"Scandal" ... what a season finale, right? I caught up with star Kerry Washington, who teased big things for the finale, but that was just beyond "juicy" and "shocking."
Spoiler alert: Do not read any further if you haven't yet watched "Scandal" Season 1, Episode 7, titled "Grant: For the People."
We saw the bloody aftermath of Gideon's (Brendan Hines) scissor stabbing by the VP's chief of staff Billy Chambers (Matt Letscher), and the reveal of who actually hired Huck's old hitman pal-turned-torture-victim to kill Amanda Tanner. There was a shift in Olivia Pope's (Kerry Washington) relationship with the president (Tony Goldwyn), his right-hand man Cyrus (Jeff Perry) and the first lady (Bellamy Young), but we also saw how Olivia's associates could rally for one of their own -- even if it meant destroying key evidence.
But the biggest question of the season remains: Who is Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes)? Any why does her identity need to stay so incredibly secret?
Washington assured me that we're not the only ones left wondering -- the cast still has no idea, and she's not even sure if creator Shonda Rhimes knows just yet. (But that didn't stop Rhimes from smartly dangling that nugget to network execs to ensure a second season!)
I know you won't tell me what it is, but do you know Quinn's secret already?
I will tell you that the head of the network, when they saw the final cut of Episode 7, called Shonda and was like, "I need to know." And Shonda was like, "Then give me a Season 2." [Laughs.] Which I think is awesome. We were all like, "That's great! But really -- we want to know now, too." Shonda knows ... well, I think Shonda knows. I don't even know if Shonda knows!
There was one period when we were shooting that Liza Weil [who played Amanda Tanner] and I realized that we were actually being given different information ... we were being really guarded at first, because you want to protect this information that you're getting from your bosses. But all of a sudden we were like, "Wait a second -- we're in this together. What do you know?" [Laughs.] And we had this big exchange. It really mirrored what our characters were going through, in terms of withholding and giving information.
Has there been a cast theory about who Quinn really is?
You know what's even more fun? I always think that when the crew is invested, that's the biggest compliment. It's our job as actors to be invested in characters and storylines, and crews are so jaded -- they see so much work everyday, and they've seen so much bad work. But I will say that one of the things that made me so happy was that the crew was coming to me with theories at the end of the season. The head of the grip department, the wardrobe designer, even craft services ... people were coming up with theories. I actually thought that I was in trouble because the head of our grips was like, "I need to talk to you for a second." I was like, Oh gosh, what did I do? And he pulled me in this corner and was like, "This is what I think!" I was like, "Are you kidding me?" People are invested and inspired in ways that you don't always get to be in this business.
Tell us: Do you have theories about Quinn's real identity? And what do you think will happen with Olivia and Fitz next season?
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