Jake is recovering in Liv's room, and when he asks about Russell, Liv tells him he's being handled but won't tell him who's handling him. Turns out Huck and Quinn are "handling" him. I could have done without the fingernail being ripped out. Ouch!
The Vice President visits a naval ship, and when she spots a female sailor, Amy Martin, with a bruise on her wrist she asks to have her give her a tour of her bunk. She then begins to ask Amy about the bruise and then takes her to the White House, because she believes Amy has been raped. Fitz and Cyrus are less than thrilled about this! They instruct her to take her back to the ship. She does, but then she gets Liv involved.
Back in the torture room, Rowan calls Liv's phone shortly after we see Quinn drilling into Russell's knee. Quinn and Huck decide to pick up the phone with the hope of tracking Rowan's location, but he hangs up just before they are able to locate him. Huck points out this means Rowan is on to them now.
Back in the White House, Elizabeth North is trying to convince Mellie to go to Springfield, where her son was murdered.
Meanwhile, Amy tells Liv there's no evidence or witnesses of the rape, and her rapist is Admiral John Holly. Abby makes it clear to Liv that the White House won't be helping. So Liv goes to the press to suggest a civilian trial, but as David points out only the military courts have jurisdiction. Mellie's campaign gets pulled into it, but Fitz stands his ground that the White House will not get involved.
Russell tries to kill himself with a cyanide pill, but Huck manages to stop him. Back at her place, Jake asks Liv what's wrong and asks if the blood on her sleeve is Russell's. He also tells her he knows they have Russell next door. He tells her he will never talk, even if they torture him. He goes so far as to say Russell is just like him. Liv says he's not, but then Jake points out that Rowan created and used Russell the same way he used Jake, but the difference being that Jake has the "defect" of having fallen in love with Liv.
Liv and Quinn meet the JAG attorney who will be representing Amy, Virgil Plunkett (I remember him from "Cougartown"). He seems to hold the Admiral in very high regard, and he also doesn't seem to be well put together. Turns out this will be his first trial, clearly part of the plan to have them fail. When Liv tries to interject a question, the Admiral ignores her, and Liv is told she has no standing in the military proceeding. So Liv writes down the question and hands it to Plunkett to ask the Admiral. The Admiral goes into a rant about Liv and then denies having sex with Amy. He adds that he wasn't even on the ship the night Amy said it happened.
Back at the office, Abby comes to help Liv and Quinn. Liv gets a call from Amy asking her to come see her on the ship. On the ship, Amy asks Liv to get her off of the ship to have an abortion. Liv tries to get her to consider waiting a few weeks so they can get evidence it's the Admiral's baby. Then Captain Weaver comes in and tells Liv she's not allowed to be on the ship and will not be able to take Amy off the ship.
Jake goes to see Russell, and Huck leaves them alone. Jake releases Rusell's hands, allows him to take the tape off of his mouth, and gives him beer. Russell tells Jake he's not going to tell him anything, and Jake says he knows that. They begin talking about their relationship with Rowan. Jake then begins telling Russell that Rowan planned on Liv catching Russell. He tells Russell that Rowan needs Liv to know that he sent Russell into her life. It's his way of telling her Papa Pope is in charge. They both agree that Liv never had a chance. Russell confirms Jake is looking out for Liv and then tells Jake he can tie him back up. Interesting...for a moment I thought Jake was about to make up some elaborate story to convince Russell to talk about Foxtail, but what he said about Papa Pope actually makes a lot of sense. Wouldn't the ultimate twist be that Fitz was sent into Liv's life by Papa Pope too!!! Now that would be good!!
Elizabeth provides Mellie a speech that focuses on her son's death for her trip to Springfield. She points out that it is needed, given the White House isn't going to do anything about the military rape. It infuriates Mellie that Elizabeth suggests this idea, and she sends Elizabeth out. Then Fitz comforts and embraces her.
Back at the office, Liv, Quinn, Abby, and Plunkett try to figure out how to get Amy off the ship. They come up with the idea that Amy has a very sick relative. It works, and they are able to get Amy off of the ship. Later they learn that the Pentagon denied their request for the security logs to track the Admiral's whereabouts on the night of the rape. Liv calls Fitz, and Fitz stands by not getting involved. In the next scene, Liv is with Amy as she gets an abortion.
Then we get another scene with Fitz comforting Mellie as she is still feeling down about Springfield. They begin to reflect on their son, and Fitz offers to go with her to Springfield. But Mellie says she has to go alone.
The next day, Abby gives Liv and Quinn the security logs. They may have denied Liv's request, but the Pentagon didn't deny the President's request! Liv and Quinn begin to look through the logs and find that the Admiral was indeed not logged on the ship. Liv shares this with the Admiral and Captain Weaver, but then she asks where Captain Weaver was. She points out that Captain Weaver follows the Admiral around, and yet he himself was not in the logs at all. She then says she would guess Captain Weaver was swiping the Admiral's card to cover the Admiral's tracks! She says she'll see the Captain swiping the Admiral's card on the surveillance tape. The Captain says those are classified, to which Liv points out so were the logs she has in her hands. BOOM!
The next scene shows a news reporter discussing the Admiral's confession of the rape and the video of him dragging Amy into an office.
In Springfield, Mellie gives a speech about all of America's sons and daughters in the military, in lieu of one about her son. She begins by talking about Fitz' position on not getting involved in the military rape situation and proclaims she will hold the opposite position in the Senate! I loved it! It further exemplified Scandal's ability to follow a side story in each episode, which I appreciate! Also, Mellie seemed like a viable candidate.
Amy receives clearance to go back on the ship, while Huck receives a knock at the door while preparing to torture Russell some more. It's Plunkett asking to get into Liv's apartment where he left some files. Back with Amy and Liv, Quinn sees a picture of Plunkett, only it isn't the same guy. Then cut back to Huck who's now having something injected into his neck by "Plunkett." Then we see scenes where the impostor "Plunkett" murdered the real "Plunkett." Then he proceeds to set Russell free as he asks if he told them anything about Foxtail.
When Liv and Quinn get back to the apartment they find Jake over Huck, who is still alive, and Russell is gone. Quinn says this means they'll never find out what Foxtail is.
BUT...after her speech, Elizabeth takes Mellie to meet someone. When Mellie walks into the room, we see someone say, "Foxtail is secure." And then Mellie meets...PAPA POPE!