SCANDAL: THE TRAIL (TV)
Summary
One in this drama/political thriller about the Pope & Associates crisis management firm in Washington D.C.
President Grant produces the sex tape emailed to Cyrus the previous week and asks Olivia to listen to it. She wants nothing to do with it and tells President Grant to go away. Two years earlier, during Grant’s election campaign, when Olivia, then a low-level staffer for his campaign, spoke up during a rough patch and stressed the importance of family values as a means to sway Republicans over from Langston’s platform. She specifically makes mention of his apparent distance and coldness towards his wife, and believes that interacting with her more will look good to voters. This incident proves to be their first meeting, and Grant is impressed by her candor and insight, although he asks Cyrus to fire her. Olivia overhears his request and agrees to leave the campaign without a fuss. However, Cyrus urges Grant to get Olivia back on his side in order to help him with the “back-alley” political maneuvering that he is unused to. Grant runs down Olivia and apologizes for firing her, although she is indignant about the whole incident. He admits that her assessment of his campaign issues was spot-on, and it starts to become apparent that he is attracted to her. At a veteran’s pancake breakfast in New Hampshire, both Grant and Langston attempt to garner favor with the attendees. Olivia discusses the campaign with Abby, who is staying with her following her divorce.
In the present day, David inspects Amanda’s body, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her. Quinn and Gideon end up having sex, and he invites her to spend the night with him. David discusses the particulars of Amanda’s case with his secretary Alissa. During Grant’s campaign, Olivia and Cyrus take the initiative and cancel several fundraising events for both Grant and Mellie. Olivia advises them both to be seen communicating with each other more and become a more “believable” couple. They leave the two of them alone for a moment, and the two of them get into a bitter argument about Grant’s motivations for campaigning and her personal sacrifices for his ambitions, as well as their general marital difficulties over the past several years. Despite their “dead marriage,” they make efforts to be seen together by the press and pretend that they are a functional family, growing more personable for the press. All the while, Grant and Olivia secretly experience a mutual attraction towards each other. Olivia’s efforts pay off and soon Grant and Mellie are seemingly happy and affectionate around each other. This causes Langston a great deal of distress, noting the distinct change in Grant’s campaign. She demands to know who is masterminding these changes, sending Billy, her campaign manager, to investigate.
Grant becomes confident that he can win the New Hampshire primary, but Cyrus reports that the newspapers will be running a story that morning about Mellie having an affair, jeopardizing the entire campaign. Grant ends up losing the primary by a wide margin. Olivia meets with Billy, who offers to give Grant the vice presidency if he concedes South Carolina and if Olivia joins the Langston campaign. Olivia refuses and claims that she is not yet defeated. She recruits Huck, then a homeless person, to investigate the allegations of Mellie’s affair, determining that she has been followed and investigated for months as part of a vast set-up. They investigate the man she is accused of having an affair with, a literacy policy advisor, and Huck discovers a number of suspicious aspects of his bank account. Olivia has Abby investigate, and it turns out that the policy advisor has ties to what appears to be a pornographic film studio. Harrison, then a criminal on parole, is brought in by Olivia to confirm this, confronting the advisor with allegations of having been a pornographic film star. Harrison manages to get him to deny his affair with Mellie before the media attention makes him a “national joke.” During a debate against Langston, Grant defends himself against perceived slights against his marriage, although Olivia recognizes that he is actually in love with her. Olivia is quite disturbed by this development.
In the present day, Gideon continues his investigation into President Grant’s relationship with Amanda. He discovers that she apparently has a boyfriend, much to his surprise. Back in the past, Grant pulls Olivia aside and makes his intentions towards her more clear, although she doesn’t want him to do anything that would jeopardize his campaign. They stare at each other in silence for a minute before they are interrupted by campaign business. Grant wants to conduct the rest of the campaign “above board” despite mounting evidence of Langston’s hold over large voting segments. During a campaign event in Georgia Mellie apparently becomes emotional and reveals to the press that several months ago she was pregnant with their third child, but the stress of the campaign somehow forced her to have a miscarriage. She points to this incident as the source of the apparent “distance” between her and Grant. The two of them share an embrace, and Mellie whispers to him, implying that the confession was a calculated move on her part to help his campaign. In the present day, Gideon discovers where Amanda’s boyfriend lives, and David confers with Alissa, who believes that whoever Amanda slept with is also her killer.
In the past, Olivia apologizes to Grant during a late-night ride on the campaign bus. Grant reveals that the miscarriage story was entirely fabricated, much to Olivia’s surprise. He rambles about his regrets about his marriage to Mellie and wishes that he could be with Olivia instead. She is still resistant to forming a relationship with him, but is attracted to him. They reach a hotel late at night for their next event, and Olivia decides to return with Grant to his room instead of her own. They end up embracing and have sex with each other. Unbeknownst to them, a listening device has been placed in Grant’s room and it records audio of their tryst. A flash drive of the audio is sent to Langston’s office, where it is received by Amanda, a low-level campaign worker for her. In the present day, Gideon comes to believe that Amanda had some kind of relationship with Billy, who was her immediate superior in the Langston campaign. In the present, Grant plays the audio tape of him and Olivia sleeping together, which was delivered to Cyrus the previous week, and they realize that this tape was used to make it appear that Grant slept with Amanda.
Ultimately, David and Alissa do not make any progress, and he sends her home. Gideon calls Billy and asks him directly about Amanda. Two years ago, Billy is about to offer Langston the audio of Grant and Olivia together, but she informs him that she has accepted his offer to be his vice presidential candidate. She is aware of Grant’s infidelity but believes it will not make a difference at this time, and that one day she’ll have the opportunity to take him to task for what he’s done. In the present day, morning arrives and Olivia advises President Grant to return to the White House before he is missed. Before he leaves, the two of them share a brief, quietly intimate moment together. Gideon confronts Billy in person and accuses him of having a relationship with Amanda as her “boyfriend.” Billy claims that President Grant was the one who slept with Amanda, pointing out that he was Gideon’s source within the White House. His remarks lead Gideon to believe that Billy is the one who set up Amanda with President Grant in the first place. Billy calls Gideon an “idiot” and prepares to leave, but Gideon also accuses him of being the father of Amanda’s baby and says he has proof to support his claim. Before he can produce the coroner’s report, Billy stabs Gideon in the neck with a pair of scissors, possibly killing him. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: May 10, 2012 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:57:42
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 108414
- 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 – Olive Garden restaurants
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- TV – Commercials – Sheer Blonde hair color
- TV – Commercials – Subway restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Target department stores
- TV – Commercials – Victoria’s Secret women’s underwear
- TV – Commercials – Walmart department stores
- TV – Commercials – “Chernobyl Diaries” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” motion picture
- TV – Promos – “Dancing with the Stars”
- TV – Promos – “Desperate Housewives”
- TV – Promos – “Duets”
- TV – Promos – “Jimmy Kimmel Live”
- TV – Promos – “Once Upon a Time”
- TV – Promos – “Rookie Blue”
- TV – Promos – “Scandal”
- TV – Promos – “Shark Tank”
- TV – Promos – “The Bachelorette”
CREDITS
- Mark Wilding … Executive Producer
- Betsy Beers … Executive Producer
- Shonda Rhimes … Executive Producer, Created by
- Judy Smith … Co-Executive Producer
- Jenna Bans … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- Roxann Dawson … Supervising Producer
- Scott Collins … Producer
- Merri D. Howard … Producer
- Heather Mitchell … Co-Producer
- Chris Van Dusen … Co-Producer
- Tom Verica … Director
- Chad Fischer … Music by
- Kerry Washington … Cast, Olivia Pope
- Henry Ian Cusick … Cast, Stephen Finch
- Columbus Short … Cast, Harrison Wright
- Darby Stanchfield … Cast, Abby Wright
- Katie Lowes … Cast, Quinn Whelan
- Guillermo Diaz … Cast, Huck
- Jeff Perry … Cast, Cyrus Beene
- Tony Goldwyn … Cast, President Fitzgerald Grant III
- Kate Burton … Cast, Vice President Sally Langston
- Joshua Malina … Cast, David Rosen
- Bellamy Young … Cast, Mellie Grant
- Matt Letscher … Cast, Billy Chambers
- Liza Weil … Cast, Amanda Tanner
- Brendan Hines … Cast, Gideon Wallace
- Dan Bucatinsky … Cast, James Novak
- Brenda Song … Cast, Alissa
- John Burke … Cast, Paul Mosley
- Jenny Cooper … Cast, Kendall
- Samantha Sloyan … Cast, Sassy Staffer
- Lisa Canning … Cast, Anchor
- Erica Shaffer … Cast, Local Anchor
- Eva Tingley … Cast, Secretary
- Joshua Wolf Coleman … Cast, Guy in Van
- Patrick Cohen … Cast, Messenger Guy