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OPA has a new client, Mary Nesbitt, who tells the gladiators that she has a "private family matter" then rushes off to a "meeting on the Hill." Turns out that Mary's son was killed in an FBI raid of a domestic terror cell fifteen months ago, and Liv finds Mary in a Congressman's office wearing a vest bomb, holding the congressman and a bunch of staffers hostage. She wants to read the sealed file on her son's killing. Olivia plays mediator and gets Mary to let everyone but her and the Congressman go. Eventually, Harrison, David Rosen, Cyrus and Fitz all get involved in the negotiations, as you knew they would.
Fitz finally tells Olivia via phone call that Mary's son was actually an undercover CIA agent who had infiltrated Al-Qaeda, and was then accidentally killed by the FBI, who didn't know about his cover. But Olivia can't tell Mary that because there are 57 other agents also undercover, and if Mary's son's true identity got out, their covers would be blown. Olivia tells Mary that her son was truly Al-Qaeda. Mary lets Liv and the Congressman go and then blows herself up.
How's Fitz and Mellie's war going, you ask? Great! They hate one another and can barely be in the same room. This leads to the best scene of the episode, where Mellie gets drunk on some moonshine that her daddy sent her and tells Fitz that she's psyched that Liv didn't die in the explosion, because then Fitz would martyr her. As long as Olivia is still alive, Mellie can use her as a tool to get back at her husband.
Meanwhile, a guy bum rushes the Oval Office and gets tackled by Secret Service, all the while yelling that he needs to talk to the President about Operation Remington. Cyrus sees the man's name on the post-incident report and says they can let him go, then calls Rowan. Huck has taken a personal day to track and probably kill Rowan. This all works out great for Rowan when he visits Oval Office Invader and pays him off for his continued silence about Operation Remington. Oval Office Invader says he needs to talk to the President, and Rowan is all, "Sure! We can do that!" Then Rowan somehow uses voodoo to get Huck to A) let him live and B) kill the Oval Office Invader instead.
A possibly-concussed Olivia is terrified that Huck might have killed Rowan, but Huck breaks down and tells her that Rowan can still control him. Olivia goes home (where super-healer Jake is hanging out) and demands to know how he got out, and why her father let him go. Jake doesn't know. Olivia tells him that her father controls everyone, so he still owns Jake and he still owns her too.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Liv sits on her bedroom floor (wearing all white) (in an all-white bedroom) and watches a nearly-naked Jake sleep in her bed. He's covered in bruises and cuts, but he still looks pretty decent, all things considered. She flashes back to asking her father if he teaches people to kill, and Huck asking her if her father is Command, and Jake showing up in her doorway and collapsing, for those of you just joining us and wondering why Jake is in her bed, all beat up.
Fitz calls and wants to talk about Jake and how he got to her place. Liv says she can't and hangs up on him. Then she calls Huck to talk to him about, you know, how he assaulted her in the parking garage and then extracted the one piece of information that might send him finally over the edge into insanity. Huck insists that he's fine, but just needs some time. He sounds convincing, so Liv hangs up. But then we see that Huck is tracking Rowan. So that's not good. Or maybe it's really good? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to want Huck to kill Rowan or not. I think Liv might feel the same way.
Liv walks into OPA where the staff and a new client are waiting Said client is Mary Nesbitt (played by typically mousy Cynthia Stevenson). Remember that show Hope & Gloria? Why did I watch that show? It was on NBC on Thursdays, in the pre-DVR era, I'm guessing. Anyway, Mary wants to retain OPA for a "private family matter," but she can't explain now because she has "a meeting on the Hill." She hands over a check and promises they will speak soon, then peaces out.
After she's gone, Liv looks at her team like, "What, now?" Abby points out it's a new client (although I wonder if the old clients are coming back now that everyone thinks Jeannine was the mistress) and Quinn says the client has handed over a $25K retainer. Before Liv can react to that, Quinn asks if she's heard from Huck, because he's not answering calls and texts. Liv says awkwardly that Huck is taking a personal day. Abby says, confused, "We…get personal days? What, do we get vacation now too?" Yeah, working for OPA would be the worst job ever because you're subject to Olivia's whims and flights of fancy, and you never get any explanation as to why. And also no paid time off, apparently. Olivia shoots her a dirty look and heads into her office.
Over at the White House, Cyrus is in the residence trying to convince Fitz and Mellie to take a trip to Camp David to show the media that they're working on their marriage. Fitz and Mellie are fighting over how to feed the baby; Fitz wants Mellie to let the nanny do it. Mellie says she wants to do it; they have a bunch of photo ops coming up and she wants the baby to look at her and not the nanny when they tell him to look at mommy. Then they start fighting over how Fitz could "barely get it up to conceive" the baby, which is GREAT! Maybe they could stop fighting over their marriage in front of the baby, who looks to be close to a year old now? And will soon start understanding that they're fighting? Anyway, Fitz and Mellie insist that they don't want to get stuck at Camp David with one another. Cyrus insists that they will, and the whole thing is going to be photographed. He yells a lot and the baby doesn't even flinch. Are they drugging that baby? Anyway, Mellie is pissed that the baby is filthy now (like she has to clean him up) and Fitz is just pissed and wow, that White House seems like a fun time. No wonder the older kids went away to boarding school.
Quinn has done some checking up on their new client. Her son was killed in an FBI raid a few months ago, because he was a suspected domestic terrorist. And Quinn discovered that Mary cleaned out her bank account to the last penny to write their retainer check. Liv realizes that Mary might have a suicide wish, and heads to the Hill to find out what's going on.
Some nerd is giving a White House tour to a group of people. One older guy near the back peels off and starts walking alone down a hallway. When a Secret Service agent calls out to him, he runs away. The agent calls in a lockdown because the guy's headed for the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, Liv is at a Congressional office building, although I don't know how she knows which office to go to. I guess she knows who Mary's Congressman is? As she walks into the office, she sees staffers running out. And yet she walks in anyway? Also, I thought that most Congressional offices were not in the actual Capitol building, but in the various office buildings surrounding the Capitol? Eh, let's just go with it. I'm sure they did their research.
Meanwhile the Secret Service catches up to the runner and they tackle him just outside the Oval. The man yells that he needs to talk to the President about Operation Remington. You know, the one that Jake and Fitz were involved in, and the one that Cyrus just read about, thanks to Rowan? Yeah, that one.
Olivia walks into the Congressman's office, where Mary is tearfully telling him that he could have prevented this. Olivia says Mary's name, and Mary turns around to reveal that she's wearing a suicide bomber vest, and holding a detonator. So now Olivia, the Congressman, and a bunch of staffers are hostages. Or victims. We'll find out soon.
Fitz and Mellie were headed to the helicopter to Camp David when news of these two threats broke, so they were grabbed by Secret Service and taken to a bunker somewhere. The Secret Service agent tells Fitz that a guy tried to bust into the Oval Office and there's a woman with a bomb at the Capitol, and they need to make sure it's not some sort of coordinated attack. Fitz says he's going to the Situation Room, and wishes the agents good luck in stopping him. Really, Fitz? Like months after being shot and in a coma, you think you can take out three Secret Service agents and escape from a bunker? Calm down. The Secret Service agent says he's under orders to tackle Fitz if he tries to leave the bunker, and somehow that stops Fitz from trying. What did Fitz think was going to happen? Did we really need the false bravado of Fitz trying to dodge his Secret Service agents? Blah.
The Capitol building is evacuated, and the media gathers outside. Inside, Olivia is trying to get Mary to listen to her but Mary throws a tantrum about how she's taken all of the proper avenues to get people to listen to her; she's written letters and made phone calls and posted on websites and no one will listen to her. All she wants is to know why her son was killed. She accuses the Congressman of not caring enough, and says that he cares now. Yeah, a bomb will do that. The Congressman says he made an inquiry, and he learned the FBI shot Mary's son because he was guilty, but Mary doesn't believe that. Look, don't piss off the lady holding the detonator. Olivia promises that she will listen and asks Mary to tell her what happened.
Cut to the gladiators, putting together their data on the case. Mary's son Chris was gunned down in an FBI raid, and the investigation was sealed and the file was classified, so no one knows if he was guilty or not. Well, I mean, someone knows but it's not public knowledge. Quinn adds that Chris's father died when he was 16, and Chris turned to Islam.
Mary is still talking about how she knows Chris was innocent, and she read an article about how Olivia always trusts her gut. Mary's gut says that Chris was innocent, and she thinks Olivia's will say the same thing if she starts investigating. A phone starts ringing but Mary won't let anyone but Olivia answer it. It's the FBI, Agent Boles specifically. He's the dude in charge. Olivia calmly reports how many people are in the office, and says that Mary wants her son's file declassified. Agent Boles says he will look into it. At Mary's urging, Olivia reports that Mary will use the bomb if she doesn't get the file. Agent Boles tries to buy some time but Mary screams at Olivia to hang up, so she does. Man, you give a woman a detonator and she thinks she runs the world!
Secret Service reports to Cyrus that the runner in the White House was a lone wolf, not part of any coordinated attack. They are transferring the guy to FBI custody, but Cyrus looks at the report and sees that the man's name is Peter Foster, and tells the agent to let the guy go. The agent's like, "Seriously? After he tried to infiltrate the Oval Office?" Cyrus just orders for Peter Foster to be released. Interesting.
Huck tails Rowan down the street and then takes out a silenced gun. Really? Huck is going to shoot Rowan on a crowded public street? I mean, I know Huck is the expert, not me, but that seems like a terrible idea. Anyway, when Rowan pauses to take a call, Huck peels off and aborts the mission. Maybe he was going to kidnap Rowan, not shoot him, at least not yet? The phone call is from Cyrus, and he informs Rowan, "We have a Remington problem."
Liv calls her gladiators on her cell phone and starts barking out orders, because you have to give them something to do in this episode or else people will start to wonder why they are still on the show. Other than Liv and Huck, none of them have had much of a storyline this season so far. Anyway, Harrison is going to the FBI Mobile Command Center to nose around and report what he sees and hears to Liv. Abby is working her "contacts at Justice" (David Rosen) to find out why the file is classified. Quinn is going to try to hack into the FBI to just get the file and render the whole situation moot.
Boles calls Olivia again and reports that the FBI is close to declassifying Chris's file, but if Mary wants to read it, she will have to turn herself in. Mary says she'll blow everyone up first, and Liv relays that, in nicer words. Boles says it's the best they can offer. Liv thinks for a second, and then tells Mary that Boles wants her to release everyone. Boles protests that he didn't approve that, but Liv mutes him and tells Mary that she needs to make a show of good faith. I mean, seriously. Hasn't Mary ever watched a hostage movie before? Both sides have to give something to get something. That's why it's called a negotiation and not a dictatorship.
So Mary releases six hostages. Meanwhile, Fitz and Mellie are still in the bunker, bored, until Fitz gets the all clear and bolts out of the room. An advisor gives him an update on the hostage situation, and then hands him a file and says that there's something Fitz needs to know about Mary's son Chris. Of course, we won't find out what it is yet. Haven't you watched television before?
Mary paces, worried that she did the wrong thing in releasing the hostages, but Liv assures her it was the right thing to do. Now it's just Mary, Liv, and the Congressman left. The Congressman assures her that it often takes him days or weeks to get a file he requests, so she's making amazing progress in just hours. Mary goes into a reverie about how she had to buy an industrial-strength glue gun to make her bomb vest, and she got the explosives from a recipe on the Internet. So that's probably a stable compound. I mean, Mary is no Walter White. If she got one ratio wrong, I imagine that bomb is going to blow the place sky high. Yikes.
Fitz walks into the Situation Room where they have an open phone line to Commander Boles. Some military guy reports that they have "half a dozen" snipers in place. Why not just say six? I thought the military was all about precision? Anyway, Fitz asks what the chances are that the bomb will go off if they shoot Mary, and Boles says that if her hand is off the detonator when she's shot, it should be okay. Fitz thinks for a minute and then tells the snipers to take the shot if they have it. I'm assuming Fitz doesn't know that Olivia is in the room, right? If we haven't seen him be specifically told, then he doesn't know?
Harrison reports to Liv that things are happening at the Command Center, and he sees sniper rifles. Cut to a bunch of snipers running up stairs to get to their posts. Mary hears movement and goes to the window and peeks out the blinds to see what's going on, which gives one sniper a good shot at her. Fitz wants a confirmed visual ID before any shots are taken. Harrison overhears that command, and tells Liv that Fitz is the one running this show. Harrison is totally past the barricades and in the command center, by the way. I mean, finally a cop sees him and pushes him back, but I can't believe they let him get in there anyway.
Liv gets on the phone with Boles and tells him not to do anything, because Mary is nervous. Boles tells Liv to calm down, and Mary puts her finger on the detonator and says sadly, "Goodbye, Olivia." Liv sees the red sniper dots on Mary's head and yells at her to get away from the window. Liv pushes her aside and throws the blinds open, standing defiantly in the window, tossing her hair all, "You know my boyfriend isn't going to order anyone to shoot me!" And Fitz does involuntarily run toward the video screen in the Situation Room when he sees Olivia standing in the window, red sighting targets all over her face.
Fitz orders someone to get him a phone line into the Congressman's office. Cyrus pulls him aside and says that Fitz can't talk to Olivia unless they want to be back in the headlines together. Fitz sees Cy's point, but adds that he doesn't want anyone to lift even a finger without his approval. Cyrus agrees.
Liv closes the blinds as Mary freaks out and screams, "What WAS THAT?" Seriously, she's never watched television before? Maybe while she was sewing her little vest, she should have Netflixed that Kevin Spacey movie where he's a hostage negotiator. The Congressman is pissed that Liv didn't let them shoot Mary in the head; luckily, Mary is too freaked out to understand what he's talking about. Liv adds that if the sniper had hit Mary in the chest instead of the head, she would set off the bomb anyway.
The phone rings again and Boles is pissed. He yells at Olivia for taking charge of the situation, and demands that they release the Congressman. Liv says that they won't and demands to speak to the President. Boles reminds her that the President doesn't negotiate with terrorists, and that's what Liv and Mary are right now. Liv hangs up and thinks for a second, and then grabs her phone and tells Mary that she needs to make one more call. Mary clearly trusts Liv, and nods her head.
In the Situation Room, they are brainstorming ways to end this thing with minimal loss of life when Secret Service Tom comes in and tells Fitz that he has a call on his special Olivia phone. Fitz leaves the Sit Room to take it, thinking it's Olivia. But it's not! It's Jake! Wouldn't Tom have mentioned that since he obviously answered the phone? Anyway, Jake relays the message that Olivia wants the classified file. Fitz takes great relish in telling Jake that the United States doesn't negotiate with terrorists, and Jake won't be able to save the day this time.
Meanwhile, Huck is still tailing Rowan, who has just arrived at Peter Foster's trailer. You remember old Pete? The guy who tried to bust into the Oval? Anyway, Rowan is there to deliver a payoff to Peter, in return for his continued silence. Pete isn't interested in the money, but Rowan reminds him that they had a deal, and that deal didn't include his "antics at the White House." Pete says he's tired of seeing news of the President screwing ladies, and Pete thinks he deserves a sitdown with Fitz. Rowan promises to make that happen, if that's what Pete needs to stay quiet about Remington. My first thought, and perhaps a sign that I've watched this show too long, was, "Why wouldn't Rowan just kill Pete? Problem solved." Anyway, Rowan steps out of the trailer to find Huck and his gun and Rowan says calmly that he saw Huck tailing him this morning.
Jake calls Liv to say he didn't get anywhere, and Liv tells Mary that her team is still out there working on it. Quinn is understandably having trouble hacking into the FBI, and it doesn't help that Abby is standing over her shoulder, offering suggestions that make no sense. Quinn leaves yet another voicemail for Huck, begging him to call her because they need his help. Then she goes into Huck's office and starts nosing around in his computer, looking for clues as to where he might be. I REFUSE to believe that Huck doesn't have his computer locked down from prying eyes. That is one bridge I won't cross. Sloppy, show.
Abby tries helping the way that she can; she visits David Rosen and asks him to get the file. He refuses, and Abby says that it might save Liv's life. Rosen, the one person on this show who sees clearly, says that Liv loves drama and she's an "adrenaline junkie." Abby thinks that Rosen does care about Liv, but Rosen says that he'd just be enabling her risky behavior, and he won't do it. Good for you, David Rosen. At least there is one moral person on this show. Sort of. I mean, he's not perfect but he's head and shoulders above everyone else.
Harrison has resorted to leaning over the barrier and heckling Commander Boles, including telling him that this is "not cool" and his rep in "the hostage-taking community" is going to suffer. Come on, Harrison. That's the best you can do? And why hasn't a cop made him leave yet? A woman in a suit comes up to Harrison (how did she know who he was?) and flashes her badge. She advises Harrison that they're on the wrong side of this one, and if Mary found out the truth about her son, it would hurt even worse. She pulls Harrison aside and shows him a video of Chris urging his followers to join the cause against the United States. She concludes that Chris was a terrorist and now so is his mother. Is Harrison seriously buying this? It's awfully convenient that she showed up now and had this video. Why wouldn't they show that to Mary? Sure, she'd be upset, but at least she would know. They can just show it to Harrison, who presumably has zero security clearance? This whole thing is fishy.
I guess Harrison did buy it, because he calls Liv and reports that Chris was a recruiter. Come on, Harrison. You're smarter than that. Weak sauce.
Mary wants Olivia to tell the FBI that they have an hour to produce the file, or she's hitting the button. Olivia agrees to do so, but adds that Mary needs to prepare herself for what might be in this file. Mary sputters, "Prepare myself? To learn that Chris was murdered in cold blood? I already know that." Liv just purses her lips, because you don't want to deliver bad news to the lady with the bomb.
Harrison sees the FBI agent who showed him the video getting into a car with government plates. Something looks hinky (FINALLY!) so he calls Abby and asks her to go back into Justice and ask David to look up the agent. She does, and he does, reluctantly, and guess what? She's not an FBI agent at all, and never was.
Abby delivers the news to Liv via phone and adds that the car had State Department plates, not FBI. Liv asks David for a favor, but he says he can't aide and abet a terrorist. Liv runs down what they know: a man is killed in an FBI raid, and the investigation is sealed. An FBI impersonator shows up with the supposedly sealed files, and then disappears into thin air. Liv asks David if that feels like justice to him, since it's happening under his watch. David says he'll think about it. Did she ever tell him what the favor was?
David goes to see Cyrus and asks to see the file. Cyrus pretends he doesn't know what David's talking about. Cyrus chuckles that David doesn't understand their deal: David gave Cyrus the memory card, and Cyrus got David a job. So now they have an understanding. Cyrus gives Rosen that Washington equivalent of "That's so cute" by saying, "That's above your pay grade," gets in another shot about how Cyrus got David a job when he had nowhere else to go, and tells David to skedaddle and let the grown-ups do some work. David just sits there and then reveals his trump card: he knows that the man in charge of the raid was fired afterwards with no explanation, and everyone else involved got a promotion and a nice raise, almost like a payoff for keeping quiet. David adds that the head of the Democratic National Committee would be thrilled to have this information as they head into the election.
And then David Rosen, hero, stands up and tells Cyrus, "I may not have the Cytron card anymore, but I do have my conscience. And there's a hell of a lot of noise I can make if I feel like you're not worthy of the moral sacrifice I made." See? He mostly makes the right choice, and when he doesn't, he knows and admits that what he's doing is immoral. It's nice that there's one person with a conscience on this show. David concludes, "Show me the file."
Time passes, and everyone waits. Mary is passing the time by telling Liv and the Congressman how her son's body is still in the city morgue because no funeral home will bury a terrorist. Before they can travel too far down that delightful avenue of thought, the phone rings. Olivia picks it up, and Fitz is on the other end with Cyrus and David Rosen and the head of Counterintelligence. Fitz tells Olivia that she needs to make sure she doesn't respond to what he's about to tell her, and she agrees.
And then Fitz drops the bomb. Chris Lawrence was a CIA agent who infiltrated Al Queda at the highest levels and brought in other CIA agents as his recruits. But Liv can't tell Mary or anyone else about this, because the fifty-seven other CIA recruits will be tortured and killed if word gets out that they're CIA. So why was he killed? Because the FBI screwed up. They bought his cover story and thought he was a real terrorist, and they killed him. Fitz keeps repeating that part about the fifty-seven other people whose lives are in danger if this information leaks, and asks Olivia if she understands. She says no, and thanks him for telling her the truth. Fitz starts yelling at her and Liv turns around so Mary can't see her face and begs not to have to do this. Has anyone considered that if Mary gets bad news, she might just set off the bomb anyway? And kill everyone in the room?
Liv hangs up the phone and then Mary asks her hopefully what the President said. Olivia waits for a looooooooooooooooong pause and then says gravely, "I'm so sorry, Mary. Your son was a terrorist." Mary can't believe it, and breaks down while yelling, "No! No!" Liv adds that Chris was even higher up in Al Queda than the FBI wanted to admit, and that's why the file was classified. Quick thinking on her part; I forgot that Mary might ask why it was classified. Mary falls to the ground and Liv embraces her, trying to offer her some comfort.
As Liv promises that she will retain Mary as a client, the Congressman is like, "Let's get the hell out of here" and heads for the door. He yells to the armed military outside that they're coming out peacefully. The Congressman comes out first, and then as Liv gets to the doorway, Mary smiles, shoves Liv into the hallway, and slams the door. Olivia goes nuts, screaming Mary's name and trying to get back in there, but the military drag her away down the hall just moments before Mary detonates her bomb.
In the aftermath of the giant explosion, a shell-shocked Liv is loaded into an ambulance. Quinn finds her there and asks if she needs anything before unloading the news that Huck is obsessed with Olivia's father, based on his recent computer searches. That snaps Liv out of her daydream/possible concussion.
And now for my favorite scene from this episode. Fitz finds Mellie drinking in the dark in the residence and joins her. She drunkenly pours him a drink of some clear liquor; he goes to sip and nearly passes out from the fumes as she giggles, "It's hooch. My daddy sent us a case when you won the election, remember?" I wish Mellie's parents would make an appearance on this show. Anyway, then she propositions her husband and he sits down, bemused, and tells her that she's drunk. Mellie laughs that he's right, but she's celebrating. Drunk Mellie is my favorite Mellie, second only to Plotting Mellie.
Fitz wonders why Mellie is celebrating, since he figured Mellie would be happier if Olivia had been "blown into bits." Mellie says that if Olivia had been killed while protecting a Congressman with the nation watching, Fitz would worship her as a martyr and a saint, and Mellie would lose their war. But since she's still alive, she's Fitz's flaw, and Mellie's weapon, "the strings [she] will pull to make [her] puppet husband dance." She offers up a toast because she lives to fight another day and then drunkenly giggles and stumbles out of the room. I don't even have the words to describe how great that scene was. It was campy but also vulnerable but also revealed interesting information but also just fun to watch. If you didn't see it, try to watch at least that scene.
Liv, her beautiful powder blue suit all dirty and disheveled from the explosion (but her hair still looks great) limps into her office, where she finds Huck sitting in the dark, waiting for her. You never want to find Huck sitting in the dark waiting for you. Or just waiting for you. She asks if he's okay, and Huck says he's not there to kill her because he's "all killed out today." So he might kill her on another day when his meter resets?
Olivia demands to know if Huck killed her father, and rather than answer, Huck goes on a rant about how he always wanted to know who Command was, so he could torture information about Huck's family out of him and then kill him. Look, I don't want to ruin Huck for you but once I realized that his emotional voice is the same was Rupert from Survivor, I stopped being able to take him seriously. So his scenes don't have the emotional impact they normally might. I have to be honest with you; I'm kind of hoping Huck dies this season. I think that's why they're having Quinn take over the computer stuff. Huck has served his purpose once this Rowan/B613 plot plays out.
Olivia starts ugly crying and yelling at Huck to look at her and tell her if he killed her father. Huck waits as many beats as possible before saying no. We flash back to the last time we saw Huck, when he had a gun on Rowan as he left Peter Foster's trailer. Even with a gun to his forehead, Rowan is still cool as a cucumber as he tells Huck that he has a gift "all wrapped up and ready for him inside."
Huck tells Olivia that even after all this time, Command still owns him and controls him. Is he like hypnotized? I don't understand. Anyway, in the flashback, we see Huck enter the trailer where Peter Foster is handcuffed to a chair. Foster asks Huck to set him free. Huck is like, "Nah" and then fakes Peter's death to look like a suicide. Back in Olivia's office, Huck just keeps sobbing, "He owns me! He owns me!" as Olivia comforts him. Seriously, though. Does Rowan use voodoo? The power of suggestion? Mind control?
Liv arrives home to find Jake waiting with wine and takeout from Gettysburger. They mention that restaurant so much that I feel like it's going to be a plot point in the future. Although it is also just fun to say. Anyway, Jake seems a little too familiar to me, greeting Liv with a kiss on the cheek, pouring some wine for her. He's also a remarkably fast healer. I don't trust that dude. Anyway, Liv leans against her door and asks flatly, "Why are you here?" Way to make a guy feel welcome, Liv.
Jake says he can leave and Liv clarifies that she means, "How are you here?" Her phone starts chiming as Eli/Rowan is calling her. She doesn't answer, and asks Jake how he got out of the hole, because they don't just let people like him out. Then the Fitz phone starts ringing, and Jake begs her to answer at least one of the ringing phones. Don't they have a silence button? Anyway, Olivia asks Jake if he's spying on her and throws both phones to the ground. She yells at Jake that her father let Jake go, and she wants to know why, because nobody gets out. Well, from our sample size of two (Huck and Jake), it seems like everybody gets out if Olivia asks nicely.
Jake yells at her that he has no idea why he was let go and Olivia finally seems to believe him. She sits down on the couch slowly and says, "Nobody walks away from him. He controls everything. I need to know, 'How are you here?'" Jake sits down to her and talks about how isolating it is in the hole, and how he just kept picturing Olivia's face, and that's what saved him. Olivia says that Jake is only alive because Rowan still finds him useful, and he will find a way to use Jake against her. Well, someone thinks she's super important, doesn't she? Liv tells Jake not to feel bad about it, because her father still owns her too. Liv's landline starts ringing, and of course it's Rowan. That dude loves to make phone calls. Maybe he should learn how to text? Just saying.