SCANDAL: DEFIANCE (TV)
Summary
One in this drama/political thriller about the Pope & Associates crisis management firm in Washington D.C.
Edison wonders aloud why he cannot be seen in public with Olivia, who believes that it would be too much of a distraction by the media. He wants to know about Olivia’s relationships, but she refuses to speak about the subject and cryptically deflects his questions by implying that “something big” is about to occur in the Senate. She leaves abruptly, without answering Edison’s questions. David misses Abby and is determined to prove that the accusations about him are false. He meets with James and provides him with information about a story involving Hollis attempting to construct a massive oil pipeline. David has evidence that Hollis rigged voting machines in a number of states in order to get the unpopular ballot measures revolving around the pipeline passed. James is dismissive of the evidence, believing it to be a bogus conspiracy theory, but David convinces him to reconsider. Pope & Associates receive a client, (Skip Pierce?), who visits them on behalf of his father Harold Pierce Sr., a CEO who in the past year has apparently suffered from the sudden onset of some sort of mental illness. They do research on Pierce Sr., discovering that he made his fortune by developing an electronic chip which eventually became a vital component of modern cell phone technology. In the past month he divorced his wife of forty years and awarded her a vast sum of money without any complaint, quit his position at his company, and began dating a young Hollywood reality television star. The timing of Pierce Sr.’s lifestyle shift is inconvenient, as he is the controlling force behind a major international company which is soon going public and could potentially increase its net value exponentially. They hope to curb Pierce Sr.’s recent “eccentricities” and prevent him from interfering with the public offering, which could ruin the entire company. The team decides that the best way to deal with Pierce Sr. is to get him committed to a mental health institution and declare him unfit to run the company, declaring Skip as his legal guardian.
Meanwhile, Olivia assists Senator Schumann, one of the party majority leaders, as he makes a speech admitting to an affair with an intern and offering his apologies to his friends, family, and to the public. President Grant still finds it difficult to get over Olivia. Mellie coldly greets him following his return from the G8 summit and reveals that she has planned a gala in honor of his birthday despite his wishes not to make a big occasion of it. Harrison and Abby present evidence to a mental hospital that Pierce Sr. should be checked in, but they first require an independent psychiatric evaluation before they can take any action. They and Skip have Pierce Sr. evaluated by a noted psychiatrist, but their plans go awry when Pierce Sr. emerges brandishing a shotgun and drives the psychiatrist away. Edison tells the press that he believes Senator Schumann should resign from the senate entirely. Pierce Sr. threatens to sabotage the IPO with the use of social media, but Harrison and Huck stop him by cutting off his internet access. Abby and Harrison offer to stay and make sure Pierce Sr. doesn’t leave the house until the IPO is over in a couple of days.
James tells David that while there is certainly suspicious activity surrounding Hollis, he believes that David has not provided him sufficient evidence that Hollis rigged Cytron voting machines for his own purposes. Olivia meets with Edison, who believes that he can use the attention surrounding Schumann’s scandal to attempt to become the new senate majority leader. President Grant hosts a private dinner, and Mellie, Cyrus, James, and Verna are among the guests in attendance. James finds himself curious about a anecdote told by President Grant about the extremely close electoral vote in the state of Ohio during his election, particularly when he mentions the tallies coming in from Defiance County, Ohio. After the dinner James reviews the files David gave him and notices Defiance listed among the counties affected by Hollis’s apparent tampering. Abby falls asleep while staking out the Pierce residence, and Harrison takes the opportunity to inspect her phone, listening to voicemail messages left to her by David. Suddenly Pierce Sr.’s girlfriend emerges and begs them to call a doctor, claiming that he has suddenly come down with some sort of illness. Olivia works to get Edison the votes he needs to become senate majority leader. He is still frustrated that they cannot appear in public together. Hollis tells Cyrus that he wishes for a senator from Missouri to become majority leader and asks him to use his influence to hamper Edison’s efforts.
James starts to conduct a deeper investigation into possible voting machine tampering, and he is advised that he must first locate the machines themselves. He visits the Defiance County Board of Elections, claiming to be working on a story about the county’s “transition to the digital age.” There, he is led to a warehouse where all the voting machines assigned to the county are kept and activates one in order to gain access to its memory card; he is told that these memory cards could potentially be reprogrammed to reassign votes. However, he discovers that the memory cards have been removed from all the voting machines in the warehouse. Quinn asks Huck a number of suspicious questions about drugging and transporting someone, and he tells her not to bother him with such things unless it is applicable to a real-world scenario. Harrison and Abby are sent in by the doctor they called, and they discover that Pierce Sr. tricked them into calling a doctor of theology so that he could get married to Jenna, his girlfriend. He points out that the marriage ensures that Jenna is the only person with the legal authority to commit him to a mental hospital, and demands that Abby and Harrison leave the premises. Olivia attempts to handle the situation, and Anne, Pierce’s ex-wife, reveals that although she doesn’t want him back, she is still concerned about him and wants to help him.
During his investigation, James discovers that one of the voting machines is missing from the warehouse. The security guard at the warehouse tells him that one voting machine is kept in a display case at a local high school. The school is locked, and James tries to figure out a way to get inside while lying to Cyrus about his whereabouts. Olivia tries to convince Cyrus to back Edison for majority leader; Cyrus reveals that he would rather have Edison win as an indirect means of helping President Grant get over Olivia. President Grant sees surveillance photographs of Olivia and Edison together, eliciting an emotional reaction from him. While observing Pierce Sr. and Jenna, Harrison tells Abby that he’s sorry about David and tries to assure her that she will one day find a good man. The next morning Pierce Sr. shoots Skip in the arm, and Harrison tries to get Olivia to come down and resolve the situation. However, Olivia leaves everything in his hands, confident that he will find a way to solve the crisis. He starts by having Huck remove the bullets from Skip’s arm and sends Abby out to stall the press while he speaks to Skip and Pierce Sr. alone. James bribes a janitor to get into the high school and discovers that the voting machine in the display case still contains a memory card. Pierce Sr. admits that after decades of being responsible and good to his family he is taking the opportunity to derive enjoyment out of his life. He also admits that he knows that Skip is capable of running the company but does not want him to, believing that Skip will end up spending countless years of his life meaninglessly accumulating wealth as he once did. Skip replies that working at the company has been his entire life and it is what makes him happy, asking his father not to ruin the company with his antics. He admits that he was pushing the IPO because he believed it was in accordance with his father’s wishes. Harrison seems to understand their motivations and devises a plan to make both of them happy.
James activates the voting machine and tests his hypothesis about the reprogrammed memory card. The results confirm his hypothesis that the machines have been tampered with in some fashion. Pierce Sr. gives a press conference announcing the cancellation of the IPO and his resignation as CEO, giving control of the company to Skip. Olivia advises Anne to “find a way to be happy” with the new status quo of her life. President Grant orders Cyrus to put out a statement which will virtually guarantee Edison’s installment as majority leader. Edison and Olivia find out about this development and are pleasantly surprised, although Edison has difficulty believing that Olivia was not somehow involved. Olivia tells Edison that she has changed her mind about accompanying him to President Grant’s birthday gala, much to his appreciation. She mentions that she went out with someone before him without disclosing his identity, but claims that she is over him. Hollis is furious that Cyrus ruined his plans for the senate majority leader and threatens to expose vital secrets of the administration. Quinn tells Huck that she discovered evidence relating to her abduction from California two years ago, and voices her suspicions that Huck was behind her abduction; she discovered that the private plane which apparently transported her was registered to Verna, linking it back to Olivia. Olivia and Edison go to the gala together, and Cyrus goes on his own. Just before arriving, Mellie admits to President Grant that she doesn’t want to go, and President Grant believes that she is feeling uneasy because she knows Olivia will be there. They get out of their limousine and President Grant is shot while on his way inside, causing the surrounding crowd to panic. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 29, 2012 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:57:56
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 109734
- 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:
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- TV – Commercials – Toys ‘R’ Us toy stores
- TV – Commercials – Victoria’s Secret women’s underwear
- TV – Commercials – Windows smartphones
- TV – Commercials – “Anna Karenina” motion picture
- TV – Promos – “Castle”
- TV – Promos – “Christmas with Holly”
- TV – Promos – “Happy Endings”
- TV – Promos – “Jimmy Kimmel Live”
- TV – Promos – “Last Man Standing”
- TV – Promos – “Malibu Country”
- TV – Promos – “Nashville”
- TV – Promos – “Once Upon a Time”
- TV – Promos – “Revenge”
- TV – Promos – “Scandal”
- TV – Promos – “Shark Tank”
- TV – Promos – “The Bachelor”
CREDITS
- Mark Wilding … Executive Producer
- Betsy Beers … Executive Producer
- Shonda Rhimes … Executive Producer, Created by
- 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, Writer
- 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
- Chelcie Ross … Cast, Harold Pierce
- Jason London … Cast, Skip Pierce
- Dan Bucatinsky … Cast, James Novak
- Patty McCormack … Cast, Anne Pierce
- Gregg Henry … Cast, Hollis Doyle
- Debra Mooney … Cast, Verna Thornton
- Norm Lewis … Cast, Edison Davis
- Kate Lang Johnson … Cast, Jenna Newhall
- Brian Letscher … Cast, Tom Larsen
- Susan Merson … Cast, Judge Thompson
- Grainger Hines … Cast, Senator Schumann
- Bruce Katzman … Cast, Dr. Clarence Walters
- William Stone Mahoney … Cast, Elderly Clerk
- Zaid Farid … Cast, Security Guard
- Rajan Velu … Cast, Grad Student Yusef
- Wes Robinson … Cast, Grad Student Sheref
- Erica Shaffer … Cast, News Anchor
- Caitlin Gold … Cast, Staffer
- Brian Mulligan … Cast, Janitor
- Liz Benoit … Cast, Reporter #1
- Jay Krich … Cast, Reporter #2
- Reece Rios … Cast, Reporter #3