The first time viewers of ABC’s hit drama Scandal see Olivia Pope go to church, she’s there to oversee the success of a “fix” she negotiated for the wife of a prominent pastor who died on top of his mistress. Pope spends much of the episode counseling and empathizing with the mistress, while the long-suffering wife–still reeling from the depth of her husband’s betrayal–has to accept both his lover and her secret child.
The second time we see Olivia in a pew, she’s mourning the loss of a corrupt mentor her own married lover murdered. She’s also there to hook up with that lover of hers–until she discovers that he knows she’s betrayed him. Then, she’s there to seek forgiveness–not from God, but from her man, President Fitzgerald Grant.
