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On the ongoing B613/Remington front, Jake wants to take on Rowan, but Liv wants to just go back to pretending she doesn't know what Rowan does, and that means she can't be with Jake at all. Fitz finds out that Pete Foster died (actually was killed by Huck) and arranges for Foster to have a military burial. Cyrus only finds out when James asks him for comment, so he goes to find Rowan and see what's up. Jake listens in (wouldn't Rowan see him? He's not that far away?) and then goes to Liv for help filling in the blanks. Liv tells him she's not interested, but Jake leaves the file anyway, which Huck steals. The two of them decide to work together after all, so they approach Liv and fill her in on Pete Foster's connection to Operation Remington. Liv is freaked out, and Jake comforts her with a makeout sesh, which is interrupted by a phone call from Fitz. Who hears Jake in the background and hangs up. Turns out Fitz was on his way to a "reunion"… with Rowan.
The client of the week is a Republican Senator on trial for sexting a young woman and then killing her. The Senator claims he didn't kill the woman and his wife is his alibi for the night of the murder. He also claims he was only sexting the one (now dead) woman, but when the trial starts (with David Rosen as the prosecutor), there are multiple women there to testify that he sexted them. To make matters worse, the Senator can't stop sexting young ladies, even the night before his wife is supposed to testify. The wife then disappears, but Liv and the team track her down and get her to serve as her husband's alibi. The Senator is found not guilty. Liv figures out that the Senator's wife is the guilty party and got away with it, which was super obvious and I'm disappointed in this show for that ending.
Abby and David are dating again, but Abby is being noncommittal. So David tells her if she can't decide if she's in or out, then he's out. But then Abby sexts him and she's back in.
At a photo op, Mellie makes a disparaging comment about a potential Democratic Presidential candidate (played by Lisa Kudrow, so you know this is will be an ongoing storyline) not knowing that there's a live mic nearby. Cyrus keeps haranguing her, even after Mellie issues a public apology, until Fitz of all people tells Cyrus to cut it out. Cyrus sends young Ethan to dig up dirt on Candidate Phoebe Buffay, and he finds out that she gave up a baby as a teen.
Is Harrison even on this show anymore?
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Jake packs his things and prepares to leave, which is what Olivia wants, although she worries he won't be safe. Jake thinks he'll be fine, but he's worried about her safety if he's not there. Olivia says, "You and I both know I'm being defended," which is a bizarre way to talk about personal safety. Defended? Is she a soccer goal? Jake asks if Fitz knows that Liv's father is Command, and when she says no, he wonders how Fitz can defend her when he doesn't even know who her enemy is. Liv is pretty sure that her father wouldn't hurt her physically. Really? What ever would make her think that?
Jake sits in front of Olivia and goes into detail about what Rowan did to him: put him in a hole, dragged him out every other day and had him beaten within an inch of his life and then mended, and then put back in the hole, just for fun. Jake thinks that Rowan would "slit [Olivia's] throat and drink the blood" if it meant protecting the Republic. There's an image I didn't really want in my head. Olivia tells Jake that he has to leave, because Rowan flipped a switch in Huck's head and made him kill again, just to show Olivia that he could. Well, he also had someone he wanted dead, so it was pretty convenient. I also don't get this thing where Rowan is capable of mind control. I hope they explain that. Actually, I hope they don't. I can't imagine an explanation that would satisfy me so I hope they leave it vague.
Jake urges Liv to help him stop her father from hurting more people, but Liv explodes that she needs to go back to doing what worked. Keep her eyes straight ahead, stop asking questions, be a good girl and go back to Sunday dinners, and pretend that she's never heard of B613 or Jake. Jake realizes he's not going to win this argument because Liv has gone crazy, so he grabs his bag. He goes to kiss her goodbye and she backs away. So Jake just walks out the door.
And Liv's phone rings right away. I love how Liv's Cell Phone of Dramatic Timing only rings when it's either perfect timing or terrible timing, but never just randomly like a normal person's cell phone. Anyway, it's Harrison! He's still on this show! He tells Liv that they got the job, whatever that job is, and Harrison is happy since I guess OPA is on the verge of bankruptcy or something? Harrison does a little dance move that reminds me once again how much I wish he had a storyline.
David and Abby are finishing up a date. I think Abby is wearing white tights, which is grounds for dismissal as far as I'm concerned. David asks if he can come up to her place and she hems and haws and finally he takes the reins and says he's going to leave. He says he needs to prep for his case; he's prosecuting the Senator who got caught sexting a young woman and then allegedly murdered her. David suggests that OPA would take on the family of the young woman as clients, since they're getting so much media attention. Abby gets a phone call from Harrison, who does another dance move and says they got a new client. Abby hangs up and tells David good night. He again urges her to take on the girl's family, but Abby says that they already have a gig. I feel like OPA is about to get all up in David Rosen's case, no?
Huck is back at AA, confessing that he "drank" again. He goes on and on about how he had abstained before but this time he didn't have a choice because someone put the "whiskey" right in his hand and he drank and drank and it was good. Did you ever notice that Huck sounds a lot like Rupert from Survivor? And also Cookie Monster? I'm sorry that I pointed out. It's kind of ruined Huck for me. Anyway, while Huck is telling his fascinating story, we see that Quinn is totally eavesdropping, which seems wrong in many ways, and then her phone goes off so Huck totally busts her. It's Harrison, telling her that they have a client, and she says she'll be right in.
In a reminder that this show airs at 10 PM, the scene features James astraddle Cyrus's chest saying, "Open your mouth, Cy. You know you want it." Turns out that he's just trying to get a quote from Cy about the Senator's trial. I can't believe we're still pretending like no journalistic outpost would have a problem with their reporter being married to the Chief of Staff. But I guess that's what the show wants me to believe, so I'll go with it. James points out that the Senator sent a picture of his "wang" to a lady who wasn't his wife and then killed her (allegedly), and the Republican party already has a "wang problem" (my album) thanks to Fitz, so it is definitely Cyrus's business. Cy pretends to sleep and then growls, "No comment." He's getting a big kick out of torturing James. It's kind of nice to see those two getting along, although I still am not sure what James sees in Cyrus, who has been horrible both to him and in general.
At OPA, they are assembling their background information on their new client, Senator Richard Meyers. You know, the one who's been sexting ladies under the name "Redwood Johnson" and then killing one of them (allegedly)? Cut to Liv making Harrison and Abby tell her that they need the money, even though this client is morally (and sexually) repugnant. Harrison reports that Desiree Oakes was trying to blackmail the Senator and then she ended up dead, bludgeoned to death in her apartment, and the Senator's prints were all over the place. The Senator (flanked by his wife and his lawyer) admits to Olivia that he went to her apartment to try to "resolve this mess," but he didn't touch her. He also says that he didn't have any other ongoing relationships of this nature, and that he was home the night of the murder. His wife can provide his alibi. She's a lawyer herself, as well as a mom and all-around upstanding citizen, so if she's sticking by her husband, people will think he can't be all bad. Liv will work the media perception while the lawyer handles the case.
As the Senator and his lawyer leave, Liv grabs the wife, Shelley, and asks about their daughter. Shelley assures Liv that her daughter is staying with an aunt in Bethesda to avoid the media crush, and working on a history report on Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Shelley adds that she knows that what her husband did was creepy, but they've been through marriage counseling and talked endlessly, and he's a different person now. So you know it's going to turn out that he's not a different person. Plus Shelly is played by Jan from The Office, so I expect her to be a secret freak of some sort. Anyway, Shelley assures Liv that her husband made one mistake, and Liv agrees that we all deserve a second chance. I guess that's supposed to make Liv feel better about taking his dirty sex money?
The morning, Liv accompanies the Meyers and their lawyer as they walk into court while being assaulted by the media yelling out questions. The Meyers remain silent and Liv turns and gives a statement that while she's sad about what happened to Desiree Oakes, her client is innocent, and he only texted one girl, so it's just one mistake. David gives Abby the baleful eyes, since he can't believe they took on the morally corrupt client when they could have had the family of the dead girl (who probably couldn't afford OPA's retainer).
Cut to the trial, where David Rosen puts at least three other young women on the stand to testify about the dirty text messages that Senator Perv sent them. Oops. Guess he left that part out. Here's what I don't get about the Anthony Weiners of the world – how do they believe, in this day and age, that they won't get caught? I'm more upset about how stupid they are than how horny they are. Abby comments that it doesn't mean the Senator committed murder, Liv says the jury might feel differently.
Mellie and Fitz sit together over breakfast. Fitz reads the paper while Mellie watches the news, and learns that a Democratic Congresswoman named Josephine Marcus (played by Lisa Kudrow) took a shot at Fitz during a Democratic Presidential debate last night, advising him to "tame his cobra." Cyrus enters and he and Mellie bicker over the best way for Fitz to regain stature in the public eye, but Fitz is too busy reading a newspaper story about Peter Foster's death to pay them much mind. I did enjoy how Mellie suggested that they start a war or liberate some people or something.
Senator Perv and his team regroup at OPA to discuss their move. Liv is furious and says that the Senator can't take the stand now, because David Rosen will rip him to shreds. Shelley wants to know if the texting is still going on, and the Senator says that it's not, and it all happened before he was arrested. So it's totally still going on. Liv reluctantly puts into play what has to be their move: to defame the character of the victim. Quinn looks grossed out and asks if they're really going to…Abby interrupts, shrugging, "Slut-shame the dead girl? All aboard." Ugh. This client is gross and I wish Liv had let him go the first time he lied to her.
At the trial, David Rosen is examining what I'm assuming is one of his own witnesses, a man named Mr. Granville, who was a mentor of sorts to the dead girl. She told him that she was afraid for her life, and that Senator Meyers had threatened her. Objection, your honor! Hearsay! Meanwhile, Abby sidles up and hands a folder to Meyers's lawyer. The lawyer stands up to cross-examine and basically reveals that the "mentor" was buying the victim jewelry and furs, so he's actually more like a sugar daddy. Rosen yells out, "Objection" almost as quickly as I do, and I know this is not a legal drama, but there is so much wrong with how that was handled. Then again, it's all about public perception, and the point was made.
Cut to a media montage of reporters informing the public that Desiree Oakes had a number of male suitors who paid for her lifestyle. Liv appears on a news show to float the theory that any one of these suitors could have been jealous enough to kill her. And it seems to be working.
Meanwhile, Mellie is finishing up a speech about a recently-opened medical center. As she poses for photos with some kids and a Congresswoman, a reporter asks her about Josephine Marcus and Mellie says smoothly that she thinks it's great to see new female talent in politics. She removes her mic and rushes the Congresswoman into the room while muttering, "Give any piece of trailer trash a pushup bra and a microphone and these stupid flyovers will eat it up like fried Twinkies." Except the Congresswoman's mic is still on. Oops!
That night, the gladiators watch the news together, where Desiree Oakes's parents are giving a statement about how awesome their daughter was and how they can't believe her reputation is being besmirched. Liv walks in and tells them to shut it off, and then says that tomorrow is all about Shelley's testimony, and the whole case hinges on her alibi, so they need to make sure there are no surprises on the stand. Liv, Abby, and Harrison leaves, so Quinn takes the opportunity to apologize to Huck for spying on him, but says that she was worried about him. Huck says that he's being normal, and then offers a bulleted list of what "normal" means, which is not normal. Quinn keeps digging but Huck won't give up any information, and I'm getting the vibe that Quinn just wants to hear the gory details about Huck's recent murder more than she cares about his well-being.
Huck walks into the parking garage but suddenly pulls his gun and turns around to find Jake, also with his gun out. That sounds dirtier than I meant. You know, they're pointing their guns at one another. Their weapons. Ugh. Anyway, Jake wants to know who Command had Huck kill. Huck won't spill, so Jake says that Command owns both of them, and Liv, and Huck must want to take him out as badly as Jake does. Huck says that no one takes down Command, and Jake counters that no one has ever tried. Huck tells Jake to stay away from him, and Liv too, then walks away.
Cyrus yells at Mellie for her big mouth, which has now helped Josephine Marcus go from nobody to somebody. Mellie doesn't see the problem, because she thinks Fitz can beat Josephine Marcus in a general election. Cyrus tears his hair out and calls Ethan the Plebe in to inform Mellie that Fitz would lose against a woman. Pretty much any woman, I guess. Would he lose against Olivia, I wonder? What about Mellie? They've probably run those numbers, right? Mellie says she'll craft an apology and Cyrus says she needs to run it by him first.
At OPA, Liv is prepping Shelley for her testimony and all seems good when Abby walks in and says there's a reporter on the phone looking for a comment on a story that's about to break. Liv is like, "What story?" They turn on the TV, where there is another young lady saying that the Senator was texting her last night, and he sent her a picture of his junk, which has a mole on it. Liv flips off the TV and the Senator immediately goes into denial mode. Harrison asks to see his phone, which the Senator left in the car, and then says he's going to check for the mole. Before Harrison has to undergo that indignity, Shelley confirms the presence of the mole. So then the Senator starts groveling to Shelley, but she snaps at him not to touch her as she leaves to go testify on his behalf.
Meanwhile, Fitz had Secret Service Agent Tom do some digging on Peter Foster. He's had a rough ride the past few years, and didn't have much money. His only family is a sister, who doesn't really have the money for a funeral. Fitz looks pained at this news.
Cut to Pete Foster getting a military funeral at Arlington as his sister stands by, somewhat confused. Fitz shows up and tells her that he arranged this because Pete Foster was an American hero. Fitz stays for the burial, getting more emotional as time goes on. The camera pulls back to reveal Huck standing nearby, watching.
James bursts into Cyrus's office (again, does that seem right? That a reporter can just bust into the Chief of Staff's office whenever, unannounced?) and castigates Cyrus for not telling him about Fitz setting up a military funeral for a broke veteran. James claims he found out about it from a gravedigger's Instagram feed, which is so many levels of weird that I actually love it. James thinks either Cyrus didn't see how it could be a heartwarming story or didn't think James deserved to know. Cyrus offers up a third option: he didn't know about it. He kicks James out, but not before learning that the funeral was for Pete Foster.
Cyrus and Rowan meet on that bench where they always meet. Cyrus is mad that Rowan didn't tell him that Pete Foster is dead. Rowan is like, "Not your problem, and also Pete Foster had the original flight plan." Jake is nearby, using surveillance equipment to listen in, but I guess once you're not working for B613, your equipment becomes low-budget, and he only gets snippets of the conversation, so we also only get snippets of the conversation. Also, Jake is about twenty yards from Rowan and I refuse to believe that Rowan didn't see him, because he's Rowan. But maybe that's all part of Rowan's plan.
Liv sits in her office, doing work with the news on in the background. The reporters are talking about how terribly the trial is going, and how recent events have made Olivia's name a punchline. Ouch. They're not wrong, though. She should dump this zero and work on fixing her own reputation. Harrison and Abby come in to deliver more bad news: Shelley can't be found, and they think it's time to drop this client. Abby adds that if the Senator lied to them about texting, he might have lied about murder. Liv won't hear of it. Abby says that if it's about money, they can all work for free for a few months. Whoa, speak for yourself there, Missy. Liv says she'll use her savings if she has to, and orders them to find Shelley, because they're not dropping this client.
Before we start the scene, I just want to note that this is the first time in the entire series that I have noticed Liv wearing ill-fitting pants. I don't know if that's supposed to be a sign of her mental condition or if they just goofed in wardrobe, but I thought I would mention it because it's such a departure. They're droopy in the crotch. Anyway, speaking of drooping (I don't know), Jake busts into Liv's office. She tells him he shouldn't be there and he asks breathlessly if she's heard of Pete Foster, because he's the man that Huck killed. Liv isn't interested. Jake says that he was a pilot, and he has some sort of flight plan that was dangerous to the White House and to Fitz. Jake pulled his flight record (that's a thing you can do, I guess?) and it says he flew 86 missions but there are only 85 listed. That seems like sloppy record-keeping. Liv reiterates that she's not interested in her father, the White House, or Jake's conspiracy theories. Jake stops talking, finally, but he drops the file and the recording he made of Rowan's conversation with Cyrus on the desk as he leaves, and we see that Huck was listening in.
After Liv is gone for the day, Huck sneaks into her office and checks out the file. This causes him to have flashbacks to killing Pete Foster, most of which are kind of unnecessary? Like I think we all get that Huck slit Pete Foster's wrists to make it look like a suicide, so what new information did we need? Oh, turns out Pete Foster had a tattoo of a flight plan number. I feel like that could have been conveyed minus the giant bloody slashed wrists.
Cyrus is yelling at Mellie again about her dumb mistake, since it's turned Josephine Marcus into a media sensation. Fitz putters in the background. Mellie seems a little more flustered about it now, and says that she apologized and she can't really do anything else. True. Lay off, Cyrus, or tell her what you want her to do. What good is yelling at her? Fitz finally has had enough and he yells at Cyrus to leave her alone and go take a walk. Cyrus leaves, exasperated, and Mellie sighs a thank you to her husband. Fitz grabs her hand absently and says kindly, "We all make mistakes." The look on Mellie's face when he grabs her hand is heartbreaking. She still loves that doofus, and she is so, so grateful for his support. It breaks my heart. And then she slowly realizes that he's totally engrossed in the report that he's reading and his hand hold was some robotic impulse, not a sign of true caring. She throws his hand aside and angrily stomps out of the room, leaving Fitz wondering what just happened. Do you think Cyrus orchestrated that moment to put Fitz and Mellie back on the same side? I think if he had, they would have shown him smiling slyly as he left the room. This show's not that subtle.
Cyrus pulls Ethan the Plebe into his office and orders him to fly to Montana and dig up some dirt on Josephine Marcus. Cyrus is getting lax; I would think he already had a kill file on all of the potential Democratic candidates.
Abby slithers into David Rosen's office wearing an awesome belted leather jacket, and he immediately says no. He explains that he's not falling prey to whatever stalling tactic she's going to try to employ, since he spent the morning convincing the judge that the defense was only trying to add more addiction witnesses to hide the fact that Shelley Meyers is in the wind. The trial will continue in the morning; if Shelley's not there, they'll move on to closing arguments. Abby says that she really just came by to see if he wanted to get lunch, but David is upset that Abby won't commit to their relationship. So he's made the decision for her: he's out. He's probably better off, even though I like them together. She's bad news for him, because she's got the morals of a snake. A beautiful, auburn-haired snake with awesome clothes.
Liv gets a status update from her team on the search for Shelley Meyers. The status is they've got bupkis. Quinn says that if she were trying to hide out alone, she'd check into the fanciest hotel she could find, but they're already checked all the area hotels. Liv realizes that Shelley would use an alias, and that it might be Elizabeth Cady Stanton, since her daughter was doing that report. Huck finds Shelley under that name at the Grand District Hotel, and Liv heads out.
When Liv gets to Shelley's grand hotel suite, Shelley tells her a story about how one day she let a young, handsome paralegal press his foot against hers in the lunchroom under the table, and she felt so guilty. Shelley, you whore! Anyway, obviously her husband did a lot worse and she's done forgiving him. She's angry about the sacrifices she made for him, and that he has made her look like "the most backwards, anti-feminist this world has ever known." Shelley is a partner in a law firm, and she's supposed to be a poster child and a role model. Are you hearing this, Liv? Does it sound familiar? Like maybe you've let Fitz drag you into the mud too many times, because he's married and the President? And maybe you could do better? Just saying. Liv says she'll recommend a good divorce lawyer, but Shelley shouldn't send her husband to jail for a crime he didn't commit just because she's mad. Shelley doesn't think she can get on the stand and pretend she likes her husband. Liv thinks they can work out a way that Shelley won't have to lie.
One thing they hadn't really addressed at this point in the episode, probably because Liv and Company don't care and neither does the defense, is that if the Senator isn't guilty, then who did it? The case against the Senator is pretty weak. He had motive, for sure, and he was in the apartment at some point, but there's no weapon, and nothing placing him at the scene in the right time frame. Weak sauce, prosecutor and investigators. I was really hoping at this point that it wouldn't turn out Shelley did it, because we've all see Law and Order, and that shit would barely fly in season one of that show.
Back at the trial, the defense lawyer quickly leads Shelley through a recitation of the facts: that the girl was murdered between 8 and 10 PM, but her husband was home with her all evening and they went to bed around 11 PM. David Rosen gets up and tries to make the point that Shelley would say anything to keep her husband out of jail, and then he asks Shelley if she loves her husband. Shelley says no. Oops. Don't ask questions when you don't know the answer, counselor. Shelley lays out her feelings: she hates her husband, he's a creep and a pervert, he has dishonored their marriage and his office, but he's not a murderer, and he shouldn't go to jail for being one. David Rosen backs away like, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck."
Huck checks out autopsy photos of Pete Foster and zooms in on the tattoo of the flight number. Before he can examine it closely, Quinn walks up behind him and starts asking questions about how he killed Foster etc. Huck's like, "Stop being so annoying" and Quinn is like, "You need to talk to someone, obviously, and with me you don't have to pretend to be an alcoholic." She has a point but also she's annoying and more than a little crazy too, so I don't know if she's the best choice for Huck's support team. It feels like she wants to know for her own personal yayas instead of to help him.
Liv's drinking a big-ass glass of wine in her apartment when Jake knocks on her door. Liv doesn't want to let him in until she sees that Huck is with him, and he says they need to talk. Liv goes through the file that Jake has compiled and listens to his recording, but Huck provides the new information. Foster's tattoo was the flight plan for a rescue mission during the First Gulf War, which was classified since it happened on Iranian soil. Jake was on the ground for that mission with four others; they had air support flown by the President, not Pete Foster. Or so the flight plan says. So was Fitz not really flying? Did he get diarrhea or something, so Pete Foster had to step in, and then when it turned heroic, Fitz's daddy paid Foster off so that Fitz could look like the hero. I mean, I hope it was something dumb like diarrhea. That would make me happy.
Ethan returns from Montana with a new pair of cowboy boots. He thinks he failed, because the only thing he learned was that Josephine Marcus walked into a maternity ward at 15, pregnant, and left with no baby and no birth certificate. Why would he think that's a failure? That's a goldmine. Cyrus says as much.
Liv and Senator Meyers wait for a verdict. Meyers muses that his wife hates his guts, and it's his own fault. Liv says that Shelley will get through this and with time, she might even forgive her husband…again. Meyers gets to the point: he didn't commit murder, but Shelley lied for him. She was out shopping on the night of the murder. Oh, crap. She did do it. LAME. Before Liv can connect the dots, the jury returns a verdict and they hustle off to the courtroom to hear it. The jury finds him not guilty. Everyone leaves the courtroom and Liv catches up to Shelley in the hall, whisper-growling at her that she only testified to give herself an alibi, because she thought she could fix the problem in their marriage, because she thought there was just one woman. Shelley pauses and then says, "We all deserve a second chance." Hope you feel good about that blood money, Liv. You just helped a murderer go free.
At the White House that evening, Cyrus enters the Oval and reports that they have some dirt on Josephine Marcus: abandoned baby. Cyrus refers to her as "a slutty teen." And people wonder why I have a hard time rooting for anyone on this show. They are all terrible. Fitz dismisses him and Cyrus starts to head out but then lets Fitz know that he heard about Pete Foster's funeral. Cyrus says that he doesn't want Fitz's conscience to get in the way of his re-election. So what did Fitz do? That could cost him the election? Is it just that he took credit for the rescue mission? Or that he never corrected everyone who thought he did it? I guess we'll find out eventually. Cyrus points out that if people start digging on this issue, they'll find out something apparently bad, so can they leave the past in the past? Fitz looks pained, but agrees. Cyrus leaves, and Fitz looks like he wants to puke and poop at the same time.
Huck walks into OPA late at night and Quinn, of course, pops out of the shadows and asks where he was. Jeez, calm down, MOM. Huck tells her to stop asking questions, but of course she doesn't, so Huck flies into a fury and accuses Quinn of only wanting to know how it feels to do what he does. She doesn't worry about him. She wants to be him. Huck then runs into a pretty questionable metaphor comparing his desire to kill with being horny, and advises Quinn to stop being interested in that desire while she still can. Quinn looks like Huck was spot on.
David Rosen watches the evening news reporting on how he lost the case. He gets a sext from Abby and immediately calls her, reminding her that he doesn't want to play games. Abby says that she doesn't either, and she's outside his door and would like to come in. David either doesn't ask or doesn't want to know if this means they are back on. Instead he opens the door and pulls her inside as she giggles. He's too good for her.
Liv drains a giant glass of wine in her apartment as Jake joins her on the couch and refills her glass. He asks if she's okay, and she says she doesn't know what she is. He responds with a grin: "Well, you're the daughter of the man the runs the top secret organization that made your friend kill a man for some reason having to do with your ex-boyfriend, the President." Well, when you put it like that, it just sounds ridiculous. Jake had hoped they could see the dark humor in the situation, but Liv just leans forward with her head in her hands, overwhelmed. Jake tells her not to cry, but Liv says tightly that she's trying not to scream, because she's scared. Jake tells her to put her head on his chest. Liv bursts out laughing, but then does it, and lets Jake put his arms around her. He reminds her that she's not alone in this and he's not going anywhere. Unless Rowan throws him in the hole again. Or kills him. They start kissing, and just when it starts getting good, the phone rings.
Jake tells her not to answer that, but it's her secret Fitz phone. So of course, she does answer it, and Fitz is talking from the back of a car somewhere. Liv speaks to him really formally but Fitz just wanted to chat. He can sense that something's up when she's so distant, and then Jake says really loudly, "MORE WINE?" Heh. Good for him. Fitz realizes she has company and gets pissy and hangs up, like a dick. God, I can't stand him. Does he really think that Liv should just put her life on hold in case someday he decides to really leave Mellie for good and move to Vermont or what the fuck ever?
Anyway, Fitz arrives at his destination, marches down a hall, where various flunkies are like, "Holy shit, is that the President?" Fitz, flanked by his Secret Service, enters Rowan's office. At first, Rowan is like, "What the hell is this?" Then he sees Fitz and goes quiet. Fitz announces, "This is a reunion. One that is long overdue." Whoa. So does Fitz know who Rowan is? Both what he does, and that he's Olivia's dad? I am intrigued. This show, man.