As usual, Shonda Rhimes is juggling a half-dozen plot lines at once. And she's doing a good job hiding Kerry Washington's pregnancy.
Let's review the shenanigans:
1) Love, "Scandal" style. We all know Mellie Grant has the hots for Andrew Nicholls, the vice presidential candidate and old friend of Fitz. But surprisingly, she resisted his come ons 14 years earlier. "When I had a chance to cheat, I kept my knees together," she tells Liv.
Alas, Nicholls still pines for Mellie and now that he's in her vicinity, he keeps hitting on her. "We do not touch the first ladies," she warns. But of course, in front of a hallway of First Lady portraits, she relents and kisses him rather passionately. After her momentary lapse, she walks away, shocked she fell for him this time around. (Resistance is futile!) Nicholls then touches the portrait of Jackie Kennedy. So he touches two first ladies, in a sense.
2) Poppin' pills! Liv's dad Rowan is trying to take down Fitz and the gang. His first call to order: using Leo to leak info that Nicholls was a heavy drug user, imperiling his spot on the presidential ticket. (Reality is that Mellie 14 years earlier took a ton of painkillers and tried to commit suicide after Fitz's father raped her and she isn't sure who the daddy of her son is. Andrew saved her, then covered for her.)
Fortunately, Liv finds a way to keep the story under wraps. Andrew stays. The story dies on the vine.
3) Being Deep Throat isn't easy. James Novak is playing Deep Throat, feeding info to a reporter relating to suspicions about Sally Langston's husband's death. He is trying to set up revenge against his hubby Cyrus, who is involved in said murder. Then the reporter wants to meet this "Publias" fella. James, who is not terribly good at this secrecy stuff compared to Cyrus, is freaking out, thinking Cyrus will find him out. David Rosen, his DA buddy, decides to go in James' place. But it's a set up! Cyrus is ready to kill off this Deep Throat if necessary via Charlie. Fortunately, Abby had Huck tap into her boyfriend David's emails and figured out what was going on. So Abby and Huck grab David before he meets up with the reporter. So right now, Cyrus still doesn't know who Deep Throat is.
4) Fake boyfriend time. Jake becomes Liv's shadow boyfriend and he's not all too keen about it but he's doing it out of loyalty to his friend Fitz. I doubt he was one of the folks Mellie recommended on that list she compiled last week and Fitz is wondering if this is a good idea. When the prez asks Liv if she has feelings for him, she says, "Honestly, I don't know." (Jake now has access on the inside via B613 to what goes on inside the oval office so he is certainly happy to hear Liv may actually have feelings for him.)
5) Quinn's loyalties remain split. Quinn is bored so Charlie continues to let her work with B613. Her job is to track Liv and Liv catches her in the act after her weekly dinner with her daddy. "B613 will destroy you," Olivia tells Quinn. "I'm helping myself," Quinn said. Jake scolds Quinn for getting caught by Liv. But Quinn one ups him by providing dirt on Leo (Sally's advisor) and Rowan. In the meantime, Huck blames Liv for ruining Quinn and having him watch over her, then hurt her."Monsters eat people," Huck tells her. "That's what we do."
6) She's baaack. The most absurd storyline, of course, is the Houdini of a mom Olivia has, Maya Pope. The terrorist that she is was imprisoned for decades by Rowan, escaped and was sent to Hong Kong. She somehow got back to D.C. and is now lurking around. Cyrus got Harrison's ex Adnan back into the United States.. Adnan sidles up to Cyrus at a fundraiser and offers "unlimited funds." Where from? Who knows? But soon enough, we learn she is connected Liv's mom. "We're in," Adnan tells Maya in the final moments of the episode.
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