"Scandler Bing" is the sixteenth episode of Season 2.
Synopsis[]
When the story breaks that the author of "Arts of Seduction" isn't even old enough to drive, Kathleen decides to use the news to completely ruin Vera from all the way across the country, flooding the internet and writing to nationwide newspapers to suggest that a corrupt faculty (much of which was in place BEFORE Vera's arrival) contributed to the moral ruin of the young woman who must have been exposed to "unspeakable filth." Determined not to drive away the fall's admitted students, Vera hires former private investigator and current "scandal handler, or 'scandler' for short" Donna Bing, who travels to northern California to find out why Kathleen is on a tear. Donna discovers that Mrs. Dearborn is actually Ruthanne Hurley, a former NYU hallmate of Vera's who has had it out for her ever since a mishap involving some headshots Vera took ended up costing Ruthanne an important audition. Michelle and Robert are torn between their duties as champions of artistic achievement and their duties as concerned authority figures when the student at the center of the scandal leaves her school-issued laptop with them for repairs and they discover she's working on a sequel. Meanwhile, Harry is delighted to learn that the veterinarian treating Julianne's Lyme disease is an alumnus of The Academy.