As any O.G (Original Gladiator) knows, it can be difficult to keep up with the fast-paced world of Pope & Associates. The purpose of this recap is to break down the key moments from each episode without wasting time on unnecessary filler storylines. Ready? Let’s jump in.
**Spoilers below. Scroll down at your own risk**

1. Olitz is heating up..again
Much to my disappointment, this week’s episode starts off with Olivia and Fitz on the phone. Fitz calls Olivia in the hopes she would fall for his sweet talking ways all over again, but all she wants to talk about is whether or not Jake is okay.
Later in the episode there’s an uncomfortable phone sex scene where Olivia gets super turned on by Fitz’s smooth talking, only for him to hang up on her. He says that he’ll finish telling her what he would do together if there really is hope between the two.
2. So, who’s stalking Olivia?
We’re still wrapped up in the murder or Katelyn Winselow in light of last week’s revelation that the girl’s father, Jeremy Winsleow, was spying on Olivia.
Since Olivia has a lot going on in her life already, Quinn goes to talk to Jeremy solo. She thinks she’s going to get some kind of confession out of him, but he suddenly takes out a gun and kills himself. We now have knowlege that someone is spying on Olivia, but apparently if you know too much, you have to be killed off.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the person stalking Olivia is her own mother. She’s definitely keeping tabs on her daughter from afar and is most likely planning something big to make an explosive return.
3. Case of the Week: Senator McDonnell
The press is all over Senator McDonnnell after a video surfaces of him in a drunken state (sailor hat, young girls, diaper and all). When the senator resigns in light of the contreversy, the President endorses a replacement with a checkered past. While Fitz is oblivious to this fact, the man he endorsed is Abby’s ex-husband, Chip.
If you recall from season 1, it was Olivia that  helped Abby leave her husband after he was physically abusive towards her. When Abby walks into the oval office and sees Chip schmoozing with the President, she is unable to keep her composure and calls Olivia immediately.
Being the great friend that she is, Olivia’s new mission is to make sure that there is no way Chip is elected as the next senator from Virgina. So, she decides to run his opponent’s campaign free of charge.
When Abby tells Chip’s campaign manager (Leo Bergen, VP Sally Langston’s old manager) what his client did to her, he pulls a surprising move. Bergen plants a story about how Chip was the one that set up Senator McConnell with the alcohol and the prostitutes and made sure it was all filmed. This ensures that Chip would not take the Senator’s position and Abby won’t have to deal with him again, hopefully.
Abby and Leo share a kiss which is interesting because I’m almost certain she’s still with David Rosen. Honestly, this would be a nice change of pace because Abby and David barely have any chemistry. 
4. Tom confesses
Olivia fights her way to get into the maximum security prison to talk to someome, but it’s not who we expect. While you would think she would want to make sure Jake is okay, she chooses to speak with Tom the ex-secret service agent instead.
This scene was interesting because it’s the most we’ve ever seen Tom speak. Normally, if he says anything at all, it’s a short “yes sir,” but in this scene he had a lengthy monologue. While Olivia went into this meeting thinking she was going to be able to easily interrogate the obedient man, he barely let her get a word in edgewise. He took control of this scene.
Tom asked Olivia repeatedly why she left the President and even told her that he visited her apartment while she was gone to make sure it was real.
“I could never protect him from you Ms. Pope,” Tom tells Olivia. He adds that Fitz even tried to kill himself when she left since he was forced to deal with both his son’s death and her departure.
After Olivia and Rowan’s heated scene, we cut to the prison where we see Tom being stabbed multiple times. Until the end of the episode, we think that it was Rowan who hired someone to kill him so he would not be a threat anymore. However, it was Olivia that planned the whole thing.
Olivia sends Quinn to pay off the security guard to stab Tom enough times to scare him into thinking Command was trying to kill him, but not enough so that he dies. In ones of the last scenes, Olivia plays a recording for Fitz in which Tom finally admits that it was Rowan that sent him to kill Jerry.
Once this is revealed, the final scene shows Fitz and Olivia welcoming Jake as he’s released.
I’m genuinely nervous/excited to see how these three are supposed to work together to bring down Rowan.
Like father like daughter, right?
5. In other storylines:

• Huck has been anonymously playing against his son on an online video game for a while now and the little computer whiz is able to track him down at the OPA office. Their reunion is touching and when Javi said “I know you’re my dad,” I almost lost it.

• Cyrus is finally able to connect the dots that his new lover, Michael, is actually a mole who has been leaking classified information to Lizzie, the RNC chair.

• Fitz scolds Mellie for speaking out about foreign policy issues on national television, but she bites back saying it wasn’t too long ago he was telling her he was tired of “smelly Mellie.” Mellie is finally back to her old self, but somehow an even more empowered version. As long as she plays it wisely, I think great things bode for her future political career. Also, she is well aware that Fitz and Olivia are getting close again and she obviously isn’t happy about it

What did you think of this week’s episode of “Scandal”?
Comment below and don’t forget to live-tweet next week’s episode with me at @AggiAshagre on Twitter.