The season premiere of "Scandal" picked up right where Season 2 ended with Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) being bombarded by the press after someone leaked her name as the mistress of President Grant (Tony Goldwyn).
Olivia was whisked away into a waiting car where she came to face to face with the leader of B613, who viewers learned is her father. At the beginning of the premiere Olivia's father is trying to "fix" her situation but Olivia tells him that she can handle it herself and stay out of it.
The entire premiere episode focuses on two things; how will Olivia clear her name and who leaked her name to the media in the first place? The episode was fast paced and full of twists, turns and a definite shocker.
Olivia, the professional fixer, spends the entire episode trying to fix her own problems and hatches a plan to tell the truth... or a version of the truth. She pulls "the fire alarm" to arrange a private meeting with President Grant and Mellie (Bellamy Young) and together the three decide what the public should know about the affair.
The story they all agree on is that Fitz and Olivia have only slept together twice - once after the inauguration and another time after his assassination attempt. They leave the vault all agreeing to the altered the story but it wouldn't be "Scandal" if someone didn't have an ulterior motive.
Things get screwed up when Olivia's team steps in and decides they are going to "fix" their boss' problem. They hatch a plan to go public with a completely different story and want to clear Olivia's name by shifting the blame on someone else... a White House aide who was caught on video confessing how hot she thought the President was. The group used the video and out-of-context emails to frame her and it worked.
Rightly so Olivia was pissed at first but she let it go and moved on. Of course the problem isn't over that fast when the framed White House becomes Pope & Associates new client.
In another shocking twist, the person who leaked Olivia's name to the press was revealed as President Grant! That is the last person most people probably would have suspected. Mellie was the one to put the pieces together.
As for his reasoning, Grant told his wife that he leaked her name because he knew Mellie would use that information against Olivia every chance she got. And he's probably right.
But several questions still remain from this revelation. Is that the real reason Fitz outed Olivia? (He was pissed that Olivia was involved in Defiance). What will Olivia think when she finds out?
Tell us what you think about the first episode and don't forget to check back next week for another recap of "Scandal."
Check out the sneak peek of Episode 2 below.
