Leave it to Shonda Rhimes, the queen of ABC Thursday night TV, to spotlight real life and real world issues on her hit shows like Grey's Anatomy, How To Get Away With Murder and Scandal. Last night's episode of Scandal was a true representation of art imitating life as Rhimes apparently mimicked the many sexual allegations and assault charges brought against Bill Cosby, by developing a story line based on a prominent university professor and published author who sexually assaulted many of his students by drugging them.
In the episode titled, "Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance," Rhimes really dug into the Cosby scandal through a character named Frank Holland (William Russ), who had just been honored and presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his published work that promotes equality for women. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the episode begins with Holland walking through the White House with public relations representative, Abby Whelan, who tells Holland it was his book that inspired her, and gave her the strength to leave her abusive husband. Holland's character had "started schools for girls all over the world" and many women writers looked up to him. Just about everyone admired and respected him with the exception of more than twenty women who were drugged and raped by the prominent male figure.
One woman named Hannah (Kate Cobb), decided to be the brave voice that would publicly admit and acknowledge what Holland had done to her two years prior, according to Penn Live. Hannah hired Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington), to help her expose Holland and allow the world to see he's not the man that everyone thought he was. In doing research to prove her case, Pope finds that Hannah was not alone in her situation, but was joined by more than twenty women who all experienced the assaults from their former professor, who would tell them that they were great writers and had an amazing future ahead of them but, they needed a mentor - which he was more than willing to become for each of them. They each recalled being invited to his home where he would then drug them and have sexual relations with them.
Similar to the victims in the Cosby scandal, the victims from the Scandal episode never reported the incident, believing that Holland's reputation was too large and legendary for people to believe them. The victims in the Cosby scandal seem to come forward one after the other, in a domino effect but, the victims in the episode chose to all come forward together. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, during one of Holland's live readings of his book at the university, "22 women he raped descend[ed] the auditorium stairs and [stood] around him onstage." The scene ended with Pope seated on the steps of the auditorium next to Holland's wife, who Pope discovered knew about the assaults over the years and even provided her husband with Oxycodone to drug these women.
The twist in the story involving his wife makes you wonder if Rhimes was taking a direct shot at Camille Cosby by insinuating that she knew what her husband was doing all of these years. The 71-year-old wife of Cosby reportedly knew about his multiple of affairs during their marriage and "stopped being embarrassed a long time ago," according to NY Post. However, she does not believe that her husband committed any of the offenses brought against him and believes he is simply not a rapist according to the site.
One can only wonder what the Cosby family thought of the "Even the Devil Deserves a Second Chance" episode.
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