Our Scandal season 3, episode 17 recap breaks down the events of “Flesh and Blood,” the penultimate episode of the year and one where Cyrus makes a huge decision.

The episode begins with the whole gang at Olivia Pope and Associates. Jake is accusing Olivia of treason while Fitz and Cyrus stand on the sidelines in a rare visit to her office. After some heated discussions, Rowan arrives to help because he wants his ex-wife captured, but will only participate if Jake leaves.

Olivia asks her fake boyfriend to go. He complies, but first he gives her an earful about the mistake she’s making. “Once his mask comes off, run,” he warns her of Rowan. Despite this message to Olivia, Rowan doesn’t end up doing anything bad this episode. Maybe we’ll see the true Rowan revealed during the finale?

Who does Mama Pope love?

Olivia’s concerned about her father’s interest in someone they’ve captured named Dominic, who knows where Maya’s bomb is. After they can’t get any answers out of him about the location of the bomb, Rowan tells Olivia that Dominic is the “only man” Maya ever loved.

Rowan calls Maya so that they can track her cell phone, but she doesn’t stay on the line long enough for Huck to successfully trace her location. As he promised Maya, he kills Dominic because she wouldn’t cooperate. Later Rowan says he enjoyed killing him very much because of the dead man and Maya’s former relationship, but Olivia insists that Maya never loved him… or anyone.

There’s one person that Rowan thinks Maya does love: Olivia. He also thinks that if Olivia stands beside Fitz at his re-election event – supposedly where the bomb is – Maya won’t detonate it.

While the event is happening, Maya arrives at OPA and asks Rowan to bring Olivia back. When she arrives back at her office, she finds Rowan shot and near death on the floor.

Who’s the father?

Bergen meets a girl named McKenzie, who he pays off in college acceptance letters to get close to Fitz’s son Jerry so she can swipe a DNA sample.

Sally’s campaign advisor tells Rowan about this plan because he needs Papa Pope to get a DNA sample of the president. This way, Bergen and Sally can see if Jerry is indeed Fitz’s son.

Rowan relays this news to Olivia. She then goes to Mellie, who’s already been unstable during the episode, and asks her which kid is Andrew’s. Clenching a drink in her hand, she goes into a tirade over the pain Fitz has caused her.

Pope and Associates pays off the DNA lab to say that Jerry is indeed Fitz’s son, even though it’s not true.

Staying safe

A senator dies (we learn later he was killed by Maya) and Cyrus sees it as an opportunity: He thinks Fitz should give the eulogy so he can reach out to a sector of Americans he wouldn’t connect with otherwise for his re-election campaign. Fitz calls and asks for Olivia’s permission to leave the White House because he needs to be out talking to Americans to secure the election in these critical final days. After a lengthy talk, he promises to stay safe at the White House. Would this ever work in the real world?

True to his word, he begins conducting interviews from the comfort of a room at the White House.

His plan lasts for a little while, but eventually Fitz decides that he needs to go to the swing state of Ohio to shore up some additional votes. This also means he’s clear to go to the funeral.

Cyrus is out for blood

At the end of the episode Jake alerts Cyrus to the true location of Maya’s bomb: The funeral of the deceased senator where Fitz is scheduled to deliver the eulogy. Cyrus says that he will alert the FBI, but after ending his call with Jake, he decides to keep the news to himself. In fact, he walks with a smirk around the White House and goes to speak to the president about his eulogy.

The end of the episode obviously held the “oh s***” moment of the night, and next week we may see Sally and Bergen on death’s door.

Huck and Quinn

The two characters get it on in a parking garage after the former finally admits verbally that he wants her. Earlier in the episode Quinn vowed she’s not loyal to OPA. She says it’s the “last place” she’d ever want to be. Unless Huck is there?

Your ‘Scandal’ recap: What did you think of the episode?

Check out the preview for the season finale below in which we see that the bomb does indeed detonate: