ABC

Olivia and co. began to campaign for Congresswoman Josie Marcus and faced the task of turning Marcus’ southern charm into presidential muscle. Pope and associates arranged a sit down with James Novak—husband of Cyrus Bean—and simultaneously the Reston camp released an attack ad targeting her based on her gender and lack of experience. Marcus saw the ad and proceeded to prove during the interview that she is more than just a “Cinderella story,“ she has enough metaphorical balls to be a real presidential candidate. But Marcus’s assistant/daughter/sister (oh so complicated) Candy proved very observant noting that Abby’s nails were painted the same color as the woman in the Reston attack ad. Not surprisingly, there’s almost no line that OPA won’t cross to win, even if that means creating a fake attack ad to get Marcus riled up. The ploy worked wonders, Marcus proved herself and the donors came pouring in. 

At the start of tonight’s episode, Liv was struggling with the realization that her mother’s death was no accident, her plane was shot down by none other than President Fitzgerald Grant. The question that remained throughout most of the episode was just how much Rowan and Fitz knew about the supposed “plane crash.” Scattered throughout the episode are flashbacks of Olivia’s twelve-year-old self saying goodbye to her mother, unknowingly for the last time, and later of Rowan and Liv as they learn of her death. In a rare show of some emotion Rowan agrees to answer just one of Olivia’s questions. “Did you give the order to shoot down the plane?” Olivia pleads. “No,” is the only response she gets. But in the last scene of the episode, a painful conversation between Fitz and Liv seems to indicate Fitz didn’t know her mother was on the plane. Olivia angrily leads Fitz and his puppydog eyes out of her apartment with the words “I was twelve” echoing in the President's head. 

Meanwhile VP Sally Langston is up to no good. Under the guidance of Leo Burgan, she begins her campaign for president. Step one - mobilize the ministers. A highly conservative reverend goes on TV and criticizes the President for his excitable penis, and when Sally is asked to patch things up with the “base,” she subtly pitches the idea of herself as president. Little did she know the reverend was actually reporting back to Cyrus and now the Grant campaign is aware of the Sally Langston threat. 

Though Millie’s role in this episode was downsized compared to previous weeks, she continues to prove that she will do just about anything to keep Fitz in the White House and retain the power she worked so hard to gain. She notices that Douglas Langston’s wandering eyes are Sally’s biggest weakness and demands the Grant campaign use that against her. I have know doubt they will. It seems Cyrus is king of digging up dirt. He is not pleased that OPA is working for the Marcus campaign and repeatedly threatens to bring one of Harrison’s old enemies into the country. We don’t know much about Harrison’s past but clearly before he was a gladiator he made some enemies that he doesn’t want to see again. 

Olivia turns to Jake for more information about Remington and the plane crash in Iceland, and Jake in turn asked his friend at the CIA to get the audio recording of the plane crash. All the while Jake is being stalked just a bit too closely by an suspicious gentleman the audience initially assumes is working for Rowan. By the end of the hour, we learn that it was actually the President who gave Jake a security detail to make sure that B-613 does not kill him. Thankfully the President made one wise choice tonight because Jake’s CIA friend was just about ready to turn on him guns blazing. But, she was shot in the head by Jake’s security. 

Speaking of shots, Quinn found herself a little too trigger-happy this week practicing at the gun range. Initially, she seem to have trouble getting the hang of things but with a little help from Charlie our favorite B-613 villain, we may just have a new sharpshooter in the making…scary thought.

Where was the lovely and wonderful David Rosen this week? Do you think Fitz knew Liv’s mother was on the plane? Will we ever learn the truth about what happened? Can Fitz and Liv’s relationship ever be the same? Sound off below with your thoughts and check out the promo for next week’s episode. 

Reach Staff Reporter Kate Guarino here.