'Scandal' Recap & Spoilers S05E12: Will Olivia Pope & Rowan Battle Over Jake?

In the S05E12 episode of Scandal, "Wild Card," Kerry Washington's Olivia Pope begins suspecting her father Rowan (Joe Morton) might be up to something involving Jake Ballard (Scott Foley). In the meantime, Abby (Darby Stanchfield) tries to get Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) to stop behaving like a teen with his new girlfriend -- while Cyrus (Jeff Perry) causes a national emergency.

With seemingly no clients showing up in Olivia Pope & Associates, Liv has continued her weird relationship with Jake while restoring her relationship with her father, even though he's easily the least trustworthy person in the show. During one of their dinners, Rowan mentions Jake (recently appointed head of the NSA) is seeing someone else, which he later confirms himself.

While Liv seems to be all right with everything going on, Huck (Guillermo Diaz) can't understand what game she's playing, asking her whether she has a plan or she's just sleeping with the enemy, to which Olivia tells him she's choosing to turn a deaf ear because her father always wins. However, Huck gets to her, and eventually she confronts Jake and tells him the only reason Rowan told her about his new girlfriend was to isolate him, but Jake chooses to ignore her.

In the meantime, Abby is dealing with a whole new monster: Fitzgerald Grant. After he started going out with journalist Lillian Forrester (Annabeth Gish) on the past episode, things are getting hot and heavy between the two, which can very easily lead to a national emergency.

Fitz, the big baby that he is, refuses to acknowledge the fact that, because he's President of the United States, he needs to follow a protocol when he has a girlfriend. Throughout the entire episode, Fitz's new work wife, Abby, tries to make him see some sense, all while admitting she's really annoyed he's already moved on from Liv.

Eventually, Fitz sits down with Abby and they chose to create a plan for him dating someone a few months before his presidency ends. During this time, their professional relationship hits a milestone: he asks Abby to call him Fitz instead of "Mr. President," because they should at least be on first-name basis if he's going to share details of his sex life with her.

Cyrus, on his end, is cooking something up: he's making a new President. While Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) and Susan Ross (Artemis Pebdani) are taking some fairly public steps towards the White House, Cyrus, abandoned to fate now that Fitz stopped trusting him, sets his eye on Pennsylvania's governor, Francisco Vargas (Ricardo Chavira).

It turns out Vargas is a boy scout: universally liked, part of an important minority, a war hero and even married to his high school sweetheart, there's no dirt on the guy -- nobody knows who he is, though, so Cyrus is set on doing something about it.

Calling up Tom (Brian Letscher) for another round of evil doing, Cyrus makes the former Secret Service man get a White Supremacist to shoot Vargas in his office following a hostage situation -- of course, the whole thing is broadcasted on national television, turning Vargas into an immediate hero and a serious contender for the Presidency.

Another possible President is being built up somewhere else. Elizabeth North (Portia De Rossi) is still keen on having David Rosen (Joshua Malina) make Susan happy by indulging in her big crush. However, after instructing David to sleep with her, Liz seems a little off when she calls him the next morning and they're still together. Then again, she was the one who orchestrated the whole thing, so it's pretty hard to feel pity for her.

The next Scandal episode will air on March 10 on ABC.