Plot summary
Olivia and Fitz are in a hotel room getting dressed after spending the night together. He is very upset because Olivia chose Jake to be her pretend boyfriend, creating tension between Olivia and Jake. It's revealed that after Big Jerry raped Mellie 15 years ago, she attempted suicide. However, Andrew found her and saved her from dying. A reporter finds out that there was drug use (those which Mellie took to commit suicide) within the Grant family under the time Fitz was Governor, and OPA tries to cover up the problem.
Meanwhile, Quinn tries to prove to Jake that she is capable of being a B613 agent by spying on Rowan, but she is exposed by Olivia. James is afraid that Cyrus could learn that he is leaking information about Daniel's murder under the alias of Publius. Cyrus enlists Charlie to kidnap Publius. James convinces David to meet with the reporter as "Publius", and David avoids being kidnapped by Charlie since Abby and Huck kidnap and protect him first. Mellie and Andrew kiss, but Mellie backs out of it and feels terrible.
Adnan makes a donation to the Fitz reelection campaign, and it is revealed that she is working with Maya Pope. She forces Harrison to help her by saying that Olivia doesn’t know about Clearwater yet and thinks the only thing Harrison is guilty of is insider trading. Jake is handed all the information of B613, and discovers that Secret Service agent Thomas Larsen is a B613 agent working inside the White House.
Credits
Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Scandal season 3. HTML formatting and reference markers removed.