Don't rule Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) out of Scandal's White House just yet.
Tom (Brian Letscher) and Cyrus have been proven innocent in the murder of President-Elect Frankie Vargas (Ricardo Chavira). That means the race for the Oval is still anyone's (okay, Mellie's or Cyrus's) game.
Cyrus is, indisputably, a terrible person. Last night, we saw him grin maniacally as a prison guard was violently choked. We've seen him smile calmly knowing a bomb was about to threaten the life of the vice president in the administration he served under. He adopted a child to stop his husband from revealing that he helped rig a presidential election.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
But there's one way a Cyrus presidency would be a huge milestone. He'd be the first openly gay president, in the Scandal-verse and otherwise.
In light of Cyrus' propensity for evil, his relationships are always what kept his character grounded in reality. Through flashbacks, we've seen Cyrus's first marriage, to a woman, when he was afraid of judgment while running for comptroller. We saw him become comfortable with his sexuality in flashbacks with James (Dan Bucatinsky). Who didn't shed a tear the first time Cyrus brought James to a White House event?
Coming out as gay to the Republican president he worked for, much less to the rest of the administration and the country, was no easy feat. And the fact that his wedding to Michael (Matthew Del Negro) took place at the White House was extraordinary. It's rare for us to see Cyrus exhibiting compassion of any sort, but his romantic relationships gave his character the dimension he so desperately needed.
Scandal exists in a sort of parallel universe to our current political climate. In an early episode, Cyrus mentioned the Bush administration in an offhanded joke, but the show's tried to distance itself from reality since then. The Obamas aren't figures in the Scandal-verse; former presidential candidate Edison Davis (Norm Lewis) would have been the first black president in Scandal's America. And the late Frankie Vargas would have been the country's first Latino president. Neither of them are in consideration at this point, but it's worth pointing out that both Cyrus and Mellie (Bellamy Young) would still be noteworthy choices to be the show's POTUS 45.
It seems like a stretch to believe Cyrus will really become president. (If the electoral college is going to vote him in, why has the show dragged this plot out for so long?) But a female president, or an openly gay one, would be revolutionary.