I should no longer be surprised when the end of ABC’s hit "Scandal" leaves my mouth wide open. Yet, every week as the twists get bigger and bigger my screams get just a little louder and my jaw is just a little closer to hitting the floor. Without further ado lets break down tonight’s heart-tugging, jaw-dropping hour. 

Olivia is in for the shock of her life as Huck and Jake revealed that the President was responsible for shooting down the plane that killed her mother. (ABC)

Huck and Jake are officially working in cahoots and as the episode opens Jake breaks into Rowan’s apartment while Rowan has Sunday dinner with Olivia. After narrowly escaping when Rowan returns home, Jake discovers that the file he stole from Rowan's computer is a recording of the meeting teased at the end of last weeks episode between Rowan and POTUS. It seems the President has a history with Mr. Pope but we’ll get to that in a second. The President is not ready to show all his cards just yet and in an attempt to prevent anyone from digging further into Operation Remington, he invites his Navy buddy Jake to play some basketball. It’s safe to say viewers probably had as much fun watching these guys at the hoop as the friends had playing. After all neither Jake nor Fitz is Sore on the eyes. 

Prior to this show of sportsmanship, Cyrus and Mellie meet with campaign manager Leo Bergen (played by “Private Practice‘s” Paul Adelstein) in the hopes he could help with Fitz’s reelection campaign but Bergen it seems does not throw his hat behind candidates he deems “losers.” Simultaneously democratic candidate congresswoman Josie Marcus (Played by Lisa Kudrow) is looking to hire a campaign manager of her own…kind of. Ms. Marcus has a problem and Olivia Pope needs to fix it. It seems the congresswoman had a baby at fifteen and subsequently abandoned. Olivia suggests coming clean to the American public but Marcus claims she does not want to sacrifice the child's privacy. Thus the ladies and gentleman of OPA sans Olivia travel to Montana and attempt to track down anyone who knew about the baby and might talk to the press. 

As it turns out, Cyrus’ lackey Ethan is also in Montana and just as he is about to heir an exclusive with the baby daddy, he get’s “Pope’d” because Harrison threatens to reveal the marital indiscretions of babby daddy Mr. Billy Joe Lee. OPA discovers they have bigger problems to deal with when the nurse that delivered Marcus’ baby girl tells them that the Marcus’ mother raised the baby girl as her own. Josie’s sister Candice is in fact Josie’s daughter. Gasp. 

Cyrus and Mellie, desperate to blow the lid off the baby secret, leak it to Marcus’ opponent Governor Resten tobring up during the democratic primary debate that evening. Reluctantly, Marcus’ takes the bate and addresses the issue in the way only Olivia knows how to orchestrate. Sorry Cyrus you got  “Pope’d” again. Though Marcus tells the public that she gave the baby up for adoption, Candice, Josie's sister who is on the trail, is capable of doing mental math and figures out she is the baby girl her sister “gave up/” Angered after the riff with her sister…daughter? Marcus fires Olivia. 

Who better to cheer Olivia up then the President? Fitz calls from the bathroom while hiding from his wife and asks Olivia to vet his jokes for the White House correspondents’ dinner just like old times. Liv claims the President is not exactly Mr. funnyman but she encourages him to mock himself and his affair in his speech. In response to her suggestions, Fitz says “I love you” and is met with silence on the other end. Mellie, leaning up against the bathroom door, hears the entire conversation. In that moment I feltjust a little sorry for her. 

Olivia arrives at the correspondents’ dinner, Jake in tow and is summoned into a back room meeting called by none other than Mellie Grant. In an emotional expression of honesty that is almost heart-breaking Mellie asks Olivia to be Fitz’s campaign manager because “He’s not alive, he can’t breathe when you’re not here…. He needs you, so I need you” It’s hard to tell if Mellie was really being as genuine as she seemed or if this is some sort of keep your friends close but your enemies closer ploy. For now though Olivia has a tough decision to make because just as things wrap up at the White House, Josie Marcus pops up again, apologizing for her rudeness and asking Olivia to be her campaign manager. 

But that decision might not be so hard for her to make because as the episode draws to a close, we learn the real nature of Operation Remington. As it turns out when the President was in the military he took a little day trip to Iceland at the same time a 747 carrying more than 300 passengers crashed in Iceland, due to “mechanical failure. Huck suggest the President shot down the plane whose passenger manifest included one Maya Lewis. Lewis as it turns out is a maiden name for the wife of Mr. Rowan Pope. That’s right. You heard me. The President shot down the plane carrying Olivia’s mother. Deep breathes. In and out. It will be okay…or will it? 

Side Notes: 

• Abby and David seem to be hot and heavy at least until she lies to him about having to miss the correspondents’ dinner because she is still in Montana. As it turns out Abby doesn’t want to go to the dinner because her abusive ex-husband will be there. 
• Quinn was “grounded” this episode because her colleagues at OPA noticed her blood-lust coming on a bit too strong. In response she bought a gun…yikes! 
• Vice President Sally Langston wants to run as an independent candidate against POTUS and she asked Leo Bergen—who was standing in front of a urinal—to be her campaign manager. .       

Is it naïve to hope that Fitz didn’t know Olivia’s mom was on the plane? Are you as creped out as I am but the idea of Quinn owning a gun? Do you think we will learn more about Abby’s dark past as we delve deeper into her relationship with David?  Sound off below with your thoughts and check out the promo for next week’s new episode.