'Scandal' Recap S05E14: Abby Backstabs Cyrus, Olivia & Jake Get Obssessive [SPOILERS]

The fifth season of Scandal is nearing its end, and months after Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) walked away from her long-running affair, she's basically obsessing over the new relationship of her on-again and off-again boyfriend Jake Ballard (Scott Foley). In the meantime, Abby Whelan (Darby Stanchfield) backstabs Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) in a move towards more power.

This week's episode begins where the last one ended: With Olivia, Jake, Rowan (Joe Morton) and Jake's new fiancée, Vanessa (Joelle Carter) all together, now having dinner. While Olivia acts natural, it's pretty cringe-worthy when Vanessa asks Jake to describe Liv and he says he's "the sister he never had."

In any case, Olivia isn't buying into the new relationship, and she obviously has the whole team looking into it in the most obsessive ex-girlfriend move ever, even getting Quinn (Katie Lowes) and Charlie (George Newbern) to bug Vanessa's apartment. Of course, this means Olivia, in the most disturbing manner, spies on Jake and Vanessa while they're getting it on; and Jake, who's no fool and happens to be the head of the NSA, catches on, winking at the camera and later taking all the spying tools to Liv's place.

Jake then confronts Olivia, telling her she has a serious case of daddy issues and jealousy outbursts. She insists she's spying on him because she's convinced he and her father are up to something, but he says he's in love with Vanessa and chose not to keep waiting for her to make up her mind between him and Fitz (Tony Goldwyn), even if he's now out of the picture.

By the end of the episode, she believes him -- until she realizes the way Jake and Vanessa met is the same way she and Jake met, so she's convinced once more that he's planning something, just as it was with her. Ultimately, Olivia doubles the espionage on Jake.

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Back in the White House, Cyrus' assistant and half useless being, Ethan (Vanya Asher), lets it slip to Abby that his boss is circling the presidential campaign run by Governor Vargas (Ricardo Chavira), and Abby confronts him. At first, Cyrus denies everything, threatening to fire her; but once Abby shows him proof that he's been meeting with Vargas over and over again, he begs her to keep quiet.

Abby is in conflict, wondering whether backstabbing the person who taught her everything in the White House will keep her up at night. She seeks Olivia's advice, who tells her she's so close to the Oval Office's power she can smell it, and that could lead to her becoming something she's not: keep the white hat on, Liv says, don't lose your soul over this job because it's not that great being on that side of power.

In the end, though, Abby chooses power over principles, telling Fitz that Cyrus has been playing on two different teams with the upcoming election. Fitz was worried about the optics of firing the Chief of Staff months before stepping down, but Abby reassures him that if it's done quietly and she's put in Cyrus' place, things will go down great -- and so she gets the job of firing Cyrus herself, later having a drink with Fitz and Susan (Artemis Pebdani) at the Oval, closer to power than she ever has been before.

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As far as the presidential race is concerned, Mellie (Bellamy Young) is desperate to get funding, so she's up to make a deal with the devil, talking to former Scandal regular Hollis Doyle (Gregg Henry), the pro-gun billionaire with endless power hunger. Mellie tries to entice him into her campaign, but he's meeting with Susan as well -- though Fitz hates the man's guts and basically turns him away from Susan's campaign, something the VP yells at him for doing by the end of the episode.

Hollis goes back to Mellie to talk money for her campaign, and she tells him her strategy: focusing her campaign education for the lower classes and minority children. Hollis tells her his people will contact her by the next day ... and hours later, he announces his own bid for a candidacy, though of course everyone knows an insane and power-hungry billionaire wouldn't ever have a shot at the presidential nomination. Ahem.

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In other news at Olivia Pope & Associates, Quinn has grown tired of being the one running the firm with no acknowledgement from Liv (they eventually make up), while Huck (Guillermo Diaz) thinks he spotted a former victim of his crazy B613 days with his family, but ultimately it was just a good guy who wanted to propose to his ex.

The next episode of Scandal will air next Thursday on ABC.