Scandal (TV Series)

The Lawn Chair (2015)

Kerry Washington: Olivia Pope

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Olivia Pope : [on the phone in a cab]  I'm fine.

  Jake Ballard : I don't think you are.

  Olivia Pope : I'm fine.

  Jake Ballard : It's been two days. Are you talking to somebody? You need to talk about it, what happened to you, to someone. You need a war buddy. Even the biggest, baddest Navy Seals have war buddies.

  Olivia Pope : I'm not there - at the talking stage. I'm just tired, so I'm resting.

  Jake Ballard : Resting?

  Olivia Pope : Yes, resting.

  Jake Ballard : Uh-huh, not working?

  Olivia Pope : No.

  Jake Ballard : Look, 'cause you're the kind of person that would do that. This is it. Dive back into work, like nothing ever happened.

  Olivia Pope : I'm in bed right now, and I'm pretty sleepy, so...

  [faking a yawn] 

• Marcus Walker : You know why you're here, right? You know why they chose you. Give us the cop's name. Help us get justice.

  Olivia Pope : You don't want justice. You want anger. You want outrage. You want retribution.

  Marcus Walker : Huh. You're right. I do. So should you.

  Olivia Pope : [pointing]  That is a father. That is his dead son. This is not your stand to make, Marcus. This isn't a platform. You're not auditioning to become America's next great black activist. If this erupts, if a father is gunned down right next to his son, will you be able to sleep at night?

  Marcus Walker : Nice purse.

  Olivia Pope : What?

  Marcus Walker : Prada?

  Olivia Pope : What's your point?

  Marcus Walker : Probably worth a year's rent at my place, 'cause I live right around the corner. This block, these people are home. We live in the same city, Olivia, but this is probably the first time you ever stepped foot on this block. Probably never been to this neighborhood except to get grits from Reggie's, or chicken and Greens off of Wade Street.

  Olivia Pope : You're about getting a white republican president elected twice.

  Marcus Walker : Excuse me if I don't buy you're a real down-ass chick.

  Olivia Pope : Big picture: you and I want the same thing. You're just taking the path of most resistance to get there. It's not smart.

  Marcus Walker : We don't want the same thing. You want to put it to bed quietly, tell everyone on The Hill that you came down to the hood and you saved us. No thanks, Olivia. Your black card's not getting validated today.

• Chief Conners : They want a riot. No, before it goes too far, I'm clearing out this mob and shutting this thing down. I'm gaining control.

  Olivia Pope : I get it. The other side threw a good punch, you're bruised, but if you strike back, if you start a fight, you're just the bully. There is a dead child lying in the street in front of their homes. What would you do if there was a dead child, a child you knew, lying in the street in front of your home? The fact that they stand in groups and say things you do not like does not make them a mob, it makes them Americans.

• David Rosen : I can't just go marching into every sensitive situation trying to rush the justice process. There are laws, okay? Ones I'm being paid by the US Government to uphold.

  Olivia Pope : To protect people who look like you!

  David Rosen : Oh, come on, Liv!

  Olivia Pope : You talk about fairness and justice like it's available to everybody! It's not! That man standing over his son's body thinks he knows he's going to end up in one of two places a jail cell or a drawer in the morgue. And to hell if I can't look him in the eye and tell him he's wrong.

• Quinn Perkins : [breathlessly]  We found a shadow.

  Olivia Pope : What?

  Quinn Perkins : In the back of the cop car, in the bank's security footage. I wasn't sure what I was looking at at first, so we zoomed in and...

  Olivia Pope : Talk faster or say less.

• Olivia Pope : I'm here to find the truth!

  Officer Newton : [while the entire squad looks on]  The truth is, those people in Rosemead have no respect for anything or anyone. No, they're like you. They just *take* whenever they want, and they have no problem turning their backs on the people who gave it to them, people like me, who strap on their boots every day, kiss their wife and kids goodbye, and trek 40 miles into a city where everyone, including little babies, are taught to look at us like the enemy! They are taught to question me, to disobey me, and still I risk my life for these people. Every day for seven years, I have allowed myself to be disrespected and hated by these people, all to protect them from themselves. I mean, all I hear about on the news are dirty cops, cops who shoot innocent black kids. It's crap! There were 84 murders in this city last year. Were all of those cops shooting innocent black boys? Hell no. Those were blacks turning guns on each other. And yet somehow I'm the animal! Brandon Parker is dead because he didn't have respect, because those people out there who are chanting and crying over his body, they didn't teach him the right values. They didn't teach him respect. He didn't respect me. He didn't respect my badge. Questioning my authority was not his right! His blood is not on my hands!