SCANDAL: A CRIMINAL, A WHORE, AN IDIOT AND A LIAR (TV)
Summary
One in this drama/political thriller about the Pope & Associates crisis management firm in Washington D.C.
Olivia goes back to her apartment to find Edison waiting for her. He confronts her about her relationship with President Grant, but she rebukes him and tells him that she no longer wants anything to do with him, getting him to leave her apartment. However, Olivia is concerned that Edison is aware that the President has not yet recovered, and she contacts Cyrus about this. Two years ago, about a month before the general election, then-Governor Grant has not yet curried enough favor with the voting public to secure his victory, and Olivia and his other advisors scramble to save his campaign. Hollis reveals to Olivia and Cyrus that he has found a way to rig the election by tampering with electronic voting machines, but they deny his suggestion. Mellie suggests bringing in help from his father, Fitzgerald Grant II, although they note that Governor Grant will strongly resist this notion. He argues with Mellie and Olivia about the matter, and he tries to deflect the issue by bringing Olivia away in private for a sexual encounter. During this, she manages to convince him to change his mind; his father is considered a “national treasure” due to his long political career and favorable standing with the media.
In the present day, President Grant continues to regain consciousness from his bullet wound. He and Mellie become concerned when the doctor explains to him that some of his brain functions may be impaired by his injury, such as decision-making and the ability to speak or write. The doctor says it will be at least three weeks before he is capable of returning to work. Meanwhile, Vice-President Langston holds a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff announcing that she has discovered that the letter reinstating President Grant as active was forged. She is about to pass out a document refuting the letter when an apparently fully recovered President Grant enters the meeting, much to everyone’s surprise. Mellie and Cyrus congratulate him in private, but President Grant is still concerned about Vice-President Langston and reveals that he knows about the forged signature as well. He demands that he be permitted to remain outside of the hospital in order to assert his authority and prevent Langston from taking over. Back in the past, Governor Grant works on his campaign message with his team when his father arrives. Immediately he starts giving Governor Grant advice about his demeanor and behavior, even demonstrating his use of humor to advance his campaign points. Governor Grant quickly becomes frustrated with his father’s presence and over dinner asks him not to accompany them on their next stop in Florida. His father argues that they should “dig up dirt” on Governor Reston, but Governor Grant insists on running a “clean” campaign and mocks his father for having been caught sleeping with a prostitute, thus ruining his chance to run for president. His father amiably leaves for the night, but tells Governor Grant that he is not finished with him.
Everyone returns to their rooms and Governor Grant makes advances on Olivia in the elevator, although she refuses him because he is drunk and depressed. Mellie sees Governor Grant molesting Olivia in the elevator and he meekly gets out. Mellie, taken aback, apologizes to Olivia and says that Governor Grant needs her to succeed in the election. In the present, President Grant attempts to contribute to military intelligence meetings but his condition makes it difficult for him to communicate properly. In the past, Governor Grant’s father reads him the riot act about his refusal to use underhanded tactics in his campaign. He manages to cajole him into compliance, much to Olivia and Cyrus’s surprise. Olivia assembles Harrison, Abby, and Huck in a diner; the latter three are meeting for the first time and are somewhat off-put by Huck’s disheveled appearance. She asks them to dig up dirt on Governor Reston’s campaign. However, they are unable to find anything substantial. In private Hollis again brings up the possibility of election rigging to Olivia, Cyrus, and Verna, noting that Governor Grant is “the real deal” and a “patriot,” believing that his exemplary character would make him a legendary president. Olivia suspects that Hollis has ulterior motives, and Hollis decides to include Mellie in the plot.
Back in present-day, Vice-President Langston informs Hollis that President Grant has not given approval to airstrikes in East Sudan, and Hollis advises her to wait for him to make a fatal misstep. In the past, Governor Grant’s campaign manages to curry more favor in polls with the help of his father, but it is still not enough to get him elected. Grant becomes increasingly irritable and despondent, even yelling at the crew setting up his latest town hall-style debate. Olivia and Governor Grant argue about his failing campaign and his motivation to assume the presidency. She implores him to open up to the American people and expose his character to them. In the present, Cyrus brings in Olivia to help President Grant, who is worsening his condition by constantly working and by arranging a press conference. Olivia is unable to persuade him not to do the press conference, as he still feels that he must reassure the public of his wellbeing. Back in the past, Olivia and her team manage to discover that Governor Reston has had a long-concealed prescription for antidepressants. Governor Grant’s father advises that they conceal this information until the final debate with Reston, whereupon he will work it into one of his answers.
He goes up for the debate and Governor Reston again prods at him, believing that Governor Grant cannot relate to the American public due to his privileged upbringing. When he receives a question about the military and his fitness to command the armed forces, he decides to ignore his father’s advice and does not use his knowledge about Reston’s prescription, instead opting to give a heartfelt, honest answer about the fear he felt serving in the Navy and expresses his belief that he gained compassion and humility from his experiences, making him ideal to serve as commander-in-chief. Backstage, his father mocks him for this approach but Governor Grant stands up to him and claims that he is “small,” and that he no longer wishes to emulate him. In the present-day, President Grant holds his press conference and briefly freezes up before expressing his willingness and fitness to continue his presidency. Later, Vice-President Langston visits President Grant in his office, congratulating him for choosing the correct strategy for dealing with the East Sudan crisis. She offers him a copy of a letter she has written accepting his re-instatement, claiming that she did what she did solely out of concern for the American people.
In the past, one week before the general election, Hollis convenes with his co-conspirators to again suggest that they carry out his election rigging scheme. Olivia finds that everyone else has been promised positions of importance in Grant’s cabinet if he wins, and they ask her what she wants if he becomes president. She still refuses to go along with it, although everyone else appears to be in agreement that they should go forward with the idea. She goes to see Governor Grant, who tells her that his father has just died from a heart attack. This news leaves him quite distraught. They attend his funeral, and later Olivia finds Governor Grant chopping wood at his father’s house; he notes that the kind words he said in the eulogy were a lie and that he is “relieved” that he is dead. However, his frustration and emotion are evident and Olivia provides him with comfort. In the present, Olivia returns to her apartment and finds that Edison is again waiting for her. He apologizes for suggesting that she and President Grant had a sexual relationship and says he was wrong to accuse her in this manner. She believes he is lying but he confesses that he is in love with her and asks her to marry him.
Mellie attends to President Grant in bed, expressing relief that their lives are returning to normal. She points out that his approval rating has skyrocketed due to his seemingly miraculous recovery and that he has enough political clout to get anything he wants; he surprises her by telling her that he wants to divorce her. In the past, Olivia and Grant’s other campaign advisors tell him that their main obstacles to ensuring his election are a handful of seemingly unimportant counties in Ohio; the election has become extremely close. Secretly Cyrus tries to convince Olivia to go along with Hollis’s plan; they both express distaste for him but Cyrus believes that they need his support and his plan in order to get Governor Grant elected. The day before the general election Olivia finally decides to go along with the election rigging scheme. Hollis places a telephone call and puts the plan into motion. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: January 17, 2013 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:57:56
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 114348
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Drama; LGBT Collection - Drama; Drama, mystery/suspense; Politics
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2012-2018
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – AT&T phone service
- TV – Commercials – Advil pain relief
- TV – Commercials – Aflac insurance
- TV – Commercials – Applebee’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Apple smartphones
- TV – Commercials – BMW automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Campbell’s soup
- TV – Commercials – DiGiornio pizza
- TV – Commercials – Droid smartphones
- TV – Commercials – Ensure nutrition shake
- TV – Commercials – Ethan Allen furniture
- TV – Commercials – Fancy Feast cat food
- TV – Commercials – H&R Block tax services
- TV – Commercials – Lean Cuisine prepared meals
- TV – Commercials – McDonald’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Robitussin cough syrup
- TV – Commercials – Roc skin cream
- TV – Commercials – Sears department stores
- TV – Commercials – Special K breakfast cereal
- TV – Commercials – Target department stores
- TV – Commercials – Tempur-Pedic mattresses
- TV – Commercials – Toyota automobiles
- TV – Commercials – TurboTax tax service software
- TV – Commercials – UPS shipping services
- TV – Commercials – Wal-Mart department stores
- TV – Commercials – “Bullet to the Head” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Gangster Squad” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Silver Linings Playbook” 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 – “Shark Tank”
- TV – Promos – “The Makeover”
- TV – Promos – “The Oscars”
- TV – Promos – “The Taste”
- TV – Promos – “Zero Hour”
CREDITS
- Mark Wilding … Executive Producer
- Betsy Beers … Executive Producer
- Shonda Rhimes … Executive Producer, Created by
- Tom Verica … Co-Executive Producer
- Jenna Bans … Co-Executive Producer
- Judy Smith … Co-Executive Producer
- Mark Fish … Co-Executive Producer
- Scott Collins … Producer
- Heather Mitchell … Producer
- Merri D. Howard … Producer
- Holden Chang … Associate Producer
- Peter Noah … Consulting Producer
- Stephen Cragg … 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
- Kate Burton … Cast, Vice President Sally Langston
- Gregg Henry … Cast, Hollis Doyle
- Debra Mooney … Cast, Verna Thornton
- Barry Bostwick … Cast, Fitzgerald Grant II
- Tom Amandes … Cast, Governor Samuel Reston
- Norm Lewis … Cast, Senator Edison Davis
- Jeanette Brox … Cast, Rona
- Joe Holt … Cast, Defense Secretary
- Virginia Louise Smith … Cast, Secretary of State
- Kavita Patil … Cast, Chief of Surgery
- Brian Patrick Mulligan … Cast, Jim Grefski
- Carrie Armstrong … Cast, Jessica
- Reece Rios … Cast, Reporter Peter
- Dinora Walcott … Cast, Reporter Carol
- Steve Stapenhorst … Cast, Debate Moderator
- Shirley Jordan … Cast, Moderator