Scandal season 7, episode 13 recap: Air Force Two

When Air Force Two is hacked, everyone springs into action to save the plane. Find out what else you missed with our Scandal recap and review.

Instead of hosting the Al Smith dinner, Mellie sends Cyrus to Lisbon to attend the digital piracy summit with David Rosen. Cyrus rails against Mellie for edging him out and letting Jake take his place. As David prepares to leave, he invites Abby to dinner at a fancy restaurant. She thinks he’s going to propose, so Huck and Charlie volunteer to check his credit card charges and browser history to find out. Once he’s on the plane with Cyrus, the plane gets hacked almost as soon as they take off, and they lose control of Air Force Two.

Safely on the ground, Olivia takes food to her mother and agrees to hang out on her birthday. She receives a few calls but turns her phone off. QPA watches the White House briefing as Mellie springs into action. She tells Jake to get creative in establishing a connection with the plane as they watch from the situation room while the plane turns around. Cyrus learns that his secretary’s laptop was stolen the day prior, which explains how the virus made it on the plane.

Then, Mellie surmises that the plane will be used to attack. Cyrus tells David that he thinks Jake is responsible and tells him to trust no one. They approach the lieutenant on the plane to send the virus and a message to QPA, so they can help.

Mellie grows suspicious of Jake as well. He insists that there are easier ways to kill Cyrus, but she kicks him out of the situation room anyway.

As Mellie tries to get Olivia on the phone, Olivia’s dinner with her mother goes sideways quickly. Her mother asks why Olivia feels so guilty and pegs it on her recent experience with Annalise. Olivia gets frustrated and turns her phone back to see all the missed calls.

One of the possible options the White House explores includes putting fighter jets in the air. In case of emergency, they will shoot the plane out of the sky, much to everyone’s horror.

SCANDAL – “Air Force Two” – When Cyrus and David embark on a trip to Lisbon for the digital piracy summit, their plane is hacked, leaving their friends and colleagues on the ground little time to save them, on “Scandal,” airing THURSDAY, MARCH 8 (9:00-10:00 p.m. EST), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric McCandless)WHITNEY HICE, JOSHUA MALINA /

Before everyone on the plane sits down and fastens their seatbelts, Cyrus tells David to relax. If they freak out and try to reach out to Mellie, she will second-guess herself and run to Jake, who will gain more control of the situation.

Then, Cyrus delivers a speech to the group about patriotism. One of the reporters on the plane pulls out her phone and secretly live streams Cyrus’ speech. “We may not know the banner under which this plane is hijacked, but we can be certain that whomever is behind this attack is an enemy of freedom,” he says. He also explains that the F-15’s are necessary to protect the people and reduce the number of casualties. He asks everyone to consider it an honor and be proud of their sacrifice to keep the country and citizens safe.

While Olivia worries about everyone, Maya tells her that justice is being served to the people who kicked her out. At that, Olivia runs out.

Mellie approaches Jake again to ask if he had any involvement. When he denies it, she invites him back to the situation room and puts the jets on standby.

With 20 seconds left on the clock, QPA races to hack back into a military satellite and regain control of the plane.

Later, David, now safe on the ground again, visits Abby. When Abby tells him to just hurry up and propose, David explains that he wouldn’t do that unless he wanted to scare her away.

At the end of the episode, Olivia gives her mother a one-way plane ticket to Paris, just like she asked. Olivia says she no longer wants to play games, then visits Cyrus and correctly guesses that he set up the Air Force Two attack himself. In order to make himself look like a national hero before his presidential bid, Olivia realizes that he may have a plan to take Mellie out of the White House sooner rather than later.

Well played, Scandal, well played.

From the looks of it, this episode set up the final arc of the series, which will put us right back where we started: Cyrus vs. Olivia for control of the White House. It’s such a brilliant ending that has unfolded more organically than I expected, considering Cyrus practically fell off my radar. Of course, with our guards down, this also makes him the perfect villain to crawl out of the shadows at the last second. I mean, it all makes sense.

Scandal airs new episodes every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC. Stay tuned after the episode airs for our recap and review of each new episode right here on FanSided.