ABC’s “Scandal” revealed who was actually shot after last week’s shocking cliffhanger.
On last week’s episode, Jake (Scott Foley) took it upon himself to take out the people who could reveal that the vice president killed her husband and Cyrus (Jeff Perry) helped to cover it up.
He shot two innocent women and then pointed the gun at Cyrus’s partner and the newly appointed White House press secretary, James (the show’s Emmy-winner Dan Bucatinsky) and district attorney David (Josh Malina). The screen goes black and a shot rings out. But, who did Jake kill?
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Spoiler alert if you haven’t watched Thursday’s episode, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.”
On Thursday’s episode, it was revealed that James was the third victim – shot from the back as he ran away from Jake.
Jake disposed of the other two bodies but chose to disguise James’ death as a car jacking due to the messy nature of his death. James started running for his life and Jake shot him from the back – far from the clean death Jake had planned.
Jake decided to let David (Josh Malina) live if he’ll use his job in the attorney’s office to lead the case on James’ murder and frame someone else for the crime.
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In the end, Olivia (Kerry Washington) was able to quickly realize that James’ death wasn’t a random street attack but a calculated one by the head of black ops organization B-16 and its head, her off-again-on-again boyfriend Jake. It forces her to face the possibility that there aren’t any real heroes aka the show’s “white hats” when it comes to keeping the U.S. safe.
Meanwhile, Cyrus refused to leave his job even as he was falling apart. We learned how the two met, how James won Cyrus over and how the closeted press secretary announced their relationship in a grand public gesture with a dance at a White House event.
To top it off, “Scandal” twisted the knife again for fans when it revealed the last moments of James’ life. He died with Jake telling him that it would take a while to make the death look like it resulted from the car jacking. Apologetic, but still resolute in his duty, Jake did promise James that his newly adopted daughter would be safe and that he’d stay with him until the end so he didn’t die alone.
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What does that mean for everyone else? Although David ultimately went with charging a man with James’ death, he’s working with Pope and Associates against Jake’s demands.
And Huck (Guillermo Diaz) set out to kill former gladiator Quinn (Katie Lowes), their deeply buried attraction to each other bubbling up to the surface with a violent kiss. And Huck spared her life.
And although the gun lobby would be an important supporter during his reelection, Fitz decided to stand up for gun control as a result of James’ death. That basically negated Mellie’s (Bellamy Young) work to win over the lobby and pushed her into vice presidential candidate Andrew’s (Jon Tenney) arms.
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Watch the big reveal again above.
How did you feel about James’ death and the many ways it changed the show’s alliances?