Scandal viewers were treated to a wedding during season 4, episode 17, but the big event didn’t come without a few hiccups along the way.

Scandal season 4, episode 17 titled, “Put A Ring On It,” kicks off with an urgent issue needing handling in the middle of the night: Michael has been caught “cheating” on Cyrus at a gay bar named Gentlemen John’s, and the evidence has surfaced on Instagram.

To fix the situation, Olivia insists Cyrus and Michael finally get married. Cyrus’ disinterest in exchanging vows aside, Mellie is worried about hosting a gay wedding in a Republican White House, but Olivia reminds the First Lady this is an opportunity to promote her campaign to become Virginia’s next Senator. She even talks Mellie into hosting the event as a way of appealing to the liberals.

Ex-Vice President Sally Langston — who now has a “devoted audience” of 3.8 million viewers on her new television show “The Libel Report” — protests the Cyrus/Michael wedding on air, and offers the public a $10,000 reward for any evidence proving their relationship is fraudulent. With this new threat lurking, Michael insists to Olivia he’s clean, but Olivia puts Huck on researching if he’s slept with anyone anyway. They also decide to investigate the leak about the Michael/Cyrus “war room.” Turns out the mole was Leo, who blames Abby for telling him anything to begin with. Their relationship is clearly not healthy if they can’t trust one another to keep secrets.

It turns out Michael was cheating on Cyrus with a man named Philip, who’s set to appear on Sally’s show over the weekend after hearing her $10,000 offer.

Olivia visits Fitz in the Oval Office to sign a bargaining chip against Sally. He steals a couple glances at her hands, which are free of any rings.

While the two didn’t discuss it in the White House (Fitz is easily influenced, isn’t he?), it turns out Olivia and Fitz have agreed to offer Sally the job of Secretary of State in a last ditch effort to stop her from revealing the Michael/Philip relationship. Unfortunately for Olivia and Cyrus, Sally is happy with her television show and doesn’t want a role in the White House. Her show gives her a way to influence the world.

With no options left, Olivia hatches a new plan: Throw Michael to the media wolves.

Or will they? Cyrus and Michael have dinner with the latter’s parents in the window front of a fancy D.C. restaurant (where the press can easily watch), but it goes poorly. Michael’s father is disgusted by who his son is, and his parents reveal they only showed up because Lizzie paid them to.

Cyrus feels bad for Michael after the way the dinner went. In a nice non-verbal agreement that speaks to their professional relationship, the Chief of Staff later tells Olivia he doesn’t want to ruin Michael.

Yet again stuck without any options, Olivia manages to dig up dirt on Sally just in the knick of time. As luck would have it, Sally’s dead husband would frequently hire Michael for hook ups. Olivia threatens to make the information public. Disinterested in hurting her husband’s image, Sally cancels the interview with Philip.

Wedding day in the Rose Garden arrives, and the almost-newlyweds have a long-winded conversation about their future together. Cyrus vows he’ll do his best to be Michael’s “someone” because he believes the former prostitute is a good person. He promises to not let Michael feel alone in light of his horrible parents and the fact that he’s trapped in this marriage. It seems to make Michael feel better, but time will tell if Scandal decides to focus on this “relationship” much in the future.

Also at the wedding, a bone for Fitz/Olivia shippers: Pope is wearing the President’s Great Grandmother’s wedding ring which she desperately searched around for following a flashback. What is she trying to tell Fitz? Is she coyly revealing she’s ready to get married? Hmmm.

The flashbacks

Numerous flashbacks appeared throughout Scandal season 4, episode 17. In several of them we saw Cyrus’s relationship with his first wife Janet, played by Shameless’ Emily Bergl. Their early flashbacks together were beautiful but eventually turned dark, because Janet wasn’t happy with Cyrus’ dishonesty about his sexuality. Cyrus’ flashbacks transitioned into his relationship with David, leading up to their wedding day.

Cyrus wasn’t the only one with flashbacks — Olivia also reminisced about Cyrus and David’s wedding day. In her memories we see she and Fitz spent some one-on-one time with each other, and Fitz offered Olivia his great grandmother’s ring. He told her he never gave it to Mellie because he thought it belonged with Olivia. The two also shared a kiss. “I could never hate you,” Olivia told him.

With Olivia wearing the ring later in the episode, it feels like Pope has had a change in heart about her feelings towards Fitz. It’s certainly going to drive the shippers up a wall!

Where do you think Fitz and Olivia are heading now?

A trailer for next week’s episode shows Jake has gone Scandal-crazy: