Episode 01 | Aired Oct 3, 2013

Olivia deals with her daddy issues as we find out who leaked her affair with Fitz
দ্বারা Katie Atkinson @ EW


Olivia Pope is in crisis. Fitz is brooding. Cyrus is scheming. Mellie is manipulating. Rowan is terrifying. Jake is... missing.

Scandal. Is. Back.

And it all starts with a প্রশ্ন central to the Shonda Rhimes thriller: Can a fixer fix her own problems? The answer: Sort of -- if she has a team of Gladiators backing her up.

One of the night's biggest surprises arrives right out of the gate: Olivia and Fitz's affair was reported by... Vanessa Chandler of the Post's style section. A style reporter? That's who brought down the great Olivia Pope? Cyrus clutches the newspaper in question, which boasts the headline "First Mistress" (we have to give it to that copy editor). "It's just one source, but it's a good source," Chandler reveals. WHO IS IT?

We'll get to that, but first we get a black-and-white montage of all our characters reacting to the news (well, most are reacting to the news getting out; they've known the truth for quite some time). We're right back where the finale left off: Olivia has just left for her morning jog only to be bombarded দ্বারা hordes of press (thankfully she looks great in a white track জ্যাকেট and yoga pants, because it will be her first introduction to the country and, hell, the world) when Rowan OLIVIA'S DAD swoops in to pick her up. Apparently it's not a talkative reunion: Olivia has প্রদত্ত her pops the silent treatment for 22 মিনিট ("If only you'd been this quiet as a child").

She breaks her silence to sneer, "Why did আপনি try to have me killed?" Great question! Only, Rowan says it was Jake he was after, not his daughter. (Kudos to the commenters who predicted Rowan's real target right after the season 2 finale.) But let's not hop on the daddy-daughter bus just yet: The পরবর্তি words out of Rowan's mouth paint his daughter as a harlot who "opened her knees and gave it away to a man with too much power." Yikes. It's her vs. the president now, he says, and she's outnumbered. Actually, it's not her vs. Fitz; it's her vs. "power." "He was never in charge," Rowan yells. "Power is in charge. Power got him elected." Fight the power, Olivia!

"He told আপনি that you'd be First Lady, and আপনি believed him," Rowan says, as if Olivia isn't already getting the picture. Well, Olivia is in good company, because we all believed Fitz too, didn't we? (Didn't we???) As much as this scene instantly put me in protective mode over Olivia, Rowan's straight, no-B.S. speech is all too similar to the ones we've heard Olivia give her clients. And we really see how Olivia Pope became Olivia Pope when he shares the family motto: "You have to be twice as good to get half as much."

The one thing in Rowan's speech that we don't recognize from Olivia's DNA is cruelty. "Do আপনি have to be so mediocre?" he asks his far-from-mediocre scion. To শীর্ষ it all off, he ushers her onto a plane... which will fly her to an island... for EIGHT MONTHS. When she makes her one phone call -- to frienemy Cyrus -- he urges her: "Don't run." But he might not have her best interest at heart. To make Fitz look good in this scenario, he's going to need a sacrificial মেষশাবক -- অথবা a mistress in a luxurious lamb's wool capelet.

Olivia begs Cyrus to get her message to Fitz: "I just wanted to say goodbye. Tell him I ব্যক্ত goodbye." But Cy insists they're on the same side and says Fitz will (rightly) assume that he had Olivia killed if she disappears into thin air. He promises he's her champion, her friend -- "When আপনি aren't a monster?" she cuts in. "I'm your monster!" he counters. We learn here that Cyrus' plan isn't damage control but damage denial: They will pretend the affair never happened.

And... Olivia's off the plane! Let's all imagine for a সেকেন্ড that she took her dad up on the offer. Do আপনি think Shonda Rhimes would have fast-forwarded eight months and shown viewers the aftermath of her disappearing act? অথবা would we have gotten a glimpse of Olivia getting her groove back, à la Angela Bassett? We're picturing a hot island প্রণয় affair with nary a cell phone অথবা leather দস্তানা in sight. We'll just have to wait for the DVD deleted scenes -- অথবা some ShondaLand fanfic.

Back in the real world, Cyrus is suggesting Sally Langston take on all the president's public appearances, but the VP isn't down with the whole extramarital situation. (She actually refers to Fitz "laying with another woman" -- so Old Testament!) Sally and Fitz have a scotch summit, without their guard dogs, and Fitz admits the rumors are true in order to buy him some time. Lagavulin neat, works every time: Just ask Ron Swanson.

Olivia could definitely use a scotch right about now, as she fights off paparazzi and reporters on her way into the office. Despite the madness, Olivia promises her staff that it's business as usual, but they're skeptical that things are truly "handled." (Sidebar: Abby looks amazing. Someone stepped up the redhead's hair-and-makeup budget in season 3. But we're in crisis mode here, so, আপনি know, back to important things.)

Cyrus knows who to turn to for answers: his White House reporter husband (no conflict of interest there). Cy offers James a scoop in exchange for details on how a style reporter learned the White House's secrets. Well, it turns out D.C. reporters troll the bar Molloy's to pick up crumbs of gossip from the Secret Service agents who drink there -- but when Mellie interrogates শীর্ষ agent Hal, he swears he never mentioned Olivia's name.

Speaking of our girl, newly reinstated U.S. Attorney David Rosen pays her a visit and brings his "white hat" metaphors with him. Before he can finish his "do the right thing" speech, the first proof of Olitz arrives in the form of a cell phone video প্রদর্শিত হচ্ছে the president leaving Olivia's apartment. Cyrus' totally rational, not at all hasty response? Start the Olivia Pope "kill folder." What happened to him being her friend and champion? That island vacation is looking mighty nice right about now...

Harrison tries talking some sense into Cyrus, threatening that Olivia knows too much to be silenced, but Cy is unfazed: "Kill folder" is a go. And Cyrus isn't above playing the "ambitious slut" card against his dear college friend. We don't think Cyrus and James will be invited over for sauvignon blanc at Liv's place anytime soon.

Here comes dear old dad again, for a parking-garage heart-to-heart with his daughter. Her first order of business: Where the eff is Jake? (Sorry, Olitz fans, but our girl hasn't yet forgotten that Jake existed.) Rowan's not telling, and he goes on one hell of a power trip, basically taking credit for all of democracy. He also makes the mistake of telling Olivia Pope that she's out of options. "I'm never out of options," she says -- and she's totally right. She cracks open her safe, calls up the cavalry, and is whisked away to a bunker housing her commander-in-chief beau. Yup, pretty good option.

Fitz isn't pumped that Olivia "pulled the আগুন alarm" for this national romance emergency -- but this is no প্রণয় bunker. Mellie soon joins the duo to plan their পরবর্তি move, and she has a few choice words for Miss Pope. Olivia responds as respectfully as possible: "We have a job to do here, and in order to do my part effectively, I'm going to need আপনি to refrain from referring to me as a whore."

Then, she's in full "fixer" mode, realizing that their only option is to be 100 percent honest. "It works," Olivia says. "The truth works." Not for Mellie, who drops the bomb that Fitz called out Olivia's name -- not hers -- when he was shot. They're not dealing with a cheating scandal; they're dealing with an inconvenient প্রণয় story (which would totally work as an alternate শিরোনাম for this show).

So what does work for Mellie? Well, she's fine telling the world that her husband cheated on her... twice (although it's closer to twice per episode at this point): once on Inauguration Night and once after the assassination attempt. "It's still the truth, just not the whole truth," Olivia says, sounding ever-so-lawyerly.

Now the moment we've been waiting for: Mellie has left the bunker. Fitz approaches Olivia. "Don't," she begs. And he won't; he just embraces her. Our Olitz moment is over. Was it enough, Gladiators? Is it ever?

We return to the Oval Office for another scotch summit with Sally -- although this time Fitz is drinking alone. Even so, I've already come to like VP Langston আরো in this episode than I have the entire series. Is Shonda humanizing her with the talk of her personal life and her unusual empathy for the president? Whatever she's selling, Fitz is buying it too, urging her to capitalize on his indiscretion and place herself as the moral center of the Republican Party. Oh, that she can do.

Meanwhile, Mellie is not down with this whole "honesty" campaign she's been signed up for, and she takes her issue straight to Cyrus (who refers to her as "one-third of some secret, unholy political trinity"). She has a plan of her own -- but it has to come from the outside. Cut to Pope & Associates, where Harrison is pushing a non-Olivia-approved plan. The others are wary of his unsanctioned mystery DVD, but he asks: "Are we Gladiators, অথবা are we bitches?" That's rhetorical, right? That mystery DVD is then handed -- through a black town car window, natch -- to one Cyrus Beene.

The contents of the DVD? A cell phone video of a drunk Jeannine Locke -- the vice president's শীর্ষ aide -- talking about how "hot" the president is. And just like that, Olivia Pope's name leaves the narrative, and Jeannine's enters. Her private emails refer to Fitz as "super awesome," "super cool," and "super doable." No arguments there, Jeannine.

The only one not impressed with the Gladiators' work? Olivia herself. "What did আপনি do?" she demands, recognizing her own fingerprints all over the scheme. Fitz isn't pleased either, referring to Jeannine as a "poor, innocent girl" and pushing অগ্রবর্তী with his press conference plan. But Mellie was inspired দ্বারা Fitz himself, she says -- after he leaked Olivia's name to the press. (So Deep Throat is the president himself? That would have been a twist ending to All the President's Men!) Of course, he had Secret Service agent Tom do the dirty work for him.

But despite how romantic Mellie (and we) think Fitz is, he didn't leak Liv's name so they could start their happily ever after; he leaked it so Mellie didn't have the Olivia card in her arsenal anymore. "Now she's free," he says, declaring war on his own wife.

Olivia will get through this whirlwind the best way she knows how: দ্বারা getting back to work. Her first client? Jeannine Locke, who (rightfully) saw through Cyrus' promise of the weight of the White House backing her up.

We're far from done with the drama of this episode: Cyrus walks into his bedroom to find assassin Charlie in বিছানা with a drugged James and a gun pointed at him. After a cozy ride in a trunk, Cyrus is taken straight to Rowan. Turns out, Olivia's dad has some intel about Fitz's military history with Jake, salacious enough to make Cyrus say, "Oh my God."

All credit goes to EW.com