'Scandal''s Back: Season 4 Preview

If there’s one thing we know for sure about the return of Scandal (make sure your DVR’s are set for the new 9 p.m. start time) it’s that Harrison Wright is a goner. He was facing down Daddy Pope’s gun in one of the last scenes of Season 3 but as we all know, Columbus Short, the actor who played him, won’t be returning to the show.

According to several published reports, his death will be the hardest on Abby, who is said to be “profoundly changed.” Hmmm. The other thing that we know is that the season picks up about two months after the presidential election which President Fitzgerald won, but only at the cost of his oldest son, Jerry.

Oh, and that Daddy Pope is back as Command of B613, and Mama Pope is alive (but safely locked away in the underground hole Jake and Huck once called home).

As for Olivia, she quit Olivia Pope and Associates and headed into the sunset with Jake but we’re guessing that’s not going to be for long. We can figure that Olivia will have a change of heart by the first episode – it just the when and how that is still anybody’s guess.

Show creator Shonda Rhimes has already said that Season 4 will bring other changes, one of which is getting back to the weekly crisis cases as opposed to the focus on spies and bad parents that made Season 3 such a whirlwind.

It seems even Rhimes realized that the storylines were close to jumping the shark – or were at least swimming in shark-filled waters. (That’s TV speak for when a moment happens on a show that is so far-fetched it ultimately kills the show, but somehow Scandal stayed just on the right side of that mistake.)

Here’s our take on which characters to watch in Season 4:

President Fitzgerald: The guy has won two elections fraudulently, just lost his son, put Olivia’s father back in charge of a shady government agency and found out his father raped his wife. Oh, and the love of his life ran off with another man. Yet somehow, reports  say all that turmoil has inspired him to become a better President. Hmm, we’ll have to see how long that lasts.

Huck: Now that THANK GOD, the icky couple of Huck and Quinn has hopefully come to a dead end, we’ll have to see if Huck can successfully reunite with his family, who believed he was dead all these years. Sadly, though, we think that Huck was right – it will turn out that they were  better off without him.

First Lady Mellie Fitzgerald: Mellie’s been through a lot and now has to deal with four more years as First Lady, as well as the fact that despite all she’s dealt with, her husband is STILL in love with another woman. It’s amazing she hasn’t turned to drink – oh wait, she has. Will her drinking get worse and result in public humiliation – more than she’s already dealt with? And what happened to her OTHER son? (Seems like the kid just disappeared at the end of last season.)Poor Mellie – we’re starting to feel like she deserves to catch a break.

Momma and Daddy Pope: With the B613 storyline hopefully moved to the back burner, will their characters be, too? Daddy Pope isn’t in the Season 4 cast pic, but he’s around somewhere, trust. Then there is that box of files Jake helpfully left for David Rosen…we could see Momma Pope turning and testifying against the agency. That’s if she can get out of that hole.

Cyrus: We hope he just keeps on being a snake. He’s the one character on the show who we can always count on to do anything and everything that’s necessary to stay near the seat of power. He’s evil, but it’s fun to watch.

Olivia: Like the Terminator, she’ll be back. But will we get the lovesick I-don’t-know-who-I-want-to-be-with-if-I-cant-be-with-Fitz version of Olivia or the kick-ass head of OPA who could turn even Ray Rice into an example of respectability again? We want to see that Olivia again. Let’s hope that’s what Season 4 brings.

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