'Scandal' Recap: Huck Tortures Quinn, Cyrus And James Reach A Breaking Point

by uInterviewDecember 6, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Huck turned on Quinn and Cyrus and James hit a breaking point in their marriage in the newest episode of Scandal, “YOLO.”

Huck Tortures Quinn

The episode started where the last one left off, with Huck (Guillermo Díaz) in Quinn’s apartment getting ready to torture the truth out of her. Quinn (Katie Lowes) is duct-taped, lying on the floor, completely at Huck’s mercy. While Huck claims he doesn’t want to hurt her, he’s practically salivating at the thought of hurting her. Because they’re friends, he’s going to let her keep all her fingers and toes. Instead, he goes straight for the teeth. He’s only able to rip one out before he has to go help Liv (Kerry Washington) deal with her mother (Khandi Alexander).

Liv And Her Mother Run From Command

Liv, clearly unsettled by having her dead mother in her apartment, ditches her phone and takes her mother to a safe house where Huck, Jake (Scott Foley), Harrison (Columbus Short) and Abby (Darby Stanchfield) meet them. Abby and Harrison are playing catch up while Huck and Jake decide what to do and Liv sits almost catatonic in the corner. Once Huck and Jake hear that Liv’s mother escaped from B-613, they immediately tackle her and locate a tracking chip implanted in the back of her neck. They cut it out of her and head to a motel. There, Liv’s mother explains that she had discovered what Rowan (Joe Morton) did for a living, that he was a monster. She had been able to get her hands on some documents and was heading to London to meet with a reporter to expose Rowan and escape with Liv, when she was apprehended by Rowan. Maya says Liv’s father imprisoned her under false charges and has kept her locked up for the last 20 years.

While the team scrambles to find a way to get Maya out of the country and safe from Command, Quinn cries silently in her apartment, trying to escape. Charlie (George Newbern) and Command are looking for her, but she’s not picking up her phone and B-613 has their hands full trying to locate Maya.

Jake goes to Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) to ask for help killing Command – a dead Rowan is the only way Maya will ever be safe, but Fitz refuses. He won’t help Jake kill Olivia’s father, so Jake decides to go it alone. He hires a team of contract killers and locates Command. He walks straight into a trap and half his team gets blown up in the process. Not only was Jake’s plan a failure, but Command worked to get Maya on the no fly list and had her flagged as a terrorist, so all airports are off limits to Maya; there’s no way she would make it past airport security no matter how many favors Liv asks for.

Huck returns to Quinn and rips out yet another tooth before Charlie finally goes to check on Quinn. When Charlie finds her, Quinn is bleeding, tied up and laying crying on the floor alone. He gets her cleaned up and the two sleep together when Quinn starts crying because Huck, the only person she had, hurt her.

Eventually, Liv calls Fitz to clear her head. He offers to help her, but she tells him that, if he were to help her mother, who is now a terrorist in the eyes of the law, he would be putting his entire political future at risk. He doesn’t care, and informs her that he is going to help her whether she likes it or not. Fitz calls the Pentagon and arranges a private, military flight for Maya – no airport security – that will take her to Hong Kong where Liv has set up a safe house.

Maya's True Identity Revealed

Thanks to Abby, who insists Liv hug her mom goodbye, Liv and Maya share a tearful farewell and Liv promises to keep working until her mother is safe. As the plane takes off, Liv remembers something from the last time she saw her mother when she was twelve. Her mother had been talking on the phone before leaving for her flight. After she left, the phone rang. When Liv answered, a man on the other line asked her if he could speak to her mother, Marie. Marie, Liv realizes, is, indeed, her mother’s name and it was the same name put out on the ‘Most Wanted’ flyer her father had put out about her mother. It wasn’t a fake name and false charges at all, her mother is a terrorist and her father has been trying to protect her.

Liv calls Huck to confirm her suspicions, leaving Huck in a complete panic. It turns out, during their torture session, Quinn had offered Huck a sort of deal. He let her keep her teeth and she would find a way to get close to Command. Quinn is there now, walking into Command’s office with Charlie and a needle at the ready in her hand.

Cyrus Deals With Sally Langston

Meanwhile, Cyrus (Jeff Perry) had a rough couple of days, to say the least. James (Dan Bucatinsky) continues to drop not so subtle hints about having sex with the Vice President’s husband until Cyrus breaks and confronts him. James then reveals that he knew that Cyrus was dangling him in front of the Vice President’s husband (Jack Coleman) like a prostitute and he wants a divorce.

Cyrus is devastated and he can’t even think of using the incriminating photos as means to blackmail Sally (Kate Burton) into not running against the President in the coming election. That is, until Fitz snaps at him after receiving Sally’s letter of resignation. With Mellie’s (Bellamy Young) encouragement, Cyrus goes through with the blackmail, only to be met with stone cold indifference from Sally. Though shaken, Sally wants to be President and she doesn’t think Cyrus would ever release the photos because they would ruin any chance at happiness for his marriage. She’s right, and Cyrus returns to his office and calls James, assuring him that the photos are as good as burned. James listens, sitting in their bedroom next to an open suitcase.

Later that night, Cyrus, sleeping in his office, is woken up when Sally calls him. She has sinned, she says. Her husband is lying dead on the floor of her office.

Scandal will air its mid-season finale Thursday, Dec. 12, at 10 p.m. on ABC.