Scandal Episode 2.04 Beltway Unbuckled

Senator Edison Davis introduces Olivia to two of his constituents. They are the worried parents of Jenny, a pretty college student who has been missing for several days. This supposedly innocent girl is actually the author of a blog called "Beltway Unbuckled" where she describes her sexcapades with various political heavyweights. There hasn't been a new post since the day Jenny went missing. There's a chance she's an indentified girl who was hospitalized in Rhode Island. That hope is extinguished as Olivia identifies a dead body found in a ditch as her client's missing daughter.

Harrison and Quinn learn the make and model of the vehicle Jenny was riding in before she was left for dead in that ditch. It belongs to a Kurkistani diplomat named Alexander Lavich. The guy is basically untouchable because of diplomatic immunity. The only way they can possibly get to him is if the President of the United States gets his own government to revoke his privileges. So Olivia heads off to the White House to make that happen. Too bad Fitz is less than cooperative when he walks in on her meeting with Cyrus.

Mellie doesn't want her hubby sweating on the sofa in the baby's nursery. Fitz doesn't have much choice since that's where he's been sleeping lately. If only he could leave for the upcoming G8 Summit sooner. But he can't. The guy has a country to run. Mellie is tired of being treated as a second class power player by both Fitz and Cyrus. She wants to be heard. Speaking of being heard, Olivia puts Jenny's parents in front of the TV cameras to gain public sympathy.

U.S. Attorney David Rosen is sleeping with Abby Whelan of Olivia Pope & Associates. It's a conflict of interest of epic proportions. Actually, it's in David's "best" interest if he wants to get info about the Quinn Perkins trial fiasco. He also happens to like Abby. David's assistant, Alyssa, has dubbed him 007 as she helps him uncover phone records that detail calls from Quinn's old boyfriend to the head of security at a company run by one of the president's biggest supporters-powerful energy man Hollis Doyle.

David pays a visit to Hollis to ask about the small software company in California where Jesse Tyler, Quinn's old boyfriend, worked. He leaves with very little information. In other news, Olivia stops by the hospital where Supreme Court Justice Verna Thornton is secretly receiving cancer treatments. She even turns off her phone as a show of support for her old friend. These two ladies go way back, which is why Verna has no problem telling Olivia that she's making a mistake in pushing Fitz away.

Olivia receives a call from the White House, but it's not from Fitz or Cyrus. It's Mellie. Remember how we said she wanted to be heard? Well, she's being heard loud and clear now after Olivia helps her join the protest for justice for Jenny. Fitz can't help but let out a defeated laugh about how the women in his life are political geniuses. He can't believe they actually worked together. Fitz has an entire restaurant cleared so he can tell Olivia that Lavich is being deported. It's the best he could do. Then the President of the United States ends their conversation by letting the love of his life know that he's letting her go.

Jenny's father is livid that the man who killed his daughter is going home to live out the rest of his days in a palace. Huck knows the guy has vengeance on his mind. That's why he kills Lavich first. He admits to his AA group that his relapse into "whiskey drinking" felt really good. At the office, Edison tries to convince Olivia that she did good work on the case. She's not buying his declaration that everything is going to be okay. Other associates are also unsure of things. Harrison manages to calm an agitated Quinn, but Abby is tired of being kept in the dark by all of Olivia's secrets.

Abby isn't crazy about the secrets David has been keeping from her either. That's why she breaks into his apartment to see his wall of investigation. She soaks it all in for awhile before later sneaking up on David in the shower. Surprisingly, she wants to add a few of her own theories to his wall of crazy. David knows that Hollis Doyle's company is somehow involved in the murders of those seven people in the software company. But he believes the conspiracy is much bigger. He may be right about that one.

Hollis Doyle takes a seat at a table with several open chairs. The people he is meeting with on this night arrive one by one. Supreme Court Justice Verna Thornton takes a seat at the table, as does Mellie Grant and Cyrus Beane. The last arrival is none other than Olivia Pope. They are all there to discuss the David Rosen situation as their president flies off to the G8 Summit thousands of miles away.