Welcome to 'Scandal' - where every episode comes with a jaunty Seventies disco jam and at least someone getting killed or attempted murder. This week the plots are split neatly between White House/Grant family affairs and the investigations and tribulations of the Pope & Associates team, so I'll be recapping on them in even chunks. The episode begins with Mellie filming a documentary in the White House, briefly being interrupted by her Chief of Staff, followed by Cyrus. The documentary feels a touch forced, but we rewind back to fifteen years ago when Fitz and Mellie were young(er) and in love. The pair meet Cyrus for the first time and first realise their White House dreams. As Mellie continues with her documentary in the present, in the past, Cyrus coaches Fitz and Mellie but Fitz rebuffs his father's demands and refuses to use his war hero past as a selling point. In the future, Cyrus and Mellie set up Sally's husband Daniel by hiring a call girl to ensnare him and sending Sally out of state, hoping to derail Sally's Presidential campaign. Fitz and his father have it out in the past, his dad yelling at him and tearing him down, but Fitz is rebellious. Mellie tries to sow the seeds of mistrust in Sally's mind with a fake story, but she's soon left redface when, on camera, she fails to find Fitz in the Oval Office. In the past, the sweet Mellie becomes harder and becomes Fitz's 'handler'. Sally tells Daniel about keeping his hands to himself while Mellie, in the past, manipulates Fitz's verbally abusive father Jerry into becoming agreeable and inadvertently learns that Fitz shot down Flight 522 (Maya's mother's plane). Shockingly, a drunken Jerry attacks Mellie and rapes her. This was both shocking and sickening and the aftermath scene where Fitz tells her his problems while she silently sobs in disgust, is devastating and revelatory to the character. In a stunning monologue in the present, Mellie calls down Fitz for not showing up and tells him that she has given so much to help him and that he treats her terribly. Later, he agrees to work with her and they give a tough interview where Mellie is attacked and Fitz defends her in a genuinely heartwarming moment between the two. In the past, Mellie blackmails Jerry into supporting Fitz in exchange for not revealing the sexual assault that took place. In the present, the documentary goes well, Fitz and Mellie sharing a warm moment ahead of a White House gala. At the gala, Cyrus and Mellie's hired escort Amber has no luck seducing Daniel and James tells Cyrus he was fired. However, Cyrus watches as Daniel begins to flirt a little with James and Cyrus and Mellie realise Daniel might be something other than 100% heterosexual. In the past, Mellie is revealed to be pregnant at a fundraiser for Fitz. Just who is the baby daddy after all? In the present, Quinn is still taking lessons from B613 man Charlie, unaware that he's priming her for a spot on the B613 team, and is disappointed he's now apparently a PI investigating cheating husbands. Liv leaves her apartment, seemingly ignoring Fitz's calls until she breaks and answers him. They argue it out over the phone over the death of Liv's mother Maya, love, secrets and betrayal being thrown into the conversation before Liv drops the bombshell that she knows Rowan. At the offices, Liv assigns the team, including Ballard, to investigate her mother and her death. She soon fills them in on Rowan, B613 and everything inbetween, shocking the team a little, particularly when Fitz is revealed to be involved. Huck and Quinn have it out briefly over Quinn being right re: Fitz. The team soon discover that Fitz's dad was the one who covered up the investigation. Abby comforts Liv in the wake of the new news. Awwww! In the evening, Charlie spots Quinn surveiling his own surveillance. He kisses her and leaves her, later ringing her and asking her out. Wow, did not see that one coming! Their date is dark and exciting as Quinn stabs a guard with a syringe in order to access a file - unfortunately the guard dies rather than passes out, Charlie abandons the terrified Quinn, and Quinn skedaddles after trying to revive the poor man. What the hell just happened? Harrison and Abby interview an old flight attendant and discover a man - Omar Dresden - was removed from the flight before it took off, only for his family to believe that he's dead. The team look into Omar, searching around for any information they can get, finding a potential source or two. Meanwhile, it's revealed that the man Quinn accidentally killed was a potential asset for the Pope & Associates team, killed under Charlie and B613's orders, and that Quinn is now a member of the B613 team or else they will release the footage of her killing the man. Uh-oh. At the same time, Fitz discovers that Rowan and Eli Pope are the same man, learning that the B613 chief is in fact Liv's dad. Rowan enters a locked down prison facility where Maya Pope is revealed to be alive, seemingly imprisoned! An absolutely stunning episode and possibly the best since the premiere episode - Bellamy Young takes centre stage and absolutely breaks hearts with her layered and beautifully tragic performance as Mellie. Mellie has, for too long, been a Lady Macbeth figure, and to see her transform from a sweet, loving wife into the colder, manipulative woman we know today is devastating. The rape/attack scene and the one immediately after it are horrifying and entrancing in equal measure. The Maya Pope plotline is also in fantastic form with the Quinn/B613 plotline weaving in seamlessly and revealing that Mama Pope is alive (I knew it!), if not exactly well if the hair is anything to go by. It'll be fantastic to see Khandi Alexander in future episodes. A fantastic episode that is guided by Bellamy Young's performance and which should scoop up her a Primetime Emmy nomination, if all is right in the world. Until next week, gladiators!