not only that, he is running for a second term as President.

While he is making his statement Pope & Associates are reeling, Olivia’s safe is open and the Cytron card is missing. They think Charlie must have taken it but Abbey says that is okay because Charlie is dead now, right? Nope. Huck let him go, but he did get the name of the mole. Harrison calls Olivia to tell her what happened. He tells her the name of the mole. It’s Billy Chambers, the former Chief of Staff to the Vice President. Oh and the person that stole the Cytron card is Rosen. That’s right Rosen played them all.

When you catch your breath be sure to tell me what you thought in the comments below.

Scandal airs Thursday 10/9c on ABC