SCANDAL: BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE (TV)
Summary
One in this drama/political thriller about the Pope & Associates crisis management firm in Washington D.C.
Olivia arrives late to her date with Jake and apologizes. He ends up taking her to have wine at the Jefferson Memorial, but she cannot resist talking about Wendy and her involvement in something called “Albatross.” Jake explains that someone in the state department was caught selling classified documents to Tehran, but committed suicide the day he was supposed to be arrested. The accompanying suicide note claims that he was framed by an unknown mole known only by the alias “Albatross,” hence the use of the name as an appellation for any unknown saboteur or insider. He does not wish to discuss the matter further with her, preferring to enjoy their date together. She is called away on business and ends their date prematurely. President Grant continues to struggle with the hostage crisis in Kashfar, frustrated at the lack of reliable intelligence about the situation. Jake comes to visit President Grant in the Oval Office; they are apparently old friends who served together in the Navy. David believes that he is being followed by someone and reaches out to Pope & Associates for help. They conjecture that Wendy obtained the flash drive from the “Albatross” informant and was killed when she discovered its contents. Huck works to hack through Pentagon firewalls in order to learn more; they believe that the informant may be the same person who is following David.
President Grant and Jake catch up on old times, and President Grant laments the feeling of “isolation” which he experiences in the presidency. It is implied that President Grant is the one who sent Jake to observe Olivia, and Jake reports that Olivia is doing well and keeping busy, although he suspects that she is unhappy due to her break-up with Edison. President Grant does not explain his reasons for establishing the surveillance, although Jake is obedient to his wishes. However, he believes Olivia is “harmless,” although President Grant insists otherwise and says that his interest in Olivia is not personal. The next day, Olivia receives Senator Peter Caldwell at the office; Quinn privately refers to him and his highly Republican family as being part of “the dirtiest political dynasty in history.” Peter is there on behalf of his brother Will, who is campaigning to become governor of North Carolina. His efforts are hampered by tabloids reporting that he is homosexual, although he strongly denies these accusations. Olivia researches Will and finds that he has not dated or engaged in sexual relations with anyone in the past decade. Peter’s solution is to find a “fake wife” for Will in order to win back the trust of conservative voters and supporters. The rest of the Caldwell family is marred with various scandals and Will’s apparent celibacy is no exception; Olivia tells him that if he were gay she could help him, but his lack of relationships, sexual or otherwise, is extremely difficult from a political perspective. In light of this argument, Will acquiesces to Peter and Olivia’s plan, and Olivia and her team begin interviewing prospective “wives.”
While waiting for Huck to inspect his car for listening devices, David waits in the Pope & Associates office. Abby is the only other person there, and they end up having sex in the office. President Grant demands that his staff uncover the security leak in his organization. A hostage video is sent out by the kidnappers and broadcast over every major news network wherein they reissue their demands and executive one of the hostages by slitting his throat. Jake continues to spy on Olivia and calls her to ask her out on a second date, believing that their first date was inadequate. She tells him she would prefer not to date at this time but does not explain why, hanging up on him. Cyrus believes that the United States should authorize drone strikes against Kashfar in order to respond to the hostage execution. Mellie offers to pass along Cyrus’s idea and says she will get President Grant to start listening to him again. David teaches his class and notices a dodgeball slamming into the classroom window at one point, furthering his paranoia. Huck is watching him from his car the entire time.
Abby, Harrison, and Quinn look on as Will talks with one of their prospective candidates. Abby warns her that although a political marriage has advantages, she would be ceaselessly scrutinized and that she would lose agency over her own life. The drone strikes take place in Kashfar, meeting with approval from the American people. President Grant demands that that Kashfari Prime Minister find and recover the hostages in 72 hours. Cyrus discovers that Mellie took credit for his idea to implement the drone strikes. Olivia discovers that Abby drove away their prime candidate for Will’s political marriage and berates her for hindering their efforts. Abby implies that she was once in a political marriage and that she suffered greatly for it, both physically and mentally. Olivia seems to accept this explanation. While leaving the school, David has a feeling he is being followed again and calls Huck, who does not answer his phone. Huck apparently is suffering from a fear of water as a consequence of being waterboarded, explaining his refusal to shower for the past few days and his inability to leave his car during a rainstorm. David is left to fend for himself and snatches a woman following him who claims that she knows who killed Wendy.
David takes the woman, Molly, back to Pope & Associates, where Olivia and the team interrogate her. Molly claims to be Wendy’s best friend and says she witnessed her fighting with the man who eventually killed her, although she does not know his name; he apparently witnessed her and knows that she can identify him. She is frightened that she will be killed next and Olivia offers to protect her for the time being. Olivia discovers that President Grant has just agreed to be the keynote speaker in a major fundraiser hosted by the Caldwell family on Will’s behalf. Olivia visits Cyrus and tries to get him to send someone else from the White House to the fundraiser instead, but Cyrus admits that he knew nothing about it and that he is no longer being informed of the administration’s decisions. He is frustrated that he has placed his confidence in Mellie and vents his frustrations to Olivia. Olivia advises him to leave Mellie alone, believing that her meddling will eventually lead to her own defeat. Jake spies on their conversation and become suspicious about several of Olivia’s remarks about President Grant. Olivia and her team find an elementary school teacher from Nebraska as a candidate for Will’s political marriage, and Olivia is confident that she will be perfect for the family’s highly conservative sensibilities.
The mother of one of the hostages speaks out publicly against the drone strikes, believing that they will be ineffective in securing the hostages and that they cause unnecessary destruction in the region. Cyrus and Mellie discuss the story and Cyrus intentionally tells her that the government is back-channeling with the Kashfari political regime. Mellie devises a plan to have the families of the hostages call in to a private conference call so that she can help calm them and help shore up President Grant’s declining approval rating. Cyrus tells her that he approves of her plan. While preparing to attend the fundraiser Olivia receives a call from Harrison, telling her that one of the women they interviewed for Will went to a tabloid newspaper editor and reported on the “audition” process. The story is set to run the following morning and Harrison scrambles to try to convince the editor otherwise. Cyrus informs a news reporter about Mellie’s plans for the conference call and gives her the means to listen in on it without her knowledge. Harrison convinces the editor of the tabloid to “hone” the story before publishing it, and the man is interested in what he has to say.
At the fundraiser, Will seems to be getting along with the woman selected as his “wife.” President Grant goes up to deliver the keynote address. Abby and David have sex in his car, although both insist that they are unwilling to rekindle their relationship with each other. Jake calls Olivia and again tries to get her to go out with him. She is rather bemused by his efforts but is cut off by a message from Harrison, who tells her that he was successful in killing the story. However, he reveals that the source of the story was actually from within the Caldwell family itself, and Olivia soon discovers that Will is actually in love with Marion, Peter’s wife; she sees them embracing each other in a garden out of sight from the fundraiser. Marion runs off and Olivia approaches Will, demanding that he end his affair with Marion. Will says he cannot because they have been in love with each other since the day he met her. He feels that even though Peter loves her, “we have what we have” and it is sufficient for him. Olivia counters that he is ignoring his own life by pursuing Marion, leaving him “frozen in time” instead of cultivating his own marriage and family; she repeats her demand to end the affair.
Quinn can no longer stand the stench emanating from Huck due to his refusal to bathe, and finally tells him that his body odor is offensive. She figures out that this is due to his trauma from being waterboarded, although he insists that he will be fine once it stops raining. She tells him that it is not as simple as that and offers to help him. President Grant calls Mellie into his office and is angry about her conference call, informing her that a reporter leaked the entire thing to the news. He is furious that her actions inadvertently revealed military secrets to the public and made it seem as though the administration was willing to negotiate with terrorists. Mellie realizes that Cyrus is responsible for this outcome. President Grant has Cyrus arrange press corps meetings to try to stem the damage from this incident. Olivia calls back Jake and finally accepts his offer for a second date. Peter thanks Olivia for her help and reveals that he has known about Will and Marion’s affair for many years but didn’t confront Will about it for fear that he would ruin his political career and fight over her. Huck decrypts the files on the flash drive and discovers that they contain the CIA files on the hostages in Kashfar. This proves that “Albatross” is not only Wendy’s killer but also the person who leaked the files to the terrorists. Molly sees Grayden Osborne, director of the CIA, on a television press conference and claims that he is Wendy’s killer. Osborne delivers a report to President Grant claiming that the CIA is not responsible for the security leak. He leaves and Jake comes back in at his behest. President Grant demands to know who Olivia is dating, but Jake lies and tells him she is not seeing anyone, deducing that his interest in Olivia is personal after all. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: February 21, 2013 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:57:56
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 111933
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: LGBT Collection - Drama; African-American Collection - Drama; Drama, mystery/suspense; Politics
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2012-2018
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CREDITS
- Mark Wilding … Executive Producer
- Betsy Beers … Executive Producer
- Shonda Rhimes … Executive Producer, Created by
- Tom Verica … Co-Executive Producer
- Mark Fish … Co-Executive Producer
- Judy Smith … Co-Executive Producer
- Jenna Bans … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- Scott Collins … Producer
- Heather Mitchell … Producer
- Merri D. Howard … Producer
- Holden Chang … Associate Producer
- Peter Noah … Consulting Producer
- Randy Zisk … Director
- Chad Fischer … Music by
- Kerry Washington … Cast, Olivia Pope
- Columbus Short … Cast, Harrison Wright
- Darby Stanchfield … Cast, Abby Whelan
- Katie Lowes … Cast, Quinn Perkins
- Guillermo Diaz … Cast, Huck
- Jeff Perry … Cast, Cyrus Beene
- Joshua Malina … Cast, David Rosen
- Bellamy Young … Cast, Mellie Grant
- Tony Goldwyn … Cast, President Fitzgerald Grant III
- Scott Foley … Cast, Jake Ballard
- Eric Mabius … Cast, Peter Caldwell
- Kurt Fuller … Cast, Grayden Osborne
- Sam Page … Cast, Will Caldwell
- Lisa Sheridan … Cast, Marion Caldwell
- Mageina Tovah … Cast, Molly
- Joe Holt … Cast, Defense Secretary
- Kelsey Crane … Cast, Gayle Livingston
- Sarah Hudson … Cast, Erin Brill
- Tessa Munro … Cast, Mallory Blanchard
- Aimee Parker … Cast, Anne Beddoes
- Troy Vincent … Cast, National Security Advisor
- J. René Peña … Cast, Louise
- Jay Jackson … Cast, News Anchor
- Erica Shaffer … Cast, TV Anchor
- Mel Fair … Cast, White House Reporter
- James McAndrew … Cast, Editor
- Shannon C. Sullivan … Cast, Mother
- Christopher Maleki … Cast, Terrorist
- Heather Olt … Cast, Page
- Philip Asta … Cast, American Man
- Shainu Bala … Cast, Darren