SCANDAL: NOBODY LIKES BABIES (TV)
Summary
One in this drama/political thriller about the Pope & Associates crisis management firm in Washington D.C.
Before Charlie can carry out his mission, Huck gets into the elevator with him and Hollis. He pulls a gun on Charlie, much to Hollis’s confusion. He explains that Olivia wants Hollis alive, but that he cannot bring himself to kill Charlie at the present time. They both agree to Huck’s demands and the situation is defused momentarily. President Grant and Mellie pose for photographs with their newborn son, who has not yet been given a name. The photographers leave and President Grant discusses the divorce with Mellie again, hoping to be able to see the child after the divorce. Mellie refuses to agree to a divorce, but President Grant continues to insist upon it. Olivia informs Cyrus that Hollis didn’t order President Grant’s assassination, and he realizes that he nearly had an innocent man killed and admits that he abused his authority. Olivia is having second thoughts about revealing the election rigging conspiracy, realizing that President Grant would be the only one adversely affected by it. President Grant walks in on the conversation and Cyrus leaves them alone. President Grant begins kissing Olivia but she pulls away, reminding him that they cannot be together since she is marrying Edison and he is still married to Mellie. He reveals that Mellie had her doctor induce an early birth in order to use the child to blackmail President Grant into staying with her; he notes that he is going forward with his plans to divorce Mellie regardless of Olivia’s plans. He asks her to wait for him, but she is still unsure of what she will do.
Olivia and her team attempt to figure out who actually hired Becky to kill President Grant, and how to get Hollis arrested for his crimes, including the Cytron explosion. Olivia pieces together various bits of evidence and her own recollections about the election rigging conspiracy, realizing that Verna is the one who hired Becky. She visits Verna in the hospital, where her condition is rapidly deteriorating, and confronts her with her conclusions. She admits that she did what she did in order to “save America’s soul,” frustrated with the various deceptions surrounding the Grant administration such as Olivia’s affair and the election rigging. She also notes that she felt she had nothing to lose after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Olivia accuses her of attempting to preserve her legacy instead of confessing to her part in the conspiracy. Unfazed, Verna dares Olivia to turn her in to the authorities, but Olivia responds with silence and leaves the hospital. After she leaves, Verna places a call to David and he goes to visit her but is prevented from seeing her, as President Grant has already gone to visit her himself. Olivia reconvenes with her team and tries to determine how they are going to get the truth out of David. She reveals that she planted a listening device in David’s apartment and recorded audio of him, including his interactions with Abby. The man Olivia hired brings the audio to them in the form of a number of CDs, and the team starts combing through them to find anything useful.
Verna’s condition becomes worse and she dies, mourned by a large number of supporters. Mellie approaches Cyrus about her efforts to stave off the divorce, and she threatens to do everything in her power to discredit President Grant and reveal his various infidelities if he goes through with it. David approaches James for further help, but he is occupied with his new baby and says he will no longer support David’s cause. David is determined to go through with his investigation with or without James’s help. Huck finds audio of David demonstrating the use of the tampered voting machine memory card to Alissa. Abby believes that David is keeping the memory card in his wall safe and volunteers to break into it despite Olivia’s reluctance to send her. David sends James a subpoena to appear before a grand jury, and James tells Cyrus about this, accusing him of rigging the election and believing that he may be sent to jail in his place. They argue about what course of action to take, and James cannot think of a scenario that does not involve at least one of them going to prison. James confronts him over the election rigging, and Cyrus asks him to disrobe to make certain that he is not wearing a wire. They continue arguing and both of them end up disrobing, and it appears that neither one is wearing any listening devices. Cyrus claims he had nothing to do with rigging the election, but James does not believe him and says that Cyrus gave him the baby in order to distract him from his investigation; he accuses Cyrus of being a “political animal” with no moral compass. Cyrus becomes emotional and finally admits to taking part in the election rigging and goes on a tirade about how he should have been president, but would not have been permitted to do so due to his homosexuality. He notes that his current position is as good as he could have hoped for, and that he felt that he could not let anything jeopardize his position of power. The baby starts crying and James tells Cyrus he will sleep in her room; he says that while he loves Cyrus, he will do what he feels is right, although he does not make it clear what action he will take.
Abby listens to audio of her and David together, recalling memories of her time with him. She confronts Olivia, who admits that she paid Theresa Dunn to tell Abby that David was abusive towards her. Abby is furious and storms out of the office, yelling at Harrison on her way out. Harrison’s faith in what Olivia chose to do is unswerving, even though she did not make the purpose of her plan clear to him. He says that Olivia saved them all and that they owe her, but Abby leaves, still angry. She goes to David’s apartment and he answers the door. He reiterates that he loves her and she rushes into his arms. Cyrus tells Olivia that James is appearing before a grand jury, and she believes that this will expose the entire conspiracy. Cyrus says that he has one last move to make and calls Charlie, telling him that he has an assignment for him. David leaves for the grand jury hearing and Abby is left alone in his apartment, where she contemplates breaking in to his wall safe. Quinn gathers a large sum of money in cash and attempts to hire Huck to kill Hollis, much to his surprise. Charlie stalks James as he is heading into his trial, but Cyrus calls him and pleads with him to hold off for a minute. Cyrus calls James and begs him not to go in to the trial. James refuses, unwilling to go to jail and be separated from his daughter. Huck refuses Quinn’s money, but offers to kill Hollis without payment, with the caveat that Quinn will not be able to work for Pope & Associates anymore should he succeed, as they would not condone her desire for revenge. Ultimately Cyrus stops Charlie moments before he can kill James. Quinn is convinced not to have Hollis killed.
Olivia believes that James’s testimony signals the end of Pope & Associates and breaks out a bottle of wine, asking Harrison to drink with her. James takes the stand and David questions him about his investigation in Defiance, but James claims that he found nothing of interest there. David, surprised, accuses James of lying under oath, but James blames the whole thing on a “farfetched theory” harbored by David that he was investigating. David becomes enraged and demands that James tell the truth, but James sticks to his story. Later David finds Abby at the Pope & Associates office and confronts her, telling her that the memory card he had in his safe is missing, accusing her of taking it. Abby claims that she had nothing to do with it, but David is unconvinced and thinks that her love for him was part of an elaborate lie. He says they are “done” and leaves, causing Abby to start crying. After he leaves she produces the memory card, which she had hidden on her person; she notes that she put her feelings for David aside in order to help all of them. Later, Olivia is visited by Edison on the day of Verna’s funeral. She gives back the ring he got for her, explaining that while she would be happy being his wife she doesn’t want to do so, and that she is “not built for” an idyllic life and prefers “painful, extraordinary” love. Edison tells her that “love isn’t supposed to hurt” and leaves.
At Verna’s funeral, Olivia tells President Grant that she gave back Edison’s ring and that she has decided to wait for him. However, he says he changed his mind, claiming that both he and Olivia believe that his presidency is more important than anything else. As he delivers her eulogy, President Grant recalls his final interaction with Verna in the hospital. While dying, Verna admits that she hired Becky to assassinate him and tells him about the conspiracy to rig the election in his favor. President Grant is quite shocked at this revelation, particularly at the fact that Olivia was involved in the conspiracy. He is disgusted that her seat on the Supreme Court was so important to her that she would rather have him killed than confess to her wrongdoing. She replies that she no longer sees that as being important and tells him that she is meeting with David right after him to give him a full confession. He promises to respect her long career and honor her legacy in his eulogy before removing her breathing mask, causing her to die from asphyxiation. Later, in the Oval Office, President Grant speaks to Mellie alone, explaining that he initially believed that she was the one who tried to have him killed. He commends her for her constant honesty and asks her if she loves him. She tells him that she does, and that despite everything she has never abandoned him. He indicates that he has changed his mind about divorcing her, and that he intends to remain with her no matter what happens. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: February 7, 2013 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:59:56
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 111934
- 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 – AT&T phone service
- TV – Commercials – Abreva cold sore cream
- TV – Commercials – Allstate insurance
- TV – Commercials – Ashley furniture
- TV – Commercials – Crest whitening strips
- TV – Commercials – H&R Block tax services
- TV – Commercials – Honda automobiles
- TV – Commercials – JCPenney department stores
- TV – Commercials – KY personal lubricant
- TV – Commercials – Kay jewelers
- TV – Commercials – Lincoln automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Mazda automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Nationwide insurance
- TV – Commercials – Olive Garden restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Ore-Ida french fries
- TV – Commercials – Outlook.com email service
- TV – Commercials – Prego pasta sauce
- TV – Commercials – Subaru automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Target department stores
- TV – Commercials – Verizon phone service
- TV – Commercials – Windows smartphones
- TV – Commercials – “A Good Day to Die Hard” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Escape from Planet Earth” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Peter Pan” home video release
- TV – Commercials – “Safe Haven” motion picture
- TV – Promos – “Body of Proof”
- TV – Promos – “Jimmy Kimmel Live”
- TV – Promos – “Once Upon a Time”
- TV – Promos – “Red Widow”
- TV – Promos – “Revenge”
- TV – Promos – “Scandal”
- TV – Promos – “The Oscars”
- TV – Promos – “Zero Hour”
CREDITS
- Betsy Beers … Executive Producer
- Shonda Rhimes … Executive Producer, Created by
- Mark Wilding … Executive Producer, Writer
- Mark Fish … Co-Executive Producer
- Jenna Bans … Co-Executive Producer
- Judy Smith … Co-Executive Producer
- Tom Verica … Co-Executive Producer, Director
- Scott Collins … Producer
- Heather Mitchell … Producer
- Merri D. Howard … Producer
- Holden Chang … Associate Producer
- Peter Noah … Consulting Producer
- 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
- Debra Mooney … Cast, Verna Thornton
- Gregg Henry … Cast, Hollis Doyle
- Dan Bucatinsky … Cast, James Novak
- Norm Lewis … Cast, Edison Davis
- Brenda Song … Cast, Alissa
- Sam McMurray … Cast, Pat Wexler
- George Newbern … Cast, Charlie
- Cullen Douglas … Cast, Steve Doherty
- Susan Pourfar … Cast, Becky Flynn
- Duncan Bravo … Cast, Dr. Naveen Patel
- Samantha Sloyan … Cast, Jeannine
- Bill Seward … Cast, News Anchor
- Gina Alvarez … Cast, Bailiff
- Lauren Lenhart … Cast, Nurse
- Cecil Burroughs … Cast, Security Guard