Scandal - S3E3 - Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington
Previously on Scandal, ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’
I Watch You While You’re Sleeping
Liv watches Jake sleeping in her bed. He’s still super bruised and dirty, but I wouldn’t kick him out. Fitz calls and wants to talk about how Jake was released, but Liv blows him off. Not like that, you pervs! She calls Huck and he blows her off. He says he just needs time. He is spending that time following Rowan.
When Liv arrives at the office, she meets Mary Nesbitt. Mary has just dropped off a retainer to hire P&A for a personal family matter. That’s all Liv has time to get because Mary has to rush off to a meeting on Capital Hill.
Meanwhile, poor Teddy is having the worst.breakfast.ever. While Mellie tries to feed him, she’s snapping at Fitz, he’s snapping at her, and Cyrus is about to have another stroke. He wants Mellie and Fitz to go to Camp David with the kids to give the press a nice photo op, but they ain’t about that life.
Quinn realizes that Mary Nesbitt is the mother of a man killed by the FBI in a raid. His apartment was the home base of a terrorist cell. Mary’s deposit also happens to be the exact amount she had in her savings account, which Quinn hacked into because she could.
Liv rushes to the Hill and finds Mary in a congressman’s office and she has a bomb strapped to her.
A man sneaks away from a White House tour and gets chased by the Secret Service. They catch him outside of Fitz’s office. He screams that he needs to speak to the president about Operation Remington.
Tell Me Your Demands
Fitz and Mellie are being kept in the underground emergency bunker. That’s where they are going to stay until the SS can ascertain whether or not the man in his office and the woman with the bomb are working together.
Mary is upset because no one will tell her what happened to her son. She knows that they thought he was a terrorist, but they won’t tell her why they thought that and she doesn’t believe it. She came to see Olivia because in an interview Olivia said she always trusts her gut and Mary’s gut tells her that her son is innocent. She thinks that if Olivia starts digging into what happened, her gut will tell her the same thing. Someone should tell Mary that Olivia’s gut ain’t shit.
Olivia speaks with the hostage negotiator and tells him that Mary wants her son’s file declassified or that’s everyone’s ass.
Remington Problem
A SS agent tells Cyrus that they figured out that the man in the office wasn’t working with Mary, and hand Cyrus the man’s file. When Cyrus sees the man’s name, Peter Foster, he instructs him to let the man go. Then he calls Rowan, who was walking through the streets and thisclose to getting Huckified with a bullet to the head, and tells Rowan they have a “Remington Problem.”
Olivia gets her team working on getting the file because fuck trusting the FBI to do it. Olivia then convinces Mary to let all the hostages go minus her and the congressman. Mary admits that she got the recipe for her bomb off the internet.
Fitz is out of the bunker and gives the go ahead for snipers to take Mary out. From outside, Harrison is on the phone with Olivia and sees them getting ready to do just that and tells her. When the red dots of the guns appear on Mary, Olivia pushes her away from the window and raises the blinds so they can see it’s her, and not Mary. Fitz is shocked to see Olivia and orders everyone to stand down.
Can’t Save the Day
Fitz wants to talk to Liv, but Cyrus won’t allow it cause damn if they haven’t already shared enough headlines lately. The hostage negotiator won’t let Liv talk to the president because the United States doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. As always, Liv finds a way. She calls Jake who calls Fitz on the Olivia Batphone. Fitz tells Jake there’s nothing he can and by extension, Jake won’t be able to save the day.
Baby Huck a.k.a. Quinn can’t hack into the FBI files and Huck isn’t answering his calls. That’s because he’s busy holding a gun to Rowan’s head. After Rowan pays Peter Foster a visit in his trailer in the woods, and assures him that he can get him a meeting with the president.
An FBI agent approaches Harrison and shows him a video of Mary’s son, Chris, making terrorist recruitment videos. Harrison relays this to Olivia.
Something Fishy
Harrison notices the FBI agent gets into a car with State Department plates. He asks Abby, who just struck out trying to get David to help pull the file, to get David to look up the FBI agent. He does and she doesn’t exist.
David meets with Cyrus and asks what’s in the file. Cyrus tells him that’s above David’s pay grade. David says that he knows the agent in charge was let go, and everyone on his team were promoted.
The Truth
Fitz, David, Cyrus, and the head of the CIA call Olivia. Fitz tells her that Chris wasn’t a terrorist, but a CIA operative posing as one. He brought in other CIA operatives posing as terrorists. He was killed by the FBI accidentally and that makes him a hero, but if anyone ever finds out, the other operatives he recruited will be killed. Olivia hangs up and lies to Mary, telling her that Chris was a terrorist. Mary, the congressman, and Olivia are leaving the office, when Mary pushes Olivia out the door and blows herself up.
At the White House, Mellie is getting drunk on hooch because she’s celebrating. Fitz tells her that she should be upset that Olivia didn’t die. Mellie says that she’s happy Olivia is alive because as long as she is, she’s Fitz’s weakness and her weapon.
Olivia goes to her office and finds Huck. She begs him to tell her if he killed her father. He says he didn’t. After pulling the gun on Rowan, Rowan tells him he left Huck a present in the trailer and he walks away. Huck tortured and killed Peter Foster. He cries in Olivia’s arms because Rowan still owns him.
At home, Olivia asks Jake why he’s there. She thinks her father is using him against her. Jake assures her that he’s not. Thinking of her face is what kept him sane in the hole. As she ignores numerous calls from Fitz and her father, Olivia warns Jake that her father will eventually use him against her.
