Scandal Fans & Celebs Are Reeling From Last Night's Murder (Spoilers)

Spoiler warning: This article contains spoilers about last night's episode of Scandal, "Trojan Horse." Read at your own risk.

Does anyone who isn't Kerry Washington sign on to Scandal thinking, yeah, this seems like a safe, secure gig that will last forever? If Shonda Rhimes shows have taught us anything, it's that anyone (McDreamy!) could end up on the chopping block, your tears and heartache be damned.

Last night, it was Elizabeth North's time to go. The former Republican National Committee chairwoman turned White House Chief of Staff played by Portia de Rossi was brutally beaten to death with a golf club at the hands of the mysterious Ruland (Zoe Perry, who in real life is the daughter of Jeff Perry, a.k.a. Cyrus Beene). Also, it turns out that Lizzie was working for the mystery organization all along. You really never know some people.

De Rossi, who joined the cast in season 4, told People that it was her decision to leave the ABC drama, citing plans to embark on a career in the art world. Leaving the show as a corpse, however, came as a surprise.

"I wasn’t 100% sure that I was going to be killed off," the actress told People. "I kind of hoped that I would be killed off, just because I knew that it would be a great opportunity for the show to do something very shocking and unexpected. It’s always fun when a series regular gets killed off, but I really had no idea that it was going to be quite so brutal. I don’t know why, because it’s Scandal, and they don’t do things by half measures.

"[The death] was pretty creative, I thought, and very shocking," she added. "The part that shocked me the most was I didn’t even, as a character, have a second to acknowledge what was happening before I was murdered, so in that aspect, it’s as shocking to the character as it is to the audience. It’s pretty cool."

Lizzie's murder was also shocking to fans of the show, including one Ellen Degeneres, de Rossi's wife. The reactions are intense...