Tonight’s episode of Scandal season 4 told a story similar to that of Michael Brown, making for a topical and emotional hour.

Jake is trying to talk Olivia into making a “war buddy” who she can discuss recent battles with when she arrives at the scene of a murder of a young and unarmed black boy named Brandon. His body has been lying uncovered for 30 minutes, and Olivia urges the police force — who hired her to handle the “optics” of the situation — to summon the coroner. That’s when the boy’s father, Clarence, shoots a bullet into the air and demands the officer that shot his son be brought to him.

Olivia says that she can get the Attorney General (David) down to the scene to make sure all of the evidence is properly taken care of so his son gets justice. She needs him to hand over the gun, but he refuses, so the standoff continues.

Will having David there help? We don’t know, because unfortunately the Attorney General is also refusing to listen to Olivia. He can’t come to the scene because he’s meeting with Fitz and Cyrus about how to deal with the Vice President. They decide upon replacing him in light of the stroke.

Marcus Walker, a young neighborhood activist and civil rights podcaster, arrives at the scene to encourage Clarence and the crowd to continue asking for the officer’s name. Marcus stands strongly against Olivia and alleges that she’s fighting the wrong battle.

Olivia goes to the police station to speak with the shooting officer (played by Michael Welch, who you may recognize from Twilight. He looks not-so-coincidentally similar to the Michael Brown shooter Darren Wilson). He believed his life was in danger because the kid had a knife on him, and Olivia appears to feel bad for him because Officer Newton was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Back out on the street, Olivia sees that Clarence is still sitting overtop his dead son. Is it not extremely weird to sit over your son as he lies dead on the street for hours on end? It seems like that’d be very uncomfortable for multiple reasons. At least cover him up!

The activists manage to get the name of the officer and leak it to the media, causing tensions between police and protesters to escalate. When Olivia sees the media being pushed back, she grows upset and joins the protesters. The police begin to pull out riot gear until the chief orders them to put it away. This was a smart choice, as things would’ve gotten a lot worse otherwise.

A tape surfaces of the shooting, but the police are refusing to release it, so Olivia goes to David for help. She has an emotional breakdown in light of the recent events she — and the black community in general — have been through. “I can’t fix this!” she yells.

David feels bad for her and decides to get the surveillance video. It reveals that the boy was pulling out a knife… or something. To be sure, Olivia goes back to the scene and asks Clarence to move so they can check for a knife on the body.

A knife is found under Brandon. Clarence is shocked and points his own weapon at Olivia and Marcus. “He doesn’t carry a knife!” Marcus yells repeatedly, scaring Olivia senseless as she looks down the barrel of a gun. (If she didn’t need a vacation before, she’ll really need one after this episode.)

Things are looking grim for Brandon and Clarence, but wait! Quinn and Huck discover there was someone in the back of the officer’s cop car, and it was his knife that was placed by Officer Newton under the boy’s body so that the police would look innocent. Olivia and David head to the police station to take down Newton, who goes on a tirade about police/community relations. He argues that the kids need to be raised better and says police are hardly ever to blame.

Officer Newton gets arrested for tampering with evidence and trying to fake the crime. David promises an investigation into the D.C. police force and vows to figure out why situations like Brandon’s happen.

So what was Brandon reaching for in his pocket after all? A receipt for his cell phone.

With the officer now behind bars, Clarence puts his weapon down and leaves the scene, allowing police to finally take away Brandon’s body. Before she takes him home, Olivia takes Clarence to the White House where he gets to hug and cry on the shoulder of the President.

Meanwhile at the White House, Fitz and Mellie are teaming up to make the First Lady the next President. To do that, they select a really weak candidate as his new VP who’ll replace Andrew: Susan Ross, a talkative, air-headed senator who has high hopes for vaccinations. Susan is shocked by the VP offer and appears to be uninterested. Why turn down such a big role? She doesn’t want to ever become President and would rather be getting things done outside the Oval Office.

What did you think of ‘Scandal’ season 4, episode 14?

It was interesting that Scandal decided to tackle this issue only half a year since the Michael Brown shooting took place. Not only that, but there were plot elements that were very similar to the high profile Ferguson event. (Examples: the body lying on the street for too long, the white officer alleging he had to shoot because the young black boy put his life in danger)

Coincidentally, the Department of Justice released a report this week detailing evidence of racism in the Ferguson police department.