Scandal is an American political thriller television series starring Kerry Washington. Created by Shonda Rhimes, it aired on ABC from April 5, 2012, to April 19, 2018, for 124 episodes over seven seasons. Kerry Washington's Olivia Pope is partially based on former George H. W. Bush administration press aide Judy Smith, who was a co-executive producer.
The show takes place in Washington, D.C., and focuses on Olivia Pope's crisis management firm, Olivia Pope & Associates (OPA), and its staff, as well as staff at the White House and surrounding political scene. In addition to Kerry Washington, the show features Tony Goldwyn as Fitzgerald Grant III, President of the United States—later a former president—and Olivia's main love interest; Darby Stanchfield as Abby Whelan, an assistant at OPA (later renamed Quinn Perkins & Associates or QPA), and also the former White House press secretary and chief of staff; Katie Lowes as Quinn Perkins, former assistant at OPA and later head of QPA; Guillermo Diaz as Huck, a former agent of a spy agency called B613 and assistant at QPA; Jeff Perry as Cyrus Beene, the former White House chief of staff under Grant and later Vice President of the United States under Mellie Grant; Joshua Malina as David Rosen, the attorney general; Bellamy Young as Mellie Grant, the ex–First Lady, a former senator, and later the president of the United States after Grant; Scott Foley as Jake Ballard, the director of the NSA and Olivia's secondary love interest; Cornelius Smith Jr. as Marcus Walker, a civil rights activist, who used to be an OPA assistant and White House Press Secretary; Joe Morton as Eli "Rowan" Pope, Olivia's father and the former head of B613; and George Newbern as Charlie, a former B613 agent who later becomes a member of QPA.
The show was named a Television Program of the Year by the American Film Institute, received the Peabody Award for Excellence in Television and was honored as Outstanding Drama Series at the Image Awards. Washington has won the Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series and has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Drama Series.
Series overview
Season 1
The first season introduced Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and the various members at her firm. In addition, it introduced the president of the United States, Fitzgerald Grant III (Tony Goldwyn) and his chief of staff Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry). The season focuses on the lives of the team members, the relationship between Olivia and the President (her former employer), and the mystery surrounding Amanda Tanner's (Liza Weil) involvement with the White House, among other cases the team had solved.
Season 2
An assassination attempt is made on Fitz's life, which almost kills him. As a result, Sally Langston (Kate Burton) takes over as president, much to Cyrus' dismay. After surviving, Fitz decides to get a divorce, which Mellie (Bellamy Young) tries to avoid by somehow convincing her OB/GYN to induce her labor four weeks early. Huck (Guillermo Díaz) is arrested for the attempted assassination after being framed by his girlfriend Becky (Susan Pourfar). After David (Joshua Malina) helps Huck go free, Huck, Olivia and her team trick Becky to show up at the hospital where she is arrested. Fitz finds out that Verna (Debra Mooney) was behind the assassination and kills her. At the funeral, he reveals to Olivia that he does not want a divorce as he is devastated after learning about the rigging from Verna.
The second arc focuses on finding the mole who is leaking classified information from the White House. Olivia and the team investigate the case after figuring out that the CIA Director's suicide was actually a murder. Olivia gets to know Captain Jake Ballard (Scott Foley), who works with the leader of B613, Rowan (Joe Morton), who orders Jake to get close to Olivia. At the end of the season, Mellie gives Fitz an ultimatum: either he becomes loyal to her, or she goes on national television and reveals Fitz's affair with Olivia. Fitz chooses Olivia, which makes Mellie reveal the affair. Fitz announces his re-election campaign. As Olivia and the team continue to investigate who the mole is, Huck manages to capture Charlie (George Newbern), who reveals the mole's identity: Billy Chambers (Matt Letscher). They figure out that Billy is working with David, who steals the Cytron card, but frames Billy and gives Cyrus the card in exchange for being reinstated as US Attorney. At the end, Olivia's name is leaked to the press as being Fitz's mistress, and it is revealed that Rowan is Olivia's father.
Season 3
After Olivia's name is leaked to the press as Fitz's mistress, Olivia Pope & Associates faces financial troubles when all their clients fire them. The firm accepts "new" clients in order to pay the bills. Rowan becomes more involved with Olivia's life, which begins to affect her, and leads Huck and Jake to investigate B613. They discover during a military action code named "Operation Remington", Fitz shot down a civilian aircraft over Iceland and Olivia's mother was one of over 300 casualties. Determined to find out the truth about Operation Remington, the firm investigates Rowan and learns that a passenger was removed from the flight by a Federal Marshal just prior to take off. Quinn (Katie Lowes) starts to hang out with Charlie, who sets her up to kill a security guard who was an eye-witness to the Federal Marshal's removal of the passenger. As a result of Quinn's inadvertent murder, Huck tortures her and she leaves the firm.
Meanwhile, Fitz faces problems when Congresswoman Josephine "Josie" Marcus (Lisa Kudrow) is in the running to win the Democratic Party primary against Senator Samuel Reston (Tom Amandes) and become the first female president of the United States. Cyrus tries his best to find dirt on Marcus in order to ruin her campaign, but fails. After Olivia finds out that Fitz shot down the plane which killed her mother, she declines the offer of being the campaign manager for Fitz's re-election and becomes the manager for Josephine Marcus'. After an incident with Marcus' sister, Josephine backs out of her campaign. The second part of the season focuses more on the re-election campaign as Olivia has taken over as the campaign manager. At the same time, Sally announces that she is running for president by being an Independent. As a result, Fitz chooses the governor of California, Andrew Nichols (Jon Tenney), as his new vice presidential running-mate. Nichols develops a relationship with the first lady, Mellie. The campaign faces problems when Sally, stricken with guilt over murdering Daniel (Jack Coleman), almost reveals the truth at a debate. Cyrus asks Jake to help protect the secret, which he does by killing James (Dan Bucatinsky) to prevent exposing Cyrus's involvement in the cover up. The president's eldest children, Jerry (Dylan Minnette) and Karen Grant (Madeline Carroll), come to the White House for an interview, but Olivia soon figures out that they aren't pleased with their parents.
Season 4
After the passing of a close friend, Olivia returns to D.C. and is shocked by the state of OPA. The first half of the season focuses on Jake's arrest for the death of Jerry Grant after Rowan forces Tom (Brian Letscher) to name Jake as the operator. Rowan continues to try to make everyone believe Jake is guilty, which inspires Olivia to find out the truth for herself. After forcing Tom to reveal Rowan as his operator, Fitz, Jake, and Olivia make a plan to arrest Rowan. Unfortunately, the plan fails, causing Rowan to shut down B613 and start eliminating B613 agents. Olivia tries to kill Rowan when she confronts him, but he manages to flee. Abby (Darby Stanchfield) is now the White House Press Secretary, and is struggling with gaining the respect of Cyrus and Fitz, because they choose to demean her by calling her "Red" instead of Abby. Later in the season, Abby finds herself stressed even more by the presence of her abusive ex-husband, who has been nominated for Virginia state senator, and she enlists Leo Bergen (Paul Adelstein) to help ruin his campaign. Quinn has stayed in contact with both Abby and Huck, in addition to trying to find Olivia.
Mellie struggles with the death of her son, Jerry. She finally comes to terms with her loss after finding out that Jerry was murdered due to being deliberately exposed to bacterial meningitis rather than contracting the disease naturally, and she chooses to form an alliance with Elizabeth North (Portia de Rossi). Later, after having an affair with him, Mellie discovers the true nature of Nichols, who threatens to tell the press about their affair. In the season finale, members of a grand jury gathered by David for the B613 case were killed after the initial hearing. OPA and David begin investigating the scene, and realized that Rowan was responsible. He also blackmailed Mellie into giving the names of the members, causing her to feel responsible. Cyrus later finds out the truth, but decides not to tell Fitz. After seeking advice from Maya (Khandi Alexander), Olivia and Jake decide to reveal B613 to the CIA, but the move backfires. They later came up with a plan to frame Rowan for embezzlement of the funds at the museum he is working at, having him imprisoned. Later, Fitz finds out the truth about what Mellie and Cyrus had done; he orders them to leave the White House. Elizabeth then takes Cyrus' place as the chief of staff. In the last scene, he reunites with Olivia.
Season 5
Olivia and Fitz now embrace being a couple, going public with their relationship, thus leading to Olivia taking on many more of the first lady–established roles in the White House. She continues managing Olivia Pope & Associates, which Marcus Walker (Cornelius Smith Jr.) becomes a part of, even using it to spin her image once the world looks down on her due to her new relationship with the President. However, by the midpoint of the season she feels too suffocated in this new life, and so she leaves Fitz, the White House, and secretly has an abortion. Olivia returns to her old life, dealing with the aftermath of her and Fitz's breakup, and Rowan gets out of jail and reclaims Jake as his lapdog, while Fitz starts sleeping around and is put in his place by Abby. Meanwhile, Cyrus and Mellie are forced to move on with their lives now that Fitz has kicked them out, Cyrus struggling to figure out what he wishes to do next, and Mellie running for and being elected as a senator, being her next step in making a run for the presidency, which is the main focal point of the second half of the season.
Mellie makes a run for the presidency and takes Olivia on as her campaign manager, having to go against the likes of current vice president Susan Ross (Artemis Pebdani), Hollis Doyle (Gregg Henry), and Pennsylvania governor Francisco Vargas (Ricardo Chavira), the latter of which has his campaign managed by Cyrus. David and Elizabeth push for Susan's presidential run, and David begins to fall for her while also entering into a sexual relationship with Liz, ending in heartbreak for two of the three parties involved. Quinn and Charlie begin seeing each other, and Cyrus also has marital problems with Michael (Matthew Del Negro). Jake marries Vanessa Moss (Joelle Carter) as per Rowan's arrangement, and also kills her father, also upon Rowan's request. Olivia brutally murders former vice president Nichols when he starts to recover from his paralysis and threatens to expose a great number of secrets, Fitz learns of her secret abortion, and the season concludes with Mellie and Frankie named as the respective Republican and Democratic nominees, with Jake and Cyrus selected as their respective VPs.
Season 6