Scandal Scoop: How Will Quinn Deal with Hollis Being an OPA Client?

The devil's in the building!

Hollis Doyle (Gregg Henry), the man responsible for single-handedly ruining Quinn Perkins' (Katie Lowes) life, will become an OPA client during this week's Scandal(Thursday, 10/9c, ABC). Naturally, Quinn won't be the happiest person with this decision. Will Hollis' proximity cause her to finally snap? Or will she stick to being a gladiator in a suit? TVGuide.com turned to Lowes to get the scoop:

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What can you tell us about Hollis' case?
Katie Lowes: We never met Hollis' significant others in previous episodes, but I think we can all assume that this guy is a snake and I'm sure he's been married eight million times and he has family and kids all over the country with different really gorgeous and powerful, or not so powerful and just gorgeous women. [Laughs] This is a case that strikes at Hollis' heartstrings because he's dealing with one of his family members in trouble and that's why he comes to Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). Most of the time, I'm sure Hollis Doyle is darn good at handling his own problems and fixing them in his own way, so it has to be something pretty bad and pretty close to his heart that he would employ Olivia Pope to try to fix the situation.

How is Quinn dealing with coming face-to-face with Hollis again?
Lowes: Not well. The last time Quinn talked about Hollis, she offered Huck (Guillermo Diaz) $5,000 to take him out. It was at that turning point that Huck said, "We don't do revenge here." I think this is a really tumultuous, conflicting episode for Quinn because it is yet again playing with the idea of, "If you've signed up to work at Olivia Pope ride and die, and Huck tells you that we don't do revenge, and yet your biggest enemy walks through that door, what do you do?" The episode took so much effort for me because I'm really not used to being filled with so much hatred. It was really difficult and a tough two weeks to go through everything. As a tease, something happens in the episode in which Quinn is really tested with whether Hollis Doyle is going to be an enemy forever or if she'll see him in a different light.

Will she confront Olivia about her taking on Hollis' case?
Lowes: No, Quinn understands how the office works now and she knows that you have to really pick your battles and decide when it is you're going to go to Olivia Pope. Because Huck is her closest ally and friend in the office, she'll take everything to him first.

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How will Quinn try to distract herself from the Hollis case, especially considering Osbourne (Kurt Fuller) discovered that OPA has been tailing him?
Lowes: We definitely left off with Osbourne knowing that Quinn's onto him, therefore Olivia Pope is onto him. Osbourne's not stupid. He saw those pictures of Quinn in the laundromat and he knows who she works for. It's really scary at the table read when we read this episode. [Executive producer] Shonda Rhimes joked in the middle of it, "So it was really nice working with you." I had an absolute panic attack. My heart dropped to the floor. I was ready to get on my hands and knees and beg for employment because it's the best job in the whole world. Quinn really needs that case. She needs it as a distraction from Hollis being their current client. She needs to dive into her work. That's how Olivia Pope and Associates' work ethic is. They're gladiators first and people second. You're going to see her dive into this whole Huck and Quinn situation. She's constantly leaning on it to find her place in the world and find something she's good at and find a purpose for herself.

Quinn is becoming more badass this season. What can you tell us about her going down this darker path?
Lowes: I'm so excited for you guys to see next week's episode. It's my favorite that I've gotten to do so far. You can see Quinn is growing and evolving. Her feet are getting grounded in this world and it's all thanks to Huck, played by Guillermo, who is the best actor ever. It doesn't suck that I get to be paired up with him constantly. I feel like people are digging our chemistry as a mentor/mentee relationship. Of course, I have no idea if by the end of the season we're going to kill each other or have crazy sex with each other. What I do know is that Quinn is really leaning on him to be good at something to define her role in the office. Quinn, because she was taken in as sort of witness protection, she really didn't belong there, but now this is where she is and where she's committed her life to being. So what is she going to do? You're going to see that Quinn will have to get more and more confident in using the skills that Huck has taught her... [singing] and it's going to be awesome.

Are there any lines she won't cross?
Lowes: No.

Even when it comes to torture?!
Lowes: I will say that there are no lines that she wouldn't cross. I think it's going to take her a while to get to that point, but I really think she's Huck's protégé ride or die. I really feel that where this is going and what I've seen so far is that all of her trust is in him and when he says she's ready and it's go time, she's ready.

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Will she take on any cases of her own?
Lowes: Yes. As a typical mentor/mentee relationship evolves, the mentor tests the mentee and backs away to let the little baby grow up, in a way. So yeah, you'll see some of that. And you might see her mess up and you might see her be really good. Quinn is still Quinn. As badass and kickass as she's becoming, she's still a 28-year-old baby lawyer who just passed the bar and has been in this business for two years. She's not Huck.

Do you think Quinn has really let go of her past?
Lowes: Gosh, that's a complicated question. I would say that she's 95 percent over her past, but like any human being, there's just days where you're still going to think about it. When you're at your most vulnerable, you're going to want to think about your parents and your ex-boyfriend who died, but most of the time she's definitely a gladiator first and a person second. She's been modeling after Olivia and Abby (Darby Stanchfield) to distract herself with work as much as humanly possible.

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Scandal airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.