SCANDAL: HELL HATH NO FURY (TV)
Summary
One in this drama/political thriller about the Pope & Associates crisis management firm in Washington D.C.
Olivia decides to secret Amanda away to her home to keep her safe for the time being. She and Harrison leave to collect a young man, Travis Harding, from his hotel room after a night of debauchery and bring him to court, where he is to stand trial on rape charges. Olivia manages to slip him out with the aid of a diversion from Harrison. Olivia speaks to Sandra, Travis’s mother and her latest client, a rich woman who believes Travis is not a rapist and hopes to get him off the charges. Sandra hopes Olivia will keep Travis “out of trouble” during the trial, but Olivia refuses to be reduced to “babysitting” him. Sandra partially blames herself for Travis’s irresponsible behavior, and believes that the accuser is merely trying to bilk settlement money out of the rich Harding family. Meanwhile, President Grant struggles to catch up with his morning schedule after waking up late from a restless night. Mellie notes that he has not been sleeping well lately and is concerned about him. Gideon arrives at the office claiming to have a meeting with Olivia, although Quinn desperately tries to get him to go away. Olivia says they have no meeting and that he is to kill his story about Amanda before it goes to print. She demands that he keep Amanda’s story quiet for the next 72 hours in exchange for her providing background information on her.
Amanda arrives at Olivia’s home and Olivia asks her for proof of her affair with President Grant in case the situation ever becomes publicly known. Amanda claims she has something but says she is not ready to disclose it to Olivia. Olivia asks Amanda what her ideal “endgame” scenario is, and she surprises Olivia by asking for a one-on-one meeting with the president alone. Olivia interrupts Cyrus’s lunch with Billy to speak to him about Amanda. She tells him about Amanda’s request, and says that she will be gone for good once it is fulfilled. He tells her about the president’s sleeping problems, but she is seemingly unsympathetic. Olivia and her team meet with Travis’s defense lawyer and they discuss his accuser, Helen Fisher, a young woman who claims that she went home with Travis and was assaulted and raped by him. The lawyer and Olivia both concur that the ultimate outcome of the trial will depend on the jury’s perception of Travis; his usual image is that of a rich, spoiled child. She assigns Harrison to watch over him and forbids him from his usual partying activities. Unable to get any incriminating information on the prosecuting attorney, Olivia turns to Stephen, who analyzes the behavior of the jurors. He notes that ten of the twelve are all-but certain to vote guilty, but points out two who may be persuaded otherwise: a young rebellious graphic artist and an old military man with an apparent distaste for the prosecution. Huck’s investigations reveal that even these two jurors seem convinced that Travis will be jailed. Abby investigates Helen and finds that she is a special education teacher and her conduct is exemplary; the only possible motive they can find for her is her troubled financial situation due to her maxed-out credit cards and heavy student loan debts.
Olivia meets with Sandra again and asks her to settle with Helen out of court, but Sandra refuses. Olivia notes that despite the evidence against Travis the photographs of the bruises on Helen will likely compel to jury to vote against him. Sandra capitulates and Olivia and Stephen offer a settlement deal to Helen in exchange for recusing herself as a witness and dissolving the prosecution’s case. The lawyer is about to accept but Helen refuses, noting that no amount of money is enough to make her forget about the horrific trauma she suffered. Olivia has no answer for her and decides to leave. Cyrus tells President Grant about Olivia’s request and he considers it. Despite the increasingly uncertain situation with Travis’s trial, Olivia refuses to give up. Harrison looks after Travis, but notices him making a suspicious comment while readying himself for trial. Olivia catches Amanda on the phone with Gideon telling him to leave her alone, and she berates Amanda for taking calls from anyone other than her parents and Olivia’s staff. Olivia is convinced that Gideon has learned something to inspire his persistence; Quinn reveals that Gideon has something of a crush on her and believes she can use this to their advantage. Harrison calls Olivia and asks to look into Travis’s finances to see if there are any previous settlement situations in his past. They determine that Travis made a substantial payment to a waitress in Arlington several years ago, Rachel Klein, and that she later committed suicide. This increases the likelihood of Travis’s apparent guilt in Helen’s case.
Cyrus receives an audio file on his personal email and plays it for President Grant. Both of them are quite disturbed by its content, which is apparently a recording of one of his trysts with Amanda. Cyrus believes that Amanda and Olivia are responsible and that they are attempting to blackmail him, but President Grant does not believe him, refusing to believe that Olivia could be behind it. Cyrus warns him that Olivia and Amanda will “ambush” him at the meeting, and that he needs to put his personal feelings aside. Abby discovers that Rachel’s mother has an expensive car in her driveway, and that her daughter apparently went to the same university as Helen. Harrison visits a police forensic scientist in the hopes of obtaining Rachel’s old rape kit. She is happy to assist Harrison and find a modicum of justice for one of the many rape victims she has tried to help over the years. Quinn cannot resist the urge to call Gideon and ask him out on a date. Stephen points out to Olivia that her involvement with Amanda’s case represents a massive conflict of interest. Mellie calls Olivia and insists that she attend a state dinner being held that night, believing that she was accidentally not invited. Harrison confirms that Travis raped Rachel and paid her off. She recanted her story to the police but the trauma took a heavy emotional toll on her psyche, and she eventually committed suicide. Her body was found by Helen, her best friend. Olivia thus establishes Helen’s motive as attempting to get revenge on Travis for raping Rachel.
Olivia informs Sandra and Travis of this development, and Sandra is shocked that her son is a rapist. During trial the defense attorney attempts to discredit Helen’s story by claiming that she was deliberately stalking and attempting to seduce Travis. Olivia becomes disgusted with the proceedings and leaves the trial. She meets with Sandra outside, who talks about what she perceives as her failure as a parent to properly guide Travis in his youth. Sandra is uncertain of what to do, but Olivia tells her that Travis’s actions are not her fault. Quinn arrives at a bar and waits for Gideon to arrive, but Huck shows up instead and pays the bartender to serve Quinn only nonalcoholic beverages while requesting that Gideon receive surreptitious doses of alcohol in his. He also gives Quinn advice about conducting herself, believing that she is in need of the assistance. Later, Olivia arrives at the White House for the state dinner. President Grant and Mellie greet her, although President Grant is surprised to see her there. During the dinner Olivia gets a dance with President Grant and he tries to get her to agree to rendezvous with him in their “spot,” confessing that he still loves her. Olivia makes an effort not to make eye contact with him, believing that it will give away evidence of their affair.
Quinn speaks with Gideon, who believes that the date is a transparent attempt to find incriminating evidence on him. She asks him why he called Amanda, but he insists that while he is digging for information he did not call Amanda personally. Cyrus confronts Olivia in private and accuses her of blackmail and says she is being manipulated by the president. He has her escorted out of the building by secret service agents and tells her that Amanda will no longer get her meeting with President Grant. She immediately goes to visit Sandra and says she was wrong, and that Travis’s behavior is her fault for “fixing” the problems in his life without allowing him to confront them and recognize who he is. Cyrus finds President Grant and tells him that Olivia cancelled the meeting with Amanda, telling him that Olivia has been manipulating him. Sandra and Olivia advise Travis to turn himself in to the police, although he points out that there is not enough substantial evidence to convict him. He suggests going out of the country for a few years until the matter resolves itself, but Sandra tearfully reveals that she has already called the police and given Travis up to them as a pair of officers comes in to arrest him.
President Grant asks Mellie why she invited Olivia to the state dinner, and she merely says that he “needed to see her” and that he should be able to sleep easily from now on. Olivia meets with Gideon and says that he will not get what he wanted on Amanda’s story. Instead she provides him with information on Sandra turning Travis in to the police and assurances of an exclusive interview with Sandra. Quinn tells Olivia that she believes Amanda is lying about having spoken to Gideon on the phone, and that there is something important she is concealing. Olivia speaks to Amanda about the botched meeting, and understands how Amanda feels about being seemingly discarded by President Grant. She asks that Amanda hold nothing back from her so that she can properly help her. Amanda reveals that she is pregnant with what she believes is the president’s child, leaving Olivia speechless. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: April 19, 2012 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:57:46
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 108269
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: LGBT Collection - Drama; African-American Collection - Drama; Drama, mystery/suspense; Politics
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2012-2018
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – Bayer aspirin
- TV – Commercials – Buick automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Capital One credit cards
- TV – Commercials – Chase credit cards
- TV – Commercials – Dixie paper plates
- TV – Commercials – Dr Pepper soft drink
- TV – Commercials – Frontline flea treatment
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- TV – Commercials – LensCrafters eyewear
- TV – Commercials – Marshall’s apparel
- TV – Commercials – Mazda automobiles
- TV – Commercials – McDonald’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Mercedes-Benz automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Nokia phones
- TV – Commercials – Nook tablets
- TV – Commercials – Olive Garden restaurants
- TV – Commercials – One-A-Day multivitamin supplement
- TV – Commercials – Orbit chewing gum
- TV – Commercials – Ore-Ida potato products
- TV – Commercials – PetSmart pet stores
- TV – Commercials – Quilted Northern toilet paper
- TV – Commercials – Samsung phones
- TV – Commercials – Sierra Mist soft drinks
- TV – Commercials – TJ Maxx apparel
- TV – Commercials – Temptations cat treats
- TV – Commercials – Verizon phone service
- TV – Commercials – Victoria’s Secret women’s underwear
- TV – Commercials – Volkswagen automobiles
- TV – Commercials – “Dark Shadows” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “The Cabin in the Woods” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “The Five-Year Engagement” motion picture
- TV – Promos – “Hallmark Hall of Fame: Firelight”
- TV – Promos – “Jimmy Kimmel Live”
- TV – Promos – “Once Upon a Time”
- TV – Promos – “Private Practice”
- TV – Promos – “Scandal”
- TV – Promos – “Shark Tank”
CREDITS
- Mark Wilding … Executive Producer
- Betsy Beers … Executive Producer
- Shonda Rhimes … Executive Producer, Created by
- Judy Smith … Co-Executive Producer
- Jenna Bans … Co-Executive Producer
- Roxann Dawson … Supervising Producer
- Scott Collins … Producer
- Merri D. Howard … Producer
- Heather Mitchell … Co-Producer
- Chris Van Dusen … Co-Producer
- Allison Liddi-Brown … Director
- Matt Byrne … Writer
- Chad Fischer … Music by
- Kerry Washington … Cast, Olivia Pope
- Henry Ian Cusick … Cast, Stephen Finch
- Columbus Short … Cast, Harrison Wright
- Darby Stanchfield … Cast, Abby Wright
- Katie Lowes … Cast, Quinn Whelan
- Guillermo Diaz … Cast, Huck
- Jeff Perry … Cast, Cyrus Beene
- Tony Goldwyn … Cast, President Fitzgerald Grant III
- JoBeth Williams … Cast, Sandra Harding
- Joshua Malina … Cast, David Rosen
- Bellamy Young … Cast, Mellie Grant
- Matt Letscher … Cast, Billy Chambers
- Liza Weil … Cast, Amanda Tanner
- Brendan Hines … Cast, Gideon Wallace
- Curtis Armstrong … Cast, Attorney Cole
- Michael Cassidy … Cast, Travis Harding
- Ellen Woglom … Cast, Helen Fischer
- Jerrika Hinton … Cast, Hannah
- Mina Badie … Cast, Jane Powell
- Chet Grissom … Cast, Charles
- Damien Leake … Cast, Judge Leo Theroux
- Ajarae Coleman … Cast, Meryl
- Frank Novak … Cast, Old Marine Juror
- Rob Welsh … Cast, Goth-Dude Juror
- Mason Rae … Cast, Blonde