Scandal Recap 1×05
The team is at the crime scene of Amanda Tanner there is no sign of struggle. Huck says the job took 6-8 minutes, and they put Tanner in a duffle bag. It’s his best guess based on the type of work he used to do. He also points out a government car is parked across the street.
No evidence was left behind, so Olivia goes to Dartmouth David for help solving the murder. He’ll see what he can do.
Harrison takes Quinn begin the latest investigation given to Olivia’s team. They go to a crime scene in a wooded area. It’s the wreckage of a plane crash.
At a press event, the President is giving a speech about a dead senator and 119 other people who died on the plane crash, flight 684.
Olivia and crew go to the white house. The press has swarmed and politicians are implying that it was the pilots fault.
Gideon the reporter goes to see Quinn now that he’s learned Amanda Tanner is missing. He says there was a missing persons report filed. Now they can be together since the case was a conflict of interest in their relationship.
Huck does research on his own about the murder, then goes to a meeting with a contact in the intelligence field. We learn Huck is not is real name. The contact provides no help whatsoever about the potential body of Amanda Tanner. Huck says he saw him near the scene of the crime. He clearly knows something but won’t tell. Huck is disappointed.
Olivia and crew go to a meeting where they listen to recording from plane to solve the mystery. They hear the passengers and crew as the plane goes out of control. As they try to make sense out of the recording, a man walks into the room and says the female pilot would never have panicked. It is the pilots husband. Olivia explains that they will try to pin the error on her. The husband wants to help defend his dead wife.
Next they see on the news that the pilot was “hammered.” This is clearly false and needs to be corrected.
Steven tries to get reports from the flight from woman, but can’t use his skills of seduction on her because he is engaged. He fails. Olivia says they have to get a copy of that tape. In the meantime, they also need to find a missing flight attendant before someone else gets to her and makes her change her story.
Huck interrupts the busy room and yells that Amanda Tanner is dead.
Olivia is saddened and angry. She sends a message back to the president that she knows what he did. Olivia goes to speak to Amanda Tanner’s father and deliver the news. Before she gets to that point, uninformed Quinn tells him everything is going to be ok. Olivia raises her eyebrows, pulls Quinn out of the room, and tells her the truth. “We don’t make promises we can’t deliver,” says Olivia.
Olivia and the president talk on the phone. She confronts him about the murder, he seemingly does not know Tanner is dead. Olivia is not sure whether to believe him and he tries to convince her saying “you know me” and asking her to come look him eye to eye. Olivia said if he didn’t kill her, they both know who did. Obviously they mean Cyrus. Olivia says he is responsible either way because he let Cyrus off his leash.
Abby finds the remaining Flight attendant to question her for the truth. She asks if the pilot was drinking at a party the night before. She says no as she sobs. She hasn’t heard about the crash, she is hungover and in a hotel bed.
Olivia at the office asks Huck for a favor. She wants the body of Amanda Tanner as confirmation. Huck says its no problem, but there’s obviously some kind of history in his line of work that makes Olivia uncomfortable asking him to do this. We don’t fully understand what she is asking him yet.
We see the President and Cyrus’ first confrontation since he found out about Tanner. Cyrus gives a sarcastic “How sad, let’s lower the flags” when the president tells him Tanner is dead. Cyrus then says its a good thing, because now he can focus on helping millions of people. The President is not pleased with his logic.
He speaks to his wife next and she asks him why he seems down. His wife tries to cheer him up by asking two men if they would take a bullet for the President. Next she tells him there isn’t a person in this office who wouldn’t go to extremes’ for you. The president is surprised at hearing this coming from his wife. Maybe the murder wasn’t Cyrus’ doing after all.
The crew goes over mechanic reports on the plan. No problems were reported on the plane. It looks suspicious, the plane checks by mechanics were identical from a prior flight, and the flight that crashed. Both had the same typo.
Harrison listens to the tape repeatedly to identify any fragment of truth.
Stephen hassles a mechanic who says its not his report that checked off the plane. He says he recommended taking down the plane because something failed.
Harrison finds out something was wrong with the plane from listening to the recording.
We are shown why Olivia was nervous about asking Huck to get Amanda Tanner’s body. He has a guy strapped up to torture for the whereabouts of Tanner’s body.
Olivia and crew share the details of what was wrong with the husband of the pilot. Husband still wants justice.
The President and crew are going over senate votes. They realize they need one more. Not sure what they are planning.
Huck tortures his intelligence contacts and talks to his victim about getting a high out of it. He describes how the government programmed them both to enjoy torture. Takes out a drill.
President talks to his VP and asks her to vote for the Dream Act. The President think she has her convinced then says to himself ” I am back, I am back”. I seriously wonder, where was he? He doesn’t seem like the most ambitious guy. For a president anyway…
Cyrus says to the President they have a blackmail letter. He says the sex tape was sent by this person, not Olivia.
Huck is talking crazy in the torture room. He won’t give up. He tells the guy he will kill him, but he will get the name first. He pulls out a scalpel. Huck says he owes Olivia.
Huck gets the information. He and Olivia tells authorities what bridge to Amanda Tanner under, and they’ll need a diving team. At the crime scene, Huck and Olivia watch as Tanner’s body is pulled up. Olivia is nearly crying, her eyes are red. I can’t help not feeling as sad as her over Amanda Tanner.
Olivia and Stephen talk to the airline company executives who say they want the answers just as bad.
Harrison investigates on his own as well. He finds a woman in the airline office. She says duplicated one of the plane check reports because she wanted to catch her daughters piano recital. She says you can get fired if you don’t finish the reports before you leave. She didn’t think anything would happen. This woman is very stupid woman. Why does she still have her job?
Amanda’s father identifies Amanda Tanners body at the morgue. Huck tells Liv she didn’t suffer. It was a “good” death. Olivia thanks Huck, but as she touches him, he shudders.
Amanda’s death gets ruled a suicide.
Quinn goes to see Gideon, and he holds her as she cries over Amanda Tanner.
At the Oval Office, the President wants to leave the White House. He asks his security guards if that’s possible. They say he will need 150 individuals, his bulletproof limousine, and his activity needs to be recorded in the national record. He negotiates down to 2 ambulances, 1 agent, and sharpshooter. He heads to Olivia’s home.
Stephen finds out from the autopsy that Amanda’s baby was not the President’s. He tells live this on the phone. 2 seconds later, Olivia opens her front door. President Fitz stands before her.
