Scandal (season 3)


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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.

It's Handled [3.01]

 * Rowan: You're not rare. You're not special. Your story's no different than a thousand other stories in this town, so you know how this goes. You could call this in your sleep. First they'll smile, be warm, sympathetic, on your side, letting you know that they will fight for you. They will lull you into a false sense of security. And then, once your belly is exposed, they will gut you and everyone you know. And they will be swift about it. And by the time you realize you should be fighting back... well, you're already bleeding to death. That is the presidency versus you. Whose victory do you think they will fight for? Whose body do you think they will bury? That is the presidency versus you.


 * Mellie: They want to go public.
 * Cyrus: Aren't you part of they now? One-third of some secret, unholy political trinity.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner [3.02]

 * Fitz: Somewhere, in another life, another reality, we're married. And we have four kids. And we live in Vermont, and I'm the Mayor...
 * Olivia: And I make jam.
 * Fitz: And you make jam.


 * Olivia: What do you do for a living? And don't tell me it's fossils or exhibitions or publishing papers. Don't lie. What do you do for a living, Dad? Do you teach people how to kill? Do you throw them in a hole until they go insane? Do you work in Wonderland?
 * Rowan: I'm your father. So I'm going to explain to you how you are to behave in my presence. You do not ask questions that you cannot handle the answer to. You do not make judgments about things you cannot imagine. You don't know me that way. You don't ever want to know me that way. But if you push, you will know me well, and that would break my heart, because I'm enjoying these Sunday dinners that you make me pay for. Now you are on my dime. Pick up your menu, order your meal, and tell me about your day.


 * Fitz: It's a simple choice, Cy. Door number one, I tell the truth and the both of us get kicked out of this White House. Door number two, I admit to the Jeannine affair and Jake gets released. What's it going to be? Because I'm about to go on live television and I need to know what to say. How Presidential are my balls now, Cy?

Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington [3.03]

 * Cyrus: Now you listen to me...
 * David: No, you listen to me. I may not have the Cytron card anymore, but I do have my conscience. And there's a hell of a lot of noise I can make if I don't think you're worthy of the moral sacrifice I made.


 * Mellie: I am spectacular, but I can't compete with religious fervor, but no, I was not praying that she'd be blown up today. I am not miserable. I'm celebrating. Because Olivia Pope still walks this Earth. She's still alive. And as long as she's still alive, well, she's your flaw. Your Achilles heel. Which makes her my weapon. She's the strings that if need be I will pull to make my puppet husband dance. So cheers, baby. Drink up. I live to fight another day.


 * Huck: All this time, I've wondered who Command is. I've banged my head against a wall trying to get a name and then I got one. For you. A name is something you can trace, Liv. It's something you can tie to a chair and question. And after you've questioned it, after you've drilled some answers out of it, like whether or not you have a family, it's something you can kill. You can wrap it in plastic and put it in a dumpster so it never bothers you again.


 * Jake: I never thought I'd get out of that hole. Never. It's not just the dirt floor and the darkness that gets you. It's the isolation. It's the silence. It breaks something in you. I just kept picturing your face. Your face saved me. I'm here because you saved me.

Say Hello to My Little Friend [3.04]

 * Quinn: Are we really going to..
 * Abby: Slut-shame a dead girl? All aboard.


 * Quinn: Where were you?
 * Huck: You have to stop asking questions.
 * Quinn: Look, I am worried about you.
 * Huck: You have to stop asking questions! You're not worried about me. You're interested. You want to know what it feels like to do the things that I do. I see you. I see that look in your eye every time you ask me one of your questions about where I was and what I've been doing. You're interested. And maybe that's because you're able to see me, to... How my mouth has been dry for months, how I've been squirming and vibrating and it wouldn't stop until the other night when everything just stopped and I wasn't thirsty anymore.

More Cattle, Less Bull [3.05]

 * Quinn: What about me?
 * Harrison: Baby Huck it.


 * Mellie: He needs you, Olivia. He is tired and broken and it isn't the job. It's doing the job without you. He's not alive when you're not here. He can't breathe when you're not here. He doesn't have the will to run much less win when you're not here because you... You're everything to him, Liv. He needs you. So I need you to come back.

Icarus [3.06]

 * Olivia: There’s probably only two people in this world who can tell me if this really happened. One of those people is my father and I can't ask him because he'll probably kill both of you or maybe even all three of us to teach me some kind of sick lesson. And the other is the President.


 * Olivia: I have so many questions I want to ask you. But I'm afraid you'll kill my friends if I do. So, you know, let's just talk about the weather or how I can't form attachments to people because my mother is dead and my father is that thing that goes bump in the night or… You pick a topic.

Everything's Coming Up Mellie [3.07]

 * Mellie: I just don't understand why I have to apologize for his affair.
 * Cyrus: Because that's how it works.


 * James: You control everything. Which is precisely why I want to kill you... and have sex with you at the same time.


 * Mellie: You don't have to love me, but we are in this hell together and the flames are burning both of us with equal intensity, baby, so the least you can do is be my friend. Just a little bit. The least you could do is show up. Show up for me. Show up for me, Fitz, instead of being like some stranger.

Vermont is for Lovers, Too [3.08]

 * Candace: So you're here to babysit me now?
 * Harrison: If you're good, I'll let you stay up past your bedtime.


 * Cyrus: You're worried about James cheating on me? That's...oddly sweet.
 * Mellie: Once you open that door, Cyrus, you cannot close it again. It changes you. Changes everything.
 * Cyrus: My husband's not your husband, Mellie.

YOLO [3.09]

 * Huck: I'm disappointed in you, Quinn. You've been a bad girl and I need to know exactly what you've been up to. But before we start, I need to say I'm sorry. I'm so sorry because I'm going to enjoy this. I'm going to love it and I don't want to. What's that stupid thing the kids are saying? YOLO? YOLO, Quinn.


 * Abby: Normal boyfriends do favors for their girlfriends.
 * David: Normal girlfriends don't dabble in aiding and abetting.

A Door Marked Exit [3.10]

 * Fitz: Here's the thing about power, Rowan. It's always hard to admit when you've lost it.
 * Rowan: Or to admit you've never had any at all.


 * Cyrus: We are the devil. I am actually the devil. You should have seen me handle it. There's a dead closeted hillbilly on the floor and there I am – "Give me your sin, Sally" – without blinking. The devil is at the top of his game.

Ride Sally, Ride [3.11]

 * Rowan: You're skipping around in a field full of bombs and mistaking them for daisies… What is currently happening is that President Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III has made an enemy, the worst kind of enemy, because I know all his secrets. I know where every body is buried, and the greatest weapon I can use against him calls me Dad.


 * Mellie: I came up with a list of men. Eligible bachelors. Prominent, smart. Pick one.
 * Olivia: Pick one?
 * Mellie: Any one of them, it's an equal opportunity list. Tall, short, black, white, Republican, Democrat. I don't care who, just pick one and start dating him. Publicly. So the everyone can stop thinking that you're screwing my husband. Smile, Olivia. The world is watching.


 * Abby: Are you serious? You're stealing my gun.
 * Harrison: Borrowing it.
 * Abby: Harrison, you do not need to act all crazy just because everyone else here is. We are the normal ones. You and me. If we need to borrow a gun, we ask. Also, why do you need it?

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 * Cyrus: I'll give you exactly one second to get your feet off my desk.
 * Leo: Or what?
 * Cyrus: Or I'll cut 'em off and shove 'em down your throat.
 * Leo: I'm a size 11 1/2. I seriously doubt my feet would fit down my throat.
 * Cyrus: I'm not talking about your feet, you baby-faced twit. I'm talking about your balls.

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 * James: My husband's a monster, David. He's brilliant, and egomaniacal, and has done more to thwart the rule of law than you and I will ever know. He's a monster. And he's powerful. And he thinks he doesn't have a weakness. But he does. Me. And I will do whatever it takes, stand on the podium, play the good soldier, sleep beside him for as long as it takes, to bring that monster down.

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 * Olivia: I always thought it was a good thing. A great thing. True service. A calling. Now I think...I think it eats at you until you are not you anymore, until you are lost. Until you can't remember who you were. Until you forget yourself and all you can see is the greater good. All you can see is God and country and you're so busy being a patriot that you forget to be a person.

We Do Not Touch the First Ladies [3.12]

 * Olivia: I didn't do this for you. I did not do this for you. I did this for me, so I could work on the campaign. So I could walk down the street and not be whispered about. So I could stop being known as the woman who screwed the President, so the scarlet "A" on my chest could be invisible! So I could stop being a joke. I am a person. I am not a hen! I am not a prize!

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 * Jake: And one more thing...
 * Olivia: What?
 * Jake: Stock...your damn...fridge. If I'm going to be your fake boyfriend all day, I'm going to come home at the end of it and drink real beer and eat real food. Wine is not beer and popcorn is not food.

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 * Olivia: You went too far with Quinn.
 * Huck: No. You went too far.
 * Olivia: Excuse me?
 * Huck: You took in a wild monster and you groomed me and petted me and trained me to sit at your feet. But that doesn't mean I'm a puppy, Liv. That just makes me a very loyal monster. So I didn't go too far. I went exactly as far as my leash allows, and you hold the leash. You ruined her life and then you made me save her and then you gave her to me to take under my wing.

No Sun on the Horizon [3.13]

 * Cyrus: What are you gonna do? You're on our side. You cannot let this out.
 * Olivia: I can't do this again. I want to walk into the light and feel the sun on my face, Cyrus. You're on your own. I'm sorry.

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 * Sally: I must confess my sins to the world so he will take me back into his flock so that he will speak to me once again, so that he will show me a sign of his love.
 * Leo: I can't let you do that to yourself.
 * Sally: "Thou shalt not kill," Leo. I must confess to the world the breaking of his commandment. It is the only way I will hear his voice again!

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 * Cyrus: Sally Langston goes down for murder, and ma and pa kettle's hearts break because how could the president not know that the first lady and chief of staff covered it up using taxpayer money. But forget about the three of us going off to prison. Faith in government will be dead. People will stop paying their taxes. Economic systems, institutions that have lasted for centuries will begin to falter while our enemies pounce on our crippled nation and hack away until the great American experiment is no more. Whatever issues I may have had with your predecessor, he would have taken care of this by now. No qualms, no questions, just action. I expect you to wisen up and do the same.

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 * Sally: I have prayed to God over and over. And where there once was his voice, the warmth of his love, there is now only cold silence. You are not a woman of God. I don't condemn you for that. It just means that you cannot understand. Without him, without the sign of his love, I am worse than dead.

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 * Fitz: You keep everything from me.
 * Olivia: To protect you! And don't ask me to apologize for it or punish me when I tell you the truth. This is what we do! This is how it works! This is how it's always worked. There is no clean. Just like there is no Vermont. No. This isn't how I want it to be, how either of us want it to be. This is what it is. Let's stop pretending. Let's just be here.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang [3.14]

 * Adnan: You blew up a plane.
 * Maya: That was personal. Terrorists use violence to advance their convictions. God. Country. And since I'm not burdened by those, I'm more of a facilitator. I don't make bombs. I make money.

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 * Olivia: I want to know. Who? Who made you do this? You tell me. Who made you do this?
 * Jake: Who?! This was my call. I am protecting the Republic. I keep this country running. I do what needs to be done. I am Command.

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 * Olivia: I don't know what the point is of this, of democracy and freedom and patriotism. If there are no white hats. If everyone is evil. If the deck is always stacked. If everyone I love is a monster. If no one is worth saving. What's the point?
 * Rowan : There is, incidentally, a point. If there are no more white hats, if the deck is always stacked, and if everyone you love is a monster, there is, in fact, someone worth saving.
 * Olivia : Who?
 * Rowan: Everyone is worth saving. Everyone. In the face of darkness, you drag everyone into the light. That is the point. At least I'd like to think that is the point of you.

Mama Said Knock You Out [3.15]

 * Huck: It's suicide.
 * Olivia: What are you talking about?
 * Huck: Taking down B613. You don't take down B613. You run you hide. Or you die. And B613 survives. It always survives.

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 * Fitz: I'm the Commander in Chief.
 * Jake: And I am Command. Which means you don't tell me to do anything because I'm not your bitch. Your job is to shake hands, hold babies, pose with prime ministers, and sit down to interviews with your family. You comfort people, and you look pretty, and you talk tough. You don't do anything. I decide if there is a war. I decide if a world leader dies. I decide what to do with the Dmitris and the Ivans. I decide if America sleeps at night. I decide if America endures. This is not a game, Mr. President, and you're not getting your ball back.

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 * Maya: I know you think you're on the right side of this, but you're not. Believe me, you're not.
 * Olivia: What I know is that you are a terrorist, a traitor to your own country.
 * Maya: Maybe. But I'd rather be a traitor than what you are, Livvie. Cleaning up those people's messes. Fixing up their lives. You think you're family. But you're nothing but the help. And you don't even know it.

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 * Cyrus: You know the job, Olivia. You know what we do.
 * Olivia: Don't you resent it?
 * Cyrus: Of course I resent it. But somewhere in this head of mine, behind the fog, behind the anger, is my faint recollection that what we do is important, that my husband died for a reason, that his death matters. So, instead of going home and crying about it like I'm going to do, I need you to get back in there, back in that little white building with all those miserable people inside of it and do the job for both of us. Because it's not just that family you're putting back together. It's the whole damn country.

The Fluffer [3.16]

 * Fitz: You are being disgusting, petty and jealous.
 * Olivia: What else am I supposed to be? I lie in bed every night and I play our relationship over and over again in my head like a movie. We meet. We fall in love. We can't stop ourselves. We're meant to be. I give up everything inside me and then it stops. The movie just stops. I don't know how it ends. It's just me waiting for a house in Vermont that I can't live in and a man who makes me promises he can't keep.

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 * Andrew: Tell me something. 'Cause I've always been curious. What's it like?
 * Olivia: What?
 * Andrew: Being you? Cutting people's throats and calling it politics? Appealing to the lowest, basest part of humanity, scraping the bottom of a person's soul, carrying out these little emotional assassinations?
 * Olivia: Governor...
 * Andrew: I'm in love with her! I love her.
 * Olivia: So choose Mellie. I wish you would. It would restore my faith in humanity. But, if there's one thing I know, it's that, given the choice between power and love, men like you will always, always choose power.

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 * Olivia: B613 is your life. Helping me destroy it
 * Rowan: I'm helping you put down an animal, a dog that isn't mine anymore, a dog that is sick and malnourished because its new master doesn't know how to care for it. So rather than sit here and watch it starve to death, I've chosen to euthanize it, to show it mercy, not because I hate it, but because I love it.

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 * Olivia: What would Olivia Pope say?
 * Abby: You don't get to run. You're a gladiator. Gladiators don't run. They fight. They slay dragons. The wipe off the blood. They stitch up their wounds, and they live to fight another day. You don't get to run. How was that?
 * Olivia: That was good.

Flesh and Blood [3.17]

 * Olivia: I didn't make sacrifices and endanger my people to end up right back where we started!
 * Jake: You mean the sacrifice of sleeping with me so you could hack into my phone? Crazy, right? All these years of thinking B613 is untouchable. And all it takes to kill us is a good, quick tug on a zipper.

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 * Jake: He will reel you in with a trail of warmth and kindness. He will hold you in his arms and tell you that he loves you. And once you are comfortable, once you feel safe, he will take everything that matters from you, and he will leave you with nothing. He will break your bones and step over your body on his way out. Do you know how I know that? Because that's what he taught me to do.
 * Olivia: The one thing he wants more than anything is to bring my mother in to stop her. He'll do that.
 * Jake: Fine. I'm out. I'm free. You're on your own.
 * Olivia: Jake...
 * Jake: You think he's your dad, but that's just a part he's playing. A costume he puts on. A mask. Liv, once his mask comes off... Run.

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 * Mellie : I want his head in the fire and I want to see him burn. I want to hand him the one piece of news that will destroy him and I want to watch his face when it happens. I have kept this secret for 15 years. I have lost my life for 15 years. I have lived this lie for 15 years and all the while I have watched him walk away from me. I have been destroyed while I have made him President. It is my turn! He suffers. He hurts. He burns. I'm tired of carrying the cross. Let him pick it up now. Big Jerry isn't something I want to be nailed to anymore.

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 * Huck: It wasn't safe.
 * Quinn: It was safer than bringing along two bickering little bitches. What do you want Huck?

The Price of Free and Fair Elections [3.18]

 * Rowan: I do not like him, but Olivia, I do love you, and I want you to have everything, everything you deserve. So, when I say I wish I could help, I do wish I could help. I wish I could help you.

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 * Jake: Rosen, I killed three people right in front of you. I am not a good guy.
 * David: Deep down, I think you are.

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 * Leo: Any words of advice?
 * Cyrus: Nope. Well, maybe. Try and protect your soul if you still have one. It's futile, but you should still try.

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 * Olivia: How did we get like this? When did we stop being people?
 * Cyrus: Were we ever people? Or did serving at the pleasure of the President just help us to shed our pesky skins and unmask us as the monsters we really are?

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 * Olivia: It's me. Everything that's happened... None of it would be happening if it weren't for me. My mother, my father, the man I love, an innocent boy dying, churches being blown up, you being thrown in the hole. The only common denominator is me. I'm at the center. I'm the eye of the storm.
 * Jake: So you're the devil, is that it? And this is your pity party?
 * Olivia: This is me doing what I do best. I'm handling this. I'm fixing this. I have been over every option. I have looked at it from every angle, and I have hoped and prayed that I was wrong. I have tried to pretend that I didn't know what the answer is, but I do. So now it's time for me to stand in my truth. It's me. I'm the thing that needs to be fixed. I'm the thing that needs to be handled. I'm the scandal. And the best way to deal with a scandal is to shut it down.