Tonight on ABC Scandal starring Kerry Washington continues with another exciting episode in an all new Thursday September 24, season 5 premiere called, “Heavy Is the Head,” and we have the recap for you below. On tonight’s episode, in the fifth-season opener, Olivia (Kerry Washington) and Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) are blissful about their reunion, but Cyrus, (Jeff Perry) Mellie (Bellamy Young) and Huck (Guillermo Díaz) must face the repercussions of assisting Command.
On the last episode, everything came to a head in the shocking season finale when Olivia and the team finally made some big moves to take down Command, and Mellie’s fate was sealed as the election results were announced. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the ABC synopsis, “in the fifth-season opener, Olivia and Fitz are blissful about their reunion, but Cyrus, Mellie and Huck must face the repercussions of assisting Command. Meanwhile, a visiting queen hires Olivia to guard her family’s privacy in the wake of a recent tragedy.”
Tonight’s episode of SCANDAL is going to be absolutely incredible and you won’t want to miss even a minute. We’ll be recapping it for you here live.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
#Scandal starts with Sally on her show talking about righteous indignation and says the man in the White House is throwing a party after he betrayed honor and virtue. She says he’s bathing in filthy glory and on the way to Sodom and Gomorrah. We see Fitz and Olivia in bed enjoying each other. Sally says he’s telling a story about how a man of high standing and a common woman fell in love. She says this party is atrocious and it’s a waste of hard-earned tax dollars. Olivia and Fitz get dressed for the big party.
Sally says they are not prince charming and his princess. We think she’s talking about Fitz and Olivia, but Sally is talking about Prince Richard from Caledonia and Emily from Iowa and a state dinner Fitz is throwing them. Sally says Fitz is buttering up Queen Isabel and calls him a hippy. Sally says he wants to build an unnecessary naval base in Caledonia. Olivia and Fitz enter the party separately. She says she doesn’t want to start an international incident.
Sally asks what other tricks does Fitz have up his sleeve and what secrets is he hiding. Olivia is at another table and watches her lover from across the room. Sally then talks about Mellie’s terrible flu and says that’s interesting. Huck watch the news. Sally speculates that Mellie may be too sick for her swearing in at the Senate the next day. Mellie is in a ball gown and insists she’s not ill and they can’t have a state dinner without the first lady. Abby says they can and tells Rachel to muzzle Mellie.
They have seated VP Susan Ross near the queen and she chats with her awkwardly. Abby joins Olivia at her table and asks how long it took before Fitz called her. Olivia says he didn’t call when he kicked Mellie out. Fitz sits by the queen and talks to her about the naval base. She asks for more time and says she knows he would like the support. She says she needs to decide what the base would mean for her and says she appreciates his patience.
Olivia says Fitz didn’t call and they’re over. Abby says without Cyrus, she’s off her game and says Liz North is waiting on her to fail. Abby says Emily was a lawyer and now gets to wear diamonds on her head. Abby says one day you’re just a person then the next day you’re the most famous woman in the world because of who you’re in love with. Emily comes out of a stall and recognizes Olivia from doing the press about her engagement.
Emily says she gets it and says most people don’t think of her as a real person anymore. She says she’s just a spectacle, not human. She says if they knew they were hurting an actual person, they probably wouldn’t say hurtful things. Olivia agrees. Abby has already run out. Fitz tells Olivia the royal family asked for more time and she says they need time so give them time. They collapse into bed and her cell chimes. She grabs it and says she’ll hold. It’s the queen.
Later, she heads to a tunnel in DC. There’s a car upside down – this looks like a replay of the Princes Diana incident. Olivia chases people back and tells them to cover her body. Press is snapping photos of Emily’s dead body. Olivia grabs a coat and covers the woman who was princess. News breaks about the royal death and how investigators are working to determine what caused the crash. Olivia meets with Queen Isabel and says she wants someone on the ground working for them.
Prince Richard asks if they can get the photos back of Emily’s body. Olivia says they can try but it will be difficult. The queen tells Olivia maybe she can save Emily’s dignity. Quinn runs through Emily’s history and the wedding. She says the paparazzi followed them everywhere and everyone will want to see the death photos. Olivia says they need to get all the photos. They start handing out cash to buy them back. Olivia calls newspapers while Quinn chases down shutterbugs.
Olivia says Emily was an icon and the world is mourning. She tells Gillian to name her price but she hangs up on Olivia. Quinn says she has all the other photos except one and shows her a pic of a guy on a motorcycle. Olivia says she can help Gillian fill her front page instead of fighting it. She goes to see the queen who won’t budge. Richard says he’ll do it – he’ll do anything to stop it. Fitz makes a statement offering condolences about Princess Emily.
Richard goes to identify her body. Fitz says she was a true princess. A photographer takes a photo of Richard ID’ing the body which remains out of sight. Fitz says they time they had with her was nowhere near enough. Olivia offers to bring Huck in to help Quinn but she says no. She says she paid out $2.4 million and has one guy left. Olivia says if the guy had photos they’d be out there. Olivia goes to see David and says the guy they thought with a photographer was a hacker.
Olivia says he had a RF transmitter and he hacked the guidance system of the car and killed her. It was an assassination. David says he’ll see what he can do. Liz sits in front of Mellie’s desk and she scribbles then tells Liz she’s assuming last night was a mistake. She says she wants to know Fitz will be at her side while she takes her oath as a Senator. Liz tells her not talk to her like that. Mellie calls her ungrateful and asks why she betrayed her after she saved her from Olivia’s butcher.
Liz says she did what she did for herself, not Liz. She says she was Mellie’s bitch and prisoner and says she got Mellie elected.She says she’s in that chair because of her then says they have no loyalty to each other. Liz says Mellie doesn’t matter to her and no longer matters to Fitz. Liz says she still matters to Fitz as his chief of staff and says the president regrets to let her know he can’t attend her swearing in but wishes her the best of luck on her future endeavors. Liz walks out.
Sally is getting ready for her show while she talks on the phone with Abby. Sally says she’s giving her the chance to comment. Sally says she wonders if Fitz will be at the swearing in or if the wool is being pulled over American’s eyes. Abby says there’s no wool just truth and try telling that for once. Abby calls to see if Fitz is going to the ceremony. Abby tells Liz he needs to go but Liz says he won’t and to deal with it. Olivia sees Abby and ducks into an office so she’s not spotted then goes to the oval.
Olivia says Fitz can’t summon her there when there’s press around and Abby. He asks where she’s been and how the queen is doing. Olivia asks if he’s asking about the naval base or the queen. Olivia says he needs to go to Mellie’s swearing in and says she owes her this. Olivia says Mellie did this many times for him even when she didn’t want to. Abby makes a press announcement and says he’s not going to be at the swearing in because of conflicts due to the death of the princess.
Susan Ross swears Mellie in and the press asks Abby why she’s not telling them the truth. Fitz is there and puts on a tolerant face. Mellie then blathers to Fitz and says she wanted to explain herself about what she did with the jurors and says she can’t forgive herself and talks about their future. She says they are a good team and that’s best for them and the country and their children. He hands her divorce papers. She’s stunned. She says she won’t sign and he says she will.
Fitz says to do the math on fighting this and says they will both blow each other up and he’ll tell all about the jurors and says it’s mutually assured destruction. He tells her he’s a war hero and two term president so his bucket list is done but hers is just getting started and if she falls now, she’ll be remembered for waving and smiling. He walks out after delivering this kill shot.
Abby goes and yells at Liz and says she was destroyed out there. Abby rants and says she needs to know things. Liz says she has no idea and Abby says Fitz went to the swearing in then she sees Liz is as shocked as she is. Olivia is stunned by the news that Fitz served Mellie divorce papers. She says she didn’t even know he was thinking of that. Fitz says she shouldn’t have to deal with this. Olivia talks about optics and his approval rating.
He says he doesn’t want to wait and says – look what happened to the princess. Olivia says okay and agrees that it’s good. Later, she sits in her office watching the rain. She takes a call from David who says the car’s system showed it was 55 but the cameras showed it was at more than 120. He says it was an assassination. Olivia talks to Quinn about this and they go through the Prince and Princess’s schedule.
They see they didn’t spent a lot of time together but Emily spent a lot of time with her bodyguard. They speculate she was having an affair and the Prince had her killed. Fitz meets with Liz, Olivia, Abby and David about holding him accountable for killing an American on American soil. Olivia says she should have gone to her client – the queen – first but was giving them a chance to do the right thing. Fitz sits stoic as do the others. Olivia says it’s the naval base and it’s more important.
Fitz says he can’t accuse the crown prince of murder and says he’s running the country. Fitz says if she does to the queen with this, she’ll endanger national security and will be prosecuted. Olivia storms out. She goes home and locks her door. Huck asks if she’s back and she says she lives there. He asks if something happened with Fitz and asks if he’s hurting her on the inside. She says not to worry about her, she just wanted to sleep in her bed.
She sits and asks if Quinn hurt him on the inside. He says yes. He says he hurt Quinn too and they hurt each other. He says he didn’t try to kill her and Olivia says he needs to talk to Quinn. He says he opened a window today and will be fine. She asks if he’s going to stay on the sofa and maybe open a window. She asks if he was waiting on her and Huck says Olivia always fixes him and says she needs to do what she does so he can go home and see Kim and Javi.
He says his guy is out running around and she needs to fix him. Olivia asks what he means and says she wants to help. Olivia says she doesn’t fix people on the inside. She says she doesn’t know how to fix him and wishes she did. She says he needs a better plan than her. He’s crying. They sit in silence. Liz comes to tell Abby and says Olivia didn’t waste any time and says that was a lover’s quarrel they just saw in the Oval. Abby says she had no idea.
Liz says now she does and says it’s Olivia who has been undermining her at the podium. Mellie goes to Cyrus. He lets her in. She says he needs to go the White House, get his job back and make sense of this. She says they’re all finished otherwise. She says Cyrus can run her campaign. He says no and says he’s not helping her anymore. She asks why then says if Fitz asks him back he doesn’t want to be associated with her.
Mellie says Fitz doesn’t want Cyrus anymore than he wants her. She’s tearing up. She says he hates them. Mellie tries not to sob then can’t fight it. Cyrus looks worked up too. David comes to see Olivia and says he’s not there and neither is this autopsy report. He says they will tell the world it was driver error and says the royal goons don’t want it coming out. He leaves her the file. She’s stunned to see the princess was pregnant – it’s just like Diana.
Olivia goes to see the queen and says she thinks Richard had his wife killed and why. Queen Isabel asks if she’s spoken to Richard and says she doesn’t want her talking to the Prince about it. Isabel says there will be no investigation and says her son was innocent and worshiped Emily blindly. She says she couldn’t tell her son what Emily really was. She says it could have been a child that looked just like the body guard and Richard still wouldn’t have seen it.
The queen says Emily’s only job was to produce an heir and a spare. Olivia says she’s getting justice and the queen says it’s a private matter protected by diplomatic immunity and the NDA that Olivia signed when she accepted the engagement. Isabel says not all fairy tales have a happy ending. She dismisses Olivia. Olivia comes home to her place and calls out for Huck. He’s not there. She lies down on the sofa and sees the cover story about the Prince. She runs out of the apartment.
The royal family waits to see Emily’s body loaded on the plane. Richard says the NDA didn’t cover him and says when they get home, she will abdicate due to health reasons and says he won’t see her again until her funeral. He says if she does anything else, Olivia may not be able to tell the world, but he can. Olivia tells the queen that fairy tales may not have happy endings but evil queens tend to go down.
Huck goes to Jake and asks him for help. Jake tells him to come inside. Olivia shows up to see Fitz as he sits on the porch. He says he just got off the phone with the navy and says Prince Richard is taking the throne and will be harder to work with than his mother. Olivia says she’s sorry he had a bad day at work but says she had a good day. She says there’s a line between what they do. He wants to go public and says they need to put it into the light and make it real.
Olivia says they will become a spectacle and they wouldn’t have a choice. She says it’s not a solution, but a complication. She says they can barely make it work in private much less in public. She says they need to slow down and be ready before the world is watching. She says they won’t have the chance to make things right if they’re broken going into it. She says the world will destroy them and that’s reality.
He shakes his head but then says okay. He says they can wait until they’re ready. They hold each other and she kisses him. Then Abby is there and says Fitz needs to see something. It’s Sally and she says sources tell her that the president’s marriage is a charade. She says Olivia Pope has found her way into the president’s bed and says these are facts. She shows security photos of Olivia in the White House and Sally that Fitz needs to answer for his crimes. She says, I see you sir.
THE END!
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