ABC’s ‘Scandal’ season 6, episode 1 review: A President elected (and shots fired)

Scandal -Given that “Scandal” is a show where the unthinkable often becomes reality, we really should have seen the start of the premiere on Thursday night coming. We know very well that this is a show with a certain penchant for stirring the pot, and we saw that in a big way courtesy of some gunfire.

The election results came in, and Frankie Vargas was elected the President of the United States. Mere minutes later, her was shot multiple times during his victory speech. He ended up dying at the hospital, and the country descended into chaos as a result

Did Cyrus order the shooting? – This was the conclusion that Rowan seemed to come to in his conversation with Olivia; specifically, he threw the suggestion out there that Cyrus hired someone to do the shooting. Given that we’ve seen the man be power-hungry before, it is understandable why you would jump to the conclusion. Yet, when Olivia finally found Cyrus, he was in such a state of shock and sadness that it didn’t seem possible that he could have done such an act.

The main reason Olivia wanted answers on Cyrus so quickly was because she wanted to convince Fitz to declare Mellie as the next President. This was something that he could use in order to convince the Electoral College to vote in her favor. Fitz ended up giving the Presidency effectively to Cyrus, mostly because he felt like any other decision would have made it appear as though he was fixing it for her to win.

Was it the right decision? Well, that’s something we’ll get to in a few paragraphs…

Mellie hears the news – Marcus eventually came to her to make it clear what the President’s decision would be, and after she had at one point decided to give up and be done with the campaign, she had gotten excited about it again. Consider this her being devastated a second time over.

Huck spills the beans – For most of the episode, we saw Charlie doing this dance about flying her out to the Caribbean in order to “get away from it all.” As it turned out, this was just a ploy to try and propose to her. While at first she was hesitant, eventually she said yes! It’s too bad that there wasn’t a whole lot of time to celebrate.

The investigation – Who is Jennifer Fields? She apparently was a campaign worker who’s gone missing, and that’s who Huck and Quinn were investigating at the start of the episode before the cabin exploded. Jennifer is now dead, and it turns out that this is all a part of a larger conspiracy … one possibly organized by Cyrus. Just after he was cleared, he found himself back in the spotlight once more. Now, we just have to figure out exactly if Jennifer’s recording before her death, which implicated the potential new President-elect, ends up being the truth.

Grade: B+. Hey, sometimes “Scandal” is over-the-top and makes little sense, but this episode was the show at its best — wild, crazy, and certainly entertaining.

What did you think about the premiere of “Scandal”? Let us know some of your thoughts now in the comments! Meanwhile, be sure to head over to the link here in the event you want to get some other news when it comes to the show. (Photo: ABC.)

Love TV? Be sure to like Matt & Jess on Facebook for more updates!