thoughts on Scandal: "It's Good to be Kink" (spoilers)

The gist of this episode is that a woman named Sue Thomas (Lena Dunham) is planning to publish a book in which she reveals the details of her rather kinky sex life; this is going to be both scandalous and of interest because she has slept with a number of Washington, D.C.'s movers and shakers, including David Rosen (Joshua Malina) and Leo Bergen (Paul Adelstein).  Abby Whelan (Darby Stanchfield), who has been romantically involved with David and is currently involved with Leo, enlists Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) to put the kibosh on this.  Olivia first tries shaming Sue, telling her that if she publishes this, the whole town is going to think she's a whore.  Sue will have none of this; how DARE Olivia, one of the most powerful women in Washington, try to make her feel bad for having an active sex life and wanting to talk about it.  She wants three million dollars not to publish the book. 

Liv's next course of action is to figure out who all of the men (who Sue has given code names) are, get them all together in one room, and try to get them to pool together the $3 million.  Now it is David Rosen who will have none of Liv; this is extortion, plain and simple, and none of them should have any part of it.  Everyone begins preparing for the eventuality of Sue publishing the book.  David Rosen assumes he will be fired as Attorney General.  Huck (Guillermo Diaz) fears that this will cost him the immunity David has promised him in return for testifying against B6-13.  Abby prepares to turn in her resignation to the White House; she gives a great speech (the second great speech in the episode, after Sue's) to Leo about how as a woman, she gets critiqued not only on her job performance, but on her appearance and her love life, and that she will be ruined along with Leo for her involvement with him.

Liv's Plan C is to do some research on Sue and figure out what she's after, exactly.  It turns out that Sue was fired by a boss who assumed she would have kinky sex with him and basically had her blackballed from her field when she said she wouldn't.  Olivia helps her go after the boss and get a new job, and Sue agrees not to publish the book, realizing that while she isn't ashamed of her sex life, she doesn't want to be defined solely by it, which is what would happen if the book came out.  This doesn't stop Huck from MURDERING HER out of fear that her stories would eventually get out, anyway, and his deal would be ruined.  Quinn (Katie Lowes) steals the only copy of the book.

Huck visits David to discuss his deal.  David laments the death of Sue, and gives the episode's third great speech.  He didn't do anything wrong, he supposes.  He had consensual sex with Sue.  He refused to be extorted or to let other people be extorted.  He didn't do anything illegal.  Still.  He didn't particularly treat Sue with respect, and now she, someone's daughter, is dead.  He may not have done anything wrong, but he didn't do anything particularly right, either.

I thought it was a solid, solid episode.  There are a couple of other subplots going on-- Olivia tries to move past her kidnapping, as well as past her relationships with Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) and Jake (Scott Foley); Mellie (Bellamy Young) takes preliminary steps toward a run for senator of Virginia.  But for the most part, the show's main characters are involved in the Sue storyline, and along the way, they have a lot of thoughtful and thought-provoking conversations about the way women are judged for their sex lives and appearances, and how these judgments often overshadow their professional accomplishments.  Lena Dunham gives a solid guest performance in a role that honors the actress's feminism.  Huck is unfortunately still crazy as hell.  Leo and Abby continue to be both solid and really fun as a couple.  David continues to prove that he represents the moral and ethical best of all of them.  And Liv has some hot sex with a man who is neither Fitz nor Jake.  What's not to like?