We open on Amanda Tanner in Pope Associates’ office. Per normal, the team is watching her
from behind a glass wall. Olivia
pronounces, “We are not voting.”
Amanda is their client.
Meanwhile, Sandra Harding, a powerful CEO, for whom Olivia handles
business matters such as mergers and acquisitions, is begging Olivia to handle
the case in which her son Travis is being accused of rape.
Across town in the presidential master suite, Fitz has slept
in and missed his call with Nelson Mandela, all because Mellie let it happen,
“You were pacing ‘til 4 AM. You needed to rest.”
Things get complicated when the reporter Gideon shows up at
the office expecting a meeting with Olivia. Olivia lays out the consequences of what will happen to this
aspiring cub reporter if he tries to run a story about an intern having sex
with the president of the United States.
Basically, all the big guns will rush in and his scoop will be scooped
from beneath him, so she gets him to promise to keep quiet, stop calling Amanda, and she’ll
reward him in good time.
Back to Amanda Tanner at Olivia’s apartment and Olivia asks
what she asks all her clients, “What’s the end game?” Olivia can make pretty much anything she wants happen…
money, job, relocation… but Amanda wants only one thing. “I want to see the president.” And that’s our Oh! Sure enough,
commercial break.
Cyrus and Billy are lunching at a restaurant when Olivia
walks in and forces Billy to leave so that she can talk to Cyrus
privately. This pushing-around of
Billy is minor business that will pay off with big results in episodes to
come. Cyrus announces, “He
isn’t sleeping.” Olivia replies,
“Not my problem.” Olivia goes on
to deliver the message that Amanda wants ten minutes alone with the
president. Cyrus says fondly, “We
made a president together,” as if he and Olivia are actual parents, adding, “I
miss you.” Message delivered,
Olivia gets up to leave and Cyrus repeats, “He’s not sleeping.” As she walks away, she says, “Neither
am I.”
We then have a montage of the client’s case, with Olivia
stating, “It all comes down to perception.” She attempts to get info from the DA but her charms fail as
he categorically states, “We are not friends.” Back at the office, Olivia’s team kicks into high gear. Huck learns that the jury is set to
hang Travis as a date raper.
Abbey’s research shows that the rape victim is a saint. Little
Uh Oh! Olivia urges the mother
to settle. At the settlement
conference, the victim refuses, pointedly asking Olivia how much her peace of mind
would cost… would $10 million do it? Ouch!
Commercial break.
We return to the White House where Fitz is in a photo opp
thanking Vets for their service.
When they leave, he comments to Cyrus on the prosthetics that obliged
them to use their left hand in order to shake his hand. Cyrus says, “I wish you were a
cynic. It would make my job
easier.” He delivers the message,
“Amanda Tanner wants a meeting.”
The President asks, “Will Olivia be there?”
At Pope Associates, Olivia is urging her team, “We do not
give up. It’s my name on the door
and I do not give up.”
Harrison helps Travis get dressed for court. The suit is cheap polyester, in an
attempt to make him look less like the spoiled rich brat he is. Travis questions, “Does it matter? They always take the money in the
end.” This leads Harrison to
investigate Travis’ financial history.
Meanwhile, a sex tape featuring the president shows up at
the White House. We assume it is
with Amanda Tanner. Cyrus, “Olivia is blackmailing you.” The Big Uh Ohhh! Commercial
break and we return to the same scene.
Fitz, “This isn’t Olivia.”
Cyrus and the president fight.
Abbey is on the trail of a rape kit, while Quinn calls
Gideon for a date. She is so
appallingly bad at it that Huck calls her weird, but “Weird is good.”
Olivia receives a call from the First Lady, claiming there’s
been an oversight and that Olivia should have received an invitation to a state
dinner that night. Harrison cuts
in, “You’re going to want to see this.”
A photo montage tells the story of the victim’s best friend being raped
and paid off by Travis. A
conference with Travis and his mother ensues. Travis admits it was a one-time thing and he handled
it. Unfortunately, the girl killed
herself. This is a moral dilemma
for Olivia, the Oh No! We cut to
commercials.
While the case is being tried, Olivia (dressed in grey) sits
in the corridor talking to the mother, who bemoans how she was never there for
her son. Olivia soothes her, “It’s
not your fault.”
Ordering a Margarita at a bar, Quinn is surprised by Huck,
who tells the bartender to give her virgin drinks and double up the liquor in
Quinn’s date’s drinks. He tells
her to let her hair down, take off her jacket.
At the state dinner, Mellie and Fitz are in a receiving line
when in walks Olivia, stunning in a white gown. The president is transfixed. When Olivia dances with Billy, Mellie intercuts leaving the
president to dance with Olivia. He
can’t take his eyes off her, all the while she tells him to look away as they
are in public. He tells her, “I
love you,” not once but three times.
Olivia asks, “What about Amanda?”
The president tells her to meet him in their spot in ten minutes. Olivia tells him that he can’t leave
his own event. “Watch me,” he
replies.
At the bar, Gideon is seriously buzzed while it’s obvious
that though she’s had the same amount of drinks, Quinn is stone cold
sober. He has not called
Amanda; he has kept his promise.
Quinn has a drink and it’s now a real date.
Walking along a White House corridor, Olivia is circumvented
by Cyrus, who tells her, “I don’t take kindly to blackmail. I never took you to
be the hell hath no fury type.” He
goes on to call her the president’s whore… all very dirty and best-seller. The meeting with the president is
off. He orders her escorted from
the building.
Olivia shows up at the mother’s house and delivers a
30-second speech, “I was wrong. It
is your fault. You love him, but
you can’t fix everything for him.
You can’t. He’s playing you
because you let him. You give him
everything he asks for and you clean up his messes and you believe him even
when he lies to you and that is, that is not love. Love is making him face who
he is. The best thing you can do
for him is to do the best thing for him.
It’s not your fault what he did, but letting him get away with it, that
is your fault.” Now, to whom do
you think Olivia is really talking?
She could have driven home, or faced herself in the mirror, all the
while talking to herself, but instead, the message is delivered in conflict and
given as advice to a client. This is absolutely brilliant writing.
The president is in the White House Garden mooningly gazing
at the stars. Cyrus arrives,
“She’s not coming. She cancelled the meeting with Amanda Tanner. She’s playing with you.” The president leaves and we end on
Cyrus. The Twist-a-Roo!
In Pope Associates’ conference room, Travis is whining, “You
want me to turn myself in?” Mom
has already taken care of the matter.
Police show up to arrest Travis.
The DA tells Olivia, “Maybe we can be friends.”
At the White House, Mellie asks her husband if he’s
okay. He asks, “Why did you invite
Olivia?” It’s clear from Mellie’s
response that she knows about the affair and that he needed to see her in order
to get a good night’s sleep.
Olivia gives Gideon a better deal than talking to Amanda; he
gets the exclusive interview the CEO who just turned her son in for rape and
who will announce her retirement tomorrow. Quinn tells Olivia that Gideon kept his promise, her gut
tells her Amanda is not telling the truth.
At Olivia’s apartment Amanda is still insisting on 5 minutes
with the president. Olivia lays
out the situation. If she’s to
help Amanda, “I need to hear all
of it.”
“I’m pregnant.”
And so we end on a new problem! Now, this differs from Ms. Sandler’s formula whose Ah! is a
resolution that returns all the characters back to the so-called normal that
they were at the beginning of an episode.
And this differentiating factor, which is huge, may be the thing that
makes Scandal addictive and audiences
coming back for more.
So, still no premise, but I have identified a structure and
a button that seems to apply.
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