Scandal Postmortem: Josh Malina Cautions That David Rosen May Not Be (Gulp!) Safe

[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Thursday's episode of Scandal. Read at your own risk!]

"Talk about not being able to catch a break!"

Surely Scandalfans everywhere are echoing Josh Malina's sentiments when it comes to poor David Rosen, who has spent much of the season being screwed over left and right as he tried to uncover the truth that Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and others had rigged the presidential election.

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But executive producer Shonda Rhimes and the Scandal writers kicked David when he was down: After publically losing his job and everything he holds dear, David woke up next to a dead woman, more specifically, a dead reporter named Wendy who was trying to get information on Defiance from him. But the once white-hat-wearing David did not, in fact, kill Wendy; he was framed. With the help of Olivia, he was able to uncover that Wendy was in possession of classified information — like the coordinates to all six of the President's war-time bunkers — that leads to the conclusion that there's a mole somewhere in the White House.

How will David and Olivia be able to uncover this new scandal? And is David really off the hook for Wendy's death? TVGuide.com turned to Malina to get the scoop on what's ahead, including whether David and Abby (Darby Stanchfield) are really meant to be. Check it out:

David Rosen has really been beaten up this season! Will he ever get his mojo back?
Josh Malina: First thing's first, because I haven't seen it: How fat do I look? [Laughs] Any time my shirt comes off, I have to watch from between a crack in my fingers. Will he ever get his mojo back? No. I think the answer is nojo to mojo. I'm hopeful that by the end of the season that we'll see David do something right, win some sort of small argument with somebody, wind up with the girl, really anything. A scratch-off lottery ticket where he wins $10 would satisfy my desire to get his mojo back! I will say thus far, I haven't filmed anything like that.

Is David completely off the hook for the frame job, or will that still come back to haunt him?
Malina: Yeah, it's still in the process of working that out. Nothing is resolved yet too cleanly.

The person who framed him is still out there. How will we see that story line ramp up? Will David have any interaction with this person?
Malina: In future episodes, it's not clear whether David is even safe. He certainly begins to have a reasonable fear for his own safety. There may be a greater confrontation in the future, but in the immediate aftermath of what happens in Thursday's episode, he starts to legitimately get a little bit paranoid about things.

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Is it correct to assume that the person who framed him has a connection to the mole?
Malina: The future episodes cast light on that. It'll be dealt with. I can neither confirm nor deny. I can only say that Wendy was onto something or finding her way to information that someone had a vested interest in squashing.

As for the reason why, there was the introduction of the information leak Albatross. So Wendy wasn't necessarily killed over Defiance information, even though she was trying to steal that from David?
Malina: No. It's a reasonable assumption, but as is usually the case, there's more to it than what you might initially assume, including more to it than what the characters assume.

Even though David and Olivia are working together to uncover this mole, can they ever really trust each other?
Malina: No way can he ever really trust her again! Maybe that'll happen in the future, but I can't imagine in the aftermath of all that she and her people have done to him, I don't think 100 percent trust is likely to come. Although, it's interesting to find that in his hour of need, his first reaction is to call her. It's definitely an acknowledgment of her mad skills in the, "Oh God, help me!" department, rather than a rebuilding of full trust.

David has a knack for going off the rails in pursuit of justice. Will we see him do that with the search for the mole? Or has he learned his lesson?
Malina: This is speculation because I don't know the full answer to that, but my guess is calming down isn't really in his playbook. Whether he's right or wrong, or ultimately prevails, I think his reaction to everything that's happened here is likely to be as shoot-from-the-hip and as ardent as the pursuit of everything else we've seen that obsesses him. Even when it comes to self-preservation, he can't help himself.

He is attempting to wear the white hat again, but do you think he really can? He is working with someone who does some illegal things quite often, so will David adopt some of those techniques?
Malina: We're seeing the first shades of grey in this episode. It's his own ass on the line when he wakes up next to a corpse, but he does have them move the body. And before that, he's gone to the door and lied to the cops, so we know that he's innocent and obviously he knows that he's innocent, but that's not what you're supposed to do when you wake up next to somebody you didn't kill! You're supposed to tell the cops everything! It's the first intonation that he will bend the rules or really actually just break the law. I don't know how much worse it will get. In the spectrum of Scandal behavior, this is closer to the goody-goody side than to Cyrus (Jeff Perry), [Laughs] but it is the first hint that it's not absolute black and white for him.

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It doesn't seem like things are really over for David and Abby. What's coming up?
Malina: It certainly hasn't been resolved and I don't think it's going to be wrapped up too neatly. In the immediate aftermath of Thursday, we haven't really dealt with it too much, so I don't really know, but I think they will continue down this rocky road.

Even though they constantly lie to each other, do you believe they're meant to be?
Malina: Yeah. It's almost similar — one's platonic and one's romantic and sexual — but there's a similar thing with Olivia. These guys are made to spar, but underneath it all, they respect and kind of love each other. It's a little bit late to rebuild that chemistry. In the last episode, Abby absolutely just lied to his face. He knew she took the card and called her out on it and her answer was that she loves him and didn't take it. When he walks out, four seconds later she's taking the card out! You can't put that genie back in the bottle, but clearly they are meant to be together. Sometimes you f--- up and do something and can't ever get back to Eden.

Crazy theory: David is actually in on the frame job and has used this opportunity to get on the inside of OPA to suss out the truth about Defiance. Thoughts?
Malina: Very interesting. I can neither confirm nor deny, but I like your way of thinking. The last 15 seconds of our conversation would be a great application to write for the show. [Laughs]

Do you think David has really given up on uncovering Defiance?
Malina: I have to believe that it will at least bubble under the surface and erupt again because it's not a small thing. We're talking about the President of the United States, arguably the most powerful person in the world, and whether he really belongs there. I don't think that's the kind of thing that David is going to just put down knowing what he knows. He's put off the track for a little while as he tries to take care of the complete implosion of his own life, but I would be surprised if they just pass that one. I have to believe he's going to return to that.

Do you think David and Abby are meant to be? Are you rooting for him to find the mole? Hit the comments below!

Scandal airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.