Scandal Sneak Peek: Peus' Next Move Concerns Jake

Now that the Mystery Group has made Mellie (Bellamy Young) president-elect on Scandal, it's time to implement step No. 2.

Unfortunately, that involves Jake (Scott Foley). Don't worry, he won't meet the same fate as Lizzie Bear (Portia de Rossi)... or at least not yet. As you can see in our sneak peek from Thursday's episode, Peus (David Warshofsky) stops by OPA to ask Olivia (Kerry Washington) a wee little favor: He wants her to get Jake to remove himself as vice president-elect.

"We both know I'm not going to do that," Liv replies, prompting Peus to whip out photos of Jake cleaning up Elizabeth's body as blackmail. But looks like he hasn't thought this plan through well. Olivia dares him to release the photos because if Jake goes down, then so does Mellie. "You won't get Mellie," she says. "Nobody gets what they want."
Spring TV: Must-see new shows

Is it wise for Liv to go against Peus again -- and so directly? She knows what he's capable of and Rowan (Joe Morton) has been a broken record about her following the Mystery Group's plan. But Morton wants to make it clear that Rowan doesn't actually think staying in line with Peus is the best course of action.
"It's interesting about that whole conflict. There's a point in which in any conflict, there's a winner and a loser," Morton says. "I think all he's saying at the moment is, 'you guys have lost.' That's not to say that what Peus wants to do is the right thing. I'm sure he thinks it's the wrong thing -- not the way to go about it -- but I don't know if he feels like the people who surround Olivia are powerful enough to do anything about it."
Olivia is certainly going to try though, when she comes up with a plan to stall Peus for a bit on Thursday's episode. But will everyone cooperate?
Scandal airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.