TV Goodness Reports: Scandal Special Event @ The TV Academy 

[WARNING: Major spoilers for Scandal season two finale]

Sometimes you get to do fun things when you work in television.  On Thursday night, I had the great fortune of going to one of the best industry events I have ever been to.  The cast of ABC’s Scandal, led by Kerry Washington, did a live table read of the season finale, “White Hat’s Back On.”  I had mixed emotions but I am so glad that I got to see it.  If you did not watch the episode yet, stop reading and go watch it!  Yes, you!  Okay now that you watched it, let’s discuss.

Who Was There:

One of the best parts of this evening was seeing and hearing the audience reactions.  I think the cast and producers had just about as much fun as the audience.  Also Guillermo Diaz (Huck), Gregg Henry (Hollis) and Jeff Perry (Cyrus) all used their character voices since they were more distinct.  I think the best part of the entire thing was the last line of the episode: “Dad?”  The audience and actors went totally nuts!  When they say that the last few seconds is the craziest part of the episode, they meant it!  And there were already so many bombs dropped that everyone was already in frenzy.  Let’s discuss:

-As we know from last week’s episode, Billy Chambers is the mole and somehow David Rosen has helped him.  (Or is David Rosen helping himself?)

-Mellie, Cyrus, Olivia and Hollis, are having a meeting because of the missing Cytron card.  Now Fitz is part of the team and tells them they need to work together to fix it. Later when only Olivia and Fitz are left, Fitz says that she will be his first lady and she should fix it because that is what she does best.  It was pretty funny when the actors were reading this scene because when you do a table read, they read all the actions in the script.

-Olivia calls Cyrus to tell him that Billy Chambers and Reston are working together.  Cyrus is outside and realizes that Reston and the President are having a meeting at the same moment.

-Cyrus has a heart attack!  We saw that one coming didn’t we, but how he reacted while this was happening was priceless.  His husband, James, comes and says he can’t die because he’s still mad at him.  But while he is hugging him, he asked if he can confirm the President is getting council on his marriage from a reverend.  Cyrus says yes.

-The President of course handles the situation with Reston, who basically gives the President until the following morning to make him is running mate.  Olivia comes to the office.  They get a call from Cyrus who is being taken to the hospital by ambulance, but not really letting the EMTs do their job. (Of course Olivia meets with Reston the next day and ask for proof, which she knows he has to get from Billy)

-While Fitz is visiting Cyrus in the hospital, Mellie shows up because she thinks that she still has a chance with Fitz.(That’s what happens when you listen to the news Mellie!!)  But Fitz let’s her know she will be out of the white house and gave her the rundown of the plan on how it’s all going to go down.  (Audience reaction to the plan = exciting!)

-Huck is worried that he is turning Quinn into him.  It scares him.  They  go to Billy’s house and wait for him.  When Huck is about to put a drill on Billy, Huck freezes and Quinn takes over.  (During the reading Katie Lowes screamed the line, where is the damn Cytron card!)

-Jake’s Boss wants him to bring in Olivia Pope.  The Boss also wants Cyrus to show the tape of Jake and Olivia having sex to the President.  A woman, who was near Jake and his Boss when they are talking, tries to break into Olivia’s house but Jake is there and shoots her dead.  (Yay, Scott Foley aka Felicity‘s Noel/Grey’s Anatomy‘s Henry saved Olivia!) Jake is part of B613 and Olivia knows that Jake disobeyed orders by saving her.  (FYI, it’s the same organization that Huck was a part of.)

-David Rosen didn’t want to give the Cytron card to Billy right away but when he did it was a fake!  David had taped his conversations with Billy and Billy admitted to killing people including the Head of the CIA and the girl that was found in David’s bed.  David had used his time sleeping at Pope & Associates to figure out the code, but didn’t go after Olivia but brought the card and the tape to Cyrus.  The President made David the US Attorney for the District of Columbia.  (Yay, David didn’t screw over Pope & Associates! Audience response = clapping and shouting with glee!)

-Cyrus tells Olivia that Fitz killed Verna.  Cyrus shows Fitz the sex tape of Olivia and Jake.  Olivia goes to the Oval Office and tells Fitz he needs to run again, but with Mellie by his side because they all went too far. She had her associates go too far and can’t leave them for the White House.  He goes to Mellie and it looks like she is going to take him back.

-Cut to Olivia getting up the next morning and putting on her exercise gear for a run.  She has earbuds to hear music.  She walks into the lobby and people are looking at her funny but she doesn’t really notice.  She opens the door and there are cameras and reporters. At first, she doesn’t hear anything but when she takes the earplugs she hears from one reporter: “how long have you been sleeping with the President?” She is grabbed and put into a limo.  She looks up and says, “Dad.”  And it’s Jake’s Boss!!!!!!!!!! I can’t believe we have to wait until Fall.

FUN FACT: Joe Morton, who plays Rowan aka Jake’s Boss, told the audience he knew that he was Olivia’s Dad but the rest of the cast didn’t know their table read before shooting the finale.

A couple of other things we found out: We got to hear some things in the script that didn’t end up in the final show.  But the good stuff was all there! Someone asked what are the obstacles that Shonda Rhimes has since she writes strong female characters. Her answer was none.  Matt Letscher who plays Billy Chambers let everyone know that this was the best show as a guest star because they make you feel part of the team.  This doesn’t always happen.  Josh Malina is always pulling pranks on the cast.  He took out a page of one the scripts and wrote on Tony Goldwyn’s script after a big speech, “I am the f–king President.”

It was an incredible night and a great cliffhanger, now we just have to wait!  By the way if you are an Emmy voter and you are reading this, please vote for this show in all categories because it is well deserved.

ABC’S Scandal returns for season three this Fall.