If you're watching it with the UK

If you're watching it in Asia

If you're watching somewhere in Africa

If you're watching in the US,

I hope you watch Scandal. 

This past Thursday saw the show reach its peak. 

As far as I'm concerned, there will never be another episode like it. 

Actually, I hope there will be Shonda and team. 

So, last episode echoed a major current event that many are desperately trying to sweep under the rug but Scandal put it firmly back on everyone's radar - the killing of young unarmed black men. 

Unfortunately it's something that we hear way too often. Often not even as breaking news. It's gotten to the point where you hear about it and you're just like 'another one'. 

I digress, the episode aptly named 'The Lawn Chair' opens with Olivia going to the scene of the murder of teenage black boy Brandon Parker. There's already a crowd of black women, men and children who are all too familiar with what has happened and will not stand for it. 

Then a man turns up with a shotgun, fires once in the air and asks 'Where's the cop that killed my son?'

This was the beginning of the emotional roller coaster that you all know I'm a sucker for but this was so much more*sighs* I don't know, fresh, because this is real life and now. 

Clarence (played by the magnificent Courtney B Vance - all the awards PLUS his wife is the amah-zung Angela Bassett. Um, score) isn't moving. His son was murdered by a cop and he wants justice regardless of how the situation plays out - which by the way, he says is death or prison. 

Insert Marcus, local civil rights activist who Clarence allows to join him. Marcus also brings the grieving father something - a lawn chair. 

Now, as Olivia has been brought in by the cops to 'fix' the situation and Marcus challenges her on this and rightly so. 

There is no fixing this. 

Realising that she is on the wrong side. Olivia joins the peaceful protestors chanting 'Stand up! Fight back! No more black men under attack!'

Clarence never leaves his boy's side. He places the chair over his body and sits on it. He tells Olivia that he put a 'my child goes to this university' sticker just so his son didn't get pulled over. He tells us how he just wanted to get his son to eighteen. It was so raw, sad doesn't even begin to describe it. 

The killer cop, the one that when we are first introduced says the killing was self-defence, the one who says that he was heartbroken after it happened, the one who says that he couldn't even imagine what Clarence is going through especially as he has young children himself. This same cop is revealed to have just straight, flat out murdered Brandon and planted a knife on him to make it seem like self-defence. I had no doubt about this whatsoever, especially considering the heart wrenching way in which Clarence shouted in such pain and anger, that 'my son doesn't carry a knife'. 

But then we go back to killer cop, Officer Newton, when Olivia and David and several others confront him about his lies and crime. And then I witnessed an amazing level of acting by the incredible Michael Welch. He goes off on a tirade of how 'you people' are conditioned to disrespect him - babies, boys, women - and what Brandon done was disrespect Officer Newton so there had to be consequences. 

And what I find crazy is that though yes, some black people may obviously be taught to be wary of police, somehow that is still our fault. Why is this so? Please ask yourself. Black people even need an excuse for being murdered apparently. 

'Justice' is served in the form of the cop being sent to jail (interestingly for perverting the course and not murder) and Clarence is neither dead nor in prison, instead Olivia takes him to see President Fitz and here is where I sobbed and sobbed so hard. 

Clarence: Please, call me Clarence. My son's name was... Brandon.