Mellie notices the difference in Fitz after his return from the hunting trip. She debriefs a couple of Secret Service agents in her own special way to learn that the cause of her hubby’s mood swing was another secret meeting with Olivia Pope. Mellie screams at Fitz to get over her now. If he sees her again, she blow him away politically. We believe she’ll do just that. After all, she’s a much better shot than Fitz. The hits have come rapidly for the president as he also knows that Cyrus used Thorngate during his late night chats with Olivia.

Olivia believes the only way to keep Artie alive is to go on national TV to expose what the government is doing to its citizens. Fitz wants to launch a legal tsunami to quash the interview. The network is about to buckle to the pressure until Olivia gives its boss a personal sneak peek at what Thorngate is all about once Huck gets everything back online. Too bad the man of the hour isn’t ready for his close-up. Artie skips out of the safe house after swiping the Thorngate drive. He hops into the black sedan that’s waiting for him outside.

Artie Hornbacher scammed Olivia in order to get her team to decrypt Thorngate. He killed Monica to help with the ruse. Huck tracks down Artie. He turns the guy over to the proper authorities after only hurting him a little. Abby knows Huck saved them on this one. She also knows that she can’t keep hurling digs at Quinn after her colleague/former murder suspect tells her to go to hell. In other news, Edison Davis wants Olivia to take him on as a client now that the president has removed him from the Intelligence Committee. Our favorite fixer assures the senator that she no longer has any ties to the White House.

U.S. Attorney David Rosen has some explaining to do when his assistant, Alissa, catches sight of his Beautiful Mind-like research wall regarding the Quinn Perkins trial. So… he explains. David knows that Olivia wouldn’t have gone to such extremes to manipulate the justice system without good reason. He now believes that someone else may have wanted Quinn’s boyfriend and his coworkers dead. Someone else may have had a more sinister motive for the murders. Quinn may not be a killer, but someone in her office must know something about a possible cover up. Perhaps David can get the scoop now that he’s sleeping with Abby.