Our Scandal recap breaks down the events of season 3, episode 5 in which Olivia’s mother comes into play as Cyrus gets Pope’d, but not for long.

• Olivia goes out for her usual Sunday dinner with her father and tells him that she’s not being accusatory because it causes more trouble than is good for either of them. Rowan says he’ll leave Huck and Jake alone if they leave him alone.
• … but they aren’t leaving him alone. Huck and Jake are tracking him as he leaves dinner, and the latter is in his house stealing files off his computer. Jake goes unnoticed despite a close call.
• In the Oval Office, Mellie and Cyrus have invited an “unconventional” man named Leo to run Fitz’s re-election campaign. Leo isn’t interested in the offer because Fitz has a world of problems and is, in his words, a loser. He tells Mellie and Cyrus the president looks like he needs to get laid, amongst other problems.
• Olivia is meeting with Congresswoman Josie and giving her advice on her Presidential campaign. She tells the potential nominee she can make her into the Presidential candidate that she needs to be to win. Josie hires Olivia on the spot because she has a skeleton in her closet: She had a baby at 15, put her up for adoption, and “never looked back.” She doesn’t want the child, who’s now grown up, to be brought into the public spotlight and needs Olivia to keep the five people who could talk about it quiet. Olivia doesn’t think the child is a problem, but Josie is concerned about her privacy. Olivia Pope’s associates head out to Red Springs, Montana to track down those people and pay them off.
• Fitz and Rowan are having a meeting about Remington, and they know someone is looking into Pete Foster. The Secret Service grabs Jake while he’s on the phone with Huck just as the latter is saying Fitz and Rowan don’t know who’s on to them. He’s taken to Fitz, who wants to play a game of ball to get into his head. Jake wins and hints that he knows about Remington (Fitz only had him there to talk about Olivia).
• Cyrus gives Olivia a call and asks if she’d like to help dig up some dirt on Josie. She rightfully doesn’t let Cyrus in on the baby secret, and he tells Olivia the White House has a team in Red Springs to find what dirt they can on her. Olivia relays the info back to her own team in the small town.
• Harrison and Abby go around town asking Josie’s secret keepers that they keep quiet, and they pay them in thanks. They meet one of Cyrus’ people who’s setting up a television interview with a guy who’s willing to spill the baby news, but Abby threatens to tell the world that the White House is interfering with the Democratic Primary. That shuts Cyrus’ plan down.
• Tensions grow between Fitz and Rowan as they tell each other that neither should be tested. The latest kerfuffle occurred when Fitz asked Rowan to lay off Jake. Meanwhile, Jake and Huck are getting closer to the Remington answer. They find Navy missions flown by the President and search each one by plane type and date.
• Olivia and her team learn that Josie didn’t actually put the baby up for adoption. The baby stayed in the family and it is actually Josie’s sister who’s been her assistant helping her with the campaign. Josie says it still needs to be kept quiet because it’s only Josie’s cross to bear, and the sister has no clue about the truth.
• Fitz wants to get rid of B613 but Cyrus insists they can’t get rid of it. Not even cutting their budget would work, otherwise they’ll kill Fitz and Cyrus.
• At the debate, Olivia warns Josie that fellow Democratic candidates are going to come after her about the baby. One of them does, and on stage in front of a live audience Josie comes clean. Cyrus and Olivia agree she handled it beautifully, but Josie is upset because she just destroyed her relationship with her sister/daughter, who now realizes that she’s the baby. Josie fires Olivia.
• Olivia and Fitz have a little pep talk about the president’s jokes at the Correspondents Dinner. He offers an “I love you” to her as Mellie listens in the background.
• At the dinner, the president’s VP talks to Leo and says she’d like to run as an Independent against Fitz and Josie. Meanwhile, Fitz calls a meeting with Olivia – or so she thinks. The Secret Service brings her to Mellie, who asks her to run Fitz’ re-election campaign. “He needs you, so I need you,” Mellie pleads.
• After the dinner, Josie apologizes to Olivia and wants her back. Olivia appreciates the offer but declines it because she accepted Mellie’s job. At home Jake is greeted by Huck who found out what Fitz was doing in Iceland. He shot a plane down on behalf of the government that we learn was carrying Olivia’s mother. Jake and Huck go over to Olivia’s to present the news, and the episode ends on that cliffhanger.

Tonight’s episode was particularly fast-paced and interesting thanks to high profile political events like the correspondents dinner and the debate. We can’t wait to see how Olivia reacts to the news of her mother’s death on next week’s Scandal.