'Scandal' recap ('The Lawn Chair): season 4, episode 14

More coincidentally, the Department of Justice earlier this week released a scathing report of systematic racist behavior on the part of Ferguson police while at the same time deeming Darren Wilson innocent of any civil rights violations in the shooting of Michael Brown.

So this episode yelps "ripped from the headlines" but wraps up in a way that creator Shonda Rhimes probably wished some other real-life cases had been: with a perpetrator in jail and justice served.

In this "Scandal"-like case, Brandon Parker, a D.C. teenager holding a new smartphone in a box is questioned by a white cop who was seeking a perpetrator who had stolen a phone in the area. Brandon reaches for something in his jacket and is shot dead.

Neighborhood outrage ensues. The cop says he was justified to shoot because he believed he was about to be attacked. And better yet: Brandon was about to pull out a knife.

The D.C. cops call Liv to "manage" the situation. She is days removed from practically being killed herself multiple times after being kidnapped, put up for auction (her idea!) and saved (implausibly but cleanly) by a former colleague in Russia. On the surface, this looks like a return to a typical "Scandal" plotline with Liv and the Gladiators "fixing" a problem.

But this problem hits Liv close to home when she meets Brandon's father Clarence, who enters the scene dramatically with a shotgun and stands by his dead son laying in the street. He said he will stay there until he feels his son's body won't be tampered with and justice will be served.

Liv keeps the cops from shooting him and at one point, convinces the chief from bringing in the riot gear and tear gas. But she is trying to straddle both sides. Marcus, a local activist and friend to Clarence, pins down Liv for who she is: a wealthy black woman who has probably never been on that block and she also happened to help a Republican president win - twice. She is more mercenary than merciful.

Marcus also provides Clarence with a lawn chair (thus, the title of this episode.)

Liv talks to Clarence about Brandon and his failed efforts to keep his son protected from danger. He figures this act of defiance will leave him dead or in jail.

Now convinced that she was on the wrong side this time around, Liv quits her consulting job with the cops and decides to just figure out what really happened, Gladiator style. The cops had confiscated the video and the Gladiators wonder if they're hiding something. Liv goes to Attorney General David Rosen's office to convince him to subpoena the cops for the video. Emotionally exhausted, she falters.

"I can't fix this David. I have nothing left, no more tricks in my bag. It's too much!"

"I thought I was going to die for about a week straight. I thought I was a goner. I lived in complete and total fear. Imaging feeling like that every single day of your life."

Rosen, of course, gets the video for them. At first, it appears the cop was justified. Brandon is reaching for something. But what? The cop claimed it was a knife.

So they go back to the scene of the crime, left untouched as long as Clarence was sitting on his lawn chair over his dead son. They find a knife under his body but Clarence insisted numerous times his son never carried a knife. He believes instantly this was a set up. He lifts his shot gun and considers shooting.

Marcus and Liv calm him down and he sits down again. Liv's hand is shaking so hard as she walks away, she has to hold it to her side. The trauma from her kidnapping is still affecting her.

Quinn studies the video and sees a shadow. They figure out the cop had hidden the fact he had another perpetrator in his car when this happened. The cop had planted that man's knife on Brandon and let the other guy walk.

When they confront the cop, he goes on a verbal rampage, saying he was protecting these folks from themselves, that he never go the proper respect, that they needed to listen to him - or things like this happen. Of course, his confession was made in front of everybody because this is TV and that's how it's done for dramatic effect.

The case is closed - in time for "American Crime."

Courtney B. Vance, who plays Clarence, is absolutely brilliant as the grieved father, right to the end, when Liv takes him to the White House (instead of prison) and lets him meet Fitz, another man who lost his son.

***

There was one other story line: the search for a new vice president. With Mellie wanting the presidency after her husband leaves, she wants someone who has no desire to be president. An ambitious Republican Hispanic female senator is briefly considered and Mellie gets peeved at Fitz for even considering her. So he leaks some intel that made her unelectable.  Mellie ultimately finds a haplessly earnest female Senator who has no desire to be president, one we saw a few episodes back in need of a makeover.

QUOTES

"I'm not the enemy" - Liv to Marcus.

"Are you sure?" - Marcus

Liv to Marcus: "You want anger, you want outrage. You want retribution."

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

***

"We're going to get to the bottom of this. Then you can bury your son." Liv to Clarence

"That sounds real good Miss. You and I both know this only ends with me dead or locked up." - Clarence

RANDOM SIDE NOTE

Clarence Parker appeared to sit by his son for at least 24 hours straight. Was he allowed a break to go on a bathroom break?