500 Best Scandal Quotes

Huck: Family is the only thing that has kept you alive here. Olivia is the only reason that you're alive.
Rowan: She's also the reason I'm shackled to this chair. Family is a burden.

Olivia: You're a sick, lonely man who only knows how to lie and call it love.
Rowan: Could you be more ungrateful? You're my flesh. There would be no Olivia Pope if not for me. As difficult as it is to admit, I have failed as a father. And it saddens me because I bled and toiled and allowed myself to be hated, all for your protection, all so that you could believe that you were truly special. But instead of gratitude, I get scorn, ridicule, mockery. And worst of all a daughter who sends in her clan of good old boys to kill me, your own blood, every chance you get! It is your life that is sad. It is you who cannot be normal. It is you who have no comprehension of love. So, what? Your stomach turns every time you look at me? Well, let me be the one to break it to you, Olivia you are simply looking in the mirror.

[last lines]
Abby: We need to do what we should've done a long time ago.
Olivia: Take down
Abby: [in unison] Hollis Doyle.
Sally: [on her TV show] Let's see how this plays out, shall we?

Cyrus: [advising Abby] The man needs a wife. He always has, and he always will. He can't function any other way. He is not meant to be alone. He doesn't know how. He needs a wife. It can't be Liv anymore because she's gone. Mellie was a great one for all her faults. I was brilliant at it, but I can't be me anymore. Betrayal's still there.

[first lines]
Jake: [visiting him in jail] Who are you working with?
Rowan: How could I, prisoner 052213, at the Milford Federal Correctional...
Jake: Lazarus one is your invention, your baby. If B-613 is left for dead, this is how you refill its coffers - steal some paintings, set a fire, leave a couple of charred forgeries behind, and then sell the originals to gangsters and oligarchs for billions. What happened at the Louvre that's Lazarus one, your plan. So either this is you working with someone on the outside to rebuild your empire...
Rowan: My empire? Look around you. Thanks to my daughter and her infinite wisdom, I am no longer in a position to protect our Republic.
Jake: So this is Liv's fault?
Rowan: Isn't it?

Jake: You didn't think about the body count you'd rack up when you let a mass murderer and his crazy sidekick out of prison?
Olivia: Jake, if I had known, if I had thought for even a second...
Jake: The woman I loved killed the woman I used to love, or... the woman I used to love killed the woman I love! I can't figure it out.

President: I thought we could have a little talk. This is what I don't understand. Why have me shoot down that plane if you already had her in custody?
Rowan: That's a matter of national security, and it's above your pay grade, Mr. President.
President: Here's the thing about power, Rowan. It's always hard to accept when you've lost it.
Rowan: Or to realize you never had any at all.
President: Why shoot down that plane? Why keep Olivia's mother in prison for 22 years? And why let Liv think her mother was dead all this time?
Rowan: That's a matter of national security, and it's above your pay grade, Mr. President.

Francisco: A quick toast.
Cyrus: Okay, yeah, yeah.
[all grabbing a glasses]
Francisco: To Ella. To my daughter, Anna. To Oliver.
[they drink]
Francisco: I will call you from Harrisburg.
Francisco: [shaking hands] Thanks, Cyrus. Nice to meet you, Michael.
Cyrus: Good night, Governor...
Michael: Who's Oliver?
Cyrus: My brother.
Michael: I thought you were an only child.
Cyrus: I am.

Olivia: I need you to listen to me very carefully, because I'm going to speak to you right now the way the Cyrus Beene I know would speak to you. When did you decide to let them ruin you?
Cyrus: Excuse me?
Olivia: So your life's unfair. So what? That's how it is. So, they're mean-girling you in the press, they're calling you names that hurt your little soft spots deep inside? Well, so what? That's how it is. So you lost someone you loved. You lost the one person who felt like family. Well guess what, grow the hell up because that is how it is! The Cyrus Beene I know doesn't hide in his half-empty closet and wet his pants like a little bitch baby! The Cyrus I know is a patriot. He bites the bullet, and he does what it takes to serve the Republic at all costs. So, I want to know, right now, in this moment, who you are. Because the pathetic shell of a person I'm looking at right now doesn't deserve to stand on the presidential seal in the oval office, let alone tell the president what to do. Who are you, Cy?

Olivia: I'm scared, and I don't know what to do. I don't have any answers. How is that a good thing?
Jake: [sighs] Well, we're at our best when we're scared. Your instincts are heightened. Your adrenaline's right beneath the surface. Everything's crystal clear and your focus becomes like a laser and you just know what comes next. You know what to do. You know the answers. And you just act.
Olivia: Did my father teach you that?
Jake: You really want to know?

Mellie: So Tell me. What do you want? I want to destroy Olivia Pope. I want her to suffer like I have suffered. I want her to suffer so much it makes him suffer. I want to make them bleed. I want their every breath to reek of poison!
Cyrus: Mellie. This is a very important moment. Don't waste it being human. Your answer will define your future. Think like a champion. Think like a warrior. Raise your sword and run into battle and tell me what the inscription on your monument will read when the history books glorify you. Tell me. What do you want?
Mellie: I want the oval.
Cyrus: Yes!

[last lines]
President: [enters the hosiptal room after his Secrete Service agents] Thanks for calling me, Jake.
Jake: You're welcome, sir. We had a bit of a scare, but she's gonna be all right.
President: It's lucky you were there.
President: [to Olivia in the bed] Hi.

Mellie: You're not their father anymore. And you are not Fitz anymore. You know who you are? You know who you've become? You're big Jerry. You're your father. Everybody in this White House, Cyrus and me included, tiptoe around, trying to figure out how to get on your good side. But you don't have a good side! You've turned into your father! So you should understand how your children feel, considering how much you hated your dad. They didn't want to come. And so I told them they didn't have to. Deal with it. Put another glass of scotch on top of it and just deal with it.
President: [looks down and takes his hand off of his glass]

President: [his opening joke at the annual gala] I can't tell you how much I relish this opportunity to finally say something to you all that has been long, long overdue. "You're welcome."
[eruption of laughter]

[last lines]
Olivia: [answering her door and seeing Franklin] Hi. What's wrong?
Rowan: [steps into view] Hello, Olivia.

Mellie: So, Bitsy, I have adhered to the wishes President Cooper laid out in his funeral plan, but there are a few options he left open. In terms of hymns, "Bring us, O lord" is always so spiritual, and since the President's faith was such an important part of his life...
Bitsy: Oh, please. My husband's only religion was believing he had to screw anything with a pulse. But since us bitches have got to get through this dog and pony show, I'm gonna need you to sit down, shut up, and follow my lead. Now, I'm gonna take the office. I'll do the planning, and you go crochet, or vaccinate fat kids, or whatever silly hobby makes you feel like you're making a difference. Show up for the photo ops, and I'll have someone call you if I need you for anything else.
[pointing at the heirloom she had just been fawning over]
Bitsy: Oh, um I'd get that filthy piece of crap out of here, pronto. Probably give you crabs.

Abby: [chatting in the powder room] You know whose life I need? Princess Emily's. That woman? Nothing but game. She was a human-rights lawyer. And now she gets to wear diamonds on her head. On her head, Liv.
Olivia: I think I'll stick with being me.
Abby: [pressing on] I wonder what that life is like. You know, one day, you're a regular person. And the next day, you're the most famous woman on the planet, and only because of who you're in love with. Suddenly, that's all you are, is somebody's...
Princess: [suddenly emerges from a stall] I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop. It's just, people get weird when they see me, so I just... I was going to try and stay in there until you left, but then you started talking about me and I thought you'd want to know I-I was in...
Abby: [jumping to her feet] I am so sorry, Your Royal Highness.
Olivia: Why don't we give you some privacy?
Princess: Oh, wait a minute. You're Olivia Pope! You handled the press for my engagement. I-I watched you on TV.
Olivia: My friend didn't really mean anything by what she said.
Princess: Oh, oh, I've I've gotten used to it. For most of the world, I'm not a real person anymore. I stopped being a real person for people the moment the world found out I was marrying Richard. To them, I'm... I'm not human. I'm just... a spectacle. And I don't think they would say half the things they say if they knew they were hurting an actual person - do you?
Olivia: No, I don't think they would.

President: The right to bear arms, set in stone in the Constitution by our founding fathers. So was slavery, by the way. The right to bear arms seems indisputable, until the shooter comes, until you're Lisa Elliot, covered in blood, watching a little girl take her last breath, watching the light go out of her eyes. And that, that is where the argument ends. That is when the debate is over.

Jake: Things got out of hand. If I hadn't pulled her off, she would've strangled her to death.
President: I thought Maya was restrained.
Jake: She was. Liv attacked *her*.

Olivia: Release Mary Peterson from duty, to forget she exists, to allow her to go on with her life.
Kostya: [cutting meat] Mary Peterson? Does she buy meat here?
Olivia: You probably don't know who I am, but...
Kostya: I don't care to know who you are.
Olivia: But this can go one of two ways. The first way, the easy way, involves you saying a number, $100,000, maybe $200,000, although I wouldn't push your luck, just some number that makes you comfortable and allows my client to enjoy her retirement. The other way, the complicated way, involves me calling in favors with the Attorney General, my friends at the CIA, and people far darker, dirtier, and deeper underground to make your life a living hell. But the result is always the same: Mary Peterson doesn't work for you or your government anymore. Some people have bark, some people have bite. I have both. So which is it, Kostya?
Kostya: Are you familiar with the town of Verkhoyansk? No reason you would, I guess. It's a small town in Russia where they send political exiles to die for their crimes. It's the coldest place on earth. It's also my home. As a kid, I used to help the KGB drag the frozen bodies out of the prison. I know what happens to traitors. So, you have to pardon me if I'm not afraid of some lady and her mutt. Traitors die, Ms. Olivia. As they should. Be sure you remind your client of this.
[wipes the blood from his knife]

Abby: Susan Ross quit, and I fired Leo, which I think means I also broke up with him.

[first lines]
Mellie: [laughing together] Mr. Bainbridge!
Rowan: Please, I am not Mr. Bainbridge. Not to you. Call me Damascus.
Mellie: Damascus, it's so lovely of you to take time out of your busy schedule to sit down with me.
Rowan: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's lovely of you to sit with me. I am so happy to be here with you in person. I am a fan. You are by far the most interesting first lady we have ever had. You have set quite an example for my daughter, I can tell you that. And now, Senator Mellie Grant? Well, what is a billionaire to do? Now, I do not want to take up your whole day. I do want you to know that I have and will continue to support your campaign unreservedly. There are just a few causes that are important to me that I hope will also be important to you.

President: [continuing his gala speech] As you all know, I'm running for re-election.
[applause]
President: Thank you. And out on the campaign trail, at every step of the way, the first lady will be by my side. And believe me, I mean by - my - side.

Mellie: Fitz didn't have any fight in him. He didn't know how to stand on his own two feet. I mean, I saw the potential. We all saw it. But I had to work at it. I held his hand, I bluffed, I bled, and I got nothing in return. Except for you. *You* showed up. I wasn't devastated, Olivia, or numb, or empty. I was deserving. I deserved you. I was a 37-year-old governor's wife with two kids, and that was all. I was somebody's wife and somebody's mother. Not my own anything. I deserved you. I warranted you. I justified you. I had lost myself, and in return, I got you. *You* are my retribution. And it was humiliating. I couldn't even hate you. I couldn't even pretend to. I hated myself.
Mellie: But then I turned a corner. It was quick. Effortless, really. *You* had become the beautiful kept thing he lusted after. Where you went, he went. Which meant that I... I suddenly had space. I had air of my own that I could breathe. Time to think and plan. And I started liking myself again, because I was alone, and I was relieved, and I was free. Freedom, baby. Whew. I stayed because it was working. I stood by and I allowed the affair to continue, because it was working for all of us. He was occupied, thanks to you. He was happy. You lit his fire. We made it all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And one day, it was gonna be my turn. Fitz would make me President of the United States, because he owed me at least that much. And so I stayed. Because the three of us, ugh. We worked! So, what do you say, Olivia? That deep enough for you? Is that honest enough?
Olivia: Mellie, you can't actually write that anywhere. If you want to be President, you can never, ever tell anyone any of that.
Mellie: Oh, yeah, I know. I know I can't. That's the problem.
[offers her the jar of moonshine]

President: Olivia Pope being blown to bits? That's your dream, isn't it?
Mellie: [a little drunk] Oh, no. That's my nightmare. If your whore had died today, brave and strong, protecting a congressman inside the Capitol with a nation watching? Honey, the nails, the wood, the cross you would build and hammer her on, the worship you would feel for the rest of your days down on your knees praying to Saint Olivia Pope, that would be I lose. Our little war. I'd lose. I am spectacular, but I can't compete with religious fervor, so, no, I was not hoping that she would be blown up today. I am not miserable that she survived. I am celebratin'. Because Olivia Pope still walks this earth. She's still alive. And as long as she's still alive, well, she's your flaw. Your Achilles' heel. Which makes her my weapon. She's the strings that, if need be, I will pull to make my puppet husband dance. So cheers, baby. Drink up. I live to fight another day!

[first lines]
Young: [playing with his army men] "I'm gonna kill you!" "Not if I kill you first!"
[Mimicking gunfire]
Woman: [arguing coming from inside the house] That's not what I'm saying.
Man: No? Then what are you saying? 'Cause it sounds like you're accusing me of something. Are you accusing me of something?
[boy goes to cower in the corner]

President: It's Olivia's job as a fixer, to be smart, to be practical and unemotional. She makes the the smart move. In her office, the smart move is the only move that counts, but you know what? We don't work for Liv. I'm President of the United States. We work for the American people. The playbook is the Constitution. In my office, it's not about doing the smart thing. It's about doing the right thing.

[first lines]
Michael: [opening the curtains] What did we say about staying up all night? What did we say about keeping a schedule? Didn't we agree that we felt better when we slept and and took a shower?
Cyrus: [eyes glued to the TV] Shh, shh, shh. I want to hear.
Michael: We talked about this. We talked about keeping it together, didn't we?
Cyrus: We talked about the fact that the senate voted last night. We talked about that this is a remarkable and uncommon day. That is what we did. So now I am not taking my eyes off that TV!
Michael: Alright, it's a bug day, it's your Super Bowl. I get it.
Cyrus: Okay, the Super Bowl that happens every year. This is the moon landing. The Berlin wall is coming down. Hannibal's crossing the Alps. This is the day the Lord has made and he's... made it for me. Do you understand?

Susan: Obviously, I can rely on your discretion.
David: You can.
Susan: Of course I can. You're the Attorney General of the United States. You're probably the most discreet person in the country.
David: One of them.

Olivia: I wasn't aware we were on speaking terms, dad, let alone having dinner.
Rowan: [sighs] We are family, Olivia. Families fight. That is what they do. That doesn't mean you stop calling or you stop showing up for dinner. When we fight, we forgive and forget.

Olivia: [about B613] Brick by brick, we'll tear that building down until there's nothing left but a hole in the ground. To do that, though, we need to be patient patient and alive. So instead of standing alone and turning this into a suicide mission, stand with me and turn this into a cause. Lose this battle so we can win the war.

Leonard: Two weeks ago, people were still saying that the Russians shot Cooper. Russians in Stockton? But you made sure that the whole world knew the truth. 'Cause like you said, the truth is like the sun. You can shut it out, but it's not going away. No, it's what you do. You fight for the underdog. You gave the story a happy ending to my story. So, thank you, Olivia Pope, for making my life meaningful. Now, get me the electric chair. And no lethal-injection crap! I want to go out with a bang!

President: You're making the biggest mistake of your life, crossing me. And I'll spend the rest of my life working tirelessly to remind you of that. You will regret this day forever.
Sally: See you on the battlefield.

Olivia: Enemies?
Elizabeth: Enemies? I am the female head of the Republican National Committee. I don't know what a friend is.
[chuckles]
Elizabeth: The Dems, disgruntled staffers, the NRA, big pharma, every major contributor to the party. Oh, and my ex-husband thinks I'm a real bitch, too.

[first lines]
Cyrus: [fast-walking down the West Wing hallway] She didn't send you.
Abby: She sent me.
Cyrus: She sent you?
Abby: She sent me.
Cyrus: She's not dying in a hospital, or being held hostage, or in the North Korea prison, because those are the only acceptable...
Abby: She sent me. I'm her proxy.
Cyrus: Her what?
Abby: Her proxy.
Cyrus: There is no proxy, you understand?
Abby: I'm your Olivia until she says otherwise.
Cyrus: She's not over the First Family interview. Small of her. She's licking her wounds.
Abby: I have no information on that. All I know is I'm handling the White House. I'm your...
Cyrus: Olivia proxy.

Leo: [to Huck and Jake] There's probably only two people in the world who can tell me if this really happened. One of those people is my father, and I can't ask him because he'd probably kill both of you, or maybe even all three of us to teach me some kind of sick lesson. And the other's the President. So that's where I'm going, to the White House to ask him myself.
[closes the elevator door]

Rowan: We will do your bidding. Listen in on Lillian. Say thank you.
Olivia: Thank you.
Rowan: When it fails, you'll be left with one option and one option only.
Olivia: I am not you, Dad. In my world, if someone's in your way, you out-think them. You don't *end* them. It's not who I am.

Huck: [studying the city map] We'll check there after Greenbelt.
David: Or, just thinking outside the box, you could save gas and time, and maybe this girl's life, if you get the FBI to look for you.
Abby: First of all, we're so much better than the FBI at this.

Cyrus: [upon seeing compromising photos] God, I'm a stupid stupid man.
Olivia: We both know that isn't true.
Cyrus: No, I know exactly how stupid I am, because I've done this to people.
[scoffs]
Cyrus: I have set people up in exactly this way. I exploited their lust and their greed and their weakness to get exactly what I want. I wrote the book on this particular brand of political extortion, and yet somehow I fell f-for it anyway. Me. The White House chief of staff. Allegedly one of the most powerful men in the country. I've compromised my integrity,
[breathing shakily]
Cyrus: my family, my president. For what?

[last lines]
Cyrus: [answering his phone] Hello?
Sally: Cyrus?
[standing over a body]
Sally: I have committed a sin.

Olivia: I happen to think that Mellie will be a great president. She is smart, hardworking. She cares about this country. You married her, Fitz, had children with her. You must have thought the same thing about her at some point.
President: What can I say? You think you know a person.
Olivia: Funny how that works.

President: [beginning his State of the Union address] We honor the lives we've lost in service to this great nation. But not every death is a sacrifice. Not every death has meaning. Just ask Lisa Elliot, who scooped up a first grader named Joelle Brandt, and carried her to safety, only to watch her die from one of the 102 rounds unloaded at red hawk elementary.

Lance: Who the hell are you?
Charlie: [aiming his gun at him] We're the United States government, and we're here to ask you to serve your country.

Rowan: Let me explain something to you. You will never truly understand freedom because you've never been in chains. No one has systematically oppressed you, worn you down, kept your deepest fears alive and well 24 hours a day! No one has ever broken you!

Cyrus: You know what happens if a bored nurse or an arrogant doctor tweets that the president, the same one who was shot in the head ten months ago, is in the hospital in the middle of the night? Markets panic, reporters swarm, DEFCON levels change.
President: Cats and dogs will finally get along?
Cyrus: Sir You have no idea how much damage control this requires. The lies I've had to tell James Madison in order to replace their staff on this floor, with military personnel who won't tell the New York Times that the president of the United States is here on a late-night booty call.
President: I'm here. I'm staying here until Olivia is discharged, because that's what you do when someone you love is in the hospital. You're welcome to wait here with me, run whatever kind of interference you think is best, but I'm here.
Jake: [walking in with coffees] I'm sure you've got an army of Secret Service agents that know your exact cream-to-sugar ratio, but I just thought, as long as I was down there...

Charlie: You can't just give up. You don't just give up. That's not part of the thing. The thing requires you to, above all things, perform miracles. And you are a miracle worker. Look what happened with me. I... I'm gonna be somebody's husband. I might be a dad. You've got me here doing good deeds, which means hell has frozen over. You pulled off the impossible. You made hell freeze over. Miracle. You can't quit. You don't quit. Miracle workers don't get to quit.
Olivia: [just staring]
Charlie: The thing also requires you to speak.
Olivia: [goes to the door] Everyone, conference room, now!

Sally: [interviewing Cyrus on her television show] But Mrs. Grant has a job. Being a mother is the hardest job in the world, and she...
Cyrus: You know I know people love to say that. I do. And it's well-meaning, but being a mother isn't a job. Being a mother is who someone *is*. It's not a job. You can quit a job. You can resign, as you did when you decided to quit being Vice President. But you are a mother forever. Being a mother is incredibly difficult. Let's not diminish it by calling it a job.
Sally: If you would let me finish my sentence, Cyrus, you would have heard me say that Mrs. Grant is the mother of our country. And as such, her true job is being first lady.
Cyrus: Still, not a job. People get paid for jobs. Don't they, Sally?
Sally: The first lady gets any number of perks a clothing allowance.
Cyrus: That's a myth. First ladies pay for their own clothes.
Sally: A private chef? Now, I've tasted that fried chicken myself, and I can personally vouch for its value.
Cyrus: So, you're saying that women should get paid in fried chicken now?
[lowering his voice]
Cyrus: Are you being paid in fried chicken to host this show?

David: [about witnesses] We have Huck and Charlie!
Charlie: You don't have me. I have me. And the me I have enjoys being alive.
David: No. We have Huck. We have Quinn.
Charlie: She was in B-613 for like five minutes. She barely qualified for the health plan.

Andrew: This is not an old grievance. This is a fresh frickin' wound, and I'm going to make them pay for it.
Olivia: Look, this is not the way. I assure you, Andrew. It is not the way, because this time, you're not just up against Fitz and Cyrus and Mellie. You are up against me, the bitch you left for dead.

Charlie: [to Quinn] You belong to B-613 now. Welcome to Wonderland.

Jake: And I'm not here to kill you, but from the looks of your conversation with Rowan, that'd probably be my best move. You know, kill you before you kill me.
Tom: Orders.
Jake: Right, orders. But what happens after I'm out of the way? You think Rowan lets the only other person who can link him to the death of the president's kid walk around free to tell tales? That's what this is about? He's covering his ass, Tom. I'm first. You're second.
Tom: Well, you can't protect me from him.
Jake: I can try. Listen You may not trust me, but you know you can't trust him.
[getting up to go]
Jake: Well, if you do try to kill me, maybe not today. It's gorgeous out.

Elizabeth: I'm hearing rumors about a new Attorney General, rumors of a Democrat, Cyrus, a Democrat!
Cyrus: Lizzie Bear...
Elizabeth: Cyrus...
Cyrus: [moving toward the door] Thank you for coming. It was lovely to see you.
Elizabeth: Excuse me?
Cyrus: Do you need to validate a ticket for your broomstick, or can you find your way out on your own?

Charlie: That was freakin' awesome. Boom!
Rowan: If you think I enjoy killing, you don't know me very well. Condone at times, accept as a necessary evil, but I get no enjoyment out of ending a life.

Olivia: There are people who are trying to kill you.
Andrew: The only person who ever tried to kill me is him.
Huck: I never tried to kill you. I *know* how to kill people.
[moves toward him]
Olivia: Huck!

Olivia: We need you to handle this discreetly.
Jake: Discreetly and creatively.
David: Wait, what do you mean?
President: If we held a trial and the court records became public, not only would it blow back on Livvie as the daughter of the man we're accusing, but it could disrupt the entire government, and mire it in scandal for generations to come.
Olivia: You see how that would be a problem, yes?
David: So, if I'm to understand correctly, you're looking for a legal avenue that provides the kind of discretion that, say, a military tribunal would provide? Even though that hasn't been a legal - legal avenue since, what, 1866?

Abby: Do you want to know what Olivia Pope would say?
Olivia: What would Olivia Pope say?
Abby: You don't get to run. You're a gladiator. Gladiators don't run. They fight. They slay dragons. They wipe off the blood and stitch up their wounds, and they live to fight another day. You don't get to run.

Abby: Do you even know how to use it? The safety and the clip and how you're not supposed to tuck it in your waistband or else you could shoot off your penis?
Harrison: I know how a gun works, Abby.
[racks and checks the gun]

Olivia: [about Mellie's sister visiting the White House] Cyrus must be loving this.
Abby: He's like a storm chaser in a van hurling down the highway, face pressed up against the windshield, grinning wildly, waiting for everything to go to hell, wanting to be there when it does.
Olivia: I've been in that van.

[last lines]
Olivia: [taking off in a private plane] Are you sure?
Jake: Yes.

Maya: [joining Olivia and Rowan at their restaurant table] In my 22 years in prison, you know what I missed most of all? Really good wine. We always did have that in common.
Rowan: Enjoy it. It'll be your last.
Maya: I heard about your forced retirement. Sorry you lost your little army.
Maya: [as Rowan reaches toward a steak knife] Oh, please do, baby. Please take a stab at me. I wonder which one of us is faster.

Cyrus: [shopping with Quinn] Do you have power drills around here? Maybe something in a blow torch?
Terry: For a book shelf?
Cyrus: We're big readers.

[first lines]
Luna: [at the podium] This has been a very strange day.
[chuckles]
Luna: I was certainly not expecting the call I got from President-Elect Grant this afternoon. And I must admit, my first impulse was to say no to this appointment. But once I realized it was real, something deep in my heart told me this was meant to be. This was the opportunity to make my husband's death mean something - to heal myself, and this nation.

[first lines]
Olivia: [on the phone in a cab] I'm fine.
Jake: I don't think you are.
Olivia: I'm fine.
Jake: 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: I'm not there - at the talking stage. I'm just tired, so I'm resting.
Jake: Resting?
Olivia: Yes, resting.
Jake: Uh-huh, not working?
Olivia: No.
Jake: Look, 'cause you're the kind of person that would do that. This is it. Dive back into work, like nothing ever happened.
Olivia: I'm in bed right now, and I'm pretty sleepy, so...
[faking a yawn]

Olivia: Ignoring the attacks on you, being likable all the time, does not get you elected President. You need to show your claws at some point. Show you have claws. You're too nice.
Congresswoman Josephine Marcus: Nice got me this far.
Olivia: Nice got you a congressional seat in Montana. Nice doesn't get you President, unless you want to be President of Candy Land.
Congresswoman Josephine Marcus: Listen, I know who I am, and I know what works with voters.
Olivia: You don't have any voters yet
Congresswoman Josephine Marcus: Hey! I'm the one running for President here, okay, not you.

[last lines]
President: We have to get Olivia back. Not just because I love her, not just because having her out there is a threat to national security. There are soldiers who are never coming home because I tried to get her back - someone's father, someone's husband. I have killed so many mothers' sons trying to get her back. The flags placed on the coffins where they lay are there because they had the courage to give their lives, and I did not have the courage to give Liv's. So, she has to come back, because their sacrifice damn well has to mean something. They cannot have died for nothing. They cannot have gone to their deaths for no other reason than I asked them to.
Cyrus: We will get her back. I promise you, Sir I will do everything in my power to make sure we get her back.
President: Thank you.

Olivia: Fitz is getting advice from someone else?
Cyrus: Yep.
Olivia: Who?
Cyrus: You don't know him.
Olivia: Go for the jugular.
Cyrus: I always do.

Leo: [as she kneels praying] How we doing, Sally? You ready to go? Ready to kick some presidential ass?

Olivia: You don't know, do you? You don't know why you stayed.
Mellie: Well, do you know why you left? I'm just asking, 'cause maybe your answer will spark something in me. At the very least, maybe I can steal it.
Olivia: I don't need to answer that question. I'm not the one writing a book. I'm not the one running for President. You are.
Mellie: You don't know, either, do you? Tougher than you thought, right? What's for lunch?

Cyrus: Start a kill folder on Olivia Pope.

President: [throwing a file down on the his desk] Give him to me.
Jake: Who?
President: Dmitri Belenko.
Jake: I don't know who that is.
President: You know exactly who it is. We had eyes on him. You took him. We know you took him.
Jake: And now you want your ball back.
President: This is not a game, Ballard.
Jake: No, it's not. But let's suppose I did know who this Dmitri was. A terrorist maybe working for Ivan Yushkin who popped up in Baltimore three days ago. Just making this up, obviously. But if someone like that did exist and I had him, why on earth would I give him to you? So you can puff out your chest and announce his detention at a swing-state pancake breakfast?
President: I am the Commander in Chief!
Jake: And I am Command, which means you don't tell me to do anything, because I'm not your bitch. You are the President. Your job is to shake hands, hold babies, pose with prime ministers, and sit down to interviews with your family. You comfort people, and you look pretty, and you talk tough. You don't do anything. I decide if there is a war. I decide if a world leader dies. I decide what to do with the Dmitris and the Ivans. I decide if America sleeps at night. I decide if America endures. This is not a game, Mr. President, and you're not getting your ball back.

President: It's gonna be all right.
Cyrus: We'll be a lame duck administration. We'll leave proud of the work we did. We'll be a joke.
President: Hell, we're not even supposed to be here. Need I remind you, you stole this ride? At least we got some mileage out of it.
Cyrus: True. And the backseat *did* see some action.
President: Yeah, that was my fault.
[both laughing]

Olivia: Be careful.
Jake: We're only digging up dirt on the most powerful man in the world. How dangerous could that possibly be?

Javi: Found you. I tracked you down by your IP address. Pretty easy.
Huck: [turning from his computer] What are you doing here?
Javi: I want to know why you left. I've seen pictures. I know you're my dad.

CIA: During her tenure in the White House, Olivia Pope had a top-level security clearance, which gave her access to highly classified information, much of it red zone, some of it highly dangerous - information that, in the wrong hands, would be catastrophic to our nation's security and international relationships.
Cyrus: Catastrophic?
President: I don't scare easily, Director. I'm going to need specifics.
CIA: We have done our homework, Sir. Let me paint the picture. If Olivia Pope goes to the Saudis, they'll have our illegal black sites in Amman. Southeast Asia, they'll learn about our anti-terror surveillance programs. We have four countries, four, who will discover the deaths of their leaders were not due to natural causes. And I am sure that England and Germany would be extremely interested to find out we spy on our own allies.
President: Make your point.
CIA: My point, sir, is that that's the good news. What is truly terrifying is what they will want for her return. Russia will ask you to close our bases in Turkey, neutering us in that region. Pakistan will ask for drone technology to wipe India off the map once and for all. And ISIS will want the immediate release of hundreds of terrorists hell-bent on killing innocent Americans.
President: None of which will come to light if Ms. Pope is extracted safely.
CIA: In our estimation, there's a 30% chance of that.
President: Even with our best SEALS on the ground?
CIA: Even with our best SEALS on the ground.

Cyrus: I'm still unclear why any of this matters to B-613.
Rowan: You know how people say, "I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you" at parties. I could tell you, but then I *would* have to kill you. We're not at a party, and I am not laughing.

[last lines]
Rowan: [on the phone] The money source of B-613, you've been looking in the wrong place.
Olivia: What?
Rowan: It's not funded by one department. It's funded by all of them.
Olivia: What do you want?
Rowan: Nothing.
Olivia: Then why are you helping me?
Rowan: We're family, Olivia. Despite everything. And families, well, they, um They stick together.
Olivia: [countdown to live broadcast] And we are live in five, four, three, two...

Mellie: [to the press] Fitz is a Navy man who will never take action to diminish our armed forces or in any way risk compromising our strength and security, both at home and abroad. Thank you all!
Bitsy: [whispers as they walk off] I have a joint in my handbag, and it's not gonna smoke itself. Would you like to join me on the Truman balcony?
Mellie: [giggles]

President: I hate that you're always right.
Olivia: Me too.
President: We tried.
Olivia: We did.

Tom: With the parameters you have given me for the job, this is not an easy task, sir.
Rowan: Tom, look at me. Look at my face. Disappointment often turns to frustration, frustration turns to resentment, resentment turns to anger, anger to rage, rage to indifference. And once I am indifferent, well, I will have forgotten that you were ever one of my favorites, and I just may start wishing for your head, too.

[first lines]
Sally: [monologuing on her TV show] Lovers of Liberty, good evening. Tonight, I come to you filled with the righteous indignation of a true American. Tonight, my flag waves and my patriotic fires burn, because tonight, over in the White House, the man who calls himself our president, is throwing a party. He's making a mockery of what our fine nation stands for. He has betrayed honor and virtue. And tonight, he celebrates that betrayal. Tonight, he bathes in his filthy glory. Tonight, he has the audacity to ask us, patriots, Americans, to join him in his jubilation, to skip with him down the road to Sodom and Gomorrah. And all the while, he holds our hands and tells us fairy tales, a young woman, a commoner, an all-American girl, who falls in love with the golden son who would be king? Really? It's a story. And not a very original one, at that.

[first lines]
Announcer: The Liberty Report, with Sally Langston.
Sally: Lovers of Liberty, we are back. Now, where were we? Ah, power. Power, my dear lovers of Liberty, is the beating heart of our nation's bosom. The high and mighty members of the political elite feed on it, breed on it, for power is the host - the enormous teat off which this entire town suckles. Oh, and you wonder why Washington can't get anything done. The hunt for power is all-consuming. Everyone always needs more, and nobody ever has enough. The stories I could tell you.

Aggressive: We're not just talking about free speech here. We're talking hate speech. The KKK. Will you disavow...
Hollis: Looky here. Book and thoughts, they don't hurt people. - Well, maybe books. - But it's the politically-correct media elite that really hurts the people of this country. That's keeping all the money for their judgy, greedy, over-educated selves.

Huck: Two things make a coincidence. Three things make a conspiracy.
Jake: What's the third thing?
Huck: The passenger list. Fifth name from the top.
Jake: [reads] "Maya Lewis."
Huck: She never took her husband's name.
Jake: What was her husband's name?
Huck: "Pope."
Jake: No!
Huck: Liv's mom...
Olivia: [Huck and Jake now at her door] What?

Congresswoman Josephine Marcus: We've already got over $6 million and counting.
Abby: $6 million might pay for the gas, but it sure as hell won't buy you the plane. You want to walk to Iowa
Olivia: You've done a great job mobilizing the grass roots, but you're getting pummeled by Reston's ads on the airwaves. And your post-debate spike in the polls It's nearly gone. It's time to respond with ads of your own Big media buys. Reston's already locked up the big donors. Then we unlock them. Those people out there working their tails off, along with the millions of people who have pledged their support one crumpled dollar at a time They believe in me because I'm not accountable to big money. You want to be mayor of Red Springs or Ralph Nader, turn your back on PAC money and large donations. You want to win Iowa or New Hampshire and become the party's nominee?
Congresswoman Josephine Marcus: All right, line up the fat cats. Let's just get this over with.

Congresswoman Josephine Marcus: How is what I did any different than what these people the people you wanted to hire do on an hourly basis?
Harrison: You got caught!

President: I have dealt with drunk Mellie, bad-hygiene Mellie... No, wait, I got it, smelly Mellie. I have dealt with drunk Mellie, and smellie Mellie, and screw-everything-to-hell Mellie, and cry-baby Mellie, and eat-everything-that's-not-nailed-down Mellie, and I have not complained. But I will not put up with whatever righteous history-rewriting Mellie you have going on right here, right now. This is not your family. You are not the mother Not since Jerry died. Since Jerry died you have abdicated your role. You have mothered no one. You hold nothing together. You pick up no pieces. You know how I know this? Because baby Teddy thinks his mother is nanny Jen. And Karen spent last night in a threesome with two guys doing a move on her they like to call Eiffel Towering! You know how I know that? I saw the sex tape they made! So you should be damn glad she called Olivia, because Olivia Pope is fixing this mess, this mess that you made. This mess that we made. Look, I know that I share some guilt in all of this. But you want to know the difference between you and me? All day, every day, I am running a country - I am grieving for the loss of my son - but I am also running a country. All day, every day, you are sitting around in booties and a dirty robe eating chips and getting drunk at 11:00AM!
Mellie: A sex tape?
President: Yeah.
Mellie: She takes after her daddy then, doesn't she?

Candace: So you all you're really full-service, aren't you? You raise money, organize the ground game, bury secrets, and still have time to go out and make fake political ads. You're wearing the same nail polish as the shaky hand.
Abby: She needed to get angry. We needed to get her there.
Candace: Is there a line you won't cross?
Abby: We'll let you know when we find it.

David: Everyone who heard Jake's testimony everyone who was in that court room is dead now. Except for me. And you.
[Jake]
David: And while I live for justice, I don't want to die for it.

Olivia: I'm here to find the truth!
Officer: [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!

[last lines]
Olivia: [whispering into Cyrus' ear while pretending to console him] You son of a bitch. I know you killed him, and I'm going to prove it!

Charlie: [at her door] Can you believe the hardware store just leaves this stuff outside during the holidays?
Quinn: Did you shoplift Christmas?
Charlie: It was going in the bargain bin tomorrow anyway. So, is there room at the inn or what?

[last lines]
Rowan: [Olivia remember her father's words] The apple does not fall far from the tree, Olivia, poison though it may be.
Quinn: Did you talk to Cyrus?
Olivia: Yes.
Quinn: And?
Olivia: He said, "One of us is getting back to the White House. "He's right. Me.
Rowan: [Olivia remember her father's words] And all it took was a little nudge from your father.
Rowan: [watching the nomination coverage on TV with a smile] That's my girl.

[first lines]
Quinn: [finding Jake unconscious] Jake? Make some noise for me. Anything. Jake. Come on. Make some noise for me. Oh, they got you. Ohh, we let them get you.

[last lines]
President: You're not drinking?
Mellie: No. Fitz, don't. No, it's early yet. Don't. Don't get happy yet.
President: You know, if it's a boy, he's gonna make us name it Jerry.
Mellie: Mmm.

Mellie: It's not the same my child, your husband. It's not the same.
Cyrus: I keep hearing that. The loss of a child is greater. I resent that, never having lost a child. I resent having to feel like losing the love of my life, the only someone who ever made me feel like I was truly me, is less of a loss, is smaller than your loss. I am now broken. I'm now not me. I'm now forever changed. I'm undone. A broken heart is a broken heart. To take a measure is cruelty.

Olivia: My father was trying to protect me this whole time. He didn't want me to know what she did, who she is.
Huck: Liv?
Olivia: He's not the monster. She is.
Huck: Then we've got a problem.

Tom: I'm sorry about Jerry. I am. I didn't have anything against him. He was a nice boy. But he was a boy. And you are a man, a great man, and I had to choose between a nice boy and a great man, and I chose the great man, and I am not sorry about that. I am proud of that. He was a sacrifice. I am a sacrifice. There are sacrifices that need to be made for greatness, brush that needs to be cleared for the path of history.

Quinn: You come for some more teeth? A finger?
Huck: I came here to kill you. Put you down. You cracked Liv's safe, I saw you on the camera. You're broken. You're a threat. So I came here to put you down. But then I was sitting here, and I realized... I saw you on camera. I trained you, I made you. And you are good, Quinn. You're special, talented, which means I shouldn't have seen you on camera. You would have de-magged the optics, looped the visuals, cut the upload. There's no way I would have seen you on camera unless you wanted to be seen.
Quinn: I don't know what you're talking about.
Huck: You wanted me to see you. You wanted us to know what Jake was doing, what B613 was doing. You're not broken. Somewhere in there, you're still a gladiator.

David: [watching Huck on the computer] I feel like I'm watching Mozart.
Abby: Mozart couldn't bring down B-613.

President: [at a campaign rally] Are you ready?
Mellie: To be blown up?

[first lines]
President: [practicing his speech] Members of the Hightower family, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans. It is a great honor and privilege for me to be here with you today. Today we remember and say goodbye to a man who loved his country, madly. A man who worked to better his country, profoundly.
Cyrus: [letting a call going to voice mail] You've reached Cyrus Beene, please leave a message.

Elizabeth: I thought you and I were on the same page.
Mellie: Because we're both screwing Andrew? That doesn't make us friends. It just makes us both at risk for the same STDs. I don't blame you. I know as well as the next gal how generous Andrew is in bed. He is dedicated. But he's weak. Certainly not a presidential contender. So, when the next election rolls around, I'd make damn sure you bet on the right horse, because when it comes to screwing someone, I'm not nearly as gentle as Andrew. From me, it will hurt.

Quinn: These senators aren't going home without bagging a trophy. We need to do something.
Huck: Well, she only told us not to lie. She didn't tell us we couldn't do other things.
Quinn: Huck.
Huck: I didn't say kill. You really need to let that go.

Leo: [sitting a Cyrus' desk looking a pictures] Nice family. I mean, could use a mommy, but...
Cyrus: I'll give you exactly one second to get your feet off my desk.
Leo: Or what?
Cyrus: Or I'll cut them off and shove them down your throat.
Leo: Size 11 1/2? I seriously doubt my feet would fit down my throat.
Cyrus: I'm not talking about your feet, you baby-faced twit. I'm talking about your balls. Have they even dropped yet? Will you miss them when they're gone?

Abby: [to the president in the Oval Office] I run you. You run the country. That's the job. I run you, so you can run the country. I make these decisions so that you don't have to. So that you can decide who lives and who dies when you bomb a village looking for terrorists. So that you can go hold the hands of broken mothers when a classroom full of first graders gets gunned down by some school shooter in Illinois. So you can take us to the moon or Mars or wherever is next. I run you, you run the country. That is the job, and you don't question it. You do not get to cage your monster!

Ian: Why would you be "shot in the head?"
Olivia: Because I'm going to die, and I want to decide how! They've got their war. I've seen your face. You have to kill me. I know how this works.
Ian: Oh, Olivia. I'm so sorry. You've got this all wrong. I'm not gonna kill you, not anytime soon. This is a long-term gig for at least the next three years or so, until the end of the president's term. But after that, sure, yeah, I'll have to kill you, but that's so far down the road there's no point in really even talking about it now. You shouldn't have killed Otto.

Huck: [sitting with a babbling Huck] I'm a talker. It's what I do. I talk. Since I was a kid I can talk myself in or out of anything, bed-time, homework, curfew. It's how I sold cars, sailed through law school, how I got clients, and get girls. Hell, it almost landed me in jail if it wasn't for Liv But you're not a talker. You're action man. So I can only imagine what you've seen, what you've done, what you've had done to you. And I have to imagine, because you're not just a man of few words, but the fewest words possible. So I fill in the blanks. We all do.

President: They sent you a box every few days. Random days, no pattern to it. Same weight every time. A brick inside every time. I know.
Rowan: You know nothing. You're as ignorant as a toddler playing with a handgun, so you need to cease speaking.

Quinn: See, I'm confused, Huck. How does this go? What are the rules? When you licked my face, when you put your tongue on my cheek. Apparently that was just what you needed to get in the mood to rip out my molars, right? But your tongue in my mouth, that's different? You put your tongue in my mouth, and now I deserve to live? That's a thing? That's how it goes?

Rowan: Olivia, why are you calling?
Olivia: I have so many questions I want to ask you, but I'm afraid you'll kill my friends if I do. So, you know, let's just talk about the weather, or uh, how I can't form attachments to people because my mother is dead, and my father is that thing that goes bump in the night. Or... You pick a topic.

Huck: [interrupting their little squabble] Charlie, Quinn doesn't want to go to the Caribbean with you because she's a workaholic and she's afraid of the ocean.
Quinn: Uh, I am not!
Huck: Quinn, Charlie wants to take you to the Caribbean so he can propose to you. Unless he wants to kill you. Which one is it, Charlie? Do you want to murder her or you want to marry her?
Charlie: I want to marry you - if you want to marry me... You look like you're gonna vomit.

[last lines]
Mellie: [giving TV interview] After we had the baby, after the shooting, after I stood by him through that whole terrible ordeal, I found out that... my husband was unfaithful to me.
James: Y-you're saying h-he...
Mellie: I'm saying my husband had an extramarital affair.
David: [watching from Olivia's office] Huh. Wonder who he banged.
Harrison: I got, uh, stuff...
[Olivia's staff all scurry out of the room]
Mellie: And I have moved out of the White House to take some time for myself while we work through this heartbreaking betrayal.
James: You're alleging that...
Mellie: No. I wish I were alleging, James.
James: So you're confirming that the President of the United States has been cheating on you, his wife?
Mellie: Yes. And... I just wanna ask the American people tonight in advance for their understanding and their forgiveness. No one's marriage is perfect, and I truly hope that given time and space, Fitz and I will be able to repair what has been broken here and emerge from this stronger and more united than ever.
President: [in Olvia's shower] Hi.
Olivia: Hi.

Abby: [holding a gun in Putney's face in a dark garage] I'm gonna shoot you. I'm gonna shoot you, and when people ask me why, I'll tell them it's because you used to beat the crap out of me. And that's what's made me so messed up. That's what made me so lonely. That's what's stolen all of my chances for normal with every single guy I've ever... Or maybe I'll just tell them you attacked me and I went crazy and shot you in the face. Either way, chalk it up to PTSD, Chip.

[first lines]
Cyrus: His name's Jake Ballard. He's a Naval Intelligence officer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Put him under the microscope, see what you find. The more dirt, the better.
Charlie: It'd help to know why I'm doing this. He sleeping with your husband?
Cyrus: In a manner of speaking, yes.

Olivia: Run with Mellie by your side. You can win with Mellie by your side.
President: I want *you* by my side. We can do this together. You are going to be my first lady.
Olivia: I can't leave them. They need me. I'm their gladiator.

Abby: [to Abby] You'd make a great candidate. I have no doubt about that. You have the brilliancy, charisma, breeding. Plus, those dresses of yours - don't get me started. But let's be clear, once you leave him, there'll be no more smiles, no more pats on the back, no more scotch on the damn seal. He will not be proud of you. He will be abandoned by you. And no matter how good your life is or how successful you are, there's always gonna be a part of you that Well you never really feel whole again. A piece of you is always with him. If you can live with that, do it. Run. Soar to great heights. Join me over here in the rare air. If you can't, don't.

Cyrus: [15 years earlier] You want him to be governor? You want him to run the damn country one day? I will hand you that on a platter. You want his hand held or his nose wiped or someone to hug him and tell him that he's great, do it yourself. That's your job.
Mellie: My job?
Cyrus: You're the wife.
Mellie: I'm a lawyer. I'm a partner in a law firm.
Cyrus: That... You'll have to give that up. They told you that, right?

Quinn: Huck, I came back. You really don't have anything to say to me?
Huck: Do you want me to say that I'm sorry? Sorry for hurting you? Sorry for making you talk? I'm not sorry. If it wasn't for Olivia I would've pulled out all of your teeth. If I wasn't for Olivia, I would've peeled off all of your skin. If it wasn't for Olivia, I would kill you right now. Right here. Liv saves us, and you betrayed her. You're not a gladiator anymore.

Chief: 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: 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.

Stephen: $2 billion. You're worth $2 billion. You're not a person, Liv. You're a small country.

Quinn: [arriving at the office] Got your coffee.
Harrison: You're late. Where have you been?
Quinn: Getting your coffee. Then there was traffic.
Harrison: There's an app for that.
Quinn: Oh, is there an app to help you get along with your coworker? There should be.

Andrew: Four to six weeks? Excuse me for talking out of turn, but that's too long a wait.
President: I'm making sure our soldiers don't walk into an ambush.
Andrew: And if we wait for the rivers to run dry, how do we know the rebels won't use that time to plot and execute another attack on our home soil?
President: You're talking about hypothetical risks.
Andrew: Tell that to the shrapnel in my ass.

Charlie: Granny died.
Quinn: Granny Fran? Oh, no. When?
Charlie: A few weeks ago. You knew she was sick.
Quinn: Yeah. Yeah, I just I-I didn't...
Charlie: It was bad at the end. I helped her along, made it quick. Didn't want her to suffer.
Quinn: Of course.

Hollis: [about to his daughter's kidnapping] Even it wasn't a hoax, I got me eight kids with five wives. If I paid up, they'd just come take the rest. Pretty soon I'd be stuck working the drive-thru at Gettysburger just to pay ransoms.

Cyrus: Let me fill in this paint-by-numbers picture for you, since you seem so unable. Sally Langston goes down for murder, and ma and pa kettle's hearts break, because how could the President not know that the First Lady and Chief of Staff covered it up using taxpayer money. But forget about the three of us going off to prison. Faith in government will be dead. People will stop paying their taxes. Economic systems, institutions that have lasted for centuries, will begin to falter while our enemies pounce on our crippled nation and hack away until the great American experiment is no more. Whatever issues I may have had with your predecessor, he would have taken care of this by now. No qualms, no questions, just action. I expect you to wisen up and do the same.
Jake: You're a mouse, Cyrus. A mouse on a wheel, thinking, truly believing, that "if I just run a little bit faster, I'll finally get to the cheese."You're small. And while I'd love to explain to you how the world really works, I don't have the time, and you won't understand.

Huck: Olivia, is your father "Command?"
Olivia: ...Yes. He is.

Rowan: Twenty minutes without making a sound. If only you'd been this quiet as a child.
Olivia: Why did you try to have me killed?
Rowan: I didn't try to have you killed. I tried to have Jake Ballard killed.

Rowan: [to Edison] You gon' be our first black president. And you're gonna get there by making everyone forget that you are black. You're going to wait - your time will come. When you are in the Oval, you can say whatever you want. Until then, stand still and hope nobody notices that this ain't no tan.

Cyrus: What I am about to say will never be spoken about again outside this room. She is precious to him, you understand? She is his beating heart, held in the hands of his enemies. With her they can bend him, they can break him, they can make the president of the United States dance like a monkey at a county fair. And as long as his heart is out there, beating in the hands of China, North Korea, Drug Lords, Russia - God knows who else - we are screwed. We stop it. We stop that beating heart. And that, my friend, is what your president would want us to do. It is what he would demand that we do. If his heart were not out there, if it were in here, he would do it himself. So, we do what he cannot do. We may need to neutralize the asset.

President: How do I get rid of B-613? I want them gone.
Cyrus: Don't... Sir...
[whisks him over to the fireplace and continues in whispers]
Cyrus: Okay, don't ever say that again. That is impossible, Mr. President.
President: Nothing is impossible. What if we eliminated their budget?
Cyrus: A few years ago, this guy at the OMB comes across a very, very strange line item in the federal budget. It's been there for years, but no one's ever mentioned it until this one person, this one man points it out.
President: And what happened?
Cyrus: He committed suicide. That's how they took care of it, and that's how they'll take care of us if they start to see us as enemies. Only in your case, it won't be suicide. It'll be a lone-gunman on a grassy knoll. Just ask Kennedy. This is something you can't control, Mr. President. What you *can* control is winning re-election. That's what I'm focused on, and if you're smart, you'll focus on that, too.

[last lines]
Olivia: I know we haven't had a lot to celebrate around here in the last few months. Sometimes it seems the battles weren't winnable, or at least not worth the blood spilled fighting them. But then a moment like this comes around, and it makes you feel like it's all worth it, that we're finally stepping back into the light. We did this, people. We made this happen.
Abby: Gladiators!
David: Hear, hear.
Jake: [busts in and pushes Olivia to the wall by her throat] What the hell have you done?
Olivia: [choking] I don't know what you're talking about.
Jake: No? Then let me be the one who breaks it to you. You just killed the president!

Mellie: Marriage is, well, it's almost all pretend for everyone. That's the reality. That's what's real. Buying into the delusion that there's any other way to live together, to get through an entire life together... That's, well, that's the fantasy. That's pretending.
President: Did I do this to you? Or have you always been like this? Because if it was me I'm sorry.

Susan: So, you've been queen a long time.
Queen: Oh, yes. And we were very interested to hear about your rapid rise to the vice presidency.
Susan: Oh, it was fast, wasn't it!

Cyrus: Next November you're gonna get an eviction notice. And by January 20th, they're coming for your stuff. Do you know what today's date is, sir? Not January 20th. We can still *do* something. We *can*. *Still*. Set the world on fire, or die trying. Let's ride out of here with our guns empty, not in the damn holster.

Jake: [out in the Canada wilderness] I'm here about Olivia.
Rowan: Did she scratch my records?
Jake: She's been taken.
Rowan: Taken?
Jake: To force the president into war in West Angola. Now she's being sold on the international auction block to the highest bidder.
Rowan: [laughs heartily] It's unbelievable. Unbelievable! I've been gone how long? I mean, has it been a week? And already you've lost - no, sorry not "lost." She's been taken.
Jake: These are professionals.
Rowan: Well, that distinguishes them from you, now doesn't it? Do you fish?
Jake: No.
Rowan: You know, people who don't fish think that fishing is lazy or boring, but it is the complete opposite. There are a hundred little decisions to be made, variables to be considered. And you're never quite sure what made the difference. Did I cast too high, too far to the left? Did I reel it in too slow, or, or, or too fast? Is the lure too shiny or too dull? Do I stay here, or should I go over there? And you know it's not luck, but you do not know by how much. People are predictable, unchanging, monotonous. They use the same language, they offer the same excuses, they make the same mistakes. People are endlessly disappointing, because you hope they won't be. I knew that she would need me. I knew that you'd come here begging for help. This was all predictable, all disappointing. This is why I am fishing, because I am never disappointed out here - because I don't expect anything - because anything is possible. I can be hopeful out here, even in failure, because I know if I just go out there, around that tree, it might be different, something might be different - something I do might make a difference.
Jake: She's your daughter.
Rowan: [scoffs and picks up his fishing pole] I don't have a daughter.

Jake: [late night] You're working?
President: You seem good. What? You thought you'd find me drunk, playing Russian roulette with the nuclear codes?

Olivia: Cyrus he's happy. He's content.
Cyrus: He was never meant to be happy. Happy, content men don't run the world, which is why he is not running the world. He does whatever you say, without question. You have pulled off a clean, bloodless coup in the United States of America, and no one is the wiser. That is one for the history books.
Olivia: I know this is difficult for you, because you seem to be so unfamiliar with how humans behave, but Cyrus, Fitz and I together, we have an actual relationship. This is what a couple looks like.

Jake: [shoved into a secure room]
Olivia: Hi.
Jake: Hi.
President: Hi.

[last lines]
Ms. Ruland: [furious at being handcuffed] Of all the mistakes you've made...
Olivia: [getting nose-to-nose] The mistake was thinking you could take what's mine. And should you make that mistake again, remember this: You can't take Olivia Pope, Olivia Pope takes you.
Abby: I don't see Fitz being too happy about this.
Olivia: He's gonna be furious. You ready for a fight?
Abby: It's the least I can do.

Elizabeth: [discussing blackmail] I'm in for my fair share.
Cyrus: My fair share $1.
[peels off a single]
President: *If* we pay him, how do we know he still won't talk?
Abby: We don't hand over the money until Andrew signs a non-disclosure agreement.
Elizabeth: Fine. I'm in for $5 million.
David: You have $5 million dollars?
Elizabeth: I've been a Republican my whole life.
Abby: Liv is not paying her kidnapper. David and I don't have any money...
Cyrus: [dryly] You're Democrats.

David: What would Olivia Pope do? Someone really needs to put that on a bracelet.

President: You're treating me like an unpopular first-term mayor of Cincinnati, Mellie. I am the two-term Republican President with massive political capital, and a 59% approval rating. I know you don't get it, but they still love me after everything. If it wasn't for the Constitution, I'd be up here accepting this nomination myself. So let me help you.

Olivia: [sitting stunned in a hospital hallway] We're going to win the election now. They lost their child. America will rally behind them.
Cyrus: We're going to win. I hadn't really thought about it.
Olivia: I did. A child is dead, and that's the first thing that popped into my head.
Cyrus: I was going to let that church blow up with everyone in it.
Olivia: How did we get like this? When did we stop being people?
Cyrus: Were we ever people? Or did serving at the pleasure of the president just help us to shed our pesky skins and unmask us as the monsters we really are?

[first lines]
Olivia: "The Liberty Report" with Sally Langston.
Sally: Two gifts have arrived, addressed to you Lovers of Liberty. The first gift Hollis Doyle. The Texas truth-teller is throwing his hat into the ring. To which I say yee-haw! Saddle up, little doggie. The second gift? Well, yours truly has agreed to host the first Republican debate, a duty I take very seriously, for debates mean setting aside petty infighting between the candidates, and putting the lofty concerns of the voters and the republic above all.

Olivia: [seeing her mother off at a dark airfield] You have a phone. Remember, if anything goes wrong, if my friend isn't at the airport, call the number I gave you. You also have a gun. I hope you won't need to use it, but you showed her how to use it, right?
Jake: She was actually more worried about the cell phone.

Quinn: [having turned down Marcus' dinner invitation] Huck, why are you so mean to him?
Huck: He's normal.
Quinn: So?
Huck: He's a normal person, Quinn. We have to protect him. We can't let him be friends with us.

Olivia: You told me you would be different.
Jake: I *am* different.
Olivia: No! No! Fitz gave you the keys to this office and immediately you became my father!
Jake: I am different! Because when something awful needed to be done, I did not pull some poor, broken soldier out of a hole and make him do something that would give him nightmares for the rest of his life. I did that awful thing myself. James Novak died in a carjacking. Accept that and the world keeps spinning.
Olivia: And if I don't?
Jake: Bad things happen to good people all the time.

Olivia: I thought you didn't want me fixing you.
President: I don't need fixing. I'm fine. I love you. The American public needs fixing. They love Mellie. They're the ones with the problem. So come up with a plan to solve
Olivia: You want me to come up with a plan?
President: Olivia Pope, use your super-power.

Mary: Have another. Pryaniki. Russian spice cookies. I tell my grandkids I had a neighbor growing up who used to make them for me. They think Nana's from Wisconsin.
Olivia: Must be interesting, lying to everyone you know, including your own family.
Mary: Growing up, we were poor. Really poor. Not American poor. My little brother starved to death because we didn't have enough food. That kind of poor. Russian poor. The KGB were recruiting, and it turned out I was gifted. I had the eye of a sniper, and I would kill anything with my bare hands without asking questions. They said I'd have all the food I wanted, a warm bed to sleep in, shoes. I'd have shoes. All I had to do was learn English, go to America, and murder people when ordered. Why would I say no to that? It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

Hollis: So you need to make a choice. You want the money Or you want your family?
Maybelle: You're offering me $20 million?
Hollis: You take the money, you don't come back. What's it gonna be? Money or family?
Maybelle: I...
Hollis: Money or family?

Ilya: [to Rosen] Now, you, scared man with glasses, we flip him over. Now. Right now. We flip, he scream. We flip anyway.
[Jake screams in pain]

[last lines]
Rowan: [sitting down on the park bench] So it's done?
Jake: It's done.
Rowan: And the police believe it's a suicide?
Jake: Hook, line, and sinker.
Rowan: I have to say, it was staged perfectly.
Jake: And now everyone thinks that Osborne is the mole. Or was.
Rowan: Well you stay warm now...
Jake: Yeah, you, too.

Rowan: [to Olivia on the phone] What have I always told you, Olivia? Against me, you will never win.

President: You want to do my job? Every day, you have to decide between something terrible that you hate and something horrible that you hate. Either way, people are gonna hate you. You need to accept that. Otherwise, you shouldn't run.
Mellie: No one's ever hated you. Even when they disagree with you, they love Fitzgerald Grant. That face, that voice. You got that thing that makes people love you. And I don't. I never have.

Cyrus: Madame Vice President, I know you have a lot on your plate, but funny...
Sally: I thought it was your entire vocation in life to make sure my plate remains empty.

Abby: What's the big deal with taking one little name off the no-fly list? David, normal boyfriends do favors for their girlfriends.
David: You know, normal girlfriends don't dabble in aiding and abetting.

[first lines]
Huck: Normally, I'd start with the drill or a scalpel. Peeling off the skin can be beautiful, or removing fingers, toes. I like the feeling of a toe being separated from a foot. But with you, because we're friends, because we're family, I won't do any of that. Consider it the friends and family discount. I'm disappointed in you, Quinn. You've been a bad girl. And I need to know exactly what you've been up to. But, before we start, I just wanna say I'm sorry. I'm so sorry because I'm gonna enjoy this. I'm gonna love it and I don't want to, but you're so fresh, so new, y-y soft, and I've never done this with someone in the family, someone I love, and that's... I'm sorry. I just need to.
Quinn: [getting more and more freaked out]
Huck: I won't kill you. I promise! I'm gonna start with your teeth.

Cyrus: Clients are plenty, friends are few. Your friend is asking for help.

Olivia: You killed him...
Gavin: I pushed him. He died because he was weak.

Olivia: You're sitting on one of the most valuable assets in the world and not using it. Imagine the price I'd fetch on the open market. "Own Olivia Pope, you own the president." Make that known, you're the most powerful man in the world. Nations, dictators, drug cartels they'd all come running. You'd be rich beyond your wildest dreams, but, no, you'd rather honor your contract, spend the next three years bringing me food and water. Yes, you'd be the highest-paid babysitter on the planet, but that's all you'd be a babysitter.
Ian: You're saying I should sell you.
Olivia: I'm saying *we* should sell me. I know the market, how it operates, who the players are, how to pull their strings. This is my wheelhouse. If anyone can make this work for you, it's me.
Ian: So I get rich, and you get what?
Olivia: I get to not spend the next three years counting down the days 'til the president leaves office and you put a bullet in my head. We both know I'm resourceful. You get rich. I get to take my chances on the open market. Plus, you'd have to make me look presentable to get top dollar. And right now, I could really use a shower and a change of clothes. Think about it, Ian. It's win-win. But again, the question isn't what I want. It's what you want. Do you want to be a babysitter, or do you want to be a boss? It's up to you.

[first lines]
President: [standing in her closet] I like that one. What's Harding's wife's name again?
Olivia: Sandy.
President: Sandy. She's...
Olivia: Home and garden editor at the Columbus Tribune.
President: We need to pass this spending bill, Olivia.
Olivia: I know.

Otto: [abducting her] Do you have a death wish or something?
Olivia: I only negotiate with people with the power to say yes or no, and you don't have that. You're not in charge. No one in this ambulance is in charge. The guy back in the apartment who had his hand over my mouth, he was in charge. He never said a word, but you all looked at him every time you spoke. You were checking for approval. He is in charge, he says yes or no, so me begging and bargaining here with you is a waste of my breath. And you can't kill me unless he says you can, so, no, I don't have a death wish. It's just that he's not here to be afraid of.
Otto: Ma'am, there are many, many things scarier than death.
[injects her]

[first lines]
Olivia: [argument being overheard in the hallway by the Secret Service] Can you just let it go?
President: Let it go? No, I can't!
Olivia: Well, I'm not talking about it.
President: He's standing outside our door.
Jake: [in the hallway] You guys always lock down the entire floor?
Tom: Standard operating procedure.
Olivia: ...How many times are we gonna have this conversation?
President: Well, what the hell is he doing here?
Olivia: He's here because there is a pack of reporters covering your fundraiser downstairs.
Tom: ...When we go international, we lock down the floors above and below, as well.

Mellie: I did everything but roll your whore up in a rug and unfurl her at your feet! I begged her. I bled for this!
President: It's done, Mellie. We find someone else.
Mellie: You want to win? There is no one else.

Abby: [about Jake] He was taken into custody two days ago and hasn't been seen since.
President: Has anyone from the press asked you about him?
Abby: No.
President: Then you're not asking as part of your official duties as White House Press Secretary.
Abby: No.
President: You just thought you'd stroll on into the Oval Office and ask the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces about something you have no security clearance for.
Abby: I'm not asking the Commander in Chief. I'm asking the married man who used to sleep with my friend, what exactly he has done with the man she's currently sleeping with.

Harrison: You going rogue on this makes getting your sister elected to the highest office in the land, a job that you hired us to do, that much harder! Guess what? She's a first-term congresswoman from a forgettable state. It doesn't need to be harder! So from now on, you are gonna mind your elders. You're gonna color inside the lines, and you're gonna do exactly what I say when I say to do it and not one second before. Am I clear?
Candace: So are you here to babysit me now?
Harrison: Maybe if you're good I'll let you stay up past your bedtime.

President: I lost that election because I didn't want it. I didn't ever think I wanted anything not until I met you.

Cyrus: Sir, I told you, there's no way we can make B-613 do anything.
President: It's a simple choice, Cy. Door number one, I tell the truth and the both of us get kicked out of this White House. Door number two, I admit to the Jeannine affair and Jake gets released. What's it gonna be? Because I'm about to go on live television and need to know what to say. How presidential are my balls now, Cy?

[first lines]
Jake: [jogging] I booked a hotel suite.
Olivia: You did what?
Jake: It's pretty close to your apartment. Easy, scenic. You could run there, run back.
Olivia: Why, am I running there?
Jake: Booty calls.
Olivia: Booty calls? You booked a hotel suite and I'm running there for booty calls? What... what is happening?
Jake: We're back in DC, we're not standing in the sun anymore. I'm not gonna live in your apartment, waiting to service you? I have things to do. I'm busy. But, I did book a nice hotel suite for booty calls.
Olivia: Okay, no. See, we have to have a conversation about... I don't do booty calls, Jake.

Quinn: If we lose... if we lose Liv for good, I know what she is to you. I know how important she is. I know you need her - but I need you. You may be Liv's Puppy, but I'm kind of yours.

Andrew: [admiring a painting] I don't mean to sound like a rube, but that's Jackie Kennedy's portrait. Right there. I could just reach out and touch it. I could grab it off the wall and run.
Mellie: [giggling] Don't. Armed men will take you down to the ground in under 15 seconds. We do not touch the first ladies.

[first lines]
President: [speaking at news conference] Today I can confirm that former CIA Director Grayden Osborne was responsible for a leak of confidential information to our foreign adversaries. We believe he was a mole working in the United States government. It's unfortunate for me to say that a man I appointed, a man I trusted, was secretly and actively working against this country in hopes of destroying it. But he did not succeed. Our national security is intact. Our intelligence community is stronger than ever. And our government continues to do everything in its power to keep Americans, both abroad and right here at home, safe.

Abby: I'm a big dog, Liv. The biggest. A White House Monster. I chew them up, I spit them out, I own that place. What's the point of being a monster if you've got no teeth?

Leo: Wow! You know, I never realized people like you actually existed. I don't know whether to be excited or scared.
Rowan: Both. You should be both.

Olivia: [as Jake enters her apartment] What?
Jake: Hello to you, too. You called me. You said it was important. You told me to come home early. I used my official "boyfriend of Olivia Pope" key.

President: I'm not gonna try and kill myself.
Mellie: [hanging over the railing] I know that. I'm not you.
President: I had a bad night. One bad night. Don't ever bring that up again.
Mellie: I will add it to the list. Dead kid, missing mistress, Mellie's rape, Fitz's suicide.
President: She's not missing. She's back.

SS: [to Olivia] This is an adjustment, I understand. I like to think of us as, well, you've seen the dogs with the cones around their neck? We are those cones. We're annoying. You'll want to shake us off at first, and you will try, but we don't come off.

President: After my speech, there will be a window. Climb through it. Be bold. Condemn me. Make yourself the moral center of the party. Use the moment to rise. Can you do that?
Sally: Oh, I believe I can, Mr. President. Why are you helping me? Why are you extending kindness?
President: Because we are not married to one another.

Rowan: Money is not a problem. There's always money. Money bought that plane. Money bought the silence of the gentleman who will fly that plane. It contains a passport, a Swiss bank book, a go-file, an entirely new identity. There is a very nice island waiting for you at the end of the flight. You will stay there for eight months. Then I can arrange a place for you in Brussels. Thailand, if you prefer, Johannesburg... anyplace but here, really, as long as you disappear.
Olivia: And what if I don't want to go?
Rowan: Olivia, you're getting on that plane come hell or high water. And to be clear, *I* am the hell and the high water.

Olivia: You want to bow out, bow out. But do it because you truly believe you're not the right person for this job, not because you're afraid of failing at it.
Susan: Well, who says I'm...
Olivia: It's okay to be afraid. Sometimes, fear keeps us safe. Sometimes, it holds us back.

[first lines]
President: They should be tried and hung.
Olivia: It's not going to happen.
President: They murdered Frankie Vargas.
Olivia: With Abby's help.
President: We can get her immunity.
Olivia: From who? David Rosen? He's literally sleeping with the enemy.

Olivia: [answering her phone] Olivia Pope...
Theodore: You have something that belongs to me.
Olivia: Do you mean your associate? I assure you, she's being given the same respect you gave our loved ones.
Theodore: I mean Mellie Grant. She's my President. I'm going to need her back.

Rowan: So, have you decided to take my case? Am I one of your clients now?
Olivia: You're right. You do know me. I looked at all possible outcomes. I understand what needs to be done. And I picked a side. But not yours. I won't do it. I'm not stopping the case against B-613.
Rowan: You're not?
Olivia: This case is good. It's right. Huck, Jake, all of the people you've hurt and tormented over the years, they want justice. They deserve justice. And that's the only way the Republic stands. Justice is, in fact, the point of the Republic. And I may care about him. But as you said, I will never allow a person to get in the way of what I know to be right.

[first lines]
Jake: What's this?
David: An immunity agreement. You agree to testify against Command, and the government will never prosecute you.
Jake: You think I'm gonna testify against Command and help bring down B-613?
David: I also have Huck and Quinn, even Charlie, but I need you. You are the big fish. You worked for Rowan. You stood in his shoes. You know where the bodies are buried. Be a witness, and we can make our case now. We won't need any other agents.
Jake: I can't. This is my death warrant, you understand? I sign this, I die. We're all gonna die, Rosen. No. I'm out. I'm done.

[first lines]
Fereshteh: Take off the Hood. Smile for the camera.
[speaking Farsi into her phone]
Gus: This is taking too long.
Olivia: It's an ambush. She asked the buyer if the men are in place. As soon as they verify my identity, they're going to kill you.
Gus: Stay out of this.
Olivia: Do you speak Farsi?
Gus: No, and neither do you.
Olivia: [begins speaking in Farsi]

David: Susan, please, I love you. I think you're amazing.
Susan: I know that! I know I'm amazing. I'm witty and cute and funny and smarter than you. I'm incredible, David. I'm gonna change the damn world, which is why this is over. I know, but you don't. I can't be with someone who doesn't believe in me. Whether I'm the President of the United States, or some substitute teacher in suburbia somewhere, I believe in myself, and I need to be with someone who feels the same way. You can go now.
David: [walking to the door] Cause guess what? You just got dumped by the Vice President of the United States of America, and she has work to do.
[closes the door behind him and begins to cry]

[first lines]
Francisco: [at the podium] Hello, Philadelphia!
The: [cheers and applause]
Francisco: I want to thank you for thinking differently. Thank you for thinking about tomorrow, not yesterday. About progress, not decline. About equality, not bigotry. About love, not hate. About hope, not fear. Thank you for thinking we can really be a nation of the people, by the people and for the people. Hoy si somos una nación de la gente, por la gente, y para toda la gente! God bless you. And may God bless these United States of America.

Olivia: Be careful. This dress is couture. I need it to stay perfect.
President: Then take it off.
[big grin]

Rowan: The White House *will* destroy you.
Olivia: That's what mom used to tell me about you.

Olivia: I'm going to be with him, Cyrus. We have a plan. It's going to work. I love him.
Cyrus: Let me get this straight. Highly trained black ops assassins broke into your home and tried to kill you. And instead of that, oh, making you run toward reason, instead of the possibility of death making you decide that maybe it's better to be single, he have decided that the killers were merely firing heart-shaped bullets made of bubbles and candy that signified that you and boyfriend Fitzy are MFEO made for each other?
Olivia: Cyrus, you're being dramatic.
Cyrus: Really? Really? I'm being dramatic? I'm being dramatic?

[last lines]
Reporter: Olivia Pope, are you the president's mistress?
Olivia: Yes.

Rowan: [to Olivia] The reason Mellie Grant imploded today is because you were trying to make her something she wasn't. I'd hate to see you make the same mistake with yourself.

President: You want to sit?
Olivia: I really just came by to tell you this. I figure I owe you that much.
President: You came by to tell me your ex-boyfriend's gonna be on my ex-wife's ticket, and you won't sit with me?

Hollis: You need to explain to me why the devil is suddenly our client.
David: He needs help. Why not help the murderer you rigged an election with? It's the Christian thing to do.

Rowan: Jake Ballard refused an order.
Olivia: Where is he and what have you done with him?
Rowan: No one refuses an order in my business. Now you may choose to not understand that. You may choose to feel disgust at that. You may choose to pretend that what you do and how you live is not made possible by what *I* do and how *I* live. I do my job so that fatty can watch reality TV, eat fast food, stare at the Internet, screw their husbands or their battery-operated products, and never use their teeny, tiny brains to think about the freedoms that *I* make possible! Never think about the democracy that I make possible! They never think about it, so they sleep like babies at night. Get on the plane, Olivia, you're running out of options.
Olivia: I'm never out of options...

David: I'm not here.
Olivia: You're not?
David: I'm a figment of your imagination. So is this autopsy report. They're burying this, Liv. Putting her body on a plane tonight. And tomorrow morning, I tell the world the accident was entirely due to driver error. I don't know if this had anything to do with why she died, but I do know those royal goons don't want it coming out.
Olivia: If it's dangerous for you to leak this to me...
David: Come on, you know me. Truth, justice, the American way. Also, I put you in CIA jail.

Leo: The country does not love you because the country does not know you. Unfortunately, if the country *did* know you, they wouldn't be able to love you because nobody loves an entitled, out of touch, card-carrying member of the 1%.
Olivia: I am none of those things.
Leo: Really? Then how do you explain all of this?
[looking in her closet]
Leo: Everything in here is off-limits. From now on, if you cannot buy it at the mall, you cannot wear it out of the house.
[motioning to Quinn]
Leo: Get thee to the galleria.

Jake: [to Fitz] You are a decent human being. You are a good person. I know this because she loves you. If you were not a good person, you would be down here pummeling my face in. I would not be in the possession of a government agency. I would be in a ditch somewhere. No one would be worried about the timeline of my food and drink. I would be in an unmarked grave by now. You're one of the good guys! She calls them white hats. You don't think you are, but you are. It's why she loves you. I'm one, too. It's why she loves me.

Olivia: You picked him, he's your guy, so too bad for you. He stays on the ticket. That's final. What else do you need?
President: What else do I need? What else do I need?
Olivia: What else do you need? What service can I render for you today? Am I here to stroke your ego? Am I your cheerleader? Am I here to wipe your tears? Am I your nanny? Am I here to fight the bullies? Am I your bodyguard today? Maybe I'm here to make you feel good. Maybe I'm your dealer. Or maybe I'm here to make you feel hot and manly and ready so you're not jealous of your wife's boyfriend. Is that it? Am I your fluffer today, Fitz? Is that what I am? What service am I billing you for today?

President: Did they hurt you?
Olivia: Let's just... Not...
President: I mean, I'm asking... Did they hurt you?
Olivia: I wasn't raped. Guess what I learned. There are worse things than rape.

[first lines]
Maya: Livvie? Olivia!
[pulling off young Olivia's headphones]
Maya: Hey I'm leaving. I'll call you and daddy from Heathrow when I land, okay? It's only for a couple of days, just until my boss gets settled. And I left casseroles in the freezer. I love you, Olivia.
Young: I know.
Maya: [gives her a big hug] Good-bye, baby.
Young: Bye mom.

Mellie: [to Fitz] I don't know if I can even imagine getting turned on by you right now. Oh, and FYI, when you stick your hand into my panties, another thing that I just don't do anymore is wax. So it's 1976 down there. So you maybe wouldn't be turned on by me anyway.

Mellie: It is an absolute honor to serve as the nation's first lady, but let's be honest, it's a privilege, not a job.

[last lines]
Cyrus: Finish the eulogy?
President: I think so. I can't decide if it's too wordy.
Cyrus: Let me hear it.
[sitting down]
Cyrus: Start from the top.
President: Mrs. Hightower, madam vice president, Mr. Chief Justice, members of Congress...

Quinn: You're never gonna find the perfect family. Perfect families don't exist.

Charlie: Are you gonna cry? Damn it. No, no, there's no That's That's that's against the rules. Crying? For God's sake. Seriously, suck it back in. Now you wanna be a big dog? Big dogs get bit. Huck did you a favor. You still have all your fingers and toes. No drill holes anywhere. A few teeth are nothin'. So you don't eat steak anymore. Stop crying!
Quinn: Huck was the only person I had, and he hurt me. He hurt me. He hurt me. And now I don't have anybody. He hurt me.
Charlie: You have me. You have me.

Navid: [beginning to cry] Do you know what they do to gay people in my country, Ms. Pope? Being born different is a crime punishable by death.

Prince: When we get home, you're going to abdicate because of health reasons, because of age, 'cause you are no longer fit to rule. You will allow your son to accede to the throne and live out the rest of your days at the winter palace, alone. Because the next time I see you, the next time I will be able to even tolerate the sight of you, will be at your funeral.
Queen: Richard...
Prince: If you oppose me, if you speak out in any way - Olivia Pope may not be able to tell the world what you've done, but I won't hesitate.
Olivia: [into her ear] You were right. Not all fairy tales have happy endings. But evil queens? They tend to go down.
[walks away]

Harrison: Are we gladiators or are we bitches?

Elizabeth: I respect you.

Otto: [intercepting Olivia in the hallway] Now, why can't I ever find a feisty gal like you in the real world? If you were gonna shoot me, you would have done it already. You've hesitated, love, which means you're not sure you got the heart to pull the trigger. It's nothing to be ashamed of. That's a man's tool you got there.

CIA: We don't believe we can extract the asset at this time.
CIA: In light of these developments, we need to consider other options.
President: There are no other options than extraction.
CIA: Olivia Pope is a former high-level White House official. She maintains a top-secret clear...
President: There are no other options than extraction.
CIA: Ms. Pope's vast knowledge of United States intelligence poses an ongoing threat to national security. Standard protocol in this situation is to neutralize the asset. We are not neutralizing the asset!

[last lines]
Jake: You need to shut this down, Rosen now.
David: Of course I need to shut it down. I go forward, and we probably all go down. I know that. But here's the thing, Jake. I'm not gonna shut it down.
Jake: What?
David: I'll do what I can to protect us and Olivia, but I'm going forward. You gave me those files. You said, "go get the bad guys."I'm going to get the bad guys.
Jake: Rosen, we are the bad guys.
David: Not anymore.

[last lines]
Rowan: [about surveillance photo of Olivia's mother] What do we know about her plans?
TV: [cut to bar room] With only eight more days to the Inauguration, security along the parade route and in the ballrooms is beefing up. The Secret Service leaving nothing...
Maya: Hit me. Up and dirty.

Abby: I can't believe I just let you kiss me.
Leo: Have some more bourbon and I'll touch your boob.

[first lines]
Rowan: You look good, Olivia. Looks can be deceiving, though, can't they? I see you have a few more locks. That's good. You can never be too careful, can
Olivia: What do you want?
Rowan: I have a problem a rather big one, actually, and since you're a fixer, I thought I'd come to you. You see, apparently there's a group of people who have decided that I'm a criminal. They're building a case, some preposterous claim about a top-secret spy organization called B-613 that I'm *supposedly* the head of. I mean, have you ever heard anything so ridiculous? Anyway, I'd be happy to shut it down myself, but I'm just a paleontologist at the Smithsonian and I don't think my methods would work, so I'm giving you a chance one chance to shut it down yourself. If you can do that in the next 48 hours.
Olivia: I'm not lifting a finger for you.
Rowan: Tell me, who do you think stands to lose the most when this so-called B-613 is made public the quiet paleontologist collecting bones or the man down the street who could have pulled the plug on it and didn't? Who, in fact, actively participated, put his own man at the helm, using him to service his own agenda.
Olivia: I don't care about any of that. I care about justice.
Rowan: You say that to me now because you're angry at me, but think who we are talking about, what you have done for him, the things you've sacrificed. Is your hatred for me so great...
[laughs maniacally]
Rowan: So great that you are willing to tear him down, too?

[first lines]
Announcer: "The Liberty Report" with Sally Langston.
Sally: Welcome back, lovers of Liberty. It's impeachment week here at "The Liberty Report," and, boy, do we have a treat for you. Starting today, 18 senators will sit in judgment of president Fitzgerald Grant III. First on the hot seat Mellie Grant, a senator herself and the object of much speculation.

Leo: Madame vice President. Is the ladies' room packed as usual? That's not fair. Please feel free.
[motions toward the other urinals]
Sally: I'm not here to urinate...

Marcus: Where is she going?
Huck: To tell the president he might have just hung a medal on a rapist.
Marcus: The White House isn't our client.
Quinn: She's the president's girlfriend, the White House is always our client. I hate the new normal.

[last lines]
Sally: [monologuing on her TV show] I have it on good authority that trusted adviser, Olivia Pope, has found her way into the president's bed. Before the high-minded liberal, feminist elite media begins howling charges of slander, these are not merely rumors, these are facts. Photos of Ms. Pope lurking in the residence of the White House after hours. Lovers of Liberty, the time has come for this godless, immoral administration to answer its crimes. Yes, America's truth-seeking freedom missiles are squarely locked on their target - you, Mr. President. I see you, sir.

Clark: Self-defense doesn't have a great shelf life. It starts to smell funny if it sits out too long. Where were you, anyway?
Olivia: On an island.
Clark: That sounds boring. And lonely.
Olivia: Not as lonely as Washington.

President: The auction for Olivia. If we were doing absolutely everything we could to get her back, we'd be bidding. They want to play dirty, I want in. We can win this. Who has more money than the United States of America?
Cyrus: China, Saudi Arabia.
Mellie: The United Arab Emirates.

Rowan: [on Jake's B-613 graduation day] Son, I have prepared you for this life, but I-I cannot make you want it. So I have one very simple question for you. Do you want this? Or do you prefer normal?

[last lines]
Huck: [watching his world map go wild] Chatter!
Quinn: Where?
Huck: Everywhere. Oh, my God. This is good.
Quinn: Good? How is this good?
Huck: Because she's alive, because we can track her. She did this. She's dropping us breadcrumbs. We just have to follow them.

[first lines]
President: [entering surveillance room] Do we have Maya?
Rowan: Not yet.
President: Then why am I here?
Rowan: Because this is the fun part. Mr. Rosen has authorized access to every street cam in DC We've tracked Maya's movements to a warehouse in Ivy City.
David: Remember when we used to hate the Patriot Act?
Jake: [on screen] We're a minute out.
President: Jake's in the field? Since when does the Director of National Security make house calls?
Rowan: Since we learned that Maya, the mother of the President-Elect's Chief of Staff, is America's Top Monster.

[last lines]
Rowan: You know what they would have done to me, what they always do to people like me. A trial, an execution. You were going to let them do that to me. After all I've done to protect you from them.
[sirens wailing in distance]
Rowan: I tried, Olivia. I tried my best. For the first time in your life, you are on your own.
[getting up to leave]
Rowan: You think the world is so terrible with me in it? Wait till you see what it's like without me.

Tom: I've had so many questions for so long that I've been wanting to ask. I mean, what is it that is so special about you? You have so much power over him. He revolves around you. So, I don't understand. Why did you leave him?
Olivia: I'm not answering these...
Tom: Was it an order from Command?
Olivia: My father? My father doesn't give me orders.
Tom: You think you... Oh, you think you have a father. I am so sorry, but you don't have a father. You have Command. You were raised by Command. Command doesn't have a family, Command has soldiers. You take orders like any other soldier. You've been taking orders from Command since the day you were born.

Abby: [about the box in his living room] Olivia's father, the skilled super-spy assassin, gave you a *head* as a gift?
David: Yeah.
Abby: Was it your birthday? Because...

Mellie: Tell Fitz he has 36 hours to convince me, in person, that he regrets the unfortunate choices he's made and truly wants to recommit himself to his wife and children. If he doesn't, he will have the pleasure of seeing the First Lady of the United States call her husband a whore-loving bastard on national television.
Cyrus: You wouldn't.
Mellie: Call my bluff, Cy. I dare you.

Charlie: I just got a call from an old buddy of mine. We killed a lot of people together back in the day. Hmm... Anyway, his wife's out of town. He got called in to work. And he needs me to watch his kid.
Quinn: Someone wants you to babysit?
Charlie: I probably wasn't the first call, but this guy and I, we've got each other's back. When I say I'm gonna kill somebody, I kill somebody. When I say I'm gonna watch someone's kid, I watch the kid. You don't have to come.
Quinn: And leave you alone with a child? Yeah, I don't think so.

Quinn: I have been mad at you for, like, ever.
Huck: Go away...
Quinn: But then I started thinking,
Huck: Go away...
Quinn: "What's so sane about me?"
Huck: Quinn...
Quinn: I dispose of bodies, and I get turned on by crime scenes. Hacking is hot. I am not your all-American girl, and I don't want to be.
Huck: [breathing heavily] You're not wrong about me. Something's wrong with me.
Quinn: That's my point. Something's wrong with me, too.
Huck: I missed you. I missed you a lot.

Maya: You sure do love a problem.
Olivia: I don't know what you're...
Maya: You're so vain. It's always about you, isn't it? The problems you create so that you can solve them. The power you have to wield so that you can feel important. Did your father and I not tell you you were special enough when you were little? Did we not give you enough hugs? Aww, baby.

Charlie: [14 years earlier - training Huck] So, we kill people. That's the job. That's what you signed up for. Ah, I'm getting ahead of myself here. We don't just kill. We torture people, right? And we get the information we need, then we kill them. We're neat, we're smooth, we're thorough. We leave no trace. Ah, I see you looking at the door. That's a normal reaction. But there are no outs here, my friend, no take-backs. You signed a contract with the US government. You agreed to serve your country. The job it's no different than the marines. The people we target, they're enemies of the state. Traitors. They would do this nation harm, same as the combatants you would have happily popped in Kosovo. The only difference being, most of them are American citizens.

Cyrus: My husband always said my big mouth was gonna get me in trouble someday.
Olivia: Or make you President.

Michael: You would murder me with your bare hands if you thought you could get away with it, and I have no one who would even miss me. I have nothing. It is the day I have been dreaming of, and I have nothing.
Cyrus: [sitting down] You're wrong, you know. I would never murder you- myself. That's a rookie move. I'd pay a professional to do it.

Quinn: They're credited with 37 assassinations from Hamburg to Grenada.
Charlie: Yeah, but some of those were bombings.
Quinn: So?
Charlie: So, that's cheating.
Quinn: Murder is murder.
Charlie: Back me up here, big guy.
Huck: No, bombings are cheating.

Rowan: There is, incidentally, a point. If there are no more white hats, if the deck is always stacked, and if everyone you love is a monster, there is, in fact, someone worth saving.
Olivia: Who?
Rowan: Everyone! Everyone is worth saving! Even the monsters, even the demons. Everyone is worth saving. In the face of darkness, you drag everyone into the light. That is the point. At least, I like to think that is the point of you.

[last lines]
Senator: It's late, Mellie.
Mellie: I know. I take it you've seen the news. That's why I called you here because I wanted to talk to you. About impeaching my husband.
Francesca: [cut to TV show] I'm Francesca Hunter, and tonight we are, as always, on the hunt.

Maya: I know you think you're on the right side of this, but you're not. Believe me, you're not.
Olivia: What I know is that you are a terrorist, a traitor to your own country.
Maya: Maybe. But I'd rather be a traitor than what you are, Livvie. Cleaning up those people's messes, fixing up their lives. You think you're family, but you're nothing but the help. And you don't even know it.

Olivia: I will stay away from you. I will stay away from what you do, but in return, you will do the same, because this is over! We are done!
Rowan: We are family, sweetie. We're never done.

Rowan: I have spent a lifetime keeping you safe from harm, a lifetime worrying about your fate, a lifetime making sure that the path in front of you was clear of debris, a lifetime shining their shoes so that you might always see your reflection at every turn. You do not see this. You do not believe this. You think I am some relic, some misguided, vicious dinosaur from my museum who attacks without thinking. Let me assure you, I am not. When I strike, it is precise and it is for a reason. You do not interfere. You do not get in the way. You never, ever choose one of them over me again. I won't have it. Is that clear?
Olivia: What's clear is that you seem to have wasted a lifetime doing all the wrong things.
Rowan: [calmly cradling her face] Olivia. Against me, you will lose.

[last lines]
Cyrus: A president's far more powerful the night he's elected and the day he dies than at any other point in his presidency. I've always believed that. And Luna, with those blood stains on her dress? It's like Jackie Kennedy in her pink Chanel suit. Put her in the Oval... she'd be unstoppable. Anyway. Question for you now, if you haven't answered it already, is how to get rid of her... What? Why are you looking at me like that? Liv?
Olivia: This was you.
Cyrus: What are you talking about?
Olivia: Jackie Kennedy? The pink Chanel suit? The night he's elected. The day he dies? Unstoppable? It's exactly the way Luna put it. You planted that seed in her head just like you're planting a seed now in mine, hoping I'll get rid of Luna and make you VP. This is the ending you wanted.
[laughs]
Cyrus: Tell me something. That executive order you had Mellie sign? That's not much money for Defense, is it? Sounds to me like we both got what we wanted.
Olivia: Stay in town.
Cyrus: So you can drag me back to jail?
Olivia: So I can nominate you.
Cyrus: How does it feel to be the most powerful person in the world?
Olivia: Right. It feels right.

Abby: [lecturing the president] If you allow Cyrus to depart amicably, if you accept his resignation, he's safe. He can decide to work for Vargas after leaving the White House. You neutralize him, you keep the optics in your favor. You win. And you don't have to spend a single second looking for a new chief of staff. I'm right here, I'm exceedingly qualified, I will raise my sword, run at the enemy, and fight the good fight every single day. I will be the best West Wing general you've ever wished for and the scariest monster you never knew you needed. I'm loyal, I'm tough, and I'm not afraid to tell you when you're wrong, and you are wrong right now. Because it is easy, Mr. President. Fire him. Hire me.
President: Let me know when it's done.
Abby: Yes, Mr. President. When *what* is done?
President: When you fire him.
Abby: You want *me* to fire Cyrus?
President: You want the job? That's the job.
Abby: I'll let you know when it's done, sir.
[turns around and grins]

[first lines]
Sally: Each candidate will get one minute to answer questions, and 30 seconds for follow-ups and rebuttals. I'll give candidates time to respond if they've been singled out and criticized by another candidate. All right, candidates. Let's begin.
Hollis: I didn't say *everybody*.
Mellie: Yeah, just the ones you don't like.
Hollis: Get rid of everybody, ain't no one to pick the cantaloupes and what have you.
[audience gasps]
Hollis: We need some of them. What we don't need are the murderers and thugs.
Mellie: Your plan won't work. You know how I know it won't work? Eisenhower tried the same thing, sending out a posse to round up Mexicans in the '50s.
Olivia: [talking to the television] Ancestry. Hit the hypocrisy.

Mellie: How many Presidents have had sex on this table, do you think? Do you want to have sex? Here? With me, I mean? I couldn't eat on this if you had sex with somebody else. It'd have to be burned.
President: You're drunk.
Mellie: That's impossible. A lady never gets drunk.

President: You want me, the commander in chief, to hand you over the documents that tell you where he was? Even though those documents are classified, and if they caught me, they'd hang me by my thumbs in the town square.
Olivia: Washington doesn't have a town square.
President: Trust me, the democrats would build one for me.

Marcus: [about his new assignment travel with Mellie] Why does it have to be me?
Olivia: You're smart, even-keeled, good with people.
Marcus: She's not people. She is a privileged, miserable, mean.

Jerry: You are an asset.
Mellie: I am his wife.

President: How about We nix this whole interview and instead you have dinner with me?
Lillian: Sir, are you asking me out on a date?
President: I am. But only if you stop calling me "sir."

[first lines]
Vanessa: [all sitting around the table laughing amiably] Mmm. It's delicious. Olivia, I love it.
Olivia: I'm so glad. It's their signature cake. 20 layers of crepes, each one lined with just the perfect amount of pastry cream. Dad, what do you think?
Rowan: I think I've never heard you describe a dessert before.

Abby: Sir, those photos are everywhere. I've got a roomful of press getting rowdier by the minute. There's blood in the water. We're gonna need a game plan. We're gonna need a statement. We're gonna need A bigger boat.
Elizabeth: She's right. The press needs to hear from the White House from you. Sir?
President: I'm going back to the residence...
Elizabeth: Because?
President: Because Olivia is there. I can't make a statement without Olivia.
Elizabeth: Mr. President, I don't think that's a good...
President: If a statement is being made, Olivia and I are making it together.
[leaves the room]
Elizabeth: So, what History's being made tonight? For the first time ever, the president and his mistress address the nation. Why are you so calm?
Abby: Do you really think she's gonna get in front of the camera and admit that they're having an affair? It's Liv. She's the best in the business. The president's about to get Pope'd.

Tom: They'll execute me for treason.
Jake: Not if you cut a deal. Cut a deal and it will be Rowan's ass in the electric chair.
Tom: It's my word against his.
Jake: But you'll have the upper hand. You'll be telling the truth.

David: Just go ahead. Fire me, because I did what I thought was right.
Cyrus: I'm not gonna fire you, Rosen. Why would I fire you? You're the Attorney General. *My* Attorney General. A new one? They'd be asking questions and be all honest. Plus I would waste months hunting for their weaknesses, their pressure points. With you, David, I already know your pressure point. You only have one Abby.

[last lines]
Kim: [getting off the Metro train] Javi! Javi, come here. It's cold outside.
Javi: I want a dollar for the man.
Kim: Honey, we don't have...
Javi: Mommy, he looks hungry.
Kim: You come right back.
Javi: [runs over to Huck sitting behind a sign] Here.
Huck: [looks up and see that the time is 7:52]

Rowan: I don't have to regain my power. Power true power is never lost. And freedom?
[laughs heartily]
Rowan: Boy, I am always free. No one will ever cage me.

Harrison: Jees, B-613's working out of our office now.
Abby: B-613, with the torture and the murder and the...
Quinn: Do you honestly think they're any different? B-613 and OPA? Because I've worked for both, and believe me they're not.
Abby: We don't torture people.
Quinn: You just destroy them. It's nice to see you guys make your own coffee now...

[last lines]
Jake: [cuffed to his chair] I think you want me to be guilty. Guilty lets you hate me for things you're not allowed to hate me for.
President: Did you kill my son?
Jake: Like those two months I spent on an island screwing your girlfriend. Oh, that must have tortured you.
President: Did you kill my son?
Jake: Imagining me inside of her.
President: [repeatedly punching him]
Jake: Seeing her face. She calls my name.
President: [continues punching him violently]

[first lines]
Leo: It's 4:00 AM. You don't go in at 4:00 AM unless something big happened. Did someone drop a nuke on us?
Abby: Separation of Church and State, Leo.
Leo: Did aliens land? Is the White House on fire?

Olivia: Huck is taking a personal day.
Quinn: Personal day?
Olivia: Personal day.
Abby: We get personal days? What? We get vacation now too?

[first lines]
Olivia: [about a lull in dinner conversion] What?
Rowan: It's just astonishing, that's all. We're almost finished with dessert, and you haven't once accused me of any crimes against humanity. I think we're making progress. No?
[chuckles]
Olivia: You know what I've learned? I've learned that accusing you of things means nothing. It leads to power games and moves and you making my friends kill people. So instead of speaking my mind, instead of being the brave, outspoken girl my mother taught me to be, I'm chewing my food, fulfilling my contract. And when we're done, I'll go home and immediately try to forget this ever happened. Until next Sunday, when we do it all again.
Rowan: How fascinating, that you think *that's* your mother's legacy, being brave and outspoken, when everything you've become, everything you are, is clearly because of me.
Olivia: I think you mean in spite of you.
Rowan: Two sides of the same coin, my dear.
[receiving the check]
Rowan: Thank you. As for making your friends kill people, that's something Huck brought on himself. He leaves *me* alone, I'll leave *him* alone. Jake, too.

[first lines]
Olivia: Did you really just... "treason?"
Jake: That is the nicest word for what you did.
Olivia: B-613 should never have existed! Who brainwashed you? You hated B-613 as much as I did until you became command.
President: Enough!
Abby: Was that the president? Shh!

President: Apologize to Director Lowry for me.
Cyrus: I refuse to do that, Sir. You were in the right. Besides, if the director of the CIA can't take being yelled at, the future of our nation's intelligence is in severe jeopardy.

President: [advising Susan] People cheat for different reasons. So I can't tell you exactly why people cheat. But I can tell you this If you feel like he's cheating, then he probably is.

Susan: [to interviewer] Oh, Marianne, I'm just testing the waters. It's like when you like someone. You want to see if they like you back. I like America, and now I'm hoping America will call me.
[cutsie smile]

David: So exposing Jake, that's a death wish. But taking down the entire organization, that's something within my reach? Me, David Rosen, and my army of one?
Olivia: Army of two. We'll do it together. Brick by brick, we'll tear that building down until there's nothing left but a hole in the ground. To do that, though, we need to be patient. Patient and alive. So instead of standing alone and turning this into a suicide mission, stand with me and turn this into a cause. Lose this battle so we can win the war.

[first lines]
Jake: [Olivia reaches the end of her swim lap] Well, someone went to summer camp.

Quinn: [answering her phone after surveilling all day]
Huck: Did Kubiak make a move?
Quinn: Only towards type 2 diabetes.

[first lines]
Quinn: [tromping through the woods] I'm just saying marriage is a *crazy* idea. I don't know why anyone does it.
[Cellphone beeps]
Quinn: Marriage is bad for you. Did you know your chances of becoming obese are 37% higher if your spouse is obese? 60% of married adults have had an affair! 60%!
Huck: Quinn!
Quinn: What if she's not there? Or what if she is there, but she doesn't want to talk? He could've gotten to her. She could've changed her mind.
Huck: Come on...
[huge explosion]

Charlie: [eating a donut while tied up] Mmm. People think the key to a good doughnut is either the hand-rolling or the yeast. They're full of it. It's simple. These suckers start dying the second they get out of the fryer. You just gotta get to 'em when they're hot.

Jake: [about Huck] He's not fine, Quinn.
Quinn: Of course not. Liv's gone, he's not fine. He's *going* to be fine. I've seen this kind of thing before.
Jake: No, you've never seen anything like this. I've never seen anything like it, and I've seen a lot.
Quinn: He goes to dark places. I know that. I have the dental bills to prove it.

Leo: I just want to know where I stand. You know, with the two of us working together you and me. I mean, I figure we have two choices here, we can either pretend this unbearable sexual tension doesn't exist, or we can address it head-on.
Abby: Is there a third choice?
Leo: Can I close the door?
Abby: No.
Leo: Then no.

David: 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: To protect people who look like you!
David: Oh, come on, Liv!
Olivia: 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.

Elizabeth: I would have never voted for you.

Rowan: [lecturing Olivia] You can either stand there like a 12-year-old and lecture me about morality or, even worse, rat us out in the name of justice. Or you can take your cue from us and get yourself some power real power - 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue power. You think you have that now, but you're standing on the sidelines, screaming at the referee like a sad, drunk parent at a high-school football game. If you're okay with that, by all means. But I know my daughter as I know my son, and I know that won't suffice.

Mellie: [exhausted from filibustering] Ohh. I can't do this. I just I can't. I don't even know why I'm doing this. I'm a republican. I just didn't like Gibson telling me what I can't do.
Olivia: You're the biggest bitch I know. Don't tell me you can't do this. Just a couple more hours, Mellie.

[first lines]
Sally: [on her TV show] O, say can you see, Lovers of Liberty. By dawn's early light, a political cat fight, with nary an end in sight.
Olivia: As the audience here in L A as well as the rest of the country could see, Senator Grant was the clear winner of the debate.
Abby: You witnessed a desperate woman up there, lashing out, knowing all the momentum is now with Susan.

Charlie: Great thing about our line of work, rock-solid job stability. I mean, as long as people have to live together, someone's gonna pay to have someone else killed. Fact of life.

Huck: [advancing on office intruder] Give me the camera.
Photographer: Really? No comment? Did your boss ever say what the president was like in bed?
Quinn: [pushes Huck aside and starts pulling on the camera]
Photographer: [grunting] You can't take that.
Quinn: [holding him in a lock] You are trespassing. There is not a scratch on you. There is no video to prove I took your video. If you don't get out of here, I will kick your ass, and you can tell everyone a girl beat you up. Or, I can give you to him, and you won't be able to tell anyone anything ever again. Your choice.

[first lines]
Olivia: Noah!
Noah: Olivia! It's been a while.
Olivia: Too long. I saw that sit-down you did on Dominique Strauss Khan. Nicely done.
Noah: Thank you. What's going on?
Olivia: We're gonna have to push the interview.

Mellie: [to Fitz] I have been holding you up for 20 years. And I never complained. But when I fall down on the job for exactly two months, you ripped me to shreds the first time it got difficult. I won't soon forget that.

President: You could lose your job for that. Bursting into my bedroom?
Abby: We burst into this bedroom all the time, at all hours, to tell you things you need to know. That's the job. You *want* us to do that. The only difference this time is that you're half-naked with some girl.
President: Why are you so obsessed with my personal life?
Abby: Because, unfortunately, your personal life is my professional life.

Queen: She could have given birth to a child who looked exactly like that bodyguard of hers, and my son still wouldn't have seen it. She had one job to give us an heir and a spare. And at that single job, she failed.
Olivia: You had her killed because it wasn't your grandchild?
Queen: A tragic loss of life. But far less tragic than handing the crown to one who is not its rightful heir.
Olivia: And that is where we disagree.
Queen: I haven't dismissed you. Where are you going?
Olivia: To get justice.
Queen: I *am* justice.

Olivia: [waking suddenly seeing Jake standing in her bedroom] What are you doing here?
Jake: Giving you what you want.
Olivia: Giving me what I want?
Jake: Well, you've been following me, right? Keeping tabs on me? I'm the head of the NSA. You don't get to keep tabs on me unless I allow you to.
Olivia: I'm only gonna ask you this one more time before I call the cops. Why are you here?
Jake: For the same reason you keep following me.

Jake: What's next, sir?
Rowan: Continue the mission. Stay close to the President, even closer to Ms. Pope. As close as possible.
Jake: Sir, I-I don't think...
Rowan: Screw this up again, and we'll be meeting at the hole instead of the monuments.

[first lines]
Quinn: [at prison visitation] Katherine, do you know this guy?
Katherine: He's Jeremy's security guy at the firm. Uh, his name's Dan, um...
Quinn: [now back at the office presenting to the team] Dan Kubiak, former police captain of DC's second district. Scratch that, former *dirty* police captain of DC's second district.

Charlie: Truth be told, I've never been much of a computer guy. I mean, we all learn the basics, but more killing, less coding, I say.

David: You're not evil, Abby. Not even close.

Abby: Why are you doing this? You're gone. Why do you care?
Cyrus: Red. Who do I hate more than Elizabeth North?
Abby: No one?
Cyrus: And who does Elizabeth North hate even more than she hates me?
Abby: Mellie.
Cyrus: Right.

Olivia: Move away from my door.
Rowan: You seem to believe that there is some finality to our relationship. There is not. I am your father. Even when I'm dead and buried, you are me.

Mellie: The upsetting thing about being as educated as I am and as intelligent as I am is that being first lady is profoundly boring. What did you call me? Ornamental? Not functional? I am a rose dying on the vine here. Give me a war to run or the CIA or something, but I use the copious amounts of free time I have to think.

Rowan: [holding a gun to Jake's head] Advise him, Olivia. Advise him to plant his narrow ass in that chair. I can't do that. It may look like it's my finger on the trigger. It might look I'm holding the gun. It's an illusion. You have your finger on this trigger. You're in control. His life is in your hands.
Olivia: Go ahead.
Jake: Liv...
Olivia: It's fine.
Rowan: Is it?
Olivia: Go ahead. Kill your son. Shoot him. Do it.
Jake: Liv...
Olivia: Do it!
Rowan: Is this how you pictured your death, Jake? At the hands of a woman you've done nothing but love and protect?
Olivia: [whispering now] Come with me. He won't hurt you. You're his son.
Rowan: [after a long pause] Go! Before I change my mind!
Jake: [now walking away from Rowan's house] Damn.
Olivia: Damn.

Rowan: No one will ever know. Everything is fine.
Olivia: You actually think a good cleaning can fix what happened here yesterday? You turned my office into a B-613 black site. That doesn't happen here. Wet work doesn't happen here!

[first lines]
Richard: My father wanted a grandson. And when I say "wanted," I mean he all but insisted. As you know, biology doesn't work that way. So out came Vanessa, a girl. And I'll tell you, Jake old pal, when I saw that cute little face of hers, I didn't give a rat's ass what my father thought.
Richard: [Jake hands him a drink] Thank you. Anyhow, this is my long-winded way of saying that you're the son I never thought I wanted. To have you here as part of our family, that just,
[suddenly clutches his arm]
Richard: just... Ohh! Ohh! Call 911! Ohh.
Jake: [shifts in his chair unconcerned]
Richard: What are you waiting for?
Jake: I'm sorry, sir. I'm touched that you think of me as a son, but there's another man who thinks of me as his son, too. And he feels that Vanessa's inheritance will open some important doors for us.
Jake: [his father-in-law falls to the floor] It's only a few more seconds...
Jake: [standing over him] Almost there...

Abby: We need you to weigh in on whether it's legal for someone to run for senate while married to the president.
David: Well, uh, yes, it's legal, but only because no one ever considered the idea that a first lady would ever run for office. I'm betting if they had, there'd be a law on the books. The ethical implications alone...
Abby: But it is legal?
David: Yes.
Abby: Because no one ever imagined that a woman would ever get an idea in her pretty, little head to run for office?
David: Yes, Abby.
Abby: So, Mellie Grant's run for senate is legal because of misogyny. In this instance, misogyny is our friend. That's what you're saying?
David: No, no, I'm saying something less controversial and less likely to get me stoned to death by my feminist sisters. I am saying there's no legal issue with Mellie Grant's run for Senate.

Reporter: So you didn't rape her?
Hollis: Oh, Hollis loves him some women. And, boy, do women love them some Hollis. In all my years, not a one of them fillies ever needed an arm twist to roll in my hay.

Cyrus: Hollis, this is the White House. This man is the President. Talking about murder in the White House is like talking about sex in the Vatican in front of the Pope. We don't do it.

President: You are the *vice* president, Susan.
Susan: I know that, sir.
President: You don't know anything. You just got here. You are a fetus in the world of Washington politics. You can't possibly understand what it takes to push a bill like this through congress. The endless debate. The compromises. The back-room dealings. And I will not allow you to de-rail it. I will not allow you to waste one more second. We need this bill now.

Leo: I know that he is up in heaven right now telling those other dead people that his Sally will be the first female President of the United States.
Sally: [yelling out] He is in hell! Daniel Douglas is in hell. Because he is a sodomite. He is a godless sinner, and he deserved what he got.

Francesca: [narrating her biography special] Eli Pope grew up an orphan on the mean streets of Detroit, but envisioned something more. He worked three jobs to put himself through college, eventually earning his PhD in paleontology. He married Maya, a young secretary, and they had Olivia. They were living the American dream. That dream was shattered when Maya was tragically killed in a plane crash. Olivia was just 12 at the time. Now a single father, Eli Pope sent Olivia to Surval Montreaux, an elite Swiss boarding school whose powerful alumni include eight of the world's top billionaires. He once told a colleague that he was on a quest to do the impossible: raise an African-American girl who felt fully entitled to own the world as much as any white man.

Abby: I want to run that mother!
Olivia: And you don't think you should wait your turn?
Abby: Cyrus has been a great friend to me. He's also one of the worst human beings on the planet.
Olivia: That doesn't answer my question.
Abby: It does. A good person would wait their turn. But a Cyrus wouldn't. A true monster would never wait. A monster cuts in line. A monster takes. And you and I both know that this town is run by monsters. They have the power. The biggest dogs with the sharpest teeth own the room. So, how long should I wait? How long do you think it'll be before a big dog will rip my throat out and take my spot in line?
[thoughts cross her mind]
Abby: But how do the big dogs sleep at night? I mean, what if I do this and I... can't sleep at night?
Olivia: Abby. You're a good person. You're just standing too close to the Oval. You can feel the power, and you want it. Everyone does. But don't - don't let that place corrupt you. Once you drive that stake through Cyrus's heart, there will be no turning back. Once you take the white hat off, it's gone. You will no longer be you. And the thing is, being a big dog isn't as great as it seems. Be a better person. Okay?

Marcus: You know why you're here, right? You know why they chose you. Give us the cop's name. Help us get justice.
Olivia: You don't want justice. You want anger. You want outrage. You want retribution.
Marcus: Huh. You're right. I do. So should you.
Olivia: [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: Nice purse.
Olivia: What?
Marcus: Prada?
Olivia: What's your point?
Marcus: 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: You're about getting a white republican president elected twice.
Marcus: Excuse me if I don't buy you're a real down-ass chick.
Olivia: 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: 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.

Jake: [comparing notes about their B-613 cohorts] Oh, he loved to talk about them.
Franklin: Mostly when I wasn't living up to expectation.
Jake: Which for me was constantly.
Franklin: They, of course, were all perfect. Completely loyal. Never questioning.
Jake: I know. I was always like, "if they were all so perfect, then why are they all dead?" Why How perfect could they have been?

Jake: And one more thing.
Olivia: What?
Jake: Stock your damn fridge.
[beginning to undress]
Jake: If I'm gonna be your fake boyfriend all day, I'm gonna come home at the end of it and drink real beer and eat real food. Wine is not beer, and pop corn is definitely not food.
Olivia: What are you doing?
Jake: I'm gonna take a shower. It's been a long day, and I want to wash it off me before we have pretend sex.

Leo: You will swing to the center. You will have a change of heart. You will become pro-choice or you won't win.
Sally: That is not...
Leo: Then I'm afraid I cannot make you the first female President of the United States of America. I can shift other stances, gay rights, education... There's no point to any of this unless you become pro-choice. You cannot win women. And so you will lose, lose, lose, unless you drop your allegiance to Jesus, and pledge it to politics. Otherwise, there's zero-point-zero.
Sally: Do you have any idea what you are asking me to do?
Leo: I am asking you to abandon your beliefs for the greater good.

Abby: You're the next President of the United States.

President: Olivia let her go? Get her in here. I need to speak to her.
Rowan: You know why this happened, don't you?
President: This is... Maya must have gotten to her, messed with her head.
Rowan: Maya is the symptom. I'm talking about the *disease*.

Rowan: [reminiscing] You played me this song.
Sandra: I did.
Rowan: You poured me this drink.
Sandra: I did. It didn't work.
Rowan: I don't have a lot of regret in my life. I regret that.
Sandra: It was 40 years ago.
Rowan: That's not a lot of time in the scope of things.
[moves in to caress her]

Cyrus: [about Olivia getting between himself and the president] I can have an ego. I can be competitive, vindictive. Look, I was the guy behind the guy. But then lately, I'd started to believe that I'd become the guy behind the girl behind the guy, which I don't like, which I hate. You know I hate that.

Theodore: You're our horse, Senator. Our way into the Whitehouse. You'll be the President, but we'll be in charge, because you fear us. I'm afraid you're stuck with us.
Mellie: Okay, one, I don't fear anyone. Two, you will never step foot in my Whitehouse, let alone tell me what to do.
Elizabeth: Maybe we should all just...
Mellie: Three, I will make it my mission to have you tried and hung for the murder of Frankie Vargas. That cannot stand. Have I made myself clear?
Elizabeth: Let's do this. Let's take tonight, think things through. And then once we've all had a chance to calm down a little and catch our breath...
Ms. Ruland: [strikes Miss North with the fire poker from behind]
Mellie: [gasps as she's splattered with blood]
Theodore: One, now you *do* fear us. Two, Ms. Ruland is your new Chief of Staff now that Miss North has become unavailable. You report directly to her. Three, if you alert authorities or try to cede the Presidency to Cyrus, we will kill your children. Have I made myself clear?
Mellie: [breathing shakily]
Theodore: Senator?
Mellie: Yes... Yes...
Theodore: I think our work here is done...

Rowan: [to Olivia on the phone] I know what you're thinking. The remaining B-613 files will prove I'm Command. Those have been, shall we say, "archived." And in case you were still hoping your mother was an ally, don't. She loves you, just not as much as she loves her freedom.
Maya: [cut to prison cell] Is that it?
Cyrus: That's it. You agree to deny the existence of B-613 for the rest of your life, and you walk.
Maya: Well, I'm gonna need a pen, baby.

Mellie: [to Cyrus about James' affair] It hurts until it doesn't. You think what he did will break you, but It won't. You may not sleep as well at night, but you will be fine. Numb. But numb and fine are the same.

[first lines]
President: My fellow Americans, now that congress has fulfilled its constitutional duty, completing their fair and thorough investigation into my administration, I come before you to say how proud and humbled I am to be your president, and to say how sorry I am. To my family, to Mellie, to my children, to every American, most of all, to those parents out there. Over the last few weeks, the news coming into your homes raised questions from your children, uncomfortable questions related to my personal life, questions on topics you may have been forced to answer too soon. As your leader, as a father, I am truly sorry for that. I've asked the lord for forgiveness. I ask the same of you. And I will work tirelessly to be worthy of that forgiveness by focusing on making your schools better, your healthcare more affordable, and our country safer and more productive. Thank you.

Quinn: I am done with Pope & Associates. I am done with Huck.
Charlie: You want me to kill him? 'Cause I'd do that for you, Robin. I'd kill Huck in a second if you wanted me to.
Quinn: No, don't. But thank you. That's sweet.

[last lines]
Rowan: What the hell is this?
President: This is a reunion. One that is long overdue.

Cyrus: So you're not buying the book?
Olivia: Oh. I see. You couldn't care less about Abby. You just wanted the book you just wanted dirt on these guys. It could come in handy. You know, down the line. This town. Its heart. Goodbye, Cyrus...

Cyrus: This is an enormous secret intelligence organization operating behind the CIA's back for who knows how long. About 30-ish years, if it did exist, which it doesn't.
CIA: Well, it stops now. I am having this Rowan arrested, brought in, and brought down. I won't have it.
Cyrus: Honey, I'm gonna call you honey because I can't remember your first name and I don't care. Honey, you want to be reasonable about this. Because a shadow intelligence organization operating quite happily and powerfully in secret for decades inside the FBI, CIA, NSA, if there was such a thing, well, that would be like a sleeping lion. And isn't it safer To tiptoe around the lion? What do you think happens if you poke the lion? Whose face does the lion rip off first? I think it rips off honey's face first.

[last lines]
Jake: [to James lying in the street] I'm sorry. I really am. I did the others quick and clean. I wish I could have done that with you. I'm sorry I had to be so sloppy with you, but I have to make yours look like a carjacking. It has to look like an amateur did it. So it's going to hurt, and it's going to take some time. I'm sorry. But I'm gonna sit here with you. I'm gonna stay with you until it's over. I'm not going to let you die alone. You're not alone. Ella, your daughter's gonna be okay. Nothing is going to happen to her. She's safe. She is safe. You're almost there. You're almost there. Any minute now.

Cyrus: This was a mutually beneficial arrangement. We both got the vice presidents we wanted.
Olivia: I can still take you down.
Cyrus: How would you do that?
Olivia: One word: Harrisburg.
Cyrus: Two words: Andrew Nichols.

Olivia: [walking into her office] It's because of you.
Quinn: What?
Olivia: The reason I can be selfish, the reason I can turn my back. You held things together when I went to the island with Jake. You ran this place when I left for the White House, and I didn't think twice about leaving you alone, because I know, no matter where I am, or what I'm doing, you'll jump in. You'll do whatever you have to. You'll take care of everyone. You'll handle the situation.
[she walks back out]
Marcus: Island?
Quinn: After Liv found out her mom was a terrorist and her dad killed the president's son, she went to a secluded island with Jake. Is there anything else you want to know?
Marcus: Quinn, have you ever killed anyone?
Quinn: I think that's enough sharing for today.

Jake: Do you remember the last time we were together, Rosen?
David: Was that the time you killed three people, or another time? All the fear and violence starts to blend together.
Jake: You told me you wanted to take down Cyrus Beene. You told me you wanted to take down B-613. You asked me to help you "make these people answer for their crimes."Do you remember that?
David: Yes.
Jake: I believed you. I stole those files from B-613 to help you go get the bad guys. Did you go get the bad guys?
David: I spent two months going through those files. I read them every day. I even created a color-coded system: orange for scary, red for very-scary, and black for crap-your-pants-and-wait-for-someone-to-come-kill-you scary. And most of those files, Jake, are black. Those files are terrifying.
Jake: So pull the trigger, or give them back...

Olivia: What do you mean about the client? "This isn't the kind of client you want to talk about on the phone, because of NSA surveillance."
Huck: Oh, yeah, we definitely do not want anyone at the NSA to hear about this.
Olivia: Why? Who's the client?
Huck: The head of the NSA.

Cyrus: [to Olivia] This election should be you and me competing for the Oval. Student versus master, a fair fight. Don't you want that? You sure as hell should because the alternative is you've already lost.

Rowan: Olivia. One thing I've learned in life, Olivia, is that the past is the past. It's best if you leave it there.

Jake: You could let me rot in here. Be easy. Solve all your problems. I mean, I did tell him that you loved me, too, but I was just messing with his head. All you have to do is turn your back, and you and that Fitz guy can dance off into the sun.
Olivia: Don't ever talk about me and the sun and another man again. Don't ever do that. Okay?
Jake: Okay.

Cyrus: I have done dark things, but I have also been your friend and your champion.
Olivia: When you aren't a monster?
Cyrus: I *am* a monster. But, honey, I'm your monster.

[last lines]
Jake: [visiting him in jail] Have you seen what else is on the news?
Rowan: No.
Jake: The Louvre is on fire.
Rowan: Lazarus one?
Jake: Looks like it.
Rowan: And Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Jake: You're not Command anymore. That's my title. And when I find out that you've been in touch with my agents, that you met with some of my people at the DOD And CBO, "A," it makes me curious about what you're up to and, "B," it makes me wonder if the terms of your retirement need to be revisited. Do they need to be revisited?
Rowan: It's hard, isn't it, being the man who makes the decisions, having that burden, bearing that cross? Most people have family and loved ones to talk to. But people like us, we only have each other. Well, that's the reason you're here, yes? I-I mean, the real reason. To look in my eyes and remind yourself that others have walked this path before you. Well, not that you ever admit it. God forbid we should show weakness. Better to say that you're here on business. To threaten me and flex your muscles. But all that's just pretense, isn't it? A way to feel less alone in the world. To see that I, too, have stood in your shoes? Well, guess what. Look. You're alone! The path that you walk is not my path. The shoes that you stand in are not my shoes. We are not equals, nor will we ever be. You are a-lone. Or is there something else you wanted to ask me?
Jake: No. But thank you For reminding me that when I decide to kill you, I need to do it all by myself.
Rowan: Mm-hmm...

[last lines]
Priest: And now it is my pleasure to introduce to you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Jake Ballard.
Rowan: [cut to Rowan's office after Jake's first kill] Welcome to B-613.

Cyrus: It's not too late to save your presidency. Look at Clinton.
President: Clinton wasn't in love with Monica Lewinsky. I am in love with a woman who is not my wife.

[first lines]
Olivia: [from the bed as Fitz enters very agitated] Hi.
President: What are you doing?
Olivia: [chuckles] What does it look like I'm doing?
President: Olivia! I specifically told you your mother was not to be released. And yet, somehow
Olivia: I released her. Yes. Because it needed to be done. Any second now, my mother is going to meet with whoever paid her to assassinate Mellie, and when she does, all this will finally be over.
President: That's what you're telling yourself? What if you're wrong?
Olivia: I'm not wrong.

[first lines]
Jake: No family. That's the first rule No families, no connections. I never really had a family anyway. I'm more from this group of people related by blood. Indiana. Middle of nowhere. She really liked that TV channel where you call in and buy things - crap, you buy crap. Fake porcelain dolls, magic stain removers, big pictures of puppies wearing funny hats. He really liked drugs and sex with underage girls. I had a sister, so... she's dead now. She died. Anyway, not having a family makes you ripe, ready, a hunk of Clay waiting to be sculpted. No connections. No light at the end of the tunnel. No sun on the horizon. Nothing to wish for. They could burn the wonderland stamp on your brain, and no one would be the wiser, because there's no one there to miss you. You're now the property of the United States government, division B-613. You come to work at acme limited. You fake-sell fake paper, and you run the world in a way that no one even imagines exists in real life, and then little by little, you've been places, and you've done things, and there's been so much blood... This becomes your home. This becomes your family. And you can't imagine any other life.

Jake: [looking out from the night time Oval Office balcony] I really have to get myself this view.
President: Only one way to get this view. And trust me, it's a bitch.

Cyrus: [15 years earlier, with a full beard and tousled hair] Well, he's tall, like you said. That's good. Nice head of hair. Also a plus. And where are we on schooling?
Jerry: Oh, Yale, Rhodes Scholar, Navy, Harvard Law, and...
Cyrus: That'll do. Hold it... The wife is perfect.
Jerry: She's gorgeous, isn't she?
Mellie: Thank you, Mr. Beene.
President: What is this?
Mellie: I think it's our first step to the White House, baby.

Quinn: [watching their monitor] She's got a friggin' bomb.
Charlie: That's 15 pounds of fully nitrated gun-cotton next to a lead-shielded cobalt-60 dispersion capsule. That's not just a bomb, Robin. That is the Mona Lisa of boom.

[last lines]
Olivia: [surprising him on the balcony of the Oval Office] Nice view. Hi.
President: Hi. You're here.
Olivia: I'm here. Charlotte is very helpful. And informative.
President: What happens now?
Olivia: Whatever we want.

James: [panicked phone call] We're out of time, David. That metal-on-metal sound you hear? It's Cyrus forging his sword, the one he's going to cut my throat with as soon as he finds out I'm Publius. Do you hear what I just said?
David: I did, and while I'm always up for a good blacksmith metaphor, I'm not sure there's anything I can say that's gonna make you feel any safer.

[last lines]
Sally: Senator Mellie Grant. Mr. Hollis Doyle. And Vice President Susan Ross.
Sally: All right, candidates. Let's begin...

Abby: You make it hard for me to do my job. You undermine me here with Olivia Pope at every turn. You keep secrets from me. You make me feel small.
Cyrus: Red, there are things that happen here in this big white house with this particular president that you will never, ever know about. Some of those things, many of those things, will involve Olivia Pope. Several of those things will make it hard for you to do your job. But you are a patriot and you are a fighter, and so you will soldier on. As for feeling small, I don't do that to you. I suspect that jealousy does that to you. My advice on that is this. You are not Olivia, you will never be Olivia, and hating Olivia for your own shortcomings will not change that fact. Also, have you ever stopped to think what it must be like to actually be Olivia Pope? Doesn't seem like that much fun.

Jake: All these years of thinking B-613 is untouchable. And all it takes to kill us is a good, quick tug on a zipper.
Olivia: Really?
David: Really?

[last lines]
Rowan: When the Republic is in danger, there's no place for spite.
Cyrus: If you're talking about the president's affair with Olivia...
Rowan: This is bigger than that. What do you know about Operation Remington?
Cyrus: Only that it was a classified mission that Fitz flew with Jake Ballard in Iran, back when they were in the Navy. Most of it's redacted.
Rowan: This Is what really happened on that mission.
Cyrus: [opens and begins reading] Oh, my God.

President: You do not yell at me in this office.
Susan: Where *do* I yell at you? I want to go there. Take me to the place where I yell at you, because I am not done!
Elizabeth: Why don't we...
Susan: Get out!

[first lines]
Rowan: [entering her cell] Our daughter's been asking about you. I wish I could say they were innocent questions, such as trying to find out what lullabies you sang, or what cookies you made when she was sad. They're not. So tomorrow night when America is sleeping I'm putting you on a plane and taking you out of the country. It is not a vacation or even a change of scenery. The room you'll be occupying is much like the room you're in now, only further away and harder to find. Understand? Good.
Maya: I want to see her.
Rowan: Excuse me?
Maya: Olivia I want to see her. I want to see my daughter, and I want you to make it happen before I leave, before I travel to some god-forsaken room in some god-forsaken country to spend the rest of my god-forsaken life there.
Rowan: You know that's not possible.
Maya: Then make it possible. I've been sitting in this cell for over 20 years, hiding in the bowels of our justice system. You have to give me something - one thing before you throw me out with the trash. Please.
Rowan: Sorry.
Maya: Eli, please.
Rowan: I will see you tomorrow...
[leaves the room]
Maya: Eli. Eli!

[last lines]
Olivia: They said it was a mechanical failure - something they could never quite figure out how a plane could just fall out of the sky. That doesn't happen. That never happens. So they recalled the engine, but it turns out they didn't need to, because it wasn't the plane at all. Because what nobody knew it didn't crash. It was shot down, right out of the sky. Someone killed them, all 329 of them. They fell into the ocean. And they died. So I want you to answer the question. Where were you during Operation Remington?
President: Like I said, I don't know what you're talking about.
Olivia: One of the bodies in the ocean was my mother. Do you still not know what I'm talking about? Fitz...
President: I don't know what you're talking about.
Olivia: I was 12 when she died. I was 12.

Hollis: Classy piece of ass, that lady. Elevates us both.
Olivia: However, we do have some serious concerns about your message. It's exclusionary, and deeply offensive.
Hollis: Oh, hell, you don't think I believe any of that racist crap I spew out there in the boonies, do you? I'm a businessman, Livvie. Just giving the customers what they want. And you thinking I'm some kind of deep-fried cross burner 'cause I'm from south of the Mason-Dixon ain't exactly open-minded, you don't mind me saying.

Cyrus: I can't tell you.
Abby: Why not?
Cyrus: Because you don't have the clearance. It is getting old. I am tired of it. But it's my job to protect his interests and serve his needs, to spin the world and raise the sun. I can't have a soul. If I had one, I would never accomplish a thing.

[last lines]
Rowan: [outside her campaign stop] Hello, Mrs. Grant.
Mellie: Ah.

[last lines]
Rowan: What the hell did you do, Olivia? Did you intervene to save Jake Ballard's life?
Olivia: No.
Rowan: No?
Olivia: No, not just Jake. Both of them. I intervened to save both their lives.
Rowan: You. You crossed me?
Olivia: You may be Command, dad, but I have weapons at my disposal. Weapons you can't possibly possess.

Marcus: And, hey, no regrets, right? I mean, I get to tell people I did the right thing. That's something.
Olivia: That's more than something. That's everything. That's what saves you in the end. You do the wrong thing, *then* you're done. Not at first. It only feels like a misstep at first, a compromise, a concession to reality, a bad move well-played. But at some point, you're only going in that direction. By the time you realize how far down that path you are, you're lost. Everything is unrecognizable. You are unrecognizable to yourself. You find yourself doing things you never thought you'd do, in ways you never thought you'd do them, to save things you're not even sure you want to save, but you can't help it. *That's* when you're done. You are *not* done. You did the right thing here.

Jake: I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States.
Olivia: Don't we all? Serving the Republic. I always thought it was a good thing a great thing. True service, a calling. Now I think, I think it eats at you until you are not you anymore, until you are lost, until you can't remember who you were, until you forget yourself, and all you can see is the greater good. All you can see is God and country. And you're so busy being a patriot, you forget to be a person.

President: [about his Vietnam experiences] You want to know what happened? I'll tell you what happened.
Cyrus: I don't care what happened. I don't need to know. Point is, you did *things*. Things you can't talk about. Heroic things you can't put in your memoirs because it would endanger our military operations, things that might even endanger the foundation of the Republic. Who knows? Well, guess what. So did I And just because my battleground was in Ohio and not the Persian Gulf doesn't make me any less of a patriot or make my service any less valiant. And just like you, I can't talk about that service, that operation, because doing so would endanger the Republic for which we stand. But still, I can be proud of it. I am proud of it, just as I hope you are proud of Operation Remington.
President: You are equating what you did in Defiance with national security issues?
Cyrus: I'm saying the right side and the wrong side Are determined not by me and not by you - but by history. History makes the heroes and the villains, sir. You and I, we're just players.

[first lines]
Mellie: [rushes into Cyrus' office] She's running!

Cyrus: "The devil came in." That's what she said. "The devil came in, the devil came in. The devil came in." *We* came in! Ergo, we are the devil. I am actually the devil.
Mellie: No, a person doesn't...
Cyrus: You should've seen me handle it. There's a dead closeted hillbilly on the floor. And there I am. "Give me your sin, Sally."I'm at the top of my game. The devil is at the top of his game.
Mellie: No, a person does not just get prodded into this. Sally snapped. Sally is the devil.
Cyrus: We've done many bad things, Mellie. Many, many, many bad things. But this? Well, I'd say this one takes the cake. We can quit now. Game over!
[laughing]
Cyrus: Hell hath no fury, like a woman whose husband is screwing another man.
[giggles]
Mellie: Cyrus, look at me. Focus. This is not how the right hand of the President behaves. Do you hear me? Pull it together. Now tell me you didn't use Olivia Pope to clean this mess up.
Cyrus: No, she'd tell Fitz. Top of my game.

Cyrus: [on coaxing the Vice President to vote on the bill] You don't actually give her anything in the bill. Okay? Not a crumb, not a whiff of a crumb. She's pigeon at a great national monument, and she is begging. And you'll think, "if I just give her this little bit, she'll go away. Please go away. Please, please, go away." But she will not go away. If you give her something, she she will only waddle up closer and more aggressive, and she will not stop no matter how much you give her. And then, and then, she will crap on your beautiful monument. All over it, 25 pounds a year of crap.
David: The vice president will do that?
Cyrus: The average pigeon. But you see the point, yes?
David: Do not feed the pigeon.
Cyrus: Do *not* feed the pigeon.

Andrew: If they come after me, I will tell the world about us every filthy thing that we did. The First Lady and the traitor. How's that for your husband's legacy?
Mellie: The irony is, he chose you because he thought you would be loyal.
Andrew: Probably the same reason he chose you.

Olivia: [giving a TV interview] If I never laid eyes on him, then I wouldn't have fallen in love and he wouldn't have fallen in love. That may have made for two more lonely people in this world, but also a lot less pain and heartache for many, many others.

[last lines]
Olivia: [to the press] Moments like this give every woman an opportunity to decide what kind of person she wants to be. Deep down, no matter what face we present to the world, no matter what pain we're hiding, what struggle we've been through, we know our worth. We know what we're capable of. We know who we are, who we'll always be, and we have a choice. We can hide in the shadows, or we can stand in the light.

Cyrus: [in the visitor's room] I need you to get Tom a letter.
Elizabeth: You just said Tom Larsen is in here.
Cyrus: Yes, he is in here.
Elizabeth: So then you get it to him.
Cyrus: He's in a different wing.
Elizabeth: Well, can't you go by?
Cyrus: "Go by?" This isn't an apartment complex. It's jail.

Mellie: [sitting with martinis talking] I tried. I tried so hard. But now I think I'm just gonna get through it, play my part. 'Cause no matter what I do, there's only one person my husband listens to, and she's... I'm sorry.
Bitsy: Only one? Lucky you. When we got to the White House, I made sure his secretary was the homeliest woman I could find. And he still managed to bang her twice a day, every day, for eight years. Oh, my, that poor woman. Ohh. But after a while, I mean, I was grateful. Gave me time to actually run the country.

Cyrus: [to Secret Service agent outside Olivia's door] Open the door. Open the door! That is an order!
Tom: Respectfully, sir, I do not take orders I do not care who you take your orders from...
Cyrus: Tom! I don't care if you got your orders from Jesus Christ himself as he hung on the cross, Jesus is not me! Jesus forgives. Jesus saves. I destroy! And I will bring vengeance down upon you in a hail of fire and brimstone. You will open that door now, or I will call in every favor I have, making sure you spend the rest of your career guarding baby Teddy at the playground!
Tom: I need a reason to open that door, sir. A credible threat.
Cyrus: He's having a heart attack. He just texted me!

Charlie: Oh, snap. You like me.
Quinn: I don't like you.
Charlie: You don't want me dead.
Quinn: I wanted to warn you.
Charlie: You like me. It's sweet. It's life-affirming.
Quinn: Get out of the car.
Charlie: Doesn't the fact that we could both go any minute make you want to just affirm life, Robin?

Mellie: Who are you?
Rowan: You do not ask me who I am, Mrs. Grant. You ask me what I need.

Olivia: I don't want a ring from you.
President: Don't think of it as a ring. Don't think of it as... You don't have to love me. You don't have to come back to me. But if you could wear this, if I could know that you were wearing this, then even if you hate me, I'll know... We'll be okay. I'll know you're out there.

Cyrus: In your final year as First Lady, we launch your career with the full support of a successful President, and the backing of his vast political machine. With that kind of profile, that level of success, you'd win a senate seat in a landslide. But I'd consider governor of California, if I were you. Better springboard to the White House. To run as an outsider who knows the ropes, who's handled big issues in a big state.
Mellie: It's not enough. It's not what I asked for.
Cyrus: Take this deal.
Mellie: Or else... Or else what?
Cyrus: Flip the page.
Mellie: It's blank.
Cyrus: 'Cause that's how much political capital you'll have. After the whisper campaign we'll start within the party about how you were complicit with the President's affair, about how you were frigid and a closeted lesbian, about how you tore the President down for your own political gain. It'll be dirty and false and relentless. And by the time we're done, the PAC money will slow to a trickle, and you won't have so much as a frenemy left inside the beltway.
Mellie: [tears up the papers] Olivia Pope just left my husband's office. I have as many friends over there as you do.

Jake: I'll give you however long it takes to pack up this sad, old house. And then you disappear quietly. You never contact Olivia again. You never get another chance to hurt her. Or you can stay, keep up this "Father knows best" routine, try to worm your way back into her life by roasting pork. But I don't know, I personally can't see her falling for your act anymore after I show her proof that you killed her best friend and the president's son. But listen, I know of this island. It's beautiful. Remote. Mosquitoes can be a bit of a nuisance, but I think you'll manage. The only unfortunate thing about your sudden departure is that I won't be standing over you when you die.
Rowan: [suddenly stabs into the table right between Jake's fingers] Make you feel good, Ballard, putting the screws to me? Feeling a few inches taller now, hmm? Makes you feel like a real man. It's exhilarating, isn't it? Go ahead. Soak it up. Revel in it. Because trust me I will be the one standing over you when you die.

[last lines]
Rowan: [walking up to Olivia] She even threw in an old friend just for me.
[glances back at Tom the Secret Service agent]
Rowan: Hello, Olivia.

[last lines]
Olivia: I want to win, desperately, but I want to win clean. I want to win because I ran the best campaign for the best candidate. I want to walk away in November with my pride, with dignity. So what do you say?
President: Is that scotch?
Olivia: Bourbon.
President: [handing her a drink] I say, I'm gonna kick your ass.

[last lines]
Olivia: [holding a gun to his head] I couldn't figure it out. How did my dad know about the Russians? Then I realized it was you. You were there. You were sent to kill Jake. You're B-613, and now you're gonna tell me what the hell foxtail is.
Franklin: You're making a mistake, Alex. Aaah!
Olivia: It's Olivia! And this is definitely going to hurt.

Grayden: [barging in to her apartment] You're having me followed. Unless you have a crush on me, I assume there's a reason. What's the reason?
Olivia: Director Osborne, all due respect Who hired you?
Grayden: Do you really think we don't have a file on you? The woman who's had her finger in every pile of dirt that gets dumped on this town? It's a damned encyclopedia.
Olivia: [dials her phone] Yes, I'd like to report a break-in.
Grayden: [swipes away her phone] I asked you a question, and I am waiting for an answer.
Olivia: Check my file. Half my clients have your pay grade or higher, which means half my clients would happily intervene on my behalf and kick your ass in whatever special way their office allows. Which is why I suggest, Director Osborne, you leave my apartment immediately.
Grayden: This isn't over...

Mellie: [picking out china patterns] I'll tell you something, when a woman is president, they'll suddenly make First Lady an official paid position. They will hire someone to do it. The minute a man has to do it, it'll become a real job.

Olivia: [after admitting her teen pregnancy on national television] Candace You handled that beautifully.
Congresswoman Josephine Marcus: I just destroyed the most important relationship in my life. I'm glad you found that beautiful. You're fired.

Rowan: 183. That's the number of people I'm responsible for killing. Not the number of people I've killed, the number I'm responsible for. There's a difference. You get an order to kill someone, well, maybe you pull the trigger, but it's not on you. They ordered it. If you didn't kill the poor bastard, somebody else would. But when you become Command, you are the one giving the orders. You are the one making the decisions. You have to choose who lives, who dies. You are responsible. So you become the hand of God. 183. I know all of their names. I know how old they were, if they had children, if they would be missed. I never made a decision lightly. I always suffered a bit with each one. The responsibility of that, the gravity of that, the weight of it, it marks me. It stains me. It never leaves me. I am responsible. 183. So, whatever you think of Jake, however you want to punish him, being the hand of God is already the worst punishment in the world.

[first lines]
Abby: [interrupting foreplay in the presidential limo] Sir, I am so sorry to disturb you.
President: Abby you remember Lillian Forrester?
Abby: Of course. Hello, Ms. Forrester.
Lillian: Hello, Abby.

[last lines]
Olivia: Have David Rosen call the governor of Nevada. Maybe he doesn't want to be re-elected. Maybe he wants to be investigated.

Tom: [to Olivia visiting him in prison] I'm... I'm sorry. I don't... I don't mean to stare. It's just I don't get to look at you very often. Just look. I'm usually working, scanning the perimeter, protecting my president the way I do. I'm in the room, but I'm never in the room. You're usually in the corner of my eye. I've never seen you. And you are beautiful. The face that launched a thousand ships.

Mellie: You talk about what a great president you are, and yet you whined and cried about how much you hate the job every chance you got. Do those people out there who love you know how many times you tried to walk off the gig? How privileged and entitled do you have to be to think of the most powerful office in the world as a prison? Unlike you, Fitz, I want this. Unlike you I earned it. And unlike you I will not squander it. This - stage - is- mine.

[first lines]
Olivia: [answering the door] Hi.
Jake: Hi.
Olivia: You're late.
Jake: Sorry. Car trouble.
Olivia: I thought we could have some dinner and talk about how our days went.
Jake: That sounds very normal.
Olivia: I'll start. Catherine Winslow was taken into custody...
Rowan: [Jake having sudden flashback of the dinner evening with her father] I will be the one standing over you when you die.
Olivia: So, how was your day?

Cyrus: [pleading with James] You wanna call the police? You don't have any evidence. Do you wanna take Ella and leave me? You don't have a job or an income or the ability to outrun my legal connections that will fight to give me sole custody of that sweet little girl in the next room that I bought for you. Do you wanna not love me anymore? Because I still love you. You're still the love of my life. And I'm still the same man you married. You just maybe never noticed The "6-6-6" on my forehead before. But now you see it. I'm I'm hoping... You'll love me anyway. I'm hoping "for better or for worse" means something to you. But maybe, maybe it doesn't. Maybe l-love isn't enough. So I'm standing here, afraid, and in my underwear and without my soul, asking you what... what happens now? I'll give you some time to answer. You take all the time you need. But think carefully. Think with your heart.

Olivia: [critiquing Mellie's book manuscript] When you discovered that Fitz had taken up with a mistress, you pretended not to know about it and you stayed. Why? That chapter is missing, and that chapter is what the American people want to read. It's what I want to read. It's all anyone wants to read. Why did you stay? Why did you lie? Was it 'cause of ambition, or was it for love? What exactly was it about Fitz or the White House or herself that made Mellie Grant turn a blind eye all those years? What was running through her head? Were you having an affair? Did you have a side piece of your very own? Because when Fitz was screwing another woman, you didn't seem to care, and we want to know why.
Mellie: You really can compartmentalize like nobody's business.
Olivia: You asked for Olivia Pope. You got Olivia Pope.

Marcus: So Who's gonna tell Olivia I work here now?
Huck: I will. I'm damaged. She doesn't like to yell at me.

Mellie: You don't get to say what you don't want, not in here. Your wants, your needs Nobody cares anymore. All that matters from now on is him. You will make so many sacrifices and compromises. You won't even feel like a real person anymore. You will be unrecognizable. You think you're gonna be able to keep that little business of yours up and running - that group of thugs you got working for you? What, you're gonna find a place for them here on your staff in the White House? I don't think so. You forfeit all that the moment he takes your hand and presents you to the world. You get dropped in a cage, and you are trapped. The amount of bile you will force yourself to choke down... But like I said, that's what this here liquid gold is for.
Olivia: To feel numb.
Mellie: Oh, honey, no. Living here in this prison, that is what makes you feel numb. This is what makes you feel alive.
[sips some and recoils]

[first lines]
President: [in the Oval Office] Charlotte? Get me Jake Ballard. Find Cyrus, and I want the heads of the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA in my office yesterday. Did you hear me?
Charlotte: Yes, sir. Only...
[men push past her]
President: Agent Fielding. I didn't call for the Secret Service. Can I help you?
Agent: We're here to help *you*, Mr. President.
President: Help me?
Agent: The Vice President thought you would have trouble following his instructions, staying on the straight and narrow, not calling in your friends in the FBI, the CIA, the NSA. He told us it would be difficult for you not looking for Miss Pope. He told us you would need our support. That's why we're here, Mr. President, to support you, to help you, to watch you.
President: The Secret Service takes their orders from *me*, not the Vice President.
Agent: I don't think that I've been clear. I'm not talking about just the Secret Service. There's also White House aides, pages, staff, military guards, a couple of secretaries, oh, and a few of the valets and butlers in the residence. Consider us all your support group. We're watching you, keeping an eye on you, all of us at all times. Cameras, listening devices, every phone call, every toilet flush. See? We care. You should be grateful for all this support. It would be a shame if Miss Pope was beheaded. Don't you agree, Mr. President? They don't call this the Crown Jewel of the American Prison System for nothing. We'll be seeing you Sir.

Hollis: [on Sally's TV show] They're running out of time. It's like being a 40-year-old woman without a husband. You don't say you're desperate, but you are. In fact, to show that ol' Hollis ain't got no hard feelings, I'm gonna say right here and right now that whichever one of them gals drops out first will be my Vice President.
Sally: You can't be serious.
Hollis: I'm as serious as a fat kid on Halloween.

Abby: We're only beginning to identify a location for the presidential library, but we'd hold any contribution you're willing to make at this time in high esteem. Did you happen to have a figure in mind?
Theodore: $250 million.
Abby: I'm sorry?
Ms. Ruland: I thought we discussed 3.
Theodore: $300 million.
Abby: For a presidential library?
Ms. Ruland: Of course not. Do we look crazy?
Abby: No. I, um...
[clears her throat]
Abby: $300 million.
Theodore: Not for the president or his library, Ms. Whelan. It's not his team that we're interested in being a part of. It's yours.

Leo: Cy, I don't care about his problems. I care about optics, how he looks. The man looks unhappy. He looks beleaguered. He looks like hasn't had a good - Ma'am, I apologize - screw in a long time. He looks like a loser. Your guy's heart isn't in it. He's gonna lose. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the big show, the invitation to the oval office. But as hallowed as this office is, right now it smells like desperation. Like losing. It smells like Nixon in '74 in here. I don't do losers.

Charlie: Being a superspy is freakin' lonely. I never used to care. It used to be fun. It used to be so good. It used to be better. Torture is a single man's game, right? Hacking up a corpse, that's something you do solo. But these days... Maybe it's the political climate. This president's all liberal and above board, There's less work. Or maybe it's I'm getting older. Maybe it was you. Being with you. But I wake up now, and I'm I'm frickin' lonely, Robin. Empty. Like there's a space in there. Hollow space. Crap I used to make fun of people for. Crap I used to shoot guys for. And I don't know what to You ever feel like that?
Quinn: No. I have people. I don't get lonely because I have people.

Rowan: [dining with Olivia] I didn't have a a role model for how to be a dad, and I stumbled. I know that. I got angry when I shouldn't have. I focused too much on how you did rather than how you were doing it. I didn't say enough how important it was to me, when you were trying, that you were struggling, because it was. Because I should've understood because that's what *I* was doing. Trying. And struggling. I tried.

President: You stay away from Olivia.
Mellie: What does that feel like?
President: What does what feel like?
Mellie: To be so hot for someone, so turned on by them that you would put everything you have ever worked for at risk. Does it feel good? Is it an amazing high? Or is it so intense that it actually hurts, like a fire in your belly?

[first lines]
Sandra: [teaching her class] That's what we're told, isn't it? That these great, big megalosauruses, The Godzillas of the world, the monsters we read books about, see films about - they are the fiercest, they are the strongest, right? Right?
Class: [in unison] Right.
Sandra: Wrong. It's the predators who are actually the most vulnerable. They're the most sensitive to change. Take away their food, make any kind of reduction, no matter how infinitesimal - well, that's it. They're wiped out forever. It happened to the trilobites, to the tetrapods, and then to the therapsids and the archosaurs and the dinosaurs, and guess what. More likely than not, it could happen to us, too.

President: I've asked you here because I'd like to offer you the vice presidency.
Susan: What?
Mellie: The president is asking you to be his new vice president.
Susan: Why?
President: "Why?"
Susan: I'm a terrible choice. I just got elected.
President: That's why I'm asking you. This town has a way of taking people and turning them into politicians. I don't want a politician.
Susan: But if I were the vice president and then something happened to you...
Mellie: Then you would be president.
Susan: But I don't want to be president. I mean, no offense, but your job is the *worst* job in the entire world. No, actually, vice president is probably worse, because you don't actually get to do anything, do you? And I want to get things done. There's so much to do.

[first lines]
Susan: [posing] How's that?
Photographer: Perfect.
[snap]
Susan: No teeth?
Photographer: No teeth.
[snap]

[first lines]
Meg: [sparing with Huck] That's some weak tea, Hucky.
Huck: Uh, Hucky?
Meg: What'd you teach me? "The only punch that counts is the punch you don't see coming."
[she misses him and he grabs her and they fall together to the floor panting]
Huck: Come on, get up. Today's lesson is don't ever stay down and don't ever relax.
Meg: [she throws a punch that connects with his nose] Don't ever relax? You taught me that last week.
[she continues throws punches but he grabs her to kiss her]

Olivia: You went too far with Quinn.
Huck: No, *you* went too far.
Olivia: Excuse me?
Huck: You took in a wild monster and you groomed me and petted me and trained me to sit at your feet, but that doesn't make me a puppy, Liv, that just makes me a very loyal monster. So I didn't go too far, I went exactly as far as my leash allows. And you hold the leash. You ruined her life, and you made me save her, and then you gave her to me to take under my wing.
Olivia: Huck...
Huck: You hold the leash. You went too far. You should have never given me someone to love. Monsters eat people, Liv. It's what we do.

Mellie: What's the word on Olivia?
President: Cy says the CIA's confident they'll have her home within 24 hours.
Mellie: That's good. Whew. We sleep better when she's lying between us.
President: I'm not sure how to respond to that.

Abby: Coffee?
David: No, I think I'll stay here, catch the White House briefing. Watching Cyrus Beene unraveling under pressure is my porn.

Olivia: I need you to get me into super-max.
David: Liv, it's a super-max prison. They added the word "super" to the already quite clear "maximum security." Dahmer was in super-max. That place holds people who eat people. And you want to what, just waltz in there wearing all your white stuff, have a seat in one of the cells, and drink tea with Jake? This isn't jailhousemingle.com. You can't just visit Jake. Hell no. There are clearances, protocols, rules.
David: You already have a plan, don't you? I've been Poped and I don't know it.

Jake: Sorry you didn't get the memo. I'm Command now, effective immediately.
Rowan: The hell you are.
Jake: "B-613 is not an individual. Cut the head off the snake, and another one will grow in its place."
[coming out from behind Rowan's old desk]
Jake: If you'd like a job here at wonderland, we can have you take our aptitude test. If not, I'm gonna have to ask my agents to escort you to the street...
Jake: [making a call] It's done.
President: We're gonna make a good team, Jake.

Mellie: Cyrus and let's not forget Susan Ross.
Cyrus: If Fitz gets impeached, Susan Ross becomes president, and we all know how that turns out. The woman's gonna eat her own head and set herself on fire at the same time, after which the country will desperately want someone who's the polar opposite of Susan.

Franklin: And you are beautiful and very sexy incredibly... sexy. And a lot of fun believe me, I've enjoyed every minute of our time together, but this whole Alex thing is, uh I'm looking for something more stable. So...
Olivia: My life is very complicated. And I want it to not be complicated. And I'm with you, when I'm "Alex," nothing is complicated. I want that. I need that.

Samantha: Look at you, playing all dumb. Thinking you can outsmart us. Like there's anything you can do that we haven't already prepared for. So naive. But I guess you'd have to be to think you could actually be president someday.
Abby: You won't be the first person to under estimate me.
Samantha: Says every loser who's built a career on riding other people's coattails.
Abby: Leave right now. Because the Attorney General of the United States - my friend David Rosen - is going to come out that door, and I'm gonna give him information that's gonna put you and your people in a cement box until the time comes for you to stand trial for treason.
Samantha: Oh, Abby. I'm a real bitch. You just play one on TV.

President: [In Cyrus' hospital room] I'm not leaving here with you.
Mellie: Our approval ratings are up, fitz. If you plan to run and win, we need to capitalize on the public's support.
President: Mellie, this phase of our lives, capitalizing on public support as a definition of marriage, is over. Make no mistake you are going to leave the White House. You'll want your own political career, and I will back you and campaign for you, and never speak of my ex-Wife Mellie Grant in anything but the most glowing of terms.
President: And then, about a year into my second term, I will go one or two high-profile dates with well-educated, age-appropriate career women, which will be chronicled in immaculate detail by tabloids around the globe. And when word leaks six months later That I've been spending time with one of my oldest, dearest, most trusted advisors, who selflessly acted as the mouthpiece of my administration when I was lying half-dead on a hospital bed, who has always stood beside me as my friend and colleague... When it gets out that she and I have started, after all this time, to care for one another in a way that is no longer strictly professional, America will love her.
President: And let's be honest. My relationship with olivia is going to spark a real dialogue. And it is going to blow the Republican party wide open, and let some light and air into places that haven't seen change in far too long. So the party will *love* her. And you want to be on the right side of history here. Trust me, you do.
President: Now, if you don't want to play along, if you leak Olivia's name, if you refuse to go gently - well, it only takes a few whispers of the word "racist" before the feminist groups and the religious groups, and even the Republican National Committee turn up their noses at your stink. But I don't want to do that, Mellie. I want to help you join me as a living, breathing monument to redemption and second chances, and the America we all hope still exists.
Mellie: [walks out of the room]
Cyrus: I take it Liv came up with that?
President: She did.
Cyrus: [wistfully] It's good.

[first lines]
Mellie: So, tonight on behalf of the 160 million mothers, daughters, sisters, granddaughters, and anyone else who has been made to feel that there are doors in this world that they don't have the keys to, I gladly accept the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
[cheers and applause]
Quinn: Are you - are you crying?
Marcus: I'm not crying.
Huck: You're embarrassing us.
[scoffing as they walk away]

Rowan: [scolding Olivia] Sleeping with that for God's sake! You know to aim higher. At the very least, you could have aimed for Chief of Staff, Secretary of State! 3 lady! Do you have to be so mediocre?

President: [15 years earlier] I won't run on a lie.
Jerry: What else you have to run on? What else have you accomplished? The only other thing you got going for you is that you're my son. That's it. That's all, you are my son - not as smart, not as interesting, but my son just the same. I made you! I could destroy you. So you'll do what you're told, and that's an order!
President: Grants don't take orders.

President: I wanted to win this on my own. I wanted to win it because I deserved it. I wanted to win it because I had the will of the people behind me. I wanted to own becoming president of the United States of America. I didn't want it handed to me. I didn't want you fixing it for me. That's what you do, Livvie. You handle. You fix.
Olivia: I was trying to help.
President: You don't fix me! You don't handle me! That is not love. That's control.

[last lines]
Sally: [on her TV show] Power. Like it, hate it, want it, have it. Feel however you want about it. Power is the fuel that runs this great big industrial machine we all help move forward, and that fuel is made of only one thing you. That is what the fat cats in Washington like to call the American way. See you next week. And remember, love your Liberty, or lose it.

Olivia: You said we can't just wave a shiny object and expect him to come running. You're wrong. I'm the shiny object. And my father will come running.

Jake: Liv, loving the president isn't a crime.
Olivia: [sniffles] And yet here I am being hunted and chased like a thief in the night.

Sally: You don't have anything to drink, do you?
David: I have water.
Sally: What about a wine cooler? Have you ever had a wine cooler?
David: I have sisters, so, yes, I have. Amber! We need some wine coolers.

[first lines]
Marcus: [at the podium] I can confirm that, yes, as of early this morning, United States forces have successfully dismantled all the remaining drones. Carol...
Reporter: What about the people responsible?
Marcus: Unfortunately, I'm unable to tell you anything more at this time. The important thing to remember here, folks, is that the threat is now gone. Are there any more questions?
Reporter: With all this behind him, what will President Grant be focusing on in his final days of office?
Marcus: The President will continue to be both passionate and eager, Carol, with a long list of interests he still hopes to tackle.
President: [cut to them romping energetically in the sack]

Quinn: You went off-script.
Marcus: This is war. There is no script. You can choose the battle, but if you send me out, I'm fighting *my* way. I don't play. I don't hide. I don't hold back or look for exits, and I sure as hell don't lean on the ropes and take it. I swing, because that's me. That's who I am. That is how I gladiate.

Bill: [interrogating] Mr. Ballard, you've refused all food and water. Now, I assume that's because you know we're required to send prisoners to a medical facility if they fail to consume food or water for 72 hours. Mr. Ballard, I will accompany you to the medical facility and continue the interrogation there. That's not a threat. That's a promise.
Jake: [cuffed to his chair] Bill... It is Bill, right? We have already established the rules of this game, Bill. We did it 20 hours ago. I demanded to see the President. You refused. So, now I don't eat or drink. Ticking clock, 72 hours, while you ask ridiculous questions, make obvious statements, and we both wait for the inevitable appearance of the leader of the free world. So, be quiet now and just wait for the President. He'll be here. You seem like a decent guy, but your voice is really starting to get on my nerves. And even though the Pentagon is a very fancy place, these handcuffs are a suggestion for me. I'm being nice.

Mellie: Get off your cross.

Jerry: [15 years earlier] A man doesn't a man doesn't need to run away to the Navy to to get away from his daddy! A man stands up. A man does what needs to be done!
President: I stood up! I did what needed to be done.
Jerry: You had no business signing up for black ops missions.
President: I aced flight school, top of my class, and because of you, they had me raising flags and shaking hands. They had me on a desk.
Jerry: You're a senator's son! You had a trust fund. You're a damn Grant!
President: I was given the chance to do something, to fly. And then I was given an order.
Jerry: Grants don't take orders!

Jake: But I am in love, Olivia. I am marrying a woman I love. She's smart, she's beautiful, and best of all, she's capable of loving me back.
Olivia: Your girlfriends aren't girlfriends. They're marks. Nothing you do is real.
Jake: I *must* be plotting something, because Vanessa likes Hugh Grant movies, she reads Vogue, and takes multivitamins. But, Liv, that is precisely what I want.

Quinn: Did you two seriously not notice that I have been gone for the last 24 hours? You know, I spent three whole months keeping tabs on this office. I went to see you every day at the computer store. I constantly checked in with Abby at the White House. I found you halfway across the world. I'm the one who made sure this place didn't die! And I go MIA for a whole day and nobody even bats an eye? That is unacceptable. That is how Harrison died. Because we weren't vigilant. We didn't pay attention. We didn't notice when things went bad. So when one of us goes missing for 24 hours, The other ones freakin' look for them!

[last lines]
Olivia: [answering her phone] This is Olivia Pope.
Maya: Hi, Livvie.
Olivia: Where are you?
Maya: I know you must be angry with me.
Olivia: Where are you, mom?
Maya: But I just wanted to hear your voice.
Olivia: Tell me where you are!
Maya: Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll see you real soon.

[last lines]
Rowan: Vanessa, this is my daughter.
Vanessa: Please, join us. We were just about to have some champagne.
Olivia: What's the occasion?
Jake: Uh, Vanessa and I are getting married.
Rowan: [toasting] To new beginnings.
Jake: To new beginnings.

President: Impeachable offenses? I knew they were gonna come after me, but...
David: You need a lawyer, Mr. President.
President: I have done nothing wrong, and I certainly haven't committed any impeachable offenses.
David: Do you know what an impeachable offense is? You don't need to spend time thinking about that because the answer is you don't. And I don't mean that disrespectfully. No one does. is whatever a majority of congress considers it to be at a given moment in history.

Adnan: So, now that I've paid your retainer, where do we go from here?
Maya: We find ourselves a terrorist.
Adnan: Well, I thought that's what you were.
Maya: No, not at all.
Adnan: You blew up a plane.
Maya: That was personal. Terrorists use violence to advance their convictions: God, country. And since I'm not burdened by those I'm more of a facilitator. I don't make bombs, I make money.

Jake: [to bound and gagged Franklin] I'm gonna untie one of your hands. If you do anything unfriendly, I will shoot you. If you try to kill yourself with this beer bottle, I will shoot you in a place that requires you to wear a diaper for the rest of your life. And if you try to kill me, well... Kill me once shame on me. Kill me twice...

Mellie: The view from here
[inhales deeply]
Mellie: The view from here.
[chuckles]
Mellie: Thing about the view from here is, there is no view. Here, we *are* the view. All eyes on us.

[last lines]
Cyrus: You are a good person. I know that. Ella could use a good person in her life. I'm not promising much, but I will promise this. I may not do it well, but I will do my best to be your someone. So, you're not alone, okay? you're not alone. Okay?
Michael: [gives him a tender hug]
Cyrus: Sign the thing. Come on. People are waiting.
Michael: Yeah...
[signs the marriage certificate]
Mellie: [cut to the wedding ceremony] True love we know it when we feel it, right? I know I did. It's undeniable. Until it is questioned, or judged unnatural.

Olivia: I made that Oval. I built that president. I had to walk away from the White House because of him. I want it back. I want my White House back. I earned it!

Quinn: [breathlessly] We found a shadow.
Olivia: What?
Quinn: 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: Talk faster or say less.

Franklin: Ballard has been eliminated.
Rowan: Untrue. False. A figment of your imagination, a vision of what you assume happened versus what actually happened. Jake Ballard is very much alive.
Franklin: Not possible.
Rowan: If he were dead, if you actually completed the task I entrusted to you, believed you were capable of executing, I would have found myself on the other end of a phone call with my daughter, a call full of venom, vitriol, and, sadly, tears. But most significantly, promises of white-hot vengeance. Instead, silence. Instead, she has gone underground. You failed, and Jake Ballard is very much alive.
Franklin: If he's alive, he's hanging on by a thread.
Rowan: Then find him and cut the thread.

[last lines]
President: [as he enters the Oval Office] Mr. Parker. I am so sorry for your loss.
Clarence: Please Call me Clarence. My son's name was... Brandon.
[begins weeping]
David: [cut to press conference] Ours is a country of laws, but those laws failed Brandon Parker tonight. And I can only hope in the weeks ahead, we can begin to understand why.

Mellie: Is that some sort of reverse-psychology crap you learned from your therapist?
Olivia: I don't have a therapist.
Mellie: Well, maybe you should get one.

Huck: Quinn, don't.
Quinn: What? Look, I'm not judging. I am asking. Nobody in this room can judge. I mean, who amongst us hasn't gone over the edge and killed somebody once? Or even twice.

[first lines]
Sally: [monologuing on her TV show] Lovers of Liberty, are we to believe this man is capable of guiding our nation with prudence and common sense, with that seductress, Olivia Pope, distracting him with a body made for - Dennis, will you show us the photographs again? We've been sold a bushel of lies, a barrel of snake oil.

[last lines]
Olivia: [opening the door of her apartment for the movers] Inside, straight ahead.

Maya: You sit in a cell long enough, you start to tell yourself stories. All my stories were about you. What you must've been up to, the friends you're making, the boys you're falling in love with. In my mind, you're married to a fella named Ray. A dentist Because dentists come home for dinner. This was my thinking. And it was you and Ray and your son named Sam. And you'd sit around your dinner table every night, and you'd just laugh. There was lots of laughter. Love and laughter and happiness. So now To see who you really are, what you've really become.
Olivia: Are you saying I'm not happy?
Maya: There just doesn't seem to be a lot of laughter in your life.

Huck: I can't be around that Jake. I've spent too much time putting my own guy back in his cage. If I go down this road with you.
Jake: It's Rowan, Huck. You see a cockroach, you step on it!
Huck: Not me. Once I open that door, there's no closing it again.

[last lines]
Huck: [approaches Rowan in an empty industrial space] Command. I have some questions for you.

Olivia: [in her apartment] Have you been waiting for me to come home? I'm your plan?
Huck: You always fix me. I don't know what happened or how it happened or when or... But you need to do what you do... Because I want to see Kim and Javi, and I can't. I can't go home not like this. Not while I want to... My guy is out, Liv. My guy is out. He's running around, and I can't go home until you fix me.
Olivia: What do you mean, your guy?
Huck: Please.
Olivia: Huck, I want to help you. I do. But I can't fix you. I don't fix people. Not like that, not on the inside. If I could fix people on the inside, I'd be running a bake sale in Ohio right now. I wouldn't be... I don't know how to fix you. I wish I did. I wish I had some I-I don't know anything. I'm sorry. But you you need a new plan, a better plan, a *much* better plan than me.

[last lines]
Maya: So, are we in?
Adnan: We're in.

Olivia: [crouching down to Huck] I have to admit, I'm not a person who gives change to homeless guys on the Metro. I don't do that. I don't stop, which is I don't stop, but I stopped for you. You made me stop. It was your eyes. You had the saddest eyes. They were sadder than mine. The thing is, Huck, you always say that I saved you. That's not true. It's not even close to true. I had been all alone for a very long time. There are moments, people who somehow they convince me that I'm wrong. That I'm not alone. That I have something to People let you down. People hurt you. People lie. I'm all alone, except for you. Harrison and Abby and Quinn are We take care of them. We love them. But they don't live on the dark side of the moon. They're different. So, Huck, I need you to snap out of this. Whatever this is, whatever happened to you, you *have* to come back to me. I need you. You are all I have. You are everything. Because I didn't save you in that Metro station. You saved me.
Huck: I think I used to have a family. But I don't remember if they were real, or if I imagined them.
Olivia: What do you think?
Huck: I think they were real!
Olivia: Then they were real. Then you had a family.
Huck: They were real!
Olivia: They were.
Huck: I did terrible things.
Olivia: We all - do - terrible things.

President: You know who I am, Liv. You know everything.
Olivia: Not everything.
President: Everything I could legally tell you. You know who I am, and you're just this bundle of dirty little secrets.

Rowan: If this wedding does not go forward, I will slit Jake's throat. If Jake learns that I was the one that made you break his heart, that, too, will force me to slit his throat. I will do that, not because he's failed me. I will do that because I love him. Because he is the talent in this family. And I would rather he be dead than mediocre.
[Olivia breathing shakily]
Rowan: I've already lost a daughter. To hell if I will let what happened to you happen to my son.

Susan: I'm not dropping out.
Mellie: Neither am I.
Susan: Well, I'm double not dropping out.
Mellie: Did you just call doubles on not dropping out?
Susan: Yes.
Mellie: You should drop out.

Marcus: This is what you do? This is your job? I call you, and you pack up a dead body for me?
Olivia: I know this is hard for you. Prison is harder.

President: Did you hear what I said? I came all the way out here from California to tell you in person that I left my wife.
Olivia: Next time, make an appointment.

President: [plowing forward with his rescue Olivia agenda] We should consider working a separate deal with MI6 because at this point...
Cyrus: [blurting out] Oh, for the love of God. You moron! You child! When are you going to learn? The finest minds of our government have told you what needs to happen, and still! I built you from the ground up, from the ground up! You are all that I have to show for my life! I made you a warrior! I made you a king! I made you leader of men! And this is what you do? This is what you leave me with? No! No! No! I'm done. I quit. I quit! And you can take your flowers and daisies and your "love conquers all" and your hope, and you can choke on it, because I don't work here anymore!
[stomps out of the Oval Office]
President: Cyrus?
Cyrus: [stirs from his daydream]
President: Don't you agree?
Cyrus: Excellent points, all, sir.

[last lines]
Rowan: [having been forced into a limousine] Hello, Olivia.
Olivia: Dad?

Jake: [meeting on park bench] I may need out, sir.
Rowan: Excuse me?
Jake: I'd like you to reassign this mission to someone else. I'm feeling there's a conflict of interest here.
Rowan: Because of your relationship with the president?
Jake: Yes.
Rowan: Remember who we are, captain Ballard. There's no such thing as out.

Ethan: The President wanted to review the numbers with...
Mellie: With whom?
Cyrus: With whom, Ethan?
Ethan: With his new campaign manager.
Ethan: [walks in on Fitz and Olivia kissing] The rest of your campaign team would like to see the poll numbers - when you get a minute.

[last lines]
Rowan: [in interrogation room] Let me make something clear, Agent Larsen. There won't be one single person left on your side when you leave this room. You want me on your side. You *need* me on your side. And I will do all I can for you if you tell me right now what I need to hear. Who gave you the order?
Tom: Please, I...
Rowan: Who gave you the order, soldier?
Tom: Please...
Rowan: Who gave you the order to kill the president's son?
Tom: Jake Ballard. Ballard gave me the order.
Cyrus: [standing behind the mirrored glass] Sir?
President: Do it.

Sally: It is because I turned my back on the faithful and condoned abortion.
Cyrus: Abortion? Really?
Sally: I did not murder my husband, Leo. The devil murdered my husband when he snuck inside me. And the reason I was not vigilant, the reason that I did not rise up and turn the devil away from my gate is that he distracted me. With pride, he distracted me into turning my back on my flock, into abandoning the innocent unborn. I was distracted, and I let the devil inside of me, and he used my hand as a vessel of murder, a vessel of sin.

Susan: [late at night] I'm wondering Do you think about us?
President: What?
Susan: Do you think about us The people who voted for you, America? Do you think about us when you're having an affair in the White House In our house? Do you think about why we voted for you?
President: I fell in love. Susan, I'm a flawed person, just like anyone else.
Susan: Mr. President, you don't get to be just like anyone else. That's not the job you signed up for.

Quinn: What's the plan?
Jake: Pool our money, bid on her ourselves.
Quinn: Pool what money? Who has money? All I have is student loans. It doesn't matter how many times you reinvent your identity, Sallie Mae will find you.
Huck: I have money...
Jake: I've got a Swiss bank account. Should have a little over $2 million in it.
Quinn: Against a bunch of foreign governments and drug cartels?
Huck: I have money...
Jake: 2 million bucks is pocket change. You're reaching. You're desperate.
Huck: I have money!
Quinn: Huck, we need like millions and millions of dollars.
Huck: I have $2,000,400,087.38.

Huck: [to Jake unplugging everything] Hey. Do you know what you just did? I was in the middle of delivering kill worms to the power grid.
Quinn: Huck, holy... You were gonna turn off the Internet?
Huck: Oh, no, I was gonna *erase* the Internet.
Quinn: Nice!
[they high-five]

[first lines]
Billy: [laying on the floor wrapped in plastic] Whatever you're getting paid to do this, I'll double it!
Charlie: I know.
[spins up a circular saw]
Billy: Oh, wait. Stop! Stop! Please, stop! Think of me as an investment strategy!

Olivia: I know what happened. That I'm sorry, dad.
Rowan: "You know what happened." No, you have no idea what happened. You have no idea what is currently happening. You're skipping around in a field full of bombs and mistaking them for daisies. This, dear sweet child, is what happened. The married man you can't seem to stay away from had me abducted and locked me up in chains and spoke to me about the way you taste, while he allowed the terrorist who snaked her way into my marriage bed to clear US air space. What happened was, the man you screwed betrayed me by freeing the woman who gave birth to you as a bargaining chip. What happened was, the man who defiled you also defiled an organization that I gave my soul to build. That is what happened.
Rowan: What is currently happening is that President Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III has made an enemy, the worst kind of enemy, because I know all his secrets. I know where every body is buried. And the greatest weapon I can use against him calls me "dad." "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."The thing about that quote, Olivia, is that it's from the good old days. It no longer applies. Today everyone is afraid. Everyone *should* be afraid. The President should be very afraid. And if I were you, Olivia, I would be terrified. I would pick up whatever chips you have left and run as far away as possible from that burning building known as the White House. Run, Olivia. Run. Because, mark my words, Fitzgerald Grant is not going to make it to the end of his term.
Olivia: You wouldn't dare.
Rowan: Watch me. Start grieving now, Olivia. Rend your garments, curse the heavens. It will save you time down the road. But first, run!

Abby: You can't look up one FBI agent for me?
David: What's in it for me?
Abby: Oh, you're pathetic. You really want dinner that badly?
David: Well, now I don't.

[last lines]
Michael: [approaches car on night-time street] You were right. He's lonely.
Elizabeth: And did you...?
Michael: Not yet, but we'll get there.
Elizabeth: Good work. Keep me updated.
Michael: Will do.

Sally: I will not be aiding and abetting a man breaking his marriage vows and laying with another woman. I will not be surrendering that piece of my soul. I am the Lord's witness.
Cyrus: No! No! The people. The people, madame Vice President, the people elected you to be the president's sidekick, not the Lord! The Lord did not fill out his voter registration card. So guess what. The Lord does not have the right to vote in the United States of America!

[first lines]
Jake: So, now I'm innocent, is what you're telling me. Good. Pleased to hear that. Should we each take turns hugging? Or how does this work, exactly?
President: Look, Jake...
Jake: *Captain* Ballard. Jake is what my friends call me. You're not my friend, Mr. President. Friends don't put you in prison for crimes you didn't commit. They don't refuse to hear you when you're telling them the truth. They don't hit you when you can't hit back. So from this point forward, when you refer to me, it will be as Captain Ballard, is that understood?
Jake: Liv, has Rowan been arrested?
Olivia: There isn't enough proof.
Jake: Okay, good.
President: Good?
Jake: What's easier? Killing a man when he's surrounded by guards, or doing it when he's out on the street and there's no one there to protect him?
Olivia: No one's killing anyone.
Jake: Someone's killing someone.
President: Jake...
Jake: *Captain* Ballard!
Olivia: We want justice, too, Jake. We all want justice.
Jake: I don't want justice. I want to kill your father. And I want you to let me do that.

[first lines]
Olivia: [entering holding cell] How's breakfast?
Rowan: Precisely like sunrise on the Suan se la vie.
Olivia: How are you feeling?
Rowan: You mean after being cuffed and caged by Fitzgerald Grant?
Olivia: I mean now that you're feel of those people. You're safe, dad.
Rowan: Safe? For now. Yes, you bought some time. But you continue to underestimate *this* enemy. I cannot be protected. I cannot hide. The only thing I *can* do to preserve my scalp, Olivia, is to run!

[first lines]
Huck: [sitting on the Metro platform 5 years ago] Dinner with your dad?
Olivia: Every Sunday. You want a doggie bag?
Huck: Every Sunday. Thanks.

David: [giving opinion in the Oval Office] Rape cases, like all cases prosecuted on behalf of military personnel, must be tried in military courts. That's been the law since 1775. What Liv is suggesting is illegal.
Cyrus: What about murdering your vice president? How long has that been illegal?

[first lines]
Tanner: [reporting the news] Joining us now, the reporter who broke this story, Vanessa Chandler of the "Post's" styles section. Vanessa, we have a name now. Former White House communications director Olivia Pope. How sure are you that she's the woman who had an alleged affair with President Grant?
Vanessa: It's just one source, but it's a good source. A source in a position to know the true identity of the president's mistress. And, well, you know how this works. It's just a matter of time before others come out of the woodwork and more details emerge.
Tanner: Can you give us an idea of how high up this person was in the administration?
Vanessa: No, but I will say that my source is 100% sure that Ms. Pope is the president's mistress, and if they're right, and obviously I believe they are, it's only a matter of time before more details come out.

Hollis: [tearfully to Quinn about his daughter] For the life of me, I can't remember when it happened. Even how. One day she's the love of my life, my little sidekick, my partner in crime. Just like that she's my enemy. Can only assume the worst of her. I let her down. I let my baby down.

Olivia: [huddled in squalid cell] I'm going to save us, okay? Okay? Say it.
Cellmate: You're going to save us.
Olivia: Yes. I'm going to save us.
Cellmate: How?
Olivia: I'm Olivia Pope.
[begins laughing]
Olivia: And it's funny because it's useless.

[last lines]
Andrew: [waiting to go onto the stage with the president] Every day for the last 12 years, I have dreamed of this.
Mellie: Being on a ticket?
Andrew: Being near you again.
President: So, without further ado, I'd like you to meet the next Vice President of the United States, my former Lieutenant Governor and Governor of California, a man I consider a brother as much as a friend, Governor Andrew Nichols!
[cheering]

Janet: I graduated college in 1973. Do you know how many women in this country had a college degree in 1973?
Olivia: I don't.
Janet: 8.5%. People were surprised I'd even want to. My father said I was pretending to be a man. My mother said she hoped I wouldn't scare off a good husband. I'm sorry. Oh, don't be. It was the times.

Mellie: I think about what I did every day. Those jurors... What I did, uh, those jurors... I-I will never forgive myself. And maybe you won't either. I guess we add it to the list of awful things we've done, things we spend our future together trying to repent for. But I can face it. Because we'll be together. I know, without a doubt, that you and I together, a team, is what's best - for us, for the country, for our beautiful children. And I'm so glad to see you too.
President: [pulls papers from his pocket] I'm divorcing you.
Mellie: I'll never sign.
President: You will. You have so many qualities I despise, but I do admire your brilliance. So do the math, Mel. Fighting this, fighting me, will mean both of us deploy every weapon in our arsenals - every lie, every secret, every juror on that bus. Mutually assured destruction. We'll be ruined. Now, me, hey, I'm a war hero, governor, a two-term president. My bucket list is done. You? Your biggest accomplishment so far is waving and smiling. It's your first day pitching in the major leagues. You'll sign.

Olivia: Huck, what's going on with you and Quinn?
Huck: Nothing.
Olivia: Not "nothing." Do you want to tell me, or am I gonna have to tell *you*?

Quinn: [to Huck as he walks in] What are you doing here?
Jake: Lay off, Perkins. He's here to help.
Quinn: Help? Well, if I need someone to helpfully murder busloads of innocent Americans and chop their heads off for fun, I'll give Huck a call. Otherwise, no, thanks. I'm good.
Huck: I'm fixed. Jake fixed me. I'm okay now.
Quinn: Yeah, fixed? There aren't enough meds in the world to fix...
Jake: I'm here with him. He's fine.
Quinn: Oh, you're like his slaughter sponsor? Yeah, that's totally fine. My bad.
Jake: Can we put aside the name-calling and the blood-feuding and just get to work?

[first lines]
Detective: [watching from his car] Looks like she's headed into some kind of medical plaza.
Abby: [talking to the president in the Oval Office] Lillian Forrester is pregnant, which explains why she hasn't been working out as much in the mornings. And it also explains why she's made three incognito visits to a medical center, which houses, count them, 7 OB/GYN doctors.
President: You're following her?
Abby: You made that my job when you started dating her, and now that you've knocked her up...
President: You're sure about this?
Abby: Of course I'm sure. You think I would just come in shooting from the hip on something of this magnitude? Move past the denial stage quickly so we can discuss how we're going to...
[her phone bleeps]
Abby: Oh, hmm.
President: What?
Abby: I, uh, false alarm. I was wrong. She's not pregnant.
[her phone bleeps again]
Abby: It's actually worse... much worse.

Elizabeth: You belong in the Oval and you know it.

David: Disclosure of confidential information on live, national television...
Elizabeth: Exactly what confidential information do you think I'm going to disclose?
David: That's confidential.

[first lines]
Mellie: Liv. Okay. What do you think?
[holds up a photo]
Olivia: You went with Cover "B."
Mellie: Well, Cover "A" made me look frigid. Cover "B," there's got to be some warm blood flowing behind those eyes, wouldn't you say?
Olivia: Looks good.

Cyrus: [standing plaintiffly] I could tread carefully here and parse my words, but instead, let's just be modern. It's faster. In this interview, Rose is going to want to see a happy couple, a warm couple, a connected couple, two people in love. They don't want you They don't want this.
[indicating their vacant stares]
Cyrus: This is "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?"This is "MacBeth."They want the fairy tale. We know what they want. I know you know, but that's not the same as being able to deliver. Can you give good fairy tale?
President: [getting up] Cyrus, we've been doing this circus act for 20 years. We'll be fine.
Mellie: [getting up] We'll be fine. We've had enough practice. We can't all be you and James, Cyrus. We can't all have a perfect marriage.

[first lines]
BNC: Oh, what a difference a week makes. After trailing his opponents in the first round of Republican primaries, Hollis Doyle has now taken the lead.
Hollis: [responding to reporters on the street] I'm giving America back to Americans. No more of these south-of-the-border types with their greedy little hands, or these shady fellas with mustaches looking to blow up our buildings. This is our country. I aim to keep it that way.
Quinn: [in the office] Look at them. It's like Throwback Thursday in there. A Gladiator reunion. This is good? This is so good.
Huck: This is not good.
Quinn: This is good. Let it be good.
Huck: Can't let it be good if it's not good. And that is *not* good. That looks good, but that is *not* good. Trust me.

Jake: They asked me to look out for you. Both of them your father, the bad guy, and the president, the good guy. They both asked me to keep you safe. They both made you my mission. And I went over the line on both accounts.
Olivia: That's not...
Jake: I'm in love with you. And if I am telling the whole truth, no matter who gets hurt, it goes like this... I am in love with you. But you are in love with him. You are owed, Olivia. You want what's yours? Go and take it.

Olivia: We have one goal. To bring down my father and to shut down B-613 for good. To do what is right. So you tell the truth. The whole truth. No matter what happens. No matter who gets hurt.

Cyrus: Your job has only two requirements, Sally. One is to not die, the other is to be loyal to the president. That's it! Don't die! Be loyal! The only other creature in this White House who has the same sweet deal is the president's dog, Hank! Hank can do those two simple things! Why can't you?

[first lines]
Maya: Thank you, baby. Thank you for getting me out of there.
Jake: Maya, where's Rowan? When is the last time you saw him?
Maya: [to Olivia] Did they show it to you the place where your father kept me? Did you see it?
President: If you're not willing to cooperate, if you don't tell us everything you know...
Maya: What are you gonna do to me? Not a damn thing. My daughter is here now. Olivia Pope is here. Now. You so much as lay a finger on me, and we will Sue your ass. Tell 'em, Livvie. Handle them.
Olivia: You haven't charged her.
Maya: That's what I'm talking about. This is a violation of my rights. They haven't even told me what I'm being accused of.
Olivia: Murder, terrorism, treason, to start. Charge her, and lock her up.
Maya: Livvie.
Olivia: As for my father, hunt him, find him, and kill him.
[walks out of the room]
Maya: Olivia. Olivia!

Rowan: B-613 is not an individual. Cut off the head of the snake, and another will grow in its place. Remember that, Mr. President.

Olivia: The truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a while, but it's not gonna go away.

Nelson: [scrawls something on his plea agreement] Can you read that okay? It's a less polite way of saying go have sexual intercourse with yourself.
David: Nelson...
Nelson: It's "Mr. McClintock", as in my parents came to America before yours did, David *Rosen*.

Mellie: [to her daughter] Like it or not, you are the famous child of the most famous man on earth. And it may not be fair. And it may not be right. And it's definitely sexist. If you were a boy, they'd be giving you high-fives. But you're not. So your knees are gonna have to stay together.

Cyrus: The fact that we can sit here and talk about murder and not blink our eyes? I've never had that, not with anyone. This the truest, most honest relationship I've ever had. And that's worth far more to me than a man who can pack a lunchbox.

Huck: Charlie's been his guy for at least the last two years.
Olivia: So why are you telling me this?
Huck: Because the last woman that was sleeping with the President ended up dead in the Potomac. And I want you to stay alive.
Cyrus: [to Mellie in Blair house] What if I could get rid of Olivia Pope?

Quinn: [to unconcious Huck in hospital bed] From now on, I'll look out for you. I'll cover your blind spot, I promise. You just need to not... die. I'll never forgive you if you die.

[last lines]
Edison: I'm not going to apologize. I said what had to be said.
Rowan: No apologies necessary, son. I just need to confirm what I already know. That speech was Olivia's idea. She saved you and beat me. Hmm? You're not crafty enough to execute that move on your own.
Edison: You can't hurt me.
Rowan: Luckily, I don't have to.
Edison: Listen, I am nobody's Fool.
Jake: [pins Edison's head to his desk] I'm gonna allow you to live because Rowan may need you in the future. I would have made a fantastic Vice President. You really missed out. We would have had some fun times.
[Rowan walks out of the room]
Jake: [whispering now] Tell Liv I need her help. Tell her I want to escape. Tell her I'm chasing the sun.

Olivia: How am I supposed to get anywhere near Jake's phone long enough to...
Huck: I think you can find a way.
Olivia: Huck, no.
Huck: Do you have any idea how many times you've asked me to do things that I didn't want to do? But I did them because you asked me to. B-613 took away my family, Liv, my life, my name. They destroyed me. And now we can do the same to them, which is what you said you wanted. Don't you want that anymore? We do what we have to do.

[last lines]
President: I tried to give up my wife for you! My office! And you backed out every time!
Olivia: Of course I did! If you gave up the presidency, what did I do all of this for? Everything we did, I did all of it. If you gave up the presidency, it would be a waste! Everything I've sacrificed to get you here, to keep you here, so you could be the best, so you could make history, so you could be the president you were meant to be. And you were. You were the president you were meant to be. And then, when the true test came along, when I was taken because of you, you go to war? You sent thousands of innocent soldiers into harm's way, some of them to their deaths, for one person.
President: I had to save you.
Olivia: You didn't save me! I'm on my own!

[first lines]
Abby: [walking past chatting employees] Shut it down or get fired, people!

[last lines]
President: [speaking to the press] Andrew didn't believe himself to be exceptional. He believed that we are all, each and every one of us, capable of greatness. And it was this belief in our country and its people that made Andrew Nichols such a tremendous leader.
Rowan: [greeting Olivia at the front door] Welcome home.

Francisco: So, what do you think about this Admiral Jake Ballard? Eli Pope was pushing him at that donor meeting, and the more I look, the more I think he might actually be a decent Vice President. Thought I'd run it by you, get your take.
Cyrus: My take?
Francisco: You've always got one.
Cyrus: [wild-eyed and embittered] My take my take my take is that he's a soulless, dead-eyed monster who murdered the love of my life in cold blood. My take is that Jake Ballard is a traitor to the nation I've spent my life loving and serving. My take is that Jake Ballard is Moloch, Abaddon, Leviathan, a serpent coiled at the feet of his master Satan himself.
[then blankly staring off in the distance]
Francisco: Cyrus? What do you think about Jake Ballard for VP?
Cyrus: [snapping out of his daydream] I think he'd be great.

Mellie: So, I have the list of speakers if you'd like to go over the order.
Bitsy: Does it matter? I'm sure they'll all spout the same pretty lies about my dead husband how he strengthened the military and reformed the tax code and negotiated the Baltic Peace Accords, blah, blah, blah.
Mellie: Well, he *did* do all of that.
Bitsy: *I* did all that. You know, they didn't know about ADD back then, but Coop could barely sit through a two-page briefing, God love him. On top of which, he was never the brightest bulb. *I* strengthened the military. *I* pushed the tax code through. *I* negotiated the Baltic Peace Accords.

Abby: David, look at me. Something's wrong. Something bad has happened to you - something terrible. You don't hide that from me, you don't lie about it to me, you give it to me. You let me share it. I love you. You are my heart. What happens to you happens to me.
David: I'm supposed to send an innocent man to jail for a carjacking he didn't commit. That's the price I have to pay for still being alive. But I can't bring myself to do it.
Abby: Oh, David.
David: He killed them right in front of me, Abby. Shelby, Vanessa, James - they're all dead and I'm alive.

[first lines]
David: [at gunpoint] Please, please. Oh, God.
Jake: I've always liked you, David. You seem smart. Are you smart, David? Can you work with me on this, or do I need to stop liking you?

Maya: [jabbering to African American corrections officer] Tell him he's got the wrong person. I came here to help. I was trying to get that man in the hotel room to tell me what he knew so I could protect my daughter. You understand, right? Oh. So you can't speak? So much for black-girl magic.
Jake: Stop talking.
Maya: I'll stop talking when you start listening.

[last lines]
Olivia: [answering her phone] I never want to speak to you again.
Rowan: Open your front door.
Olivia: Go to hell!
Rowan: Open - your front door.
Olivia: [opens her door and Jake stumbles in]
Rowan: Sunday, my house, 7:00. I'll choose the wine.
Jake: Hi.

[first lines]
Elizabeth: Goodbye, sweetie.
[kissing her daughter]
Elizabeth: Have a great day.
Dale: They'll be in high school before we know it.
Elizabeth: I need to time my drop-offs better.
Dale: Yeah, I'm just saying things change. People change. Relationships change.
Elizabeth: Dale.
Dale: Liz.
Elizabeth: Ever just a parent? Gun lobbyist badge ever come off? I have it covered.
Dale: Well, you told me that you had David Rosen covered. And now, in three hours, Attorney General David Rosen is going to be in court defending gun-control legislation, which was pushed through by a Republican president elected with our money. So, no, in times like these, I sleep with my gun lobbyist badge.

[last lines]
Franklin: [after a scuffle with Jake and having stabbed him] I'm disappointed. Rowan always went on and on about how special you were. You were the golden boy. You're not even making this a challenge. I'm gonna go again. You try this time. Okay?
[continues stabbing him]

[first lines]
Huck: [five years earlier, unshaven, sitting on the subway platform] They're fixing the green line at Petworth connecting red line trains are stuck waiting at Fort Totten, which puts the next train to Shady Grove about 20 seconds away.
Olivia: Thank you.
[puts money unto his cup]
Olivia: [the train enters the station] Look at that. Just like you predicted. Are you here tomorrow?
Huck: Every day.
Olivia: Coffee's on me.

Jake: [turning down dinner date] Y-you are not my girlfriend.
Olivia: I know that.
Jake: If you were my girlfriend I would come and meet your dad, even your dad who threw me in a hole and tortured me. But you are not my girlfriend, so no.

Ethan: [on the phone] Sir, please say something. I can hear you breathing, sir.
Cyrus: Yes, I am breathing, Ethan. I am breathing very deeply, because I am trying my very best not to have another heart attack.
Ethan: I'm so sorry. She has people here.
Cyrus: Who?
Ethan: We got Pope'd, sir.