'Scandal' Season 6 Gets 'Optimistic' as Storyline Progresses
"Scandal's" hour-long season 6 premiere proved to be worth the wait with literally a series of plot twists in one episode. In an unexpected turn of things, President-elect Frankie Vargas (Ricardo Chavira) immediately got assassinated during his acceptance speech, which resulted in Vice President-elect Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) taking over the mantle. In the end, the parting shot of the installment kick-starts a dramatic narrative for the rest of the year that will presumably have Olivia Pope working on nabbing the former Secretary General for killing his own running mate.
With a particularly sensitive topic, especially with the country's current political climate, a lot of people cannot help but look at "Scandal" and relate it to real-life events — obviously, without the overly dramatic plot twist. But ABC maintains that they want to make sure that the show's audience can distinguish the difference between fiction and reality.
"That's an inciting incident that's about plot. Because what the episode is about is something completely different. It's about Cyrus' complicity, or not, [in his running mate's murder]. So while I feel like, 'Sure, there's a tiny bit of an eerie something,' the story we're telling is a very different story. Again, it's a fictional story in a fictional universe. And it's a great story for Scandal." ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey told TVLine.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Creator Shonda Rhimes has also reiterated this notion a couple of times already. The TV exec even had to tweak some of their original arcs planned for the season including the potential Russian involvement in rigging the onscreen election as it is a little bit too mirroring of the real world.
Despite the somber mood at "Scandal's" alternate America right now, Rhimes promises that things would still eventually move for the better. This is something that she tries to keep in mind while honing the overall arc for the current outing of the political drama.
"Given the mood of the country these days, we moved on to something more optimistic," she told TV Insider. "I wanted to make sure we told a story that felt good," she added.
Moving on to the upcoming episode titled "Hardball," the show brings fans into a trip down memory lane during the tedious campaign period. The installment will feature a look at just how far Olivia was willing to go just to win.
"Scandal" season 6 airs every Thursday, 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
