'Scandal' recap ('Honor Thy Father'), season 4, episode 18

In other words, it's not powerful or all knowing when it's not useful to the plot line. When something lacks emotional heft and just seems like a lever used by the writers to fill out another episode, it should be thrown away. But "Scandal" keeps B613 around like a battered old teddy bear, a security blanket that has long outlived its usefulness.

Alas, this will be a very brief recap.

Jake is resistant to David Rosen exposing B613. David needs Jake to help take B613 down. Quinn and Huck find three B613 agents willing to support them. (Huh? Really? Is it that easy?) They stick them in a safe house but the trio are quickly killed. We think it's Jake. Jake is now the enemy. The Gladiators consider killing Jake but he uses Liv as protection. They try to kill him and he'll kill Liv.

Ultimately, David decides to use himself as a witness since he saw Jake kill James Novak. But Jake susses out a B613 mole - Holly, David's mousy assistant. She killed those B613 agents because she was under Command - meaning Rowan. Jake kills Holly in front of David in a parking garage.

Jake tells David this is "war" and Rowan is coming - for something. And in the final scene of the episode he does come to Liv's door - with her lover. Sigh...

Anyway, there was the "scandal" of the week featuring a Senator who thinks his father is innocent of a murder he allegedly committed 16 years earlier. The Senator's sister had been taken advantage of by a teacher. Said teacher was murdered. He wants Liv's help. Liv discovers a recently dead ex-wife could be a suspect and finds a murder weapon conveniently hidden in the basement.

Then she figures out the gun was planted by the Senator, who actually committed the crime. She convinces him to fess up and have his father go free for a crime he himself committed. (His dad was covering for him.) In terms of compelling "scandal" stories, this was not one of them.

Plus, Mellie is trying to position herself to be a Senator, then president. But she has a sister ironically named Harmony ("Half sister," Mellie notes) she can't stand. Harmony is some sort of stereotypical soap-making white trash Mellie is running away from.

But Mellie has to play nice so Harmony doesn't pull a Billy Carter on her. So Mellie invites Harmony for a tour of the White House. Politeness only goes so far. Her true feelings eventually come out. Fitz has to smooth things over with some sort of nonsense regarding Mellie being jealous of Harmony because Mellie's father left her mom for Harmony's mother. "It left a hole in Mellie's heart," Fitz says.

This episode left a hole in my heart.

Please take down B613 once and for all. Somebody. Anybody!