Tonight’s Scandal season 3 episode titled “A Door Marked Exit” sent the show off for 2013 and definitely lived up to expectations.
Last week’s episode ended with Vice President Sally killing her husband who had had an affair with Cyrus’ husband. We also saw Olivia discover her mother is the enemy – not Rowan.
– A VP problem. The episode began with a flashback to when Sally and her husband Daniel had their final major argument. “You are my cross to bear, you are my original sin,” she says to him. After threatening to go on television to reveal the truth about her, she stabs him repeatedly.
Cryus comes over to the house to witness the damage after Sally calls him over. “The devil came in, I gave in,” she tells Cyrus. Later, Cyrus suggests that she tell everyone Daniel died of a heart attack. He insists he help clean this up.
The next day, Mellie comes in to share the good news about Sally. Cyrus is feeling guilty – and drinking at 7 a.m. – because he thinks he’s the devil Sally mentioned. “This one takes the cake. We can quit now. Game over,” he says. Later Mellie goes to Sally and tells her they’re covering up the murder – but she needs to remain loyal to Fitz. She also advises the VP to avoid Leo, who’s been nagging her to run.
Back at Cyrus and James’ home, the couple are taking some time to think about their future. Later, James decides that if Cyrus wants them to stay together, he has to become the press secretary.
– Rowan is captured by Fitz. The President asks him the same questions we’ve been wondering, but Rowan’s refusing to answer anything. To get in his head, Fitz tells Rowan that he hooks up with his daughter as regularly as he can, and could even tell him how she “tastes.” This sets Rowan off, and he goes on a screaming rant about Fitz being a spoiled boy.
– The mission to bring back Marie is on. Olivia’s asking her team to find out everything they know about her mother, now that they know she’s the real enemy (or is she?). Huck asks Quinn to infiltrate B613 to attack Rowan, but the plan fails when Rowan gets the information he needs about Marie’s whereabouts before she could attack. Quinn then rips the tracker out of her mouth to go rogue.
Abby visits David and asks to see Marie’s file, and he agrees to e-mail it to her. Back at HQ, Jake warns Olivia that just because Marie may not be innocent doesn’t mean Rowan is the good guy.
It turns out that Mama Pope was stealing government secrets from her father. Huck and Jake later figure out that Fitz is holding Rowan at the Pentagon, and Olivia arrives at the scene. She has it all figured out: There was never a bomb on the plane, but Rowan still had the plane shot down.
Speaking of planes going down, Marie’s plane never made it to Hong Kong where Olivia was sending her to for safety. Fitz calls Olivia and tells her they found the plane elsewhere, and she shot the pilots after it landed.
Jake and Olivia speak privately, and it ends in a kiss as well as a romantic confession: “I loved you. I want you to know whatever happens next that I loved you. I love you,” Jake tells her.
At the very end, we see that Marie has some how gotten back to the United States, and she’s at the White House. “I’ll see you very soon,” Mama Pope tells Olivia.
– A woman has audio of the VP committing to her sin. And she brings it to David.
– Jake is now the head of B613. This is awful news to Rowan, and it looks like it was organized by Fitz.
Overall, it was a great episode of Scandal with several major changes, but it lacked the shock of the last episode.
Scandal season 3 will resume with new episodes on February 27, 2014. Eight episodes of the beloved Shonda Rhimes drama are still to come!