Scandal has officially come to an (and won’t be returning, per showrunner Shonda Rhimes). But while viewers were at home watching the series finale last night, Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn, Rhimes, and the rest of the cast came together in L.A. for one final table read—and they revealed an alternate ending that shook attendees.
The screened version—spoiler alert—ends with two young girls looking up at a portrait of Olivia Pope in the White House, an honor known to be reserved for POTUS and FLOTUS, and no further explanation. That followed a shocking scene in which Vice President Cyrus Beene murders Attorney General David Rosen.
But during the live table read, put on by The Actors Fund, while Olivia’s portrait remained, the series came to a close with Olivia’s day-one Gladiator Huck arriving in Cyrus’s room with a toolbox, ready to avenge Davis Rosen’s death. “You’re here for me,” Cyrus said, with a knowing gaze. “I’m here for justice,” Huck responded, before a fade to black.
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So will we ever see Olivia Pope again? “Shonda says there is no reboots, so I trust Shonda,” Washington said on the red carpet. “But I would, of course, be open to hanging out with these people that I love with all of my heart and soul.”
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Regardless, she’ll live on in our wardrobes—Washington said that she thinks she can identify the exact moment when Olivia Pope became a style icon, and it happened in the show’s pilot. “I feel like from the very first episode with that white trench, people kind of went crazy. That was a Tory Burch trench.”
Scroll down for five more juicy, behind-the-scenes scandals that Washington and Rhimes told InStyle:
1. Kerry Washington Stole a Prada Bag from Set
Before the cast took their final walk off the Scandal set, they each took a few items they loved. While Katie Lowes pulled a very Quinn move and took a “face rake,” Darby Stanchfield couldn’t resist nabbing the Stella McCartney floral overcoat she wore in the finale. “It has autumn colors, orange like my hair,” she told us. “Some chocolate brown. I took that. I’ll wear it in New York when I’m there. It’s beautiful.” Meanwhile, Washington said she may have taken home a couple of Prada items. “When they were looking at all the Pradas, there may have been one or two missing—I’m just saying,” she said.
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2. How Drinking Red Wine Affected Olivia Pope’s Wardrobe
Olivia Pope always has a glass of red wine in her hand at the end of the day, but Washington told us she never spilled her drink on her clothes—not once. “Never, blasphemy! Never any red wine, never!” she told us with a big smile.
3. Washington Organized an Epic 3 a.m. Night Out With the Cast
While they were there shooting the last couple of episodes, Washington took the rest of the cast on a night-time monument tour. “The whole cast was together, and we just had such a blast. We were out until, like, three in the morning. We experienced all the monuments together and just ran around D.C., and fans kept sort of spotting us, and they were like, ‘Oh my God, this can’t be real,’” Guillermo Diaz told us. “[Washington] rented some SUVs for us. A lot of us had been drinking heavily,” Tony Goldwyn added with a laugh. “She said, ‘It’s my favorite thing to,’ do because she went to [George Washington University]. It was really fun.”
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4. Shonda Rhimes Broke Her Foot While Stalking Rihanna
The Scandal creator showed up to the table read in a full air cast boot. What was the deal? She fractured it during while on vacation. “I went to Barbados on my very first vacation in a long time,” she told InStyle. “I call it my Rihanna pilgrimage. I went to Rihanna’s house where she was born and everything.” No, she wasn’t invited. “On my way home, like on my last day, I dropped a suitcase on my foot … but I tell everybody that I broke my toes kicking ass and taking names.”
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5. Kerry Washington Gave Costar Katie Lowes Breastfeeding Advice
“My kid is outfitted in Caleb’s [Washington’s son’s] clothes,” Lowes told us. “Her son is older and thank god I get all the hand-me-downs. It’s the best because my kid is so well dressed, and I didn’t buy them! They’re all given to me.” She went on to say Washington is always one of the first people she calls when it comes to motherhood advice and gave her a major break when she returned to set after giving birth. “She’s amazing. She’s so smart, she could run a country if she wanted to,” Lowes said. “She’s a wonderful mom so she’s just always my go-to speed dial. I can remember when I started breastfeeding and I was like, ‘How do I do this?’ She was the first director to direct the first episode back then, my first day back with a kid. She was directing the episode, and it was such a blessing because she was like, ‘When you are feeding, you’re going to go back to your trailer this amount of times, you’re not going to apologize for anything, you’re going to go back, everyone’s going to wait, and that’s just the way it’s going to go.. She’s a boss, she’s the best.”