ABC’s ‘Scandal’ season 4 winter finale spoilers: New photo shows state of Kerry Washington’s Olivia

The “Scandal” finale is going to air on ABC Thursday night, but there is already quite a bit that we can gleam from the story just by looking at the brand-new photo focusing very much on star Kerry Washington.

What are we looking at here? It can best be described with a few short words, and those include “Olivia Pope’s got a gun.” The truth here is that at the moment, she probably feels as though she is going to need it to protect herself. “Where the Sun Don’t Shine” finds the character on a precipice, unsure of what to do next and how to make herself start to feel safe again. Her father Rowan has basically told her that he is “done” protecting her, and the inevitable thing to consider after hearing something like this is pretty simple: If that was him protecting her previously, where does that leave us with the character now? It feels like it is a heck of a deep, dark, and depressing place where you fear constantly for your life.

The one bit of hope to have when it comes to Olivia is obviously just that it seems unlikely that we are going to see her die on the show, if for no other reason than that she is the star of it. What we would be much more worried about if we were you were some of the people close to her, including Jake Ballard. Aren’t there a few people who may want a piece of that guy?

We’re going to have a whole lot more to report on this episode prior to it airing, so stay tuned. You can watch a preview here, though, if you want some quick gratification.

As of right now, what is your take on this photo? Share some of your thoughts today with a comment, and head over here to get some further coverage on everything we cover right away via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo via ABC.)