‘Scandal’ Tweet-cap: Betting on Red

Warning: This recap for the “A Stomach for Blood” episode of Scandal contains spoilers.

Imagine it: Abby sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office, giving orders to her chief of staff, calling senators and heads of other nations, and being the most powerful person in the world.

It’s a fantasy, and one that proves to be Abby’s undoing.

If Rowan’s weakness is Olivia, and Huck’s weakness is vulnerable women, then Abby’s is her ego. She wants to shine. She wants the spotlight. She wants to feel powerful. And when the Mystery Power People offer her a tantalizing chance at it, she takes it. It’s why she gets involved in Huck’s shooting.

At least Abby didn’t turn full-on evil. But now she’s another puppet whose strings can be pulled at a moment’s notice.

Here’s a rundown of this week’s episode, including our live tweets:

It’s election night (again), and this time we see events from Abby’s point of view. When Vargas is shot, her phone starts ringing, but she is in total shock. The Secret Service hustle her and Fitz back to the White House, where she finally answers.

Her side of the conversation indicates Abby is hearing something she doesn’t want to hear. “You think the president isn’t going to notice if I leave?” she yells desperately, before flinging a coffee mug against the wall.

Now, we flash back further, to the campaign. Fitz and Abby discuss the location of his future presidential library. She suggests various cities in California, but Fitz muses about building it in Vermont. Jam time!

Abby brushes that idea aside and goes to lunch with two potential donors… who turn out to be the Mystery Guy and the Mystery Woman, who give her the names Mr. Peus and Marjorie. They offer her $300 million, an insane amount — but not for Fitz’s library. Instead, they want to put it in a super-PAC and give her control over it.

Marjorie wonders how Abby isn’t sick and tired of catering to Fitz. Peus tells her that she’s the future of this country. And has she ever considered running for president? “You can’t be serious,” Abby replies. They don’t think she values herself enough. Marjorie tells her to think about it, but Abby declines their offer.

At home, she and Leo are getting ready for work in the morning, but while he’s talking about a vacation, she’s in dreamland, clearly thinking about the idea. So, she takes a bottle of expensive bourbon to Cyrus for a chitchat. How did he know that Vargas was “the one”? And Fitz? “Some people have it. A brilliancy. Charisma. Breeding. Of course a strong jaw and glorious hairline don’t exactly hurt either,” he says.

Cyrus immediately susses out the fact that Abby is considering running for office. He thinks she’d make a great candidate (she’s got the hair for it). But he warns her that Fitz will feel abandoned and be unsupportive. And she’ll leave behind a piece of herself with him forever.

In the Oval Office, Abby gazes at a picture of herself and Fitz laughing when the president walks in bearing a folder. It’s land in Vermont — he really does want to build his library there. It’s close to his daughter’s college, it’s near enough to visit little Teddy… and, of course, it’s Vermont. It was his dream with Olivia. He can finally make that jam.

Abby refuses to hear it. She yells at him to snap out of it and grow up. He will have the power, means, and freedom to do anything he wants — but he wants to retire to Vermont and make jam? No! And she bitterly adds, “Olivia is never going to Vermont for you.”

Fitz angrily dismisses her, and Abby storms off to her office, where she puts in a call to Marjorie: “I’m in.”

Flash to election night: Mellie is gushing about how grateful she is to have a chance to break the ultimate glass ceiling, but her bubble soon bursts when the election is called for Vargas. Marjorie calls Abby at that moment and tells her to prepare — in a few minutes, something upsetting is going to happen but Abby needs to answer her call when it does.

So, now, we’re caught up to the scene we saw at the beginning of the episode. This time, we hear Marjorie’s side of the conversation: She orders Abby to go to the hospital and lock it down. Someone will meet here there with further instructions.

Abby doesn’t want to do it, but Marjorie informs her that the $300 million she accepted was laundered through a North Korean bank. And it would be very easy to tell the FBI about it.

Abby panics as she tries to figure out a way to get to the hospital. She concocts some document that is given to Fitz, so that he’ll tell her to go to the hospital. She marches over there and takes over from Secret Service (as we saw way back in the season premiere).

That certain someone with further instructions shows up… and it’s Meg. Of course. She tells her that three bullets will be removed from Frankie’s body and that Abby needs to steal them and replace them with three sniper bullets. Abby refuses, but Meg shows her a video of a bloodied and bruised Leo. If she doesn’t do what they ask, he’ll die.

Abby again panics — how on earth is she going to manage this? “We believe in you,” Meg says coldly.

Abby asks a doctor about performing an autopsy, but the doctor says that can’t be done until Frankie is declared dead — and Fitz won’t do that just yet. So, she calls in a special military doctor, Major Morales. She basically blackmails him into performing the autopsy, by dangling a transfer to a base in his home state.

Morales begins working on Frankie’s dead body, pulling out the bullets. Abby rats him out to the Secret Service, who escort him away from the room. Abby uses that brief moment of privacy to switch the bullets — but wait, one is missing. It’s still in Frankie’s body! Abby takes a deep breath, puts on gloves, and plunges her hand into his open stomach cavity to pull out the final bullet. She switches all three bullets before Secret Service can catch her.

After giving Meg the old bullets, Abby catches a glimpse of a shell-shocked Cyrus. Then, she promptly throws up in a trash bin.

When she returns home, she finds Leo there. He’s been beaten up, but he’s alive. He doesn’t remember anything, only that cops found him in an alleyway, and believes he was just mugged.

Later, Abby goes to the meeting where Olivia shares the information that points to Cyrus as the person behind Frankie’s assassination. But Abby knows better and confronts Peus and Marjorie about framing Cyrus. They shrug.

Abby can’t sleep at night and goes for a run. Her conscience is clearly gnawing at her. So, in the morning, she goes by David’s house, perhaps to confess everything and get his help. But Marjorie shows up and threatens her and David. And as it turns out, Marjorie is pretending to be “Samantha” and is David’s new girlfriend! Yikes.

After that, we see the scene where Huck tells Abby that Jennifer Fields is alive in exchange for her help in seeing his assassin ex. She uses that info as leverage with Peus and Marjorie — she’ll tell them only if they get Cyrus out of jail. They make a deal.

Flashes show Huck taking Meg to Jennifer’s hotel room, Meg shooting Jennifer and Huck, Abby meeting with Marjorie, and Meg telling Abby, “He’ll have no idea you’re a part of this.”

Abby visits Cyrus and promises, “I’m going to save your life, whatever it takes.” She is a force to be reckoned with.

Scandal airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC. Watch clips and full episodes of Scandal on Yahoo View.

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