Well Gladiators, the wait is nearly over. We’ve all been groaning and biting our nails in anticipation since April, but in just a few short days we can all cry out ABC’s new favorite slogan, #TGIT (Thank God It’s Thursday), because at 9pm on September 25th, Olivia Pope and company will make their triumphant return. In honor of our queen’s fast approaching comeback, let’s review some of last season’s biggest cliffhangers and remind ourselves of all wonderfully scandalous storylines we have to look forward to in the hit show’s fourth season.
1. Where on Earth is Olivia Pope?
This huge question is, of course, the tagline of the one and only teaser trailer that has been released for season 4 (curse you Shonda Rhimes and your spoiler-aversion). Where we left off at the end of season 3, Olivia was jetting off to who-knows-where with Jake Ballard at her side, ready to start a new life. The teaser trailer shows Olivia lounging on the beach and sipping her omnipresent glass of red wine. Presumably, Thursday’s premier will tell us where exactly that beach is, how the relationship with Jake is going, and how much longer Olivia will stay there (let’s hope she comes back soon).
2. What will it take to Bring Olivia Home?
Olivia’s mysterious whereabouts bring me to my next question: what insane mistake/crime/alien invasion at the White House will it take to bring Olivia back to D.C.? Because there’s no way she’s staying on those sandy shores forever. If we’ve learned anything about Olivia in these past forty-seven episodes, it’s that she cannot resist wearing the white hat. When we last left her, she was pretty dead set on staying away, so what will be bad enough to lure her back to her crazy old life?
3. How’s Term #2?
As season 3 drew to a close, so did Fitz’s first term, but then his second one began. Despite failing to properly live up to Sally Langston’s display of courage as she handled the aftermath of a terrorist attack (thanks Maya Pope), Fitz still managed to get voted into office for his second term, mostly on the steam of his fifteen-year-old son’s sudden passing from meningitis. So my question is, what has happened at the White House since then? How are Fitz, Mellie, and Karen handling Jerry’s death? And how is Fitz doing running a country after insurmountable familial tragedy and the loss of Olivia?
4. Cyrus…?
Meanwhile, what is Cyrus up to? He’s stuck working with a family/political team that’s in shambles, but we know that he hates it when things – and especially people – don’t run smoothly. What has he been doing to keep the country and those in charge of it afloat with the recent plague of personal tragedies? And on a different note, lets not forget that he’s single now! How is he dealing with the loss of James? Could one of season 4’s new storylines possibly be a Cyrus-centered love affair?
5. Fitz + Mellie?
Change is in the air for the First Couple: the cat is finally out of the bag about Big Jerry raping Mellie, so Fitz now has a new understanding of his wife. Fitz’s mistress is also gone (at least for now), as is Mellie’s (can we call Andrew a “mistress?”). So with all the sexual distractions gone, and the secrets out of the way, where will this high power marriage stand when the show returns?
6. What are the Gladiators of “Pope & Associates” up to without their Fearless Leader?
Abby, Huck, Quinn and Harrison have been blindly following Olivia Pope for the past few years of their lives. They were willing to go over a cliff for her. But since she’s left and ended OPA, what have they been up to without her? Well, I guess the real question is what have Abby, Huck, and Quinn been up to, and how have the writers gotten rid of Harrison? (Shonda Rhimes has announced that this impeccably dressed gladiator will not be returning for season 4.)
7. Huck + Quinn
We’ve all been waiting for this particular pairing to happen since season one, and it finally did! A weird mix of cute and a bit gross, these two misfits realized that they were meant for each other in the last episodes of season three… Then it all got soiled. In the season finale, Quinn found out that Huck’s former family (the one that B613 took him away from) was still alive, and she brought him to their house. Huck got so mad he said he never wanted to speak to her again. But later in the episode he returned to the house to say “hi” to his former wife, who had been raising their son alone while thinking he was dead. So with Huck’s wife and kid back in the picture, is this superspy break up permanent?
8. Where Does B613 Stand?
Where we last left it, B613 was up and running again, and it was headed by the devil himself, Olivia’s dad (Rowan, Eli, whatever the heck his name is). At the end of the finale we discovered that he bumped little Jerry in order to get revenge on Fitz as well as manipulated Olivia to leave. We also found out that he threw Maya Pope in The Hole and told everyone she was dead. But most of our heroes don’t know this. So when will the horrors that Eli/Rowan/Dad committed be revealed and what will be the consequences?
Also, lets not forget that before he skipped off into the sunset, Jake left David Rosen a nice little gift of classified B613 files, so David could continue the job of trying to shut it down. Will he stand a chance against the organization no one else has been able to take on? I sure hope so, because David is one of the good ones in my opinion!
There are a lot of questions up in the air right now for Olivia Pope and Friends! Shonda Rhimes has a knack for hitting us with the unexpected, so who knows what’s in store for us gladiators starting on Thursday? But the one thing we can say for sure is that it will undoubtedly be crazy, exciting, probably bloody, probably sexy, and definitely scandalous.