'Scandal' Recap Season 2 Episode 16, Returns To ABC With 'Top of The Hour' after Month-Long Hiatus: What's going on with Olivia and Cyrus' Betrayed Relationship?

Scandal finally made its return to our television screens after a bitter and cold month-long hiatus and it was sure worth the wait. "Top of The Hour" dealt with a central theme of BETRAYAL (best said in a whisper as if you're trying to charm a snake). As with all Terse Political Drama^TM, this week's Scandal contained a number of concurrent storylines, which I have pulled out for ease of comprehension before delving into the plot. They are as follows:

-Olivia Pope- Fitz: What will happen to the relationship between the two now that Olivia has betrayed the president's trust?

-Cyrus-Fitz: With Olivia gone, Cyrus feels like top dog again. But is he?

-Huck Training Quinn: Huck continues to give Quinn a course in super-cool spy stuff while they search for the mole.

-Jake in general: What's his deal? What's he up to?

-Episode specific plotlines: Supreme Court justice nomination, American hostage situation, Olivia being  hired by high-powered CEO Sarah Stanner.

Annnnnd, let's begin.

The president is trying to push through his nomination for Supreme Court Justice but the media uncovers an extramarital affair in his past. Cyrus is brought in to handle the media circus that ensues only to end up in a showdown with former colleague Olivia. You see, the "other woman" in question is Sarah Stanner, CEO of RyoCorp, who has hired the recently deposed Olivia to spin the news on her end.

Olivia suggests that Stanner come out and admit her wrongdoing publicly, to avoid it being forced out later on down the road. However, this doesn't go as planned for Stanner and her husband. The media continues to bear down on the couple, waiting on their lawn at all hours for either one to appear and trapping them in their home. (The episode's title "Top of the Hour" refers to the time when newscasts go live to a scene. Olivia and Co. use the distraction created by all the reporters talking into their cameras to sneak into Stanner's home unnoticed.)

As the story develops, more and more about the affair comes out into the open, with Olivia and Cyrus releasing info to the press on each side as if they are lobbing bombs at one another. Unfortunately, in the course of all this news coverage, it comes out that Stanner continued the affair long after her husband thought it was over. The timing of the prolonged affair causes Mr. Stanner to question if their young daughter is biologically his and their marriage, understandably, crumbles. On top of all this, her job at RyoCorp is threatened by a morality clause in her contract.

At the same time, Fitz is dealing with a hostage crisis and spying on Olivia via military colleague Capt. Jake Wallace (in previous episodes, it was unclear why Wallace was tailing Olivia, turns out the Prez made him do it). Olivia gets some information on the hostages and uses Wallace to deliver the info to Fitz. At this time, a journalist snaps their picture together (THIS COMES UP LATER).

Prez Fitz and Wallace meet late every night. Fitz's estranged wife Mellie sees the meetings marked off on his schedule. She, understandably, thinks that Fitz and Olivia are back at it. When she takes this theory to Cyrus, he blows her off, essentially saying "Hey, I'm finally back in Fitz good graces. I'm not saying nothing."

Meanwhile, Huck and Quinn are tailing the CIA director (who they believe might be the mole) and the former is giving the latter a crash course in spy stuff. Quinn almost blows their cover by walking into a dry cleaner behind the director, but saves it by giving them the shirt off of her back. After a regrouping and some gentle nudging, Quinn realizes that the dry cleaning drop has to be a cover for the CIA director's mole-like activities. She returns to the cleaners under the guise of being someone's wife, gives the number she overheard the director saying and finds a large cache of money hidden in the pockets. It appears they have found their mole.

 Meanwhile, back at the Stanner household, Olivia receives a call from Fitz. This is the first time that they have talked since Fitz discovered that Olivia was in on the plot to rig the election. It's suuuuuuper melodramatic with both characters coming to the realization that they "ruined" the other. Ugh.

However, the writers redeem themselves once Olivia heads back inside. Mrs. Stanner is drinking a bottle of wine alone and pulls out a $300 bottle for Olivia to drink from. When they sit down on opposite ends of the table, Stanner launches into a long speech about betraying her husband, letting him raise their daughter knowing that it might not be his. Olivia launches into a spiel about betrayal that is simultaneously for the benefit of Mrs. Stanner and her justifying her own betrayal of Fitz (letting him think he won the election fairly, when she knew otherwise). Olivia ends it with the question "Was he a good dad?" (Fill in "leader of the free world" for Olivia's case.) When Sarah answers yes, Olivia concludes that Sarah's betrayal (and, by extension, her own) was worth it. Then, they both take slugs from their bottles before the scene cuts away. Truly, a masterfully done scene.

Harrison and Abby go into the board of directors, who are set to fire Stanner due to her breach of the morality clause, and bluff their way into saving Stanner's job. They claim the box holds dark secrets of all of the members of the board (it's empty). Before they can read the "secrets" aloud to all gathered, the board calls off the firing of Stanner.

At the same time, dual raids are in progress. Navy Seals are raiding the compound that contains the hostages while Capt. Jake Wallace is breaking into the photojournalist's home who snapped the picture of him and Olivia earlier. Both raids are successful (though Wallace may have murdered the journalist).

After this, Mellie realizes that her husband's late-night confidant is not Olivia, but Wallace. She throws a picture on Cyrus' desk as retribution for his callous attitude earlier in the show saying "He's not cheating on me, Cyrus. He's cheating on you."

Finally, the episode ends with the CIA director receiving pictures of Quinn picking up his dry cleaning. He knows that they are on to him and the episode ends with a shot of his face.

What will happen next? Is Quinn in danger? How Will Cyrus react to knowing he is not, in fact, Fitz's go-to guy? Where does the Olivia-Fitz relationship go from here?

We'll have to find out next week.

Scandal airs at 10 PM EST, Thursdays on ABC