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. Case of the Week: Katherine Winslow
An old law school friend calls Olivia for help and she’s our case of the week. Her daughter, Katelyn, has gone missing and she needs help from Pope & Associates. Per usual, she can’t call the cops because she doesn’t want the press to expose her family issues.
After a little digging, Quinn finds that Katelyn is staying in a room at a luxury hotel that she booked under her best friend’s name. While they thought the case was solved with finding Katelyn, Huck later uncovers a sex tape showing Katherine having relations with Katelyn’s boyfriend (who’s still in high school by the way) which, unbeknownst to OPA,  was the root of the family argument that occurred when Katelyn ran away.
Right after they find the sex tape, Kathryn calls Olivia from the morgue where they identify her dead daughter who was killed. Olivia suspects that Katherine hired Olivia to find Katelyn so she could have her daughter killed. While she admitted to the affair with her daughter’s boyfriend (she couldn’t deny that tape), she claims she wasn’t the one that killed Katelyn. This case gets too dirty for Olivia (who knew that was possible) and she decides that OPA should drop Katherine as a client. 
2. Papa Pope is back
In a surprising move, Olivia visits her dad at his home to bring him coffee. She says she’s “just stopping by,” but Rowan is one of the few people on this show that can read Olivia like an open book. He goes on a spiel about how she’s struggling with reentering her cold D.C lifestyle and she’s only coming to him because he’s one of the few things that’s still familiar to her. When Olivia argues that she also has Jake, he tells her she should bring him over for dinner. Jake, however, blows Olivia off telling her that she’s not his girlfriend, so meeting the parents isn’t something he’s obligated to do.
In this moment, Jake basically implied that Olivia is nothing but a booty call to him and I hate it. It’s absolutely time for Olivia to either stay single for a while or find a new boo because neither Jake nor Fitz are going to cut it.
3. Jake tracks down Charlie
Yeah, killer Charlie. Jake lays him down on the torture tarp that we know of so well to try to get him to confess about some of the inner workings of B613 under Rowan Pope. Without much luck with the torture methods, Jake decided to strike a deal with Charlie. Charlie said the only way he would give up any information is if Jake brings Quinn to him for one night. After they spend the night talking and share a passionate kiss, Charlie says he’s ready to talk.
When Jake finds out that Rowan and B613 had a part in Jerry Grant’s death, he decides to take Olivia up on the offer to have dinner with her dad. More ulterior motives to add to the Olake relationship!
During dinner when Olivia leaves the room for a moment, Jake directly confronts Rowan and tries to blackmail him with the information he has gained. He tells him to leave D.C or else he’ll inform Olivia about his involvement in Jerry’s death.
It’s season four and Jake still hasn’t realized that Rowan Pope is not someone that you can threaten no matter how much dirt you think you have on him. For now, Rowan doesn’t look like he’s taking Jake’s threats seriously at all. Also, with Jake’s recent track record with Olivia, who’s to say she’ll even believe his claims about Rowan? Either way, I predict a final stand-off between Jake and Rowan by the end of the season and one of them will not make it to season 5. 
4. “Killer cliff bride”
The story of a newlywed bride allegedly pushing her husband off of a cliff has taken over the media and Mellie becomes obsessed with the case. She puts all of her energy into the story and even demands that Abby put her in touch with the lead investigator of the case.
While Fitz is busy dealing with gun control legislation, Mellie is able to get away with holding a meeting at the White House with Cabinet heads to discuss the case. She puts on a full presentation for the group with diagrams and all, but before she gets through the whole thing she’s interrupted when they inform her that eyewitnesses have actually already been interviewed and have said that the man fell and was not pushed.
It was pretty cringe-worthy due to the fact that the Cabinet members didn’t even understand why the First Lady was bothering them with such a low-level case in the first place.
In case you’ve forgotten, Mellie is an educated woman and was a lawyer until she gave it all up to support Fitz’s career instead. I loved seeing her trying to get back in the game, but it was obvious that her mental instability was affecting her judgement in this situation. It’s obvious that Mellie’s grief after the passing of her son has tipped her off-balance. It’ll be interesting to see how the writers explore the topic of mental health this season if they do at all.  
5. Cyrus is moving on from James in the worst way possible 
Cyrus caves in to his sexual craving and decided to pay $2500 for a male prostitute. At the end of the episode, it’s revealed that the prostitute was planted by Lizzie, the head of the Republican National Committee to frame Cyrus. Could she be trying to take his job or is she simply trying to blackmail Cyrus into turning the President into the RNC’s puppet? 
What did you think of this week’s episode of ‘Scandal’?
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