ABC – 2017(LOS ANGELES) — On this week’s Scandal, titled “Fates Worse than Death,” Cyrus Beene is back home with his husband, Michael, and their daughter as he seemingly gets ready for inauguration day and the presidency.
While all seems well, Cyrus gets a call from Abby, who warns him about the paparazzi outside his door and the impending news that he’s still a suspect in the murder of Frankie Vargas.
Meanwhile, the gladiators continue to look for clues to help explain the cause of the fight between Frankie Vargas and Cyrus. They soon learn that the issues between the two started on the night of the vice presidential debate. During a flashback, Cyrus sees Frankie fraternizing with a young campaign staffer. He immediately knows she’s going to be an issue and begins thinking of a way to break them up.
During another flashback, Cyrus runs into Olivia on the campaign trail, where she admits she’s surprised by Cyrus’ political talents. Cyrus — who’s offended by Liv’s unbelief in him –says he did not manipulate Frankie to get on the presidential ticket.
At Pope & Associates, the Gladiators find personal videos of Vargas and the staffer and infer that the two were sleeping together.
Meanwhile, Cyrus meets privately with the president. In his limo, the president tells Cyrus to resign from office — or the investigation will put him in jail. Cyrus says he will withdraw from the presidency if Mellie does as well. Fitz explains that’s not going to happen, but looks perplexed by Cyrus’ response.
Tom Larson, who during the campaign was Cyrus’ hired gun and part-time lover, resurfaces and calls Cyrus to tell him that if he “doesn’t make things right” he’s going to tell everyone what happened.
Huck, who’s investigating the staffer Jenny — who’s also the same woman murdered in the cabin — meets up with a friend of Jenny’s and learns Jenny was badly beaten. In a flashback, Tom gets Cyrus’ to authorize his orders to “handle” Jenny. During another flashback, Tom tells Cyrus he wants him to be president because Frankie is “weak”. Cyrus, who’s being seduced by Tom, agrees that he also wants Frankie out of the way because he wants to be president.
During this time, Olivia and her team learn of Tom’s connection to Cyrus. In a flashback, the argument between Cyrus and Frankie takes place, during which Cyrus realizes he overstepped his boundaries and doesn’t want any harm to come to Frankie.
Cyrus meets with Tom to call things off, but Tom sees it as a break-up and is enraged.
Back in the present day, Michael comes home with a grocery bag that also has a gun for Cyrus in it. Cyrus sets up a meeting with Tom to get him to back down from exposing him. However, things go awry when Cyrus tries to pull a gun on Tom. Tom takes the gun from Cyrus and threatens to shoot him, but decides not to, instead knocking him unconscious, declaring “There’s a fate worst than death.”
In the final scenes of the episode, Tom turns himself in and confesses to the death of Frankie Vargas. Olivia tells Mellie that she’s going to be the next president of the United States. Meanwhile, Cyrus is arrested, and in a flashback he reveals that he never wanted to be on the presidential ticket at all, but only agreed because he loved Frankie.
Scandal returns next Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. on ABC.
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