"First Lady Sings the Blues" (Episode 20, April 23, 2015)
Quinn goes into the office, doing her normal thing, and finds a bloody Jake on the table. Huck comes in and realizes they didn't stab any major organs and Jake is still warm. He pounds his chest, and Jake wakes up. Then Liv and David come in. David wants to call 911, but they advise him not to. They then take Jake to Charlie's place and wait for a doctor to come, and Huck rushes out to go check on his family. I really thought Jake was a goner.
Meanwhile, Mellie is on the campaign trail with Elizabeth North, where she has to answer questions about how she can be FLOTUS and a senator. She calls being FLOTUS a privilege, not hard work, and Sally rips into her on her show. Sally even poses the question, do we want someone in the legislative branch sleeping with the President, who is in the executive branch. That's actually almost a good point. Ha! In a later scene, with Mellie, Fitz, Elizabeth, and Abby, Elizabeth and Abby advise Mellie to make the public see her and Fitz as having separate lives. And when Fitz tries to confirm there's no issue with Mellie running for the Senate while he's president, Elizabeth and Abby seem very unsure. Womp, womp!
Abby reaches out to David about the legality of Mellie running for the Senate, and David says there is no legal issue. David shares this opinion on a news show, via phone. But Abby informs Fitz people feel it's still inappropriate. She then advises that someone go defend Mellie on Sally's show. Fitz suggests sending Elizabeth, but Abby says it needs to be a man. Fitz says it can't be him, and Abby agrees. She then suggests a reluctant Cyrus. Cyrus tries to get out of it, but Fitz isn't having it. Cyrus asks why Fitz is so adamant about helping Mellie win (does Elizabeth have something on him? is it related to Liv?). Fitz tells him he's just supporting his wife, and Cyrus will get on board too!
Cyrus then goes on Sally's show. They go back and forth on whether Mellie should be able to be FLOTUS and a senator. But then Sally switches it up on him. She claims his eyes show he thinks he'd be a better senator than Mellie, and then she instructs her cameraman to zoom in on Cyrus' eyes. She starts saying he deserves to be senator, but Cyrus says he disagrees with her. He counters Sally's position by asking if she would have made her late husband stay home and not work if she became president. Without responding, she simply says that it was a pleasure having him on the show. I honestly thought she was trying to set him up. I was expecting her to wait for the camera to zoom in on his face and then ask him about his marriage. But she didn't...
And the show didn't help people's opinion about Mellie's ability to serve in both roles. Cy suggests they cut their losses, but Elizabeth suggests Mellie and Fitz could end their marriage. Abbey explains how that could lead to a win for Mellie. But Mellie refuses to "lie" to America about their marriage, saying they came in as a team and are going out as a team. I had to put "lie" in quotes, because it seems like they've been "lying" about their marriage to America anyway. Seems like separating would be more honest, given how their marriage has truly been playing out.
Liv and Huck move forward with the mission requested by the doctor. An older lady, Mary Peterson, opens the door, and she seems to have been expecting Liv. She shares her background story. She grew up so poor her baby brother died from starvation. So she joined KGB in exchange for food and shelter. All she had to do was move to the U.S., kill some people, and never return home to Russia. When she planned to return to see her mother, the KGB killed her mother. When Liv asks how she was able to quit the KGB, she explained that things just changed. Essentially the Sovient Union went away, and so did the KGB. So she started an American life. BUT...she recently received a "job" on her windshield. Later, the handler who left the job for her meets with her in a park, and Huck follows him when he leaves.
Meanwhile, Rowan informs Russel that he failed to kill Jake, which he knows because of the angry voicemail he received from Liv. He then instructs him to go finish the job!
While heading to where Huck spotted the handler, Liv receives a call from Russel who is trying to track her. But she rushes off the phone, and he is unable to. At the butcher shop ran by the handler, Liv asks how much money it would take for him to leave Mary alone. She even throws in a threat to call the Attorney General on him. But he is not phased by her threats or offer of money, and tells her to remind Mary that traitors die. When Liv shares this with Mary, Mary tells her about how she prays to God for forgiveness for all the blood on her hand. She says she can't kill anymore. It's not who she is.
Russel informs Rowan that he hasn't found Jake and couldn't get Liv to bite. Rowan calmly pulls out a gun, shoots Russel in his arm, passes him a handkerchief, and says, "Maybe now she will." Russel goes to a hospital and Liv comes to check on him, but she brings Huck with her. He tells them some guys he thought were going to rob him shot him. Then Liv breaks his phone, while Huck injects something into his neck.
Huck and Liv decide Rowan has to be taken down, and try to exchange Command for Mary's freedom from the KGB. She gives the handler her father's burner phone.
After the doctor finishes surgery on Jake, Jake looks over and sees Russel laying near him. While the others are in the other room...Russel attempts to kill Jake again, but Jake manages to pull a cord, causing the medical equipment to start beeping. Everyone rushes in, and Russel says Jake was trying to get out of the restraints. Jake of course is unable to speak, with tubes in his mouth. They sedate him.
Later, Liz receives a call from Fitz. He tells her Mellie isn't going to win and he wants to know what she thinks. She says he's supposed to be an optimist and should worry about his own presidency (why can't he worry about Mellie's career goals after all she's done to help him achieve his...IJS). He then asks her where she is and if she'd tell him if something was wrong. Not sure what gave away something wasn't quite right on Liv's side of the phone. She tells him nothing is wrong. He then goes back to the original topic and says he's trying to make up for his past by helping Mellie. And so he should. Liv says it's a conflict of interest, but then says that's how Mellie can win votes...by saying she's a senator with the President's ear! Good point! And Mellie runs with the idea! It seems to be working to the pleasure of Fitz and Abby. But when Fitz walks out, and Abby happily says it's thanks to Liv, Cy's only response is that it ruins the legacy they all worked hard on for Fitz...b/c he'll be known as the president who was whipped. He is SALTY about Mellie running! Maybe Sally's right. Maybe Cyrus is against Mellie running, because he's jealous he hasn't run for a political office since working for Fitz.
Russel overhears Liv talking to a sedated Jake. Crying and apologizing to him. He wakes up, and struggles, b/c he sees Russel. But then Huck comes in and tells Liv he can't find the handler. She rushes to Mary's home and finds Mary and her two grandchildren with bullets in their heads. When she goes to her car, something makes her look in her trunk, and there's the handler...dead. Then a phone on his body rings...
Papa Pope: What have I always told you Olivia? Against me, you will never win.
WHOA! Killing the grandchildren...that's pretty cold-hearted, even for Papa Pope.
Liv tells the gang they are done going against B-613. As she's speaking, the doctor angrily leaves, because Liv was unable to protect Mary. David still wants to move forward, but Liv says Jake won't testify, Charlie says he'd rather stay alive, and then he throws in Quinn was barely in B-613. David says then he will move forward with Huck. Liv tells him they won't be able to take down her father. Liv says the only way they will survive is if she tells her father they are backing down. She tells them if anyone moves forward with trying to take B-613 down they are all dead. Papa Pope has them all shook! And all the while Russel is in the background listening to all of this.
Russel calls Rowan to give him the update on everything, including that they took Jake to a hospital. He asks if he should finish Jake off, but Rowan has other plans, specifically "Fox Tail." He then instructs Russell to keep him abreast of Liv's movement. Then, later, while straddling Russel, Liv instructs him to close his eyes. Then she places a gun against his head and tells him she figured out he was B-613 and that's how her father found out about the Russians. She tells him to tell her what "Fox Tail" is. End scene. I wonder if this means they purposefully said they weren't going to go after B-613 in front of Russel, knowing he would tell Rowan.