A woman who's slept with several high profile men in D.C. sent a book on her encounters to several publishing companies, and Leo confirmed the stories were true b/c the chapter about "Dust Buster" was about him. Abby decides she will handle it and clean it up, despite him saying he handles things like this for a living. She was very Liv-esque in the way she asserted she would handle it. BUT...then she goes to Liv to have her handle it. Way to handle it Abby...yea...ok, Abby...Liv goes to the author, Sue Thomas, and threatens to destroy her if she doesn't make the book disappear, in typical Liv fashion.
Meanwhile, Huck asks Rosen for immunity from prosecution. Or I should say...demands it! Rosen agrees, though it's against his better judgement.
And Liv's threats didn't seem to work. Sue goes to Liv's office and demands $3 million from whichever guy from her book hired Liv to threaten her. She then goes into a speech about how powerful Liv is, and how she's disappointed in Liv's attempt at slut-shaming her as opposed to embracing her as an author, artist, and business woman.
Back at the White House, Mellie comes into Fitz, Cyrus, and Abby's meeting. She shares the news that she's running for senator of Virginia. And so her move to be America's next president begins...
To distract Sue and get her book, Quinn and Huck set up a fake dating account and have her meet up with Charlie. The Gladiators dissect the book to determine who each of the men are...and guess who's "DR." He's not a doctor! DR as in the initials D.R....as in... DAVID ROSEN!! Yep...2 out of 17 of the men in the book are romantically tied to Abby.
Jake and Fitz meet to discuss...what do you think...Liv. Jake essentially gives Fitz a rundown on her...bottle of wine every day, not mentally stable, carries a gun. Then they make an arrangement for Fitz to pay Jake to continue to keep an eye on her. Really? You two couldn't help her when she really needed you...and now y'all are acting like she needs y'all to watch over her? Did she not get kidnapped when you were in her apartment, Jake? AND...guess we are back to where this triangle first started...Fitz hiring Jake to watch Liv!
Cyrus enlists Elizabeth North to help get some needed votes to get one of the President's bills passed in Congress. She tried to decline, but given her failed coup...she had no room to decline...
Meanwhile, the Gladiators gather all of the men from Sue's book. Liv tells them if they each chip in $175,000 to pay Sue, the book will be destroyed and Sue won't write about them again. Just when they were all going to agree, David shut it down by saying it's extortion and illegal. He then calls out the Supreme Court Justice and Deputy Secretary of Defense...yep...Sue got it in with a Supreme Court justice...and that justice was ready to pay her off until David, being true to his title of U.S. Attorney General, put a stop to that.
But with that...David is also conceding that his career is about to be over. This of course puts into jeopardy Huck's ability to be granted full immunity from prosecution when he helps to bring B16 down, and he makes sure Rosen knows it! When he returns to the office, Quinn tells Huck she followed him and knows he's still working with Rosen to take down B16 no matter how it will affect Liv. And Huck is quick to let her know, it's not about Liv! It's about his family now. Let this man get his family back and keep it!
Back at Abby's, Leo has the audacity to ask Abby who's the disgusting one now...suggesting she is b/c two of her lovers are in the book and she probably taught David everything Sue wrote about him. During this time Abby is working on her resignation letter and stops to go on a rant about how everyone sees her as his girlfriend and writes about her physical looks, as opposed to her accomplishments. And that is why she has to resign over HIM being in the book. Hmmm...not sure I completely grasp it. If she endured all of that, and truly believes her work outweighs all of that, why would she give up her career over something Leo did?! Anyway...she then goes to discuss this with Cyrus, and he is very nonchalant. Tells her to just let him know and get out so he can handle more pressing matters.
Russell (Brian White) and Alex (Liv's alter ego?)...Russell approaches "Alex" at the bar and asks to buy her drink...she then invites him back to her place. When she goes to the bathroom in the bar to freshen up she has a flashback to the bathroom at the place where she was held hostage. She freaks out and leaves the bar out the backdoor. So I guess we will just ignore the fact that she was about to take some random guy home...but Brian White is probably a B-list star (some might even say an A-list start)...surely he didn't come to be in just one scene. And I just want to note, the way they cut from her usual spot on the couch with a glass of wine to her sitting at a bar alone, I thought it was a dream sequence...the whole thing was a bit weird. The bathroom flashback could have happened anywhere...maybe the beginning of a one night stand was a play on Sue calling out Liv for attacking her doing what she wants with her body...maybe it's reflecting her attempt to move on from Fitz and Jake...which we all know probably wouldn't last long.
The Gladiators do a little digging and discover Sue was fired after she refused to have sex with her boss who had heard how wild she was in bed and assumed she would sleep with him. Liv tells her she wrote this book as a form of revenge (though misplaced) and as an attempt to have control. Liv gets her to to start the process of taking her boss down for sexual harassment and assault. And she gets her a job interview at the Washington Post.
Cyrus meets with Liv. He comes bearing $3 million in a suitcase to payoff Sue, because he needs Abby. Aww he does care for and appreciate Abby! The conversation then turns into Cy talking to Liv about what else is going on in the White House, and Liv let's him know she does not care...she says she is moving forward. As Liv is getting ready to leave, Cy reminds her to take the money. When she tells him they don't need it b/c she handled it, Cy asks if she's not buying the book. That's when Liv realizes Cy didn't care about Abby after all...boooo Cy (I was wondering what changed from when Abby talked to him). Apparently Cy wanted his own copy of the book to use against the men in the book if needed in the future. Pretty clever...it would be valuable dirt if the book is never published. Cy is so dang cold-hearted...but we've been knowing that.
Elizabeth approaches Mellie. She tells Mellie she put two and two together and knows Mellie is about to run for the Senate. She offers to be Mellie's campaign manager to get her all the way up to the presidency.
Huck and Quinn walk in on one of the men from Sue's book holding a knife up to Sue. Huck gets the guy out, and while Quinn is asking why he let him go, Huck...Huck...Huck done gone and sliced Sue's neck with the knife!!! Then starts talking about how she would have talked...Rosen would lose his job...he wouldn't have immunity from prosecution...says he liked her but it was for the future of his family. Quinn grabs the manuscript and tells Huck they have to go.
Liv is all riled up about finding out who killed Sue...until Quinn shows her the manuscript. Liv asks if Quinn knows who killed Sue. Quinn tells her it doesn't matter who killed her. Sue isn't her client, Abby is, and Abby is her family. Justice for Sue will come at a cost for Abby and Liv's family (meaning Huck...though Liv may not realize it was Huck yet).
Rosen gives Huck full immunity for his testimony against B16. He then goes into telling Huck that he feels dirty like he had a hand in Sue's murder, not knowing he's sitting across from her murderer and she did indeed die partially b/c of him (since Huck killed her so Rosen could keep his job and grant Huck immunity). Huck seems to be bothered by it, but then it turns out he's just emotional about going home knowing he has immunity.
Abby and Leo discuss Sue...and then it turns into some form of celebrating Sue by having sex the way Sue would...ummm...ok...
Liv goes back to the bar, and Russel is there again. He says the way she disappeared the other night he must have dreamed her up...so I'm not the only one thinking this is a dream?? HAHA But yea...guess it's not. This time they make it back to her place and follow through with their original plan...
Meanwhile Jake and Fitz are having another Liv Report meeting, having no idea she's in bed with Russel at that very moment. Well I'm glad she's actually moving on! We will see how long this lasts...shall we expect to see Mr. White later in the season?? We shall see...IMDB says he's only in one episode though...