ABC’s ‘Scandal’ season 4 spoilers: Shonda Rhimes on shocking Stephen return

Don’t you love a good reveal on “Scandal” from time to time? This is precisely what we had when Stephen turned up as the hero for Olivia Pope on the end of this past episode, effectively saving her from torment and being sold to criminal organizations.

So how did this decision come about? Despite Henry Ian Cusick being on another show in “The 100,” executive producer Shonda Rhimes told Entertainment Weekly that they wanted to have him back, and almost everything that came after that became rather easy to orchestrate:

“We had been thinking about the idea of him coming back actually for a long time … As far as I know, he immediately said yes. It was an immediate, ‘Absolutely,’ and then he and I were on the phone together, which was nice.”

We loved the moment since it was a great callback to the very first season of the show, and only diehard Gladiators really remember him that well. It wasn’t until season 2 that “Scandal” started to become a smash hit. His appearance here gave potentially some closure to his story, though Rhimes did not say whether or not this was the end of the road for Cusick. Given that “The 100” has already been renewed for another season, we feel like he is not going to be able to take on a major role at any point in the near future. With that being said, though, we would not be totally shocked to see him turn up at some other point, even if it is just for an episode or two.

What we do know right now is that Lena Dunham will be guest-starring on at least one upcoming episode. You can read more about that right away at the link here, or be sure to sign up to get some further TV updates on everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)