ABC’s ‘Scandal’ season 3 spoilers: What will the aftermath to Olivia’s situation be?

Olivia Pope already has a white hat, but on the “Scandal” finale Thursday night, she was metaphorically tossed a scarlet letter courtesy of everyone who collectively learned the truth about her affair. It is now public knowledge that she and Fitz were together at some point, but this leads into a frustrating mystery that is the adultery version of “who shot J.R.?” on “Dallas”: Who in the world ratted her out.

This is of course a season 3 question, and something Shonda Rhimes claims (per The Hollywood Reporter) was in play for the finale for quite a long time:

“I was really adamant about the fact that if we were going to end the season with the idea that Liv has been somehow outed by some unknown force and we meet her dad, we couldn’t then just say we’re going to jump ahead and cheat the audience of what all that meant … “We had to have a solution to that and we had to own that story. We’re not going to put that away and just tidy that up and move on. We’re going to have to live in that.”

Our handy translation of Rhimes’ comments? There’s not going to be another handy time jump of ten months like there was at the midway point of the season. We’re going to immediately dive in to all of the crazy implications of there being a rat, which, if we use the animal analogy, is around the same level of importance as a mole. (Of course, Billy Chambers seems to already be caught in a trap.) Expect interrogations, screaming, and some more of that shutter sound effect in between scenes (though this part is probably a given).

As for Olivia’s daddy issues, you can find out some more details on that via Rhimes here. Just promise us that you’re not going to turn into Huck, cower down, and get into a corner muttering “Scandal season 3” to yourself over and over again.

Photo: ABC