My reaction after finishing Scandal Season 3 Episode 17 can be summed up in three words:

What. Just. Happened?

Clearly, I know what I just saw but my mouth is hanging open at the fact that we have ONE episode to go and everything just got (more) awesome on Scandal. And by more awesome I, of course, mean more crazy. 

You guys, Cyrus Beene will stop at NOTHING to squash Sally Langston. 

Watch Scandal Season 3 Episode 17 Online

Cyrus Beene, to stop Sally Langston from being elected, will blow up an entire church full of innocent people just to make sure the woman dies. But Sally and Leo did try to determine whether Jerry Jr. is Fitz' son by getting a private school co-ed to sleep with him for a DNA sample. Leo at least might deserve it.

But after this, if Fitz wins, because who else could run against him, it effectively means Fitz won't win the election on his own merit.

Again.

It's also pretty convenient for Team Grant that Andrew Nichols is in the church for the Senator's funeral, too, because with him out of the way, Mellie can be put back in her cage. 

Or can she?

I have to say, there's a part of me that seriously wants to hate on Cyrus for what he's about to do, but there's another part of me that positively reveled in watching him practically skip down the White House halls, a smirk on his face the whole way. I don't love that he's a political animal so concerned with staying in the White House that he'll go to this extreme, but Jeff Perry plays evil genius like no other.

He joins Huck and Quinn this episode as the only three people who have anything to be happy about. That midday romp on the hood of the car in broad daylight between Huckleberryquinn put a little more pep in their step. And it put a crick in my neck from the way I had to tilt my head to the side to watch that go down.

It also allowed Maya Pope to walk right into OPA and stab/shoot/injure Papa Pope, but hey, spies need love, too, right?

Seriously, I can't decide if I'm grossed out by Huck and Quinn together or if I find it oddly fascinating and sort of weirdly hot to see. It's so...bizarre in a way that makes sense. I'm going to need to see this one play out. Maybe a few more random hookups will tell me if this is a thing that should continue. At least until Charlie finds out and Quinn is forced to choose.

And those weren't even the most interesting and important parts of the night.

After dismantling B613, Olivia earned herself a visit from the President, Cyrus Beene, Jake Ballard, and Papa Pope. It was mighty crowded in her conference room with all the men in her life wondering what the hell she'd been thinking when she'd tried to save every single one of them. (Except Cyrus. Cyrus didn't need--or want--saving.)

Perhaps B613 wasn't such a bad gig after all as allowing them to continue to operate would have stopped the bomb threat before it ever really got off the ground. While the men can't yell at Olivia for trying to pull them all back into the light, she couldn't really see the bigger picture of what B613 did.

They weren't just a group of super spies hellbent on destroying their operatives' lives by making them do things no human should ever have to do in the name of saving the country. Destroyed lives was just sort of a by-product. Collateral damage, if you will, of saving the Republic week after week and going unthanked and unrecognized for their efforts. 

(For the record, I'm not saying what B613 did was right or okay or good. Just that they did what they did and Olivia couldn't know how many missions she might have been compromising when she flipped that switch. It wasn't a smart plan.)

Jake, perhaps because he's the new Command, was able to tell Olivia things about her father and the way he would treat her that only he would know because it's how he was taught. Rowan will always, first and foremost, look after Rowan.

Olivia should have known that when her father shot a man in cold blood practically in front of her. She took a gamble that her mother wouldn't blow her up in Ohio, a huge gamble considering the man her father shot had been her mother's lover. A lover Maya Pope willingly let die because he had been compromised or was no longer useful to her.

And then she walked into Olivia's office like she owns the place and somehow managed to put Rowan Pope in critical condition.

Maya Pope is stone cold. 

The Jake-Olivia-Fitz thing is just tired. It's weary right now. Jake is calling her out on the things he knows she feels and he's making her examine herself and that's not a bad thing. But then all Fitz has to say is "I miss you" and she's practically eating out of his hands. It's maddening!

It's going to be interesting to see how Fitz will react when the truth about Big Jerry's raping Mellie and Jerry Jr's DNA tests come out, and it feels like they will at some point. If Mellie's allowed to sweep everything under the rug and continue to pretend like it never happened then the last 15 years will be moot no matter what. 

Mellie needs to tell someone the truth, whether that's Olivia or Fitz or a therapist. She acknowledged that Big Jerry had been her cross to bear, but whether Olivia put it together that Mellie meant he raped her or she's just thinking the two had consensual sex is probably a plot point for future episodes, either next week's or in the following season.

Poor Harrison being held at gunpoint my Adnan Salif. Poor, poor, Harrison. 

Next week is the Scandal season finale. Season 3 was intentionally cut short to accommodate Kerry Washington's real-life pregnancy, which is terrible for us Scandal fans but a really great thinking for the mom to be. We love you, Kerry, even if you guys are going to make us wait an extra long time before we get new episodes.

What did you think of Scandal Season 3 Episode 17? Are Huck and Quinn the weirdest couple you've ever seen? On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst, how bad a person is Cyrus Beene?

Here is your first look at Scandal Season 3 Episode 18:

Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.