Gladiators! Can you believe it’s been over five months since we last heard from our white coat-wearing, white hat metaphor-loving heroine? Well, tonight Olivia Pope returns to primetime — and quite likely, let’s face it, to Washington — in Scandal‘s Season 4 premiere. But since it’s been so long, and since every Scandal episode packs more twists than a whole season of your average TV drama, you could be forgiven for having forgotten where this twisty, turn-y plot left off. So we’ve compiled a handy cheat sheet. Refresh your memory below, and come back tomorrow for our first recap of the new season.
Huck reunited with his wife. Charlie attempted to break up Quinn and Huck by unearthing a trove of information on Huck’s family. Surprisingly, she simply brought Huck to them, only to incur his anger. But in the final few minutes of the episode, he showed up on his family’s doorstep and came face-to-face with his wife.
David Rosen got a big pile of files. Jake, newly free of the government’s control, refused to help David destroy Cyrus. But before fleeing the country altogether, he did arrange to have a dozen boxes of classified B613 files delivered to the US Attorney’s office.
Fitz finally found out that Big Jerry raped Mellie. Olivia told him, after the President — who, at the time, believed he was going to lose the election — made another one of those speeches about how they were going to get married and have babies and make jam in Vermont. That changed everything between Fitz and Mellie… well, until the end of the episode, when he started whining for Liv again.
Eli Pope killed Adnan Salif and Little Jerry, not Maya. Although the dramatic, onstage death of Fitz’s teenage son is blamed on Liv’s mom, it turns out her dad set up Maya. Harrison figured it out and confronted Eli, thinking he could take on the old man. Things turned out a bit differently, because…
In return for killing Maya, Fitz reinstated Eli as B613 command. That means he got all his old henchmen back, including Charlie and — in another shocking twist — secret service spy Tom Larsen. Harrison might have been able to handle Eli, but he was no match for them. As a result…
Harrison ended up with a gun in his face. And seeing as Columbus Short, the actor who played Harrison, got into some disturbing legal trouble and won’t be returning for Season 4, a Shonda Rhimes-esque last-minute escape seems doubtful. RIP Harrison, a character we never knew well enough to miss. (Short will, however, be hosting a Scandal Season 4 premiere party…)
Maya, however, did not die. Despite having told Fitz he killed her, Eli simply put her in the hole. Because he still loves her? Because he isn’t done torturing her? Because Olivia Pope is doomed to be eternally caught between two evil parents who hate each other? Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Fitz won the election. But it was a hollow victory, the result of the public’s sympathy for the death of his son. In the finale’s last few minutes, Fitz seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Only Liv could pull him out of a funk like this, so it’s too bad that…
Olivia and Jake flew the coop. Despite her protests that she’s in love with another man, Jake convinced Liv to “stand in the light” with him. The last we saw of them, they were on a plane together preparing for takeoff — and she was ignoring an SOS call from the White House. But she’ll be back, of course, probably as soon as tonight.