Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) is a QUEEN! “Scandal” fans have seen her lay down the law with criminals and politicians, but in episode 13 she managed to completely ruin her black market sale to Iran – unfortunately the auction for her went right back up, though.

The Season 4 episode kicked off with Olivia’s captors meeting with the buyers for the exchange. Olivia took advantage of the language barrier to play both sides. She first told Gus (Chad Donella) that she overheard the buyer saying that they were going to kill them after they handed her over. Olivia then turned to the buyer and told them that Gus’ crew was going to kill them after they got the money. Both parties got scared away and the sale fell through. But Olivia wasn’t off the hook.

At the White House, Mellie (Bellamy Young) was trying to deal with Andrew (Jon Tenney) in order to save her reputation. After expressing her desire to Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) last week to run for President, she had to be sure that Andrew stayed quiet about their steamy affair. She requested that Andrew sign an amnesty deal if Olivia made it back safely – but Andrew still threw a nasty threat at Mellie. He promised her that if he never becomes the President of The United States, he’d make sure that she never does either.

Of course Mellie could not let that stand. She turned to Elizabeth (Portia de Rossi) for help – requesting that she “pay the piper” after she took one for the team and slept with Andrew to protect Elizabeth from Huck’s (Guillermo Diaz) wrath. Elizabeth then turned to Huck and asked him to take care of the situation by doing whatever it is he does. Huck had just made a deal with Quinn (Katie Lowes) to stop killing people and spilling blood, so he refused to help Elizabeth out

While Mellie and Elizabeth dealt with the vice president, Fitz was meeting with the CIA and other top officials about extracting Olivia. He was warned that there was only a 30% chance of getting her out – even with the best SEALS on the ground. That was good enough for Fitz, but his decision left everyone shocked. The sale of Olivia could put the nation in serious danger, and the best option was to “neutralize the asset.” That wasn’t something that Fitz was willing to consider … but Cyrus (Jeff Perry) was.

Fitz’ decision left Cyrus seeing red. In a wild daydream, Cyrus imagined himself telling off the president and then quitting. While he didn’t go through with that daydream, he did put something else in motion. Behind Fitz’ back, Cyrus met with the head of the CIA to stop the initial plan of a rescue and move forward with “neutralizing the asset.” Fitz had no idea of the betrayal, but Abby (Darby Stanchfield) knew something was up. Unfortunately for her, Cyrus threatened to have her arrested if she went anywhere near Fitz with news of the plan to kill Olivia.

Hope for Olivia briefly returned when her captors put her up for auction again. Huck logged back into the auction to bid on his boss under her mother’s old terrorist name, Marie Wallace (Khandi Alexander). The auction came down to a tie between Marie Wallace and Russia for $2 billion. Olivia’s captors asked for her opinion, and when she tried to sway them for Marie Wallace, Gus knew that something was up. Huck, Jake (Scott Foley) and Quinn lost the auction to Russia.

With Olivia gone, Huck wanted to take out his frustration – so he took Elizabeth up on her offer. He kept his promise to Quinn by not spilling any blood, and instead chose to inject Andrew with a serum to give him a stroke. Meanwhile, Jake chose to take another route – Papa Pope (Joe Morton). Thanks to Marie Wallace, Jake was able to locate Papa Pope in Canada. He revealed everything that happened to Olivia, but her father didn’t care.

“I don’t have a daughter,” he told Jake. Seems like he’s still mad at her for pulling the trigger last season.

While Jake’s plan fell through, Abby had an idea – and involved Interpol. Unfortunately she was running out of time and couldn’t get in touch with Cyrus to tell him about it. Cyrus was with the director of the CIA to watch Olivia’s hand off, and they were ready to fire a missile. As he watched Olivia get out of the car he began to have second thoughts about “neutralizing the asset.” The CIA director was ready for them to fire when Cyrus stopped them for good – he recognized the person that “bought” Olivia.

Who was it? None other that Stephen Finch (Henry Ian Cusick), Olivia’s associate from Season 1.

“Hi, Stephen,” Olivia said when she came face-to-face with her buyer. When she discovered that he was in charge of the other men at the scene, she took matters into her own hands. She took Stephen’s gun and shot Gus in the knee … then proceeded to kick him repeatedly in the gut.

Stephen managed to pull Olivia off him -- eventually. “It’s okay,” he promised Olivia. “You’re safe. You’re with me. It’s okay, Liv. It’s okay.”

Turns out that Abby was the one that contacted Stephen through Interpol. He managed to swoop in and save Olivia from the auction, and set her up on a helicopter home.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call after Harrison,” he told her before they parted. “I wanted to I just didn’t…”

Olivia begged him to return to Washington. “You can have your old office,” she promised him. “We need your help. We need you.”

But Stephen kindly declined. “I’m happy where I am,” he said.

Episode 13 of “Scandal” ended with Andrew hospitalized after suffering a massive stroke. It was really from Huck, but that the media was reporting that it was related to injuries from the bombing of his motorcade. The U.S. was also ending military operations in West Angola.

But just because Olivia was home didn’t mean that the episode ended on a happy note. After requesting that Jake, Quinn and Huck leave her, Fitz knocked on her door. She let him in, but it wasn’t a joyous reunion. She was appalled that Fitz went to war over her and sacrificed the lives of countless people. Fitz argued that he did it to save her. But Olivia didn’t agree.

“You didn’t save me,” she fired back. “I’m on my own.”

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