If you’ve been watching “Scandal,” you know we’re leading up to one heck of a midseason finale (Thurs. at 10:00 p.m. on ABC). Olivia’s mom (who is alive, hello) isn’t who we thought she was, Sally dealt with her husband’s infidelity in a pretty definitive way, and Huck (Guillermo Diaz) did bad, bad things to Baby Huck (Quinn, played by Katie Lowes). I got the chance to speak to both Diaz and Lowes on the phone, and while they were cagey about what’s to come (as expected), they had some insight into how last week’s naked, duct-taped torture fest has probably impacted their friendship, which was already shaky at best. But hey, you never know what to expect from gladiators, do you?
Are we really supposed to believe Huck when he promises Quinn he won’t kill her? Didn’t we learn earlier that once you start torturing someone, you have to kill them?
Diaz: I think you can believe that. He’s telling the truth and he doesn’t want to kill her, but he wants to torture her a little for betraying him.
It seems that he won’t get a chance to kill her or torture her more anyway, since Charlie found her — right?
Lowes: Of course you don’t know, because anything is possible. Huck is omnipresent and he can be anywhere at any time. Whether or not Quinn is going to get tortured again isn’t necessarily known.
One thing seems clear — Huck and BabyHuck can’t go back to being friends. Or can they?
Diaz: We keep talking about that too. It’s tough for us to imagine them going back to normal. There’s a rift in their relationship, I don’t know if they’ll go back to what they were before. We will see in the finale there is a scene with Huck and Quinn, so a lot of those questions we all have will be answered. But we don’t know very much; we find out script by script. We have no idea.
Lowes: It’s true; we don’t know. I think they’re forever changed, though. I’m such a fan of Huckleberry Quinn I can’t help but hold out hope that isn’t true, but I have to think they’re not going to go back to what they were.
I’d imagine it would be tough to go back to normal when your coworker has stripped you naked and ripped out your teeth.
Lowes: He definitely took off her clothes or made her do it, yeah, you’re not wrong about that…that is not something that usually happens between coworkers. I think that in some ways, through this torture scene, they have reached a new level of intimacy, of how close they are because of all the things they’ve been through. I don’t know if they can be friends again, but they have taken things to a new level, in a sense.
Do you think torturing Huck will succeed in finally breaking him? He already seems so haunted, I can’t help but think this could push him over the edge.
Diaz: I think it’s another break in his tragic story, for sure. He feels responsible for Quinn, and for turning her into this monster. We’re all monsters on the show, but he’s thinking, what have I done? Why did I invite her into this part of my world? I don’t think he ever thought she would enjoy it as much. To bring in this friend and expose them to what he does and see them like it so much, he feels horrible about that.
Katie, was it hard taking Quinn into this dark, dark place? When we first met her, she seemed so sweet and innocent.
Lowes: I think its really easy, actually. Some of the sweeter people I know have the darkest corners of their soul, for sure. Shonda [Rhimes] does a really excellent job of writing complex characters who contradict themselves and find conflict within themselves. Her backstory is that she had no mom and a terrible relationship with her father. Having her identity taken away from her, finally it’s like she’s been brainwashed so that the only thing that exists within her world is Olivia. You see her with the team, not on dates or doing anything else, because that’s all that exists for her. And when she gets to be good at something with Huck, she loves having a home and having a place to belong. She loves being able to make someone proud of her. She really wanted to make him proud, it just blossomed into something he didn’t expect it to become. I think she sees this as doing her job.
I know you can’t give hints, but what about Charlie? What about Olivia’s mom? There’s so much we don’t know!
Lowes: Just watch. I think you will be very pleased!