Rowan knew he had a big target on his back heading into Scandal Season 4 Episode 9.
As a result, he initiated “shutdown” protocol for B613, which placed Jake, Quinn and company on a kill list.
While this was taking place, the search for Papa Pope turned up Mama Pope, who has been stuck in that hole at the top secret compound this entire time.
She told her daughter to "handle them," expecting to be freed from captivity. But she was mistaken. Olivia just wanted to "hunt, find and kill" her dad.
As if the hunt for Rowan wasn’t interesting enough on its own, Lizzie confronted Olivia about betraying her to Cyrus. She warned of the fallout to come and then unveiled photos of Cyrus and Michael to the press.
Fitz called on Liv to “fight” it and she wanted to spin the relationship as a love story, having Cyrus actually marry Michael. But he refused to do that to the memory of James.
Instead, Cyrus offers his resignation. He tells the President to build himself up by “knocking me down” and Fitz finally relents.
"Thank you for your service, Cy. It’s been an honor," he responds in acceptance.
(Later on, however, Olivia screams some sense into him, challenging his manhood, and Cyrus accepts the marriage proposal idea.)
Quinn, meanwhile, warns Charlie about the shutdown protocol. He says that with the death on the horizon, they should… you know… have sex. So they do.
And then Quinn realizes that Charlie has been tasked with her murder. A half-naked wrestling match/fight ensues, with neither side able to dispatch with the other; instead, they bond a bit over Charlie’s dead grandmother.
Now, to the truly good stuff: Jake gets a false lead on Rowan’s whereabouts. So he’s gone when the action shifts to his actual location: INSIDE OLIVIA’S APARTMENT.
Father and daughter have it out, with each accusing the other of not being normal. Liv finally grabs Rowan’s gun from the table and pulls the trigger. But there are no bullets. Still…
“You just shot your own father?” Rowan responds, aghast, before slinking away.
Olivia subsequently goes back to Mama Pope, who tells him she has to move on because she’s “just like” her evil parent.
Toward the end of the hour, Quinn and Huck realize that WACO stands for West Angola Commercial Organization, an assets fund managed by Winslow’s firm.
Therefore, Lizzie and Andrew were peeved when Fitz elected not to wage war on the country — especially because West Angola “targeted” Andrew in what turned out to be staged bombing that the veep knowingly dodged. But why the surveillance of Olivia?
Back at Liv’s place, our lead Gladiator is ready to have sex on her piano with Jake when he goes to fetch a blanket and a pillow… only to return to a spilled wine glass and no Olivia.
We then head back to the Oval Office and Andrew taunting Fitz. "How are you liking that war now, sir?" he asks, clearly in regard to Olivia’s disappearance.
And, with that, Scandal is off the air until 2015. But you can always watch Scandal online via TV Fanatic in order to relive the season’s most heart-pounding moments.