It's Almost Time for Scandal!

Scandal is back tomorrow night! I know I'm excited-and you can check in with me at Heroes and Heartbreakers to see Scandal recaps. My first post is already up!

Considering how we left season 2, there will be no

or

or


...so let's take a detailed look back and see why!

Previously on Scandal…

When season 2 opens, First Lady Mellie is well along into her pregnancy with America’s Baby, Olivia calls in a favor and gets the charges dropped from Quinn for the Cytron bombing that killed 7 people, and Fitz has been calling Liv like clockwork every night. (I have to say, those moments on the phone between them were so real, and displays the real genius of the show.)

Abby starts sleeping with David, who is trying to unravel the secrets of Olivia Pope’s reach and by extension, the answer to who is responsible for the Cytron bombings. When Abby stumbles upon his research, she picks up the white hat and wears it for David’s team...until Olivia gets Harrison to make David look like he abused a former girlfriend.

Huck starts attending AA meetings in order to curb his murderous tendencies, and meets Becky. Speaking of new relationships, Liv starts dating (again) the very persistent and perceptive Edison Davis. James hooks up with David and starts getting way too close Defiance. Meanwhile, back in DC it’s time for Fitz’s birthday gala, but he never makes it because -game changer!- he gets shot! (Here is where I would like to interject a very large plea to ABC to PLEASE make an effort to show Scandal more than every 3 weeks or whenever they happen to feel like it.)

In the wake of Fitz’s shooting, we get a chance to look at the past and what Liv and Fitz’s relationship was like when he was first elected - and more glimpses of the ridiculous chemistry that Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn have. Bouncing back to the current timeline, Sally Langston takes (borrows) the White House and Hollis Doyle, the original snake in the grass, has partnered with her to do political evil. Speaking of evil, turns out Becky is an operative who set Huck up for Fitz’s attempted assassination. After being tortured at the Pentagon, Huck turns the tables and gets her arrested.

In an act of desperation, Mellie forges Fitz’s signature on a letter that requests he be reinstated to the presidency. Just as those cards are about to fall, Fitz comes-to, and the first thing we hear him say is an emotional “Hi” to Liv. (Swoon!)

Edison directly asks Liv if she was sleeping with Fitz, and she gives him the (epic!) 5,4,3,2,1 countdown breakup smackdown. Fitz pushes himself and shows up to the White House unannounced just as Sally Langston is about to get congress to sign off on her presidency bid. We see the original Gladiator crew together for the first time, digging up dirt on Fitz’s opponent Samuel Reston, and we also see how the Defiance crew decided to rig the election, thanks to Hollis’ urging and despite Olivia’s reluctance to participate.

Coming back to the present, Fitz decides life it too short, and demands a divorce from Mellie. Meanwhile Edison comes back to Liv with an engagement ring in his hand, and David Rosen goes to Hollis with a warning in his hand-he is coming for him on Defiance and Fitz’s assassination attempt. Mellie decides the best way to handle Fitz is to get her doctor to induce her pregnancy early. Fitz is not detoured and stays the course, asking Liv to wait for him.

The Gladiators find out that Verna is actually the one who hired Becky to kill Fitz, but in another game changer, she confesses Defiance to Fitz, and he forces her to asphyxiate before she can spill her guts to David Rosen. We find out how desperate Cy is when James is called in to a grand jury to testify about the election rigging scam-and almost sics Charlie from B613 on him. James lies on the witness stand anyway, and it’s the nail in David Rosen’s political coffin. At Verna’s funeral, Liv tells Fitz she will wait for him, but he tells her don’t bother-and indicates that he knows the truth about Defiance.

10 months later…

Heartbroken Olivia swims a lot, betrayed Fitz drinks a lot, Quinn is turning into Huck’s protege (Huckleberry Quinn!), and for some reason the disgraced David Rosen wakes up next to a dead and bloody young woman. The Gladiators help him out of that pickle, but it is the catalyst to a whole new game changer-the Creepy Hot Captain Jake era. CHCJ has in depth video surveillance at Liv’s apartment, and is old friends with Fitz, who apparently requested it. What he didn’t request is the flirting that CHCJ has been doing with Liv.

There is a mole in the highest level of government, and that mole is somehow related to David’s dead bedmate. Evidence implicates Director Osbourne of the CIA as the mole, and Liv passes that intel along to CHCJ. Fitz and Olivia have another epic hot sex/break up scene (I would like to take the time to thank the musical supervisor for superb song selection and placement this season.) The Gladiators end up with a new roommate, as David Rosen is being followed by someone who knows he has mole intel.

The sparks between Jake and and Liv are catching fire, but Jake is skulking around doing creepy things. He passes the mole intel on to Fitz, and when they shake down the CIA director, he kills himself...until we see Jake having a clandestine meeting with his boss, aka The Guy From Terminator 2, and realize it wasn’t a suicide after all.

With prompting from Osbourne’s widow, the Gladiators look deeper in his suicide, and figure out he isn’t the mole...but Cy doesn’t want to hear it. Huck gets trapped in a box in a storage facility when he and Quinn get too close to the truth, and when she gets him out it isn’t pretty. Mellie hands Fitz his ass (the secrets of the universe are not between Olivia Pope’s thighs!) for being an ass and taking his hurt at Olivia’s participation in the rigging out on everyone.

Cy and James finally have a heart to heart about their relationship after Fitz encourages Cy not to give up on him. Olivia surprises Captain Jake with Gettysburger, and then bow-chicka-wow-wow! Unfortunately for Liv, Jake has reported to TGFT2 that she knows the truth about the mole, and he tells Jake to deal with it...whatever that means. Olivia finds Jake’s surveillance cameras and freaks out, attacking Jake for all she is worth. He tells her he is trying to protect her, and shows her live footage of a masked man in her apartment...but she bumped her head in the ruckus and ends up in the hospital. When she comes-to, Jake is there with specific instructions, and when Fitz walks in and shakes Jake’s hand, she understands why.

Fitz runs to Liv’s side, but she wants nothing to do with him and tells him so. He begs for another shot, and just when it looks like she might give in, she kicks him out. Mellie decides she has enough, and moves across the street to the Blair House. She throws down an ultimatum with a timeline-and says she will tell reporters at the end of that timeline about his affair.

In the episode 752, Huck is hiding in a corner, saying 752 over and over again. We get detailed background on Huck and how he went from a soldier to a recruit in the exclusive B613 program(Charlie was his trainer!) We find out that he has a wife and son, why he hates small spaces, and that 7:52 am was the last time he saw his son. We also find out that Terminator Guy is the head of B613...so we know who Jake works for.

Cyrus is busy playing referee to Mellie and Fitz, but he puts Charlie on the job of investigating exactly how close Jake and Liv are. Huck identifies Charlie as the man who attacked him and broke into Liv’s apartment. Meanwhile, Fitz takes Liv’s advice to “earn” her, and decides to wait out Mellie’s clock with hr. Jake discovers Charlie in his apartment getting the info Cy requested, and Cy ran the tunnel between the White House and the Blair House for all he was worth when he realized James was the one interviewing Mellie as she reveals Fitz’s affair.

Cyrus is absolutely furious about the turn of events and is exceptionally cruel to James along the way. The head of B613 pays Cy a visit and insists he uses Jake’s sex tape to break up Fitz and Liv. Or. Else. Liv convinces Fitz to run for a second term, but poop meets fan when the Cytron card goes missing (thanks to David framing Charlie!) and we find out the mole is...Billy Chambers? (From the first season? WTH? And apparently in cahoots with David Rosen!)

The Defiance crew has an emergency meeting with a special guest - Fitz. The Gladiators find out that Billy Chambers is working with Reston-and when Olivia passes this info to Cyrus he literally has a heart attack. Reston comes to Fitz with an ultimatum-put him on his re-election ticket or get exposed. Unfortunately for Billy Chambers, Huck and Quinn (mostly Quinn) catch up to him and torture the Cytron card whereabouts from him. Billy also reveals that he was working with David.

Olivia was almost killed by a B613 agent, but Jake saves her, and they both know it’s probably a death sentence for him(or a lot of time in the hole.) Cy decides to unravel Liv and FItz’s rose-tinted glass dreams by telling secrets. He tells Liv about Fitz killing Verna, and he shows Fitz the sex tape. Fitz was ready to forgive all, but Olivia tells him they have too much bad blood-and heartbroken he crawls back to Mellie.

David Rosen returns the Cytron card to Cyrus, but in exchange he gets hailed a hero by Fitz and is promoted to the US Attorney for DC. As a gift to Liv, he sends her a fabulous white hat. Head held high, Liv goes for a run and encounters a swarm of press-her name has been released as Fitz’s mistress. She is pulled into a private car, where Terminator 2 Guy is waiting...and it turns out he is her FATHER.

The possibilities are endless on this show.  I can’t wait to see what they do this season!