Olivia Pope was safely returned home with no help from Rowan – aka Papa Pope – and Mellie and Lizzie worked together to silence Andrew in Scandal’s “No More Blood.”

Scandal 4×13 Recap

When Olivia’s (Kerry Washington) hood is removed at the drop sight, she is greeted with an unfamiliar woman speaking to her boss in Farsi – representing the Iranian entity that bought her from her captors. Liv thinks quickly on her feet, and tells Gus that the woman is talking about taking Liv and killing them after the exchange, while also telling the woman that Gus and her captors are going to take their money and kill her in Farsi. The deal is promptly called off, and the Dark Net auction for Liv is back on.

At the White House, the CIA is working hard to track Olivia for Fitz (Tony Goldwyn), but Cyrus (Jeff Perry) is getting anxious. Fitz makes clear he will do anything to have Olivia returned home safe, whether it means going to war or sacrificing resources to try his hand at an extraction with only a 30% probability of success. Convinced that Fitz isn’t thinking clearly and is abandoning his Presidential duties and principals – sacrificing countless lives for the life of one – Cyrus goes to the CIA himself and puts another plan in motion. Should Olivia be sold to any foreign government and extraction be unwise, they will bomb her and kill her to avoid any intelligence breach.

Huck Promises “No More Blood”

After a meeting on Liv’s possible extraction with Fitz, Jake (Scott Foley) returns to Pope and Associates to deliver the good news to Quinn (Katie Lowes) and Huck (Guillermo Díaz), who are both emotionally exhausted. Quinn, shaken after hearing Huck’s “Olivia is dead” speech, breaks down into tears and Huck reveals to Jake that Olivia is the person who keeps his bad side, the side that loves blood, torture and killing, locked away. Both Jake and Quinn tell Huck that, no matter what happens with Liv, he has to learn to keep that part of himself at bay all on his own. Quinn needs him to do that, because he’s the one that keeps her whole. Huck promises Quinn “no more blood” – he won’t torture again.

As Pope & Associates prepares for the Dark Net auction, Abby (Darby Stanchfield) does a bit of snooping in the White House. Cyrus refuses to tell her anything under the pretense of security clearance, but after a revealing chat with David (Joshua Malina), where he voiced the notion that perhaps the CIA would want to kill Liv instead of rescuing her, she sees the CIA director walk out of Cy’s office and is convinced he is going to kill Liv. When she confronts Cyrus, he confirms her fears. Desperate, Abby makes a phone call to Interpol, but to whom we don’t know.

Mellie, Lizzie And Huck Deal With Andrew

Andrew (Jon Tenney), all set to walk from his crimes completely free, threatens Mellie (Bellamy Young) that if he never makes it into the Oval Office, he’ll make sure she doesn’t. All it would take is a few dirty secrets leaked here and there, and her Presidential dreams are over. Since Mellie slept with Andrew to help Lizzie (Portia de Rossi) when she needed her to, she informs Lizzie that it is now her turn to deal with Andrew for her. Out of ideas, Lizzie North gets over her fear and goes to Huck to ask that he do something about Vice President Andrew – the man responsible for Liv’s kidnapping. But, having promised Quinn ‘no blood,’ Huck refuses to do to Andrew what he did to Lizzie.

When Huck, Quinn and Jake lose the auction for Liv at the last minute to some new party out of Russia, things begin to fall apart. After receiving an ominous visit from Abby telling them of Cyrus’ plan, Jake goes to his last resort and asks Rowan (Joe Morton) for help, while Huck leaves to get his revenge. Despite Huck’s murderous mood, he keeps his promise to Quinn – he doesn’t spill blood, but he does inject Andrew with some kind of poison that makes him have a stroke. Up in Canada, Rowan gives Jake a long speech about fishing before informing him that he no longer has a daughter. Papa Pope will not be swooping in to save the day this time.

Stephen Rescues Olivia

It looks like Liv could be killed by her own government. Cyrus and the CIA watch as she is taken to the drop site to meet with her new Russian captor, and the CIA director is all set to drop a bomb on them when Cyrus recognizes one of the men supposedly buying Liv – it’s Stephen (Henry Ian Cusick)! Call off the strike, Cyrus orders. Olivia is coming home.

For those of you who either don’t remember, or never watched Season 1 of Scandal, Stephen was Liv’s right hand man at Pope and Associates, and even had a thing going with Abby, but he left them to get married and have a normal life. Turns out, he says, normal is overrated, and now he’s working in Europe. It was Abby who contacted him and told him about Liv. All he had to do was call in a favor with Russian gangsters and boom, Olivia is saved.

Liv returns to Washington DC safe, but not whole. She’s mentally shaken, but refuses to let Jake stay with her overnight. Instead, she locks up her door with all the new locks Huck installed and tries to adjust to being home. Of course, she barely has enough time to lock her door when Fitz comes knocking. He had to see for himself that she was okay, but she doesn’t want to hear it. Liv yells at him for going to war, even for her. Why has she been protecting him and sacrificing herself for him – for his Presidency – if he’s just going to throw it all away for her? She throws her ring at him and kicks him out.

Scandal airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.