Scandal Fast-Forwards To Mellie’s Presidential Campaign

When last we saw Fitz, Mellie, and Olivia on Scandal, things were dark, but promising. Olivia (Kerry Washington) broke it off with the president and had an abortion — just after Mellie achieved a major victory of her own, standing before the Senate and saving Planned Parenthood with the help of an unlikely ally, Vice President Susan Ross. According to Tony Goldwyn (Fitz), when the show returns from winter hiatus on February 11, we won't be wallowing in the immediate aftermath of Christmas Eve. Rather, the show is fast-forwarding six months to Mellie's (Bellamy Young) campaign for president.

"The show, overall, everybody is pushing in a new direction," Goldwyn told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday. "Olivia is in a very strange and interesting place. And Mellie is running for president. What we're getting into now is the trajectory of the campaign is heating up."

While executive producer Shonda Rhimes and company are typically pretty mum about the plot details of her shows, it seems Goldwyn was given a green light to catch up fans on everyone's status after the time jump. Naturally, the president is heartbroken, but throwing himself into work, enjoying the last year and a half of his term and getting things done, like Obama. His ex-wife, meanwhile, is pursuing his ex-girlfriend to head up her campaign. "Well, they have this strange relationship and Olivia said to her at the end of the first half, 'I'm going to make you president,'" Goldwyn said. "And there's no one better at the job than Liv. Mellie will do what she can to try to get Olivia to work for her, but that's a complicated relationship."

As for Liv's jaw-dropping midseason finale abortion scene, Goldwyn is still in the dark about whether his character will ever learn of it. "Shonda must have a plan for that because it was such a huge story point, but I don't know what that is yet," he said. "If Fitz ever finds out about it, it's going to be the worst thing that could have ever happened to him, second to the death of his son." Rhimes also hasn't told him what will happen to Grant after his term is up. "I have no idea," he said. "That's the thing that puzzles me. I don't know what my function on the show will be if I'm not [playing] the president of the United States. I'm curious to see what Shonda is thinking about it."