A man runs to give a letter to the postal carrier. He stays in the street, pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head. The brown envelope is shown in the mail truck, addressed to Olivia Pope.
Olivia is walking the night streets of Washington, D.C. with Senator Davis. They arrive at her door talking and having a good time. A date? Why yes, it’s date number two for this go around. She enters her apartment alone, no night-cap for the Senator.
At Chez Cyrus, he and James are having breakfast. Front page, above the fold in the newspaper, is James’ article on Hollis Doyle. Quotes from pillow talk with Cyrus are included, but not identifying him. Someone’s in trouble now. Cyrus is about to stroke out on the floor. They argue and James storms out.
The brown envelope arrives at Olivia Central with sheet music and a check for $100,000. Huck tries to analyze the codes on the music sheet. Names of spies. How does Huck know? He sees his name in there. Robert Brooks was his case officer in his spy days. He’s the public suicide in Ann Arbor. He killed himself so people wouldn’t think it was a hit. The other spies on the list are Huck-deadly too. He grabs his bug out bag to leave. Olivia stops him and wants to know what is going on. Huck explains that he was a part of B613, a Top Secret off the books program funded by the CIA. It’s about to be exposed and if his alias is found out, he can be tracked. They’re all safer if he leaves. This is his wheelhouse. Olivia begs to take care of this for him. He gives her 24 hours and the team goes in motion.
Huck is the client of the week!
Nigel Arnoff is an international master hacker. He’s responsible for seven classified document dumps. He was reported dead but really went underground. Now he’s back and set to release something big. Olivia narrows down the list of attorneys who’d take Nigel as a client and find the one. He meets her in a warehouse building with an open laptop. She speaks to Nigel himself via Skype, he with a pixellated face and distorted voice. He’s a Liv admirer, but out to expose the truth of the hardly innocents in the government with blood on their hands. Nigel is waiting for the next news cycle when the G8 summit is over to release the information about B613 to the public.
Hollis and Cyrus meet and discuss “Cyrus’ wife” because per Hollis’s way of thinking, Cy is the man in that deal. James and his article are hotly discussed between the two men. Hollis puts it on the line to Cy that his problems will be Cyrus and James’ problems if everything explodes. “Put your wife on a leash,” he says as he exits the room.
Olivia asks Huck how many others are on the list with his name. Five. She says that Nigel is bluffing because he would have leaked the information already if he had it. She wants Huck to get the other spies to Olivia Central. He tells her she doesn’t want those killers in her office. Olivia said she is sure that one of his former colleagues is Nigel’s leak. 
Huck is on the computer and listening to the radio for a frequency code. Annoying Abby and less-annoying-this-season Quinn ask him what’s going on. He explains about the code words: It’s time to come home.
Olivia is looking pensive in her office. Harrison comes in and asks her what’s going on. Things are getting weird in the office, he says. He breaks down each team member and their issues. Harrison owes her so whatever she needs, he’ll do. I’m your family, your Gladiator, he says. “Give me some marching orders, Liv.” She spills it. Abby and David cannot be together. She says that Abby’s husband used to beat her and Harrison may want to use that if necessary. She’s not proud to tell him this, but it’s necessary.
Cy calls Liv at home and points her to James’s article. Oy vey! Cyrus is afraid for James. Keep him from looking into Hollis to save his life, Olivia firmly tells Cy. James is currently in London making the queen laugh.
Harrison meets with Theresa Dunn in a bar and hands her an envelope of cash. She says David Rosen is a good guy and she’s only doing this for the money. She leaves as quickly as she came. Harrison rolls his eyes.
The crew stands at the elevator, nervously waiting on some killer spies. The doors open and a mom looking mom gets off the elevator in a pink twin set. Huck makes her cough up her piece. Each spy is treated to the same relief of their guns. They all look like average everyday folks. Olivia relieves him of his gun. Time for his reunion.
They have to resist the urge to criminally settle things with Nigel, Olivia says. She will work the issue, got it? They agree and stay planted at the conference table as directed.
The team strategizes on figuring out which spy is in with Nigel. Huck works the room from the inside through casual conversation with his former colleagues. Their every move and phone call is noted and analyzed by the team in another room. “Tell Me Something Good” by Chaka Khan is the background music for these scenes. Perfect.
Harrison and Abby check ancient microfiche for information on the spies. He asks her if she’s looked into her boyfriend yet. He wants to make sure she’s with the right guy. Abby smiles at his show of caring about her. What has Harrison set in motion with Theresa?
Back at Spy chat, it’s a standoff. Literally! Of course they were all still strapped and now each one has a gun aimed at the other. Harrison, Abby and Quinn gape at the scene from the other side of the door. Harrison bravely enters the room and tries to defuse the situation. At the count of three, one, Huck be a leader. He lays his gun down. Two, now everybody, three. Guns go down. Now hand me your—they all turn their guns on Harrison. He rolls out of the room, shaking. This isn’t his wheel house.
James is summoned to the Oval Office by Cyrus for the first time ever. Intimidation? Buttering him up? Cyrus thanks him for writing the article on Hollis Doyle so that the racist, homophobe that he is gets exposed, but, he says, the President will fire him if the articles continue. Cyrus puts on about the stress he’s been under that he didn’t want to share with him. James holds Cyrus’s face after a smooch and promises to stop writing on Hollis.
Abby is checking David out on the computer.
Olivia is back at the warehouse in front of pixellated Nigel. She warns him not to release the information or his lawyer is dead. Half a dozen highly trained assassins will be looking for revenge. Nigel said her job is to spin and gloss over. Liv knocks the laptop over, shattering it to bits. The lawyer said the money was released to Nigel 2 hours prior and gives Liv the information. She calls Huck and gives him the routing number. He tells her that from the digits, it’s a Swiss bank account which can’t be hacked. He tells Olivia to go home, do not come to the office. The group goes over all numbers spoken during their time in there. The doctor had given a prescription number over the phone. The numbers match up.
One of the spies trains his gun on Huck. Time to tie up loose ends. Huck reminds them that they are all soldiers for their country, but they get no medals for their service. They’re now thirsty killers who want to feel normal. He takes the bullets out of his gun and says that the doctor is one of them. Soccer mom in the pink twin set shoots the doctor clean through the forehead. Problem solved.
Huck is still in the conference room chair in the morning when Liv gets there. She’s relieved to see him. She tells him that he’s important to her.
At David’s, Abby is searching through his things. He comes in the room and she pins up a picture of Theresa Dunn to start her own wall of crazy. She pulls out pictures of a bloodied and bruised Theresa and of herself. David explains that Theresa fell down the stairs. Abby is too far gone. She accuses him of targeting her for her vulnerability. The one person on Liv’s team that he could use. She had coffee with Theresa last night and she told her about David beating her. Money talks. She tells him that if he touches her again, she’ll kill him. She goes back to Olivia and tells her about the affair, crying and apologizing.
Huck plays his transistor radio at home in his bathroom. Comfort. Senator Davis shows up to Liv’s with movies and wine. “Invite me in. It’s time.” She dissolves into tears and falls in his arms, they’re kissing and hugging. I don’t like it.
Team Gladiator seems to be on life support. Harrison is the only one who has his bearings about him. Liv obviously misses Fitz. Abby now feels guilty, used and betrayed. Huck is reeling from being in a room of people just like him and Quinn is getting stronger, but hasn’t been there long enough to lead.
Let’s hope they recuperate and come back stronger in two weeks when “Scandal” returns, as does Fitz! Happy Birthday, Mr. President.
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— TVFishBowl (@TVFishBowl) April 9, 2013
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