‘Scandal’s’ Gladiators ready to lay down swords
After seven seasons of twists and turns, “Scandal” almost certainly has some tricks left up its sleeve.
But it had better play them fast.
The Shonda Rhimes-createdand-produced ABC drama about the lives, loves and, yes, scandals of power players in the nation’s capital airs its finale Thursday at 9 p.m.
Many Gladiators (or “Scandal” fans) made the series hugely popular on social media as well as television, and they’re sure to tune in to see whether crisis-management expert Olivia Pope (played by Kerry Washington) gets to live happily ever after. And that easily could go either way.
Expectedly, the last story’s details have been kept under wraps. Still, certain to get their last “Scandal”-ous hurrahs are Washington’s fellow cast regulars Tony Goldwyn, Bellamy Young, Jeff Perry, Katie Lowes, Darby Stanchfield, Guillermo Diaz, Joshua Malina, Scott Foley, Cornelius Smith Jr., George Newbern, and Joe Morton, who won an Emmy as Olivia’s duplicitous, espionage-drenched father, Eli.
“What’s great about knowing the series is going to end is that we don’t have to worry about being picked up,” said Morton, who also directed one of the last “Scandal” episodes. “People have been very effusive about saying how much they love the show, and how sad they are to see it go away, and that’s a good feeling as well. I think we want to go out on top, as opposed to being one of those shows where people say, ‘It used to be so good!’ ”
Having portrayed one of “Scandal’s” most shifting — and, for that matter, shifty — characters, Morton has enjoyed the curve balls the series frequently has thrown at him.
“Our reactions at table reads have probably been the same as the audience’s reactions ... people yelling and screaming and pointing and crying or whatever. We’ve gotten to experience what the audience has, and then we’ve gone back to work.”
The conclusion of “Scandal” is directed, as more than 20 of its other episodes have been, by Tom Verica. He’s an executive producer of the show and a longtime Rhimes associate now on the staff of her new ABC law drama “For the People”; he also played the now-late Sam Keating on her show “How to Get Away With Murder.”
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Verica said of doing much to wrap “Scandal” up. “Even though I’m working on ‘For the People’ now, part of the deal early on between Shonda and myself was for me to go back and direct the finale of ‘Scandal.’ Though I was looking forward to it, I also was lamenting it a bit, because I knew it would be the last one. That is quite a family that’s been assembled there. They’re all my friends, but it’s the end of an era.”