ABC’s ‘Scandal’ season 3, episode 1 review: Who leaked Olivia Pope’s affair with Fitz?

Tonight’s “Scandal” premiere had no violence, but it still nonetheless felt like quite the bloodbath. “It’s Handled” was an hour that certainly contained its fair share of drama as we saw that everyone had their own plan when it came to the leak of Olivia Pope cheating with President Grant. Some of it was fantastic, and some of it was also extremely frustrating.

The best example of the latter is something that we were most curious about from a cliffhanger standpoint: Who leaked the news? At first, it appeared almost as though it was just some idiotic bodyguard who made the decision to do, and that was going to be the worst outcome ever for something that a good many fans have been looking forward to seeing for quite a long time.

But then, Shonda Rhimes and the writers really got themselves going, and what we had from here on out was the best example of dominoes slowly starting to fall, one after another after another. It ended up that it was Fitz of all people who leaked the news, and the reason was that he could finally have a way to be with her. But that did not work out as well as he planned as Mellie ended up forming a plan of her own in order to make certain that it was none other than a different woman in Janine who was the leak. Very clever, but the idea of Olivia suddenly taking on Janine as a client? Surprising and almost confusing. What Rhimes has done effectively here is show that there is a war going on between Mellie and Olivia like no other, but what is the endgame ultimately going to be when it comes for Olivia and her plan?

Just to make matters even more intense, just think about a mysterious operation that was revealed to Cyrus at the end of the episode, and we’ll be waiting until at least next week to find out more.

Did the “Scandal” premiere work for you, and did you enjoy the direction in which the show went this week?

Photo: ABC