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At its very best,Scandalwas like a staged drama where everyone played to the rafters.
But more than anything else, it gave us terrific monologues.
When aScandalmonologue really worked, it made you want to stand up and cheer.
Thats one successful opening monologue.
You are all I have.
Because I didnt save you in that Metro station.
But learning about Hucks family and the deeper meaning of Seven Fifty-Two packed a huge wallop at the time.
You basically fill up all the tiles on yourScandalbingo card here and its thrilling to watch.
He completely tears Fitz apart without even getting in his face.
Plus, Jeff Perry delivers this whole monologue lounging on a sofa, which instantly makes it iconic.
I am celebrating because Olivia Pope still walks this earth!
And as long as shes still alive, shes your flaw.
You are a boy.
Im a man.Rowan (Season 3, Episode 10)
No one delivers a monologue better than Papa Pope.
Bonus points for flawlessly working in the song lyrics in a way they surely teaching in acting school now.
The Love (and Breakup) Monologues
I cant breathe without you.
I cant sleep without you.
I wait for you.
I watch for you.
Also, we get a classic Olivia lip quiver.
I want painful, difficult, devastating, life-changing, extraordinary love.
Heres another great example of Olitz treating their love affair like an epic, earth-shattering event for the ages.
Its doubly perfect that Olivia delivers this rousing speech to the guy shes dumping.
Pull no punches, you know.
This past year I have learned only one thing: that I cannot exist without you.
That I cannot breathe without you.
Thank you,the Album Leaf.
The Power Monologues
I would have been a great president.
And not so pretty.
And I really like having sex with men.
Today, everyone is afraid.
Everyone should be afraid.
The president should be very afraid.
And if I were you, Olivia, I would be terrified.
This is a good, old-fashioned Rowan intimidates everyone by telling it like it is speech.
Sometimes, you just have to yell really loudly to get your point across.
The men outside these walls?
They want to take it away from us.
Because they are terrified.
Because they are outraged.
Except, obviously, it comes at a huge cost.
Time for the slaughter, you filthy cloven beast!
Or is it more an experience?
Either way, its a Sally classic.
Oh, you think you have a father?
I am so sorry, but you dont have a father.
You were raised by Command.
Command doesnt have a family.
And its so creepy!
List all the ways in which you are control.
Nobody knows that better than Olivia Pope.
They didnt teach him respect.
It leaves you feeling sick, exactly as it should.
Black lives do matter because young black people are under attack.
The fact that Doyle insists on saying all lives matter when talking about this movement really pisses me off.
Its like walking up into someone elses funeral and screaming, Why are you not crying for my daddy?
Well, yes he is.
And that is sad.
Black women out here trying to save everybody and what do we get?
Swagger-jacked by white girls wearing cornrows and bamboo earrings.
Aint that a bitch?
But we still try.
take a stab at help all yall, even when we get nothing.
Is that admirable or ridiculous?
at the end of this masterpiece.
It distills the thesis ofScandalinto a single line.
Everything before it feels like buildup.
Everything afterward feels like a response.
Its so specific to Olivias character and yet so universal all at once.
