Scandal is amazing TV, but morally it’s a hot mess. That was never more apparent than in last night’s episode, which was entertaining as all get-out, but morally nauseating when you stop to think about it for more than one second. Of course, this is a show where murder and torture—often committed by characters we like and sympathize with—are regular fixtures, so last night’s awesome/awful combo is hardly new. But “Like Father, Like Daughter” brought this disconnect to new heights. Not since season 2’s “One for the Dog” has Scandal been so objectively entertaining and yet morally challenged at the same time.

But let’s get started.

Last week, we left Jake Ballard fighting with Olivia’s dad—he’s got evidence that Rowan killed both Harrison and the president’s son, and he’s not afraid to use it, but Rowan isn’t backing down, either. And this week, we open with Jake fearing for his life, walking through a dark parking lot, jumping at shadows, and finally looking at his car. Is it rigged to explode? Jake’s not risking it, so he walks away—just as it explodes.

Papa Pope’s out to kill him.

But that’s only the B plot of this particular episode. The A plot comes when Olivia gets a phone call and jets away to a college party, complete with Jello shots, to pick up the president’s daughter—who’s half-naked and fall-down drunk in a bedroom. Olivia and Quinn manage to sneak her out without any incriminating pictures getting on Instagram—but then, in the helicopter on the way to drop Karen at the White House, they discover a problem: Karen had a drunk three-way at the party, and one of the guys has video.

And that’s just the cold open. Scandal!

Cut to the Oval Office, where Fitz is too angry at Karen for partying to really notice that Olivia, his former mistress and current obsession, is standing in the same room with him. When he discovers that Karen’s night included not just drinking and drugs, but taped sex with two strangers, he gets all quiet for a minute and asks his daughter if she was raped. She rolls her eyes at him and basically says, “Dad, I make my own choices,” and that’s basically the end of that. Olivia and company are dispatched to find and destroy the recording, after which everyone can move on with their lives.

And here’s where the problems start to come in. Because while Karen can make her own choices about sexual activity—and good on Scandal for making that clear—she was too drunk to meaningfully consent, and that means that Fitz is right: she was raped. When asked to identify which two guys at the party she had sex with, Karen can’t remember their faces. She says clearly that she can’t really remember much of what happened. And this is all played off as juicy and entertaining: Isn’t this fun! She can’t even remember the guys! Scandalous!

Things get even worse when they find the boy who made the recording, and discover that his rich parents, who at first seem eager to destroy the evidence and put all this behind them, are in fact using the tape as leverage to extort money from the president. WHICH MAKES NO SENSE. The tape they’re holding is evidence that their son raped the president’s daughter, and if they release it (assuming Karen is underage, which I think she is?) they’d be distributing child pornography, and thus criminals themselves. They should be tripping over themselves to give up the tape and thanking their lucky stars that their son isn’t in jail for rape charges. That no one seems to realize this is infuriating.

Instead of having a meaningful discussion about intoxication and consent, Scandal uses this plotline to a) get Liv and Fitz back in the same room for a lot of heavy breathing, and b) get Mellie to talk about her grief. When Mellie discovers what’s going on with Karen, she realizes that in her grief she’s neglected her children. Later, Karen and Mellie have a heart-to-heart about why Karen really “did this”—apparently it’s all about her sadness at losing her brother.

Meanwhile, as all this is going on, the B plot simmers along. Rowan orders his man in the White House to kill Jake—but Jake convinces him that he’d be better on his side, and eventually the two decide that it’s time to act: show the President evidence of Rowan’s involvement in his son’s death. But Rowan beats them to the punch. He gets the secret service guy in a room, gets him to admit that he killed Jerry Jr., and—in a Jedi mind trick I still don’t fully understand—lie and say that Jake Ballard had him do it.

I’d be lying if I said that this wasn’t compelling TV—it was. Toward the end, I thought a bit of the way The X-Files handled multiple-episode story arcs in its prime. Like that show, Scandal at its best is expert at balancing compelling standalone plots with a simmering B plot that is actually the season’s and series’ A plot, then bringing the “mythology” to the foreground for an extended—and often riveting—run that rounds out the arc. With Jake heading to jail and Rowan consolidating his power, that may be what we’re getting with the next few episodes.

But none of this shakes my current ambivalence about the clumsy way the show handles its content. Scandal treats torture as a plot convenience, milked for gross-out shocks, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised when it plays fast and loose with consent, too. (Fitz routinely ignores Olivia’s protests, and did so last night.) Still, at least the show calls torture torture, and recognizes that waterboarding qualifies. Last night, the show didn’t even acknowledge rape for what it was. Not good.

Other stuff:

• Rowan may be an evil genius, but if he got the better of Jake it is at least in part because Jake is a total dumbshit. He had so many opportunities to reveal what he knew, but chose not to either because someone got a call (Olivia) or because someone was in a hurry to get somewhere else (Fitz). Come on, be more forceful, Jake! What you’ve got to say is more important than whatever they’ve got going on. “Olivia, your dad killed Harrison.” “Mr. President, Rowan killed your son.” Just blurt it out! I feel bad that you’re going to jail and all, but that shit’s on you.

• Mellie and Karen’s heart-to-heart was nice enough I guess, but this being Mellie it still includes the words “You’re just going to have to keep your knees shut, honey.”

• The appearance of the Liv and Fitz music is by now such a fixture of the show that I can predict exactly when it will come on—but if they ever found a new song for these two, I’d probably complain. Never change, Scandal! (Except in all the other ways I’ve detailed above.)