As usual, Scandal season 5, episode 6 kept viewers on the edge of their seat thanks to a flip-flopping Olivia.

Tonight’s episode ultimately set up interesting relationships between Olivia, Mellie, and Rowan. As of now, Olivia and Rowan are going to help Mellie become president.

In search of answers

The committee hearings to impeach Fitz get off on the wrong foot while Mellie Grant is testifying: A statement from Janine Locke reveals that Mellie paid off Janine to keep the affair a secret two years ago. In other words, Senator Mellie was lying when she said she only recently became aware of her husband’s affair.

In light of this revelation, Fitz needs a new game plan. He and Cyrus — who’s back in action at the White House — decides they’ll use his executive privilege to not testify. But how can Olivia get out of testifying?

It’s time for Fitz and Olivia to marry. Or so they think.

Olivia is initially unsure about which is worse, marriage or being thrown in jail for inevitably lying during the hearings. Over the course of the episode it’s clear Olivia really doesn’t know what she wants. She even calls Jake, her friend-zoned BFF, for help. Unfortunately for her, he’s not interested in helping her decide about “him.”

Rowan enters the picture when he offers to bring down the committee in exchange for freeing him from prison. He really doesn’t like it in there! It was weird that she would even show up to entertain his requests — Remember when Olivia tried to kill her father?

Olivia calls for a meeting with Mellie in a tunnel and gives her the Rowan plan. It’s here that Mellie learns that this guy who killed all of those jurors is actually Olivia’s father. And unlike Olivia, Mellie realizes he’s a bad man who doesn’t deserve freedom (for the time being, lol).

Mellie was great in this scene, pointing out to Olivia that she wants to free her father — a murderer — just so she and Fitz can live peacefully in the White House.

“Who else has he killed? Do you even know?” Mellie asks.

“He killed your son.”

Mellie is obviously deeply disturbed in this moment, and at this point it seems like she would never consider letting Rowan out. Ha!

The talk ends up briefly benefiting Fitz, as Olivia decides to go through with the marriage. Ms. Pope (and yes, that would be her name even if they marry) puts on a low-key white dress for the occasion. Even the secret service is ready to prepare her to become the First Lady, but there’s still something eating at Olivia.

At this moment Mellie decides to use this situation to benefit herself: She calls a meeting in the same secret tunnel with Olivia and decides to go through with the Rowan plan. Why? Mellie realizes that Olivia is her savior. “You are going to make me President of the United States,” she says. With a lot of leverage in her hand, Rowan and Tom (!) walk out behind her and stand with Mellie.

Ultimately this is probably the best path for Olivia. It’s clear she didn’t want to marry Fitz at this stage of their relationship, and testifying in front of the committee wasn’t an option.

It’s crazy to think that Mellie is happy to be working with Rowan and Tom. She’ll truly do anything to become president. We’d say we don’t blame her, but Mellie… these are the people who killed your son!

Elsewhere

– Fitz and Mellie sign the final divorce papers in the middle of the episode after making some additional agreements. For example: Mellie wants to manage Jerry’s foundation. Tempers are cool until Fitz tries to claim that she’s taken everything from him, so Mellie goes into a powerful speech about how he has ruined literally everything in her life. It was a fantastic moment for Mellie, and we feel like more of these moments are on the horizon, especially now that she’s gunning to become president. Could she give these “Fitz ruined my life” speeches to the masses?

– Speaking of the Oval, the Vice President wants to resign. She goes to David for help, and over wine coolers they discuss why she wants to leave: She’s disgusted by Fitz’s behavior and she doesn’t think she’d make a great president. David reminds her that she can’t be any worse a president than Fitz. True that! Maybe she’ll be interested in sticking around if Mellie is president?

– Jake’s girlfriend wants to kill Rowan at the top of the episode, and for a fleeting moment we were excited at the prospect of seeing Papa Pope die! Unfortunately, she gets killed by Rowan or an associate. Damn, and his death would’ve been so great for sweeps. Maybe now Jake will take him down (see trailer below)? It’ll certainly benefit Olivia at this point if she doesn’t want to help Mellie.

What did you think of ‘Scandal’ 5×06?

Even though trailers were promoting a wedding between Olivia and Fitz, we’re glad it didn’t happen. It’s simply too soon! If a wedding were to ever happen, it should only occur at the very end of the series.

Speaking of previews, a trailer for next week’s Scandal does confirm that Jake wants to kill Rowan: