Scandal season 3, episode 13 focused on fewer plot arcs and instead stayed on the ticking time bomb that was Sally, which led to new revelations for some.
On tonight’s Scandal…
– Jake puts Quinn in a new job at “Acme Limited” where she works as a simple secretary. She’s upset about this demotion. After giving him a talk about the ways that Olivia can emotionally get to him – which are proven to be right – he promotes her again. Unfortunately, we don’t see her new assignment this episode.
– David shows the tape proving Sally’s guilt to Olivia. She goes to Cyrus and tells him she knows everything, then goes into a laughing fit because “they’re all murderers,” referring to the Presidential candidates. “No one’s perfect,” Cyrus says. She refuses to help him “keep a lid on this.”
Even though OPA gathers info on the David Douglas case, Olivia insists that they don’t help David or Cyrus. She doesn’t want to get involved, and heads home where she spends time with her fake boyfriend Jake. He asks her to run away together.
– Leo’s hooking up Sally with debate prep via her spiritual advisor. He’s employed this man because she’ll listen to him. Rowan yells at Leo for letting Sally slip in the polls.
Later, Sally tells Leo that she thinks the Lord has stopped speaking to her, and the only way to fix it is to come clean to the world about the murder.
With this news, Leo tells Cyrus he needs to delay the Presidential debate. He refuses to do it – until Leo says that this debate will send him (Cyrus) to jail if it happens. Cyrus calls Charlie asking for help, but he says he’s no longer doing freelance jobs on Jake’s orders. So, he goes to Jake and asks him to kill Sally, sharing endless reasons why this needs to be done.
Not getting anywhere with Jake, Cyrus goes to Olivia to figure out how to cancel the debate. He admits he’s made major mistakes, so Olivia goes to Sally. She says what she did to Leo and says that without God’s love, she is worse than dead.
With Sally not budging on her decision, Olivia calls Fitz and reminds them that they agreed to be truthful to each other. So, Olivia tells him that Sally killed Daniel and asks him to throw the debate.
– The Presidential Debate arrives pitting Reston, Fitz, and Lange against one another. While the event is happening, Quinn infiltrates OPA and takes the data they found on the Daniel Douglas murder then brings it to Jake. Convinced of the crime, he orders Secret Service agent and B613 employee Tom to assassinate Sally if she comes clean during the live event.
Sure enough, Sally tries to get the confession out of her mouth, but Fitz steps in and asks her if she’s flailing because she’s unable to come up with a biblical line. The conversation turns and Sally has her sign from God. She then snaps into action and starts “winning” the debate thanks to Fitz’s decision to throw it, on Olivia’s orders.
– Leo hears a buzzing sound in Cyrus’ office which leads the latter to try and figure out what it is. He discovers the microphone placed there by James and confronts him about it. “I did this, I used you,” Cyrus tells James.
At the end of the episode we see James and David meeting when Jake makes a surprise appearance and shoots one of them two. The big question is: Who got shot?
We suspect it was James since he and Cyrus had a heart to heart just moments earlier. Given how ABC promoted this moment over the past week and said it would alter Scandal’s future, we have to think that James would be the bigger blow over David. What’s your take?