Sarah Stanner (guest star Lisa Edelstein) is the CEO of a large company. She’s a married mother of two living a seemingly perfect life in suburbia. She’s also the focus of a scandalous story that has hoards of reporters camping out on her front lawn. Sarah is being accused of having an affair 15 years ago with Murray Randall, the White House nominee to be the next Supreme Court Justice. Sarah Stanner needs help. Sarah Stanner needs Olivia Pope.
Olivia, Harrison and Abby wait until the top of the hour to sneak past the press folks as they do their live reports. Sarah lets the team know that everything they are saying about her is true. She had an affair with Randall. There are emails that serve as evidence of this. Olivia advises Sarah to come clean publically. This ticks off Cyrus, as a flat denial would’ve made this thing go away quickly. He vows to fight back. Cyrus assembles a team to assassinate Sarah’s character. He launches an all-out smear campaign against her. Olivia warns him to back off. That’s not going to happen. Things get worse when Sarah learns she’s being fired.
Harrison manages to persuade the folks at Sarah’s company to refrain from enforcing the morality clause of her contract. This bit of good news is short-lived once news breaks that the affair went on longer than Sarah admitted. Her husband, Phil, realizes there’s a chance that their oldest daughter may not be his. He violently confronts the press on his lawn before Harrison finally pulls him back inside the house. With this new affair news, Sarah’s job is back in jeopardy.
Cyrus heads into an Oval Office meeting with the president moments after Jake scoots out another door. The First Lady is also waiting to have a chat, but Fitz only has time for his baby boy. Mellie wonders if his secret 9:30 meetings are with Olivia. They’re not. In other news, Cyrus is thrilled when he learns his attack on Sarah worked. They have enough support to push Randall’s nomination through until news of the extended affair breaks. Randall is out. When Fitz learns Olivia represents Sarah, he gives her a call. He says she ruined him. Olivia then says she’s the one who is ruined.
