Scandal (season 2)

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Scandal (2012–2018) is an American television show, airing on ABC, about a former White House Communications Director who opens a crisis management firm and works to protect the secrets of the country's elite while simultaneously trying to fix her own.

White Hat's Off [2.01]

Fitz: You're not the president! You don't weigh in on foreign policy! Your opinion doesn't matter! You are the First Lady. Your job is to plant gardens and decorate rooms and let them blog about your clothes. You're ornamental. Not functional. So, don't come into the Oval and try to use your brain because no one cares.

Olivia I don't do lost causes or tilt at windmills. I don't perform miracles or do the impossible. I make cold calculations about difficult situations and I do not take on anything I know I won't win. And I will win this. I just need you to trust me. I promise you. I will not let you die in here.

Harrison: Gladiators in suits, remember? You know I've gotta make you say it.

Quinn: Gladiators in suits.

The Other Woman [2.02]

Olivia: How are you?

Fitz: I'm serving out my sentence in the crown jewel of the American prison system. How are you?

David: You just expect me to bend the law for you once again out of blind faith and admiration. You pour a good bourbon, Olivia, but so does the dive bar down the street.

Cyrus: I can't have a baby with you. Because I already have a baby and his name is Fitzgerald Grant. And my baby is troubled and angry and exhausting, and brilliant and he might actually change the world if I can keep my eyes on him every minute and make sure he eats his vegetables and so I don't have time or the energy or extra space in my soul for another baby, James. I'm sorry. I don't. I can't. I don’t have it in me to take care of someone else. Because I'm busy taking care of the United States of America.

Hunting Season [2.03]

Edison: I took an oath to do the exact opposite of what you're asking me to do.

Olivia: You always did put your career above all.

Edison: Takes one to know one.

David: What's the one thing we know about Olivia Pope?

Alissa: Well, she's well-dressed. She's a workaholic...

David: Olivia Pope doesn't use her magic for evil. She uses it for good. Olivia Pope doesn't move Heaven and Earth and further corrupt the justice system unless she knows at the end of the day she can put on the white hat and ride out of town.

Quinn: I am not a murderer and I am not a liar, and I'm not going anywhere. So the sooner you get over it, the better. And I go by one name now and it's not Lindsay.

Olivia: Huck, you didn't...

Huck: I didn't hurt him. Much.

Beltway Unbuckled [2.04]

Mellie: I want a seat at the table.

Cyrus: You have a seat at the table.

Mellie: The kiddie table. I want a seat at the adult's table like I was during the election. Or have you forgotten how things worked back then?

Cyrus: We've all made sacrifices. Me as much as anyone. That was the election. This is the White House and, in the White House, this is the way things work.

Verna: Liv, I've seen you two together. You breathe in sync.

Olivia: You have a very active imagination.

Quinn: I'm trying to be just another associate at Pope and Associates, but every time I look at Olivia... I think, "This woman saved my life and she won't tell me how and she won't tell me why." And I know she's done things for all of us, fixed all of us, but no one asks her any questions. We all just do whatever she says, and... Doesn't that ever bother you?

Harrison: You know what I think about when I look at Olivia? My bookkeeping degree. That's what you do, right? When you spend eight years in federal prison? That's what I was facing... for insider trading. Eight years of my life wasted if she hadn't saved me. So, the way I see it, Liv's a good person. And if a good person has to do something bad for the right reasons, I'm down with that. So I don't want to know the how's. I don't want to know the why's. I just want to come to work every day thankful that I didn't have to earn a bookkeeping degree.

Huck: Earlier tonight I went out. I went out hard. I drank a lot of whiskey. I wish I could say I didn't enjoy it, that I felt sick to my stomach, couldn't even look at myself in the mirror afterward, but I can't say that. Because it was perfect. And that kind of perfection doesn't make me feel weak. It makes me feel strong. I looked at myself in the mirror and I finally recognized that person I once knew so well. That person who went out all the time, sometimes just for fun. And, now that I've seen that person again, I don't know if I could ever go back.

All Roads Lead to Fitz [2.05]

Harrison: Women like going to a nice restaurant, it's a universal truth.

Huck: Will I need a reservation? It's tomorrow. That's too late to make a reservation.

Harrison: You just hacked into the NSA's mainframe and you don't think you can make yourself a dinner reservation?

Huck: Good point.

Verna: The stuff we did, it never goes away, does it? Like one big, bloody hospital gown.

Olivia: I prefer to think that anything can be fixed.

Verna: Then you're a fool.

Mellie: He's your husband.

Cyrus: He's a journalist. Inside this building he's a journalist and you know it and you know how I know you know it? Because you're a terrifying political animal who would eat off her own foot if it meant you could get ahead. A trait I respect. But the President is at the G8 in Tokyo and what is the rule when the President is out of the country? All roads...

Mellie: All roads lead to Fitz.

Mellie: Like you said, I am a terrifying, political animal. So, I want to be clear. I will not attend any more of those meetings again. If any of this comes up, I will deny, deny, deny. And if anyone ever asks me about Defiance...

Cyrus: Ok. First of all, you will attend whatever meetings you need to attend. They are not optional. Not for me, not for you, not for anyone else. Two, if this ever comes up, you won't have time to deny because that means we are already going down in flames. Three, You may be an animal, but I am a monster. And I am much more terrifying than you can ever imagine. And while I respect your position as First Lady, I will do whatever is necessary to make sure things go accordingly. So, Mellie, do not ever speak the word Defiance in my presence again..

Edison: I can stop dropping by, I can stop calling, I can stop asking. But you never tell me to stop.

Olivia: Edison, I don't want you to stop. I want you to keep asking. But I'm not ready to say yes.

Olivia: I don't like it when the bad guys get away.

Cyrus: Then you shouldn't have come to Washington.

Spies Like Us [2.06]

Abby: Spies listen to the radio?

Huck: Anything high-tech you can break into. With a radio, you can't trace where it comes from, you can't trace who's listening. The radio is how we talk to each other, how all spies talk to each other. All around the world. You listen every day and every day there's no message. Years go by and decades and there's no message and then one day you listen and the code word comes.

Abby: And then what happens?

Huck: It's time to come home.

Harrison: What do you need? Whatever it is that's going on, whatever it is that you're thinking about when you're sitting in here all by yourself, tell me what you need and I will do it, no matter what.

Olivia: You don't want to get involved.

Defiance [2.07]

Fitz: I thought I said I didn't want a big party?

Mellie: Well, we can't always get what we want, can we?

Olivia: You want Edison to win, why?

Cyrus: Because that means he's over you. I get my president back. Hey, you asked.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President [2.8]

Olivia: I smile at her and take off my clothes for you. I wait for you. I watch for you. My whole life is you. I can’t breathe because I’m waiting for you. You own me, you control me, I belong to you-

Fitz: You own me! You control me. I belong to you. You think I don't want to be a better man? You think that I don’t want to dedicate myself to my marriage? You don’t think I want to be honorable? To be the man you voted for? I love you. I’m in love with you. You're the love of my life. My every feeling is controlled by the look on your face. I can’t breathe without you. I can’t sleep without you. I wait for you, I watch for you. I exist for you. If I could escape all of this and run away with you? There's no Sally and Thomas here. You're nobody's victim, Liv. I belong to you. We're in this together.

Blown Away [2.09]

Becky: You like to kill people. It's what you do. It's who you are. Look, you're mad right now because I had you. Because you let your guard down and I fooled you. But. Huck, you're missing the point. We're alike. You're like me. We're the same. We're built for each other. So you can sit here every night and watch your little family eat their sandwiches, or... you can come with me. Come with me. I'm leaving town. We can go on the run and do the whole Bonnie and Clyde for hire thing. Just you and me. Think about it, Huck.

Olivia: Mellie's let me visit him exactly once and then she revoked my privileges. I might not even get to say goodbye.

Cyrus: I'm going to say this once, and I better not ever have to say it again. Don't you ever again suggest to me that Fitzgerald Thomas Grant the Third is going to die. That is unacceptable coming from you. He calls you the love of his life. Don't you dare give up on him.

Olivia: He's lying in a hospital room fighting for his life and he had nothing to do with how he got elected. He's a patriot and he's legitimate.

Verna: We're both in hospital rooms. Karma is a funny thing. We're paying the price for what we did.

Cyrus: A baby was born at County General this evening at 5:42 p.m. A girl. Five pounds, eleven ounces. She's ours. She's our daughter. We can bring her home in a week if you say yes.

James: You stole a baby?

Cyrus: I did not...

James: You bought a baby?

Cyrus: I pulled some strings and got us to the front of the line. It wasn't that hard, just a well-placed phone call, which is wrong. Very wrong. But like I said, I'm a Republican overlord and your dream is a baby, so... and now you're thinking "Why now?" when I didn't want a baby before. Why now? Someone shot my best friend. He's lying in a hospital bed dying. Which makes me denying us a chance to start a family seem ludicrous. So there's a baby girl in County General, and if you say yes, in one week, she could be our daughter. We could be her fathers. If you say yes.

James: Yes.

One For the Dog [2.10]

Mellie: We have to protect secrets. We all got in bed with the Devil together and nobody wants to go to Federal prison. So I wrote a letter and I signed it. I broke the law. I broke the Constitution. And I would do it again.

Edison: Olivia, if that letter from President Grant was forged, there will be joint congressional hearings and letters of impeachment. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will turn the Senate chamber into a courtroom, and you will be the star witness for the prosecution. Forging that letter, or helping whoever did, would be staging a coup. It is an act of domestic terrorism.

Olivia: You have no idea what you're talking about.

Edison: I am the leader of the Senate. If my job description requires, I won't hesitate to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. And guess what? I make the law. So you talk it over with whomever you need to talk it over with and you let me know when the President is ready to see me.

Olivia: Goodbye, Edison.

A Criminal, A Whore, An Idiot and A Liar [2.11]

Olivia: Five: That's sexist and insulting. You'd never suggest Scooter Libby was screwing Dick Cheney. Four: The lengths you're going to try to twist this into a conspiracy are cause for concern. You should speak to someone about that. Three: The President is awake and talking, and the suggestion that he isn't is partisan political crap that I thought you had enough integrity to rise above. Two: In the past three minutes, you've called me a criminal, a whore, an idiot, and a liar... so this pretty much the last time we'll be speaking. So One: Who I am or am not screwing, what I am or am not doing, is no longer any of your damn business.

Mellie: What do you think? What do you want? If you could have anything...

Fitz: I want a divorce.

Cyrus : Let's not play innocent here. Fitz is clean. Fitz walks on water. Fitz makes the fishes and the loaves, and people like Hollis, me, and you... Don't roll your eyes at me. You are one of us Olivia. We march behind him, We sing his happy tune. And then we pick up our hatchets and we chop the Judases into bloody little pieces and dance around the corpses because that's our job. That is what we do. We take care of Fitz. And we don't do it because we are believers, which we are. We don't do it for the rush or the high or the power, which we are most certainly junkies for. We do it because Fitz can't. He can't do it. If he could do it, we wouldn't worship at his altar. People like Fitz, they go down in history. People like us, we create the history. We run this world so he can lead it.

Truth or Consequences [2.12]

David: This doesn't make us even. Not even close. And it won't stop me from coming after you, guns blazing, both barrels, if it looks, as I strongly suspect, that you were involved in illegal activity, or worse, if you try to screw me again. In that case, God help you.

Cyrus: You're willing to bring down the whole Republic because you feel guilty. You know what our electoral process is? It's magical! It's like believing in Santa or the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny Magical... as long as they believe. What you're doing is telling the people that the shiny presents and the bulging stockings on Christmas morning are just mom and dad staying up all night to do the work. You're telling them we're Santa, we're the Easter Bunny, we're the Tooth Fairy. You're taking the magic away! You're ruining Christmas morning, and the whole Republic is gonna come crumbling down because you're not tough enough to do what needs to be done!

Mellie: I found him. I cleaned him up after that monster who raised him damaged his spirit. I am the one who told him he was someone. I am the one who cheered him on and listened to him ramble about his hopes and his dreams. I am the one who focused him. I did all the work. I did all the work. And now she gets to reap the benefits? No. No, I made him. He exists because I say he exists.

Nobody Likes Babies [2.13]

Mellie: Cyrus, if Fitz goes public with this divorce, I will go nuclear. I will walk out in front of the press and I will explain to them that my marriage is over because while I was pregnant with his child, my husband was having an affair with Olivia Pope. I will leave him, and I will take his children with me. I will take every penny he has in the bank and every dollar of political capital that he has in this town. I will court feminist groups and mothers groups and religious groups. I will bury him. And I will dance on his grave. And then? I will run for office.

Cyrus: I was made to be the President of the United States. I was made to lead the nation. I was made to ensure this country's place in the world for generations to come. I would've been great at that. I have the stones. I have backbone. I have the will. I would have been a great President. But guess what? I'm fairly short, and I'm not so pretty, and I really like having sex with men. So, instead of being President of this land, that I love, I get to be the guy behind the President of the United States. And sure I have power. I influence decisions. I help steer the country. But I'll never be in the history books. My name will never be on an airport or a doctrine. Being the guy behind the guy is as far as my road goes.

Harrison: You know who you are. You know what this is. And don't pretend you don't. We do what needs to be done and we don't question why. We put the personal to the left. Doesn't matter who gets hurt. Doesn't matter what gets broke. It's not the thing that needs fixing, it does not matter. You want to cry about your feelings? Hmm? Really? Here? We don't get to have feelings. That's the job. Gladiators don't get to have feelings. We rush into battle. We're soldiers. We get hurt in the fight we suck it up and we hold the line and we don't question. And you know it, Abby.

Huck: If I kill Hollis Doyle for you, you can't come back here. You can't work for Pope and Associates anymore. You can't be a gladiator.

Quinn: Why not?

Huck: Because you want Hollis dead for revenge and we don't do revenge. We solve problems. So you can be Lindsey Dwyer and get revenge on Hollis or you can be Quinn Perkins and move on with your life. You can't have your new life and also keep your old life. It doesn't work that way. So which is it?

Olivia: I'll wait for you, Fitz. For as long as you need.

Fitz: I changed my mind about that. Don't wait for me.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot [2.14]

Olivia: Work helps. So does exercise. Stuff that numbs you, keeps you from thinking too much. :Dating also helps, but, it also helps to remember that he hates you and it helps to try to hate him too.

Abby: And that works for you?

Olivia: I was talking about you and David.

David: How much do I owe you?

Olivia: What?

David: For your services? Or did you take a commission when I sold my soul to the Devil?

Fitz: I may not be able to control my erections around you, but that does not mean I want you. We are done.

Boom Goes the Dynamite [2.15]

Jake: It's a date.

Olivia: What?

Jake: It's a date. You said meeting. I'm not a client. I don't have a problem. I don't need fixing. I asked you out. You said yes. We dressed up. At the end of the evening, if all goes well, there will be kissing. This is not a meeting. This is a date. And I don't want to insult you. You chose this restaurant. I'm sure the food is very good, but this is not a date restaurant. You can't have a date here. This is where dates go to die. You look extraordinary, by the way.

Quinn: Does Huck...

Harrison: Stink? Yeah. To high heaven. Like he hasn't showered in days.

Abby: At least David will always know where he is.

Cyrus: This is Mellie we're talking about.

Olivia: Let Mellie be. That's how you fight her. Don't over think it. Just let her be. Let Mellie do what Mellie's going to do. When it comes to Fitz, Mellie's her own worst enemy. Eventually she's going to go too far and cross him. You just need to be there when she does.

Olivia: You have nothing. You have a pile of secrets and lies, and you're calling it love. And in the meantime you're letting your whole life pass you by while they raise children and celebrate anniversaries and grow old together. You're frozen in time. You're holding your breath. You're a statue waiting for something that's never going to happen. Living for stolen moments in hotel hallways and coat closets and you keep telling yourself they all add up to something real because in your mind they have to but they don't. They won't. They never will. Because stolen moments aren't a life. So you have nothing. You have no one. End it now.

Top of the Hour [2.16]

Olivia: I'm apolitical you know that.

Cyrus: Is your vagina apolitical?

Sarah: You have some job. Fixer. How do you fix betrayal?

Olivia: Sarah, you betrayed him. You did. You messed up, and there's a price. Betrayal always has a price. But let me ask you something. Is he a good dad?

Sarah: He is a great dad.

Olivia: You did what you thought was best at the time. Even if it was wrong, you thought it was best. You can't change the choice you made. All you can do is not let it ruin you.

Snake in the Garden [2.17]

Cyrus: Yes, I am currently on the outside looking in. My nose is pressed up to the glass of life right now. And I want to thank you for that. I do. Because you know, it reminded me never to let my guard down. Not when something Mellie this way comes. So, don't you worry about me. I will once again be his warrior. I will once again sit at the right hand of the father. I'm on it. My guard is up. And as a friend of mine likes to say, "It's handled."

Huck: It's just math.

David: Math?

Huck: You hire us. We negotiate the ransom. Make an untraceable payment. Retrieve the victim. Safe and sound. We've never lost a client. Not once. You call the cops you get a rescue team, dogs, body armor, the works. Now, you don't spend any of your own money but the victim's chance of survival drops to 50% in a rescue scenario. So if I wanted to see my loved one alive, I wouldn't call the cops. I'd call us. Every time.

Harrison: Hey Liv, let me ask you a question. Why are we helping Doyle? Why is the devil our client?

Olivia: Because even the devil loves his kids.

Molly, You In Danger, Girl [2.18]

David: Gladiators in helmets, right?

Harrison: Suits.

Quinn: Listen, Zeke. "Darling" has a law degree from Stanford and the Chief of Police on speed dial. I sat outside here for an hour and watched three ladies enter with three gentlemen, each of whom departed with a spring in his step and probably $200 bucks poorer. So I suggest you go ahead and let 'darling' take a look at the damn security cams.

James: Therapy requires telling the truth, Cy. And you don't tell the truth.

Cyrus: You wanted to know who I am? This is who I am. Defiance is who I am. This is me. This is who you married. This is who you love. You made a choice. You did this. This is the man you are. And guess what? I love you anyway. Because that is the man I am.

Cyrus: Why are you calling sir.

Fitz: I killed Verna Thorton. Would she forgive me if she knew?

Cyrus: There are things we don't tell them. Things we bury. Things we hide. That's the job. You did something, sir. It doesn't mean you don't deserve to be happy.

Seven Fifty-Two [2.19]

Cyrus: You know what happens if a bored nurse or arrogant doctor tweets that the President, same one who was shot in the head ten months ago, is in the hospital in the middle of the night? Markets panic. Reporters swarm. DEFCON levels change.

Fitz: Cats and dogs will finally get along?

Quinn: Hollis Doyle stole my future and that I could have let that get to me. I could have let that eat me alive. You didn't let me. I don't know why being locked in that crate got you. I don't know what it means or what happened or why. But you're letting it eat you alive. You're letting it steal your life and you can't do that. You have to just let it go. Whatever it was. you have to let it go. You're a gladiator. You can do this. You can fight this. I will help you.

Abby: That's how she gets you. She saves you. She saves you and then turns you in a gladiator. A soldier. And then we live and die for her. We are blindly loyal. No questions asked, morals be damned. Because she loves us. And this is who we are. Gladiators. And it's amazing and it's wonderful and it ruins everything. So I went into David's safe and I stole the Cytron card and now... he'll never love me like that again.

Harrison: So... I don't know what to say. I gotta spend my whole life trying to get out of homework while you live life a warrior. A man. A real-deal gladiator. So I have no idea what to say here. Because you make me realize pretty much every day, and especially right now, that all I am, all I've ever been was talk. So I'll just sit here and I won't run my mouth with a lot of noise that's not worthy. So you be as full-on crazy as you want for as long as you need. And I'm gonna be right here with you.

Olivia: Harrison and Abby and Quinn... we take care of them. We love them. But they don't live on the dark side of the moon. They're different. So, Huck, I need you to snap out of this, whatever this is. Whatever happened to you, you have to come back to me. I need you. You are all I have. You are everything. Because I didn't save you in that Metro station. You saved me.

A Woman Scorned [2.20]

Cyrus: I'm asking you to be an adult. Stop holding your breath. Quit stomping your feet. It's time to pick up your toys like a good girl and act like the First Lady of the United States of America.

Mellie: Tell Fitz he has 36 hours to convince me in person that he regrets the unfortunate choices he's made and truly wants to recommit himself to his wife and children. If he doesn't, he will have the pleasure of seeing the First Lady of the United States call her husband a whore-loving bastard on national television.

Fitz: You can't fix the fact that I love you. That I love you more than I love being President. I have told you that I'd give it all up for you again and again, and you know what I think? i think you don't believe me. I think you believe that I will never choose you. Well, this time, I'm fixing things. Sit with me and watch me choose you. Watch me earn you.

Any Questions [2.21]

Sally: I just cannot believe, after everything the President has survived... That sad little bout with Amanda Tanner and Billy Chambers, an assassination attempt? Who would have thought it would be his own wife who finally brings him down? Well, you know what the Bible says.

Cyrus: No, I don't.

Sally: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Cyrus: That's not in the bible. Not everything is from the Bible, Sally.

Harrisson: You're not the fixer here, Liv. You're the problem. You're the client. You're my client. Like it or not. So I'm not asking for the truth. I know the truth. I know enough. At any minute, any second now, so will the rest of planet Earth. So what I'm asking you is... What is your end game? Because the eye will pass, the winds will kick up, and you are not tethered to anything.

White Hat's Back On [2.22]

Cyrus: Let me get this straight. Highly trained Black Ops assassins broke into your home and tried to kill you and instead of, oh, making a run toward reason, instead of the possibility of death making you decide that maybe it's better to be single, you have decided that the killers were merely firing heart-shaped bullets made out of bubbles and candy to signify that you and your boyfriend Fitzy are MFEO, made for each other?

Olivia: Cyrus, you're being dramatic.

Cyrus: I've moved Heaven and Earth to save you from yourselves. I have lied for you. I have stolen for you. I have cheated for you. I have killed for you. I have almost died for you. And you, you two are so stupid and romantic and high on your own doomed love, Romeo and Juliet, Dear Diary nonsense that you won't even save your own lives, but I am being dramatic? The love of your life is a red-handed, cold-blooded killer. That is what you're dealing with. That is who you love.

Olivia: We went too far. My people – Huck and Harrison and Abby and Quinn... I took them too far over the wrong cliff. We went so far that I don't know that we can get back, but you can get back. Run with Mellie by your side. You can win with Mellie by your side.

Fitz: You are going to be my First Lady.

Olivia: I can't leave them. They need me. I'm their Gladiator.