Source: Lesley Goldberg/ The Hollywood Reporter
The actor behind the president’s chief of staff talks with THR about his character’s ” grievous miscalculation” and what’s ahead in our weekly postmortem.
As one marriage continued to crumble, another was pushed to the brink during Thursday’s Scandal. Meanwhile, Rowan’s estranged wife Maya demanded to see her daughter and took things into her own hands in order to make it happen.
During the hour, Olivia (Kerry Washington) attempted to permanently cut her ties to Fitz (Tony Goldwyn), but was unable to after seeing the McMansion dream house that the president had built for the future that he once saw for them. Olivia overlooks the fact that Fitz was responsible for shooting down the commercial airliner with her mother on board, and the on-again, off-again duo are not just back but better — and hotter — than ever.
Olivia, riding high after she and the president commit to find out the truth about why Rowan (Joe Morton) ordered Fitz to shoot down the commercial airliner, comes face-to-face with her mother after Maya (Khandi Alexander) escapes custody. As OPA continues to track leads on who killed the last link to Operation Remington, Huck (Guillermo Diaz) figures out that Quinn (Katie Lowes) was responsible and sets up shop — torture tools and all — in her apartment.
Meanwhile, Cyrus (Jeff Perry) is teaming with Mellie (Bellamy Young) to out Sally’s (Kate Burton) husband Daniel (Jack Coleman) — and uses James (Dan Bucatinsky) as the bait. Only their plan backfires — James has figured out that Cy set him up with the cushy freelance gig to protect Fitz. Ultimately, Cy’s plan appears to backfire as well after the photographer sends him exactly what he wanted — and more: James and Daniel breaking their respective marital vows together.
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Perry to preview what’s next for Cyrus and James.
The insinuation that James cheated on Cyrus with Daniel is a big emotional blow for him. How does he feel after seeing these photos?
I think Cyrus’ brain, in a horrifying two seconds, calculates that he has in a single, gigantic miscalculation ruined Fitz’s chance for re-election and blown up his marriage. It couldn’t be worse.
Does Cyrus really believe that James slept with Daniel?
He believes he did, yes. He’s got Mellie’s warning ringing in his ears when she says “You can’t go back,” and Cyrus says semi-sensitively, “My husband isn’t yours.” He would never cheat is the implication. It’s been black-and-white to him: “Oh, my God. He did. And I set it up — without any contingency plan.” That’s a major miscalculation for Cyrus because he didn’t believe there ever needed to be a contingency plan on that level of the scheme.
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