'Scandal' Season 3, Episode 1 Spoilers: Kerry Washington Talks Dad Reveal & Fitz's Affair Snitch Exposed? (VIDEO)
ABC premieres season 3 of Scandal, on Thursday, the political drama series that follows events surrounding Washington DC crisis manager Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington).
Several members of the cast shared spoilers for the new episode in an exlcusive interview with TV Guide. Below is a list of spoilers Scandal fans, called Gladiators, can expect in the season 3 premiere:
-The snitch that leaked Pope and the affair will be revealed
-The president and the first lady will break up and get back together
-Pope's father, Rowan, will open up about their past and explain why he works for the government
'Scandal' Season 3 Premiere Spoilers & Cast PHOTOS; Mystery Person Admits POTUS Affair Leak
The premiere will pick up minutes after the season 2 finale, opening with Pope in the car with her father (Joe Morton). Washington said episode 1 will focus on them.
"It's about who told and why, and it's shocking. I think it's good because it's a real test of her resilience," she told the publication. "It's a test of how well the people around her are able to support her or not, and whether everybody's able to do that in concert."
it will be challenging for Pope, a crisis manager by profession, to figure out how to handle her own personal drama. However, her team will be there to help her.
"They go from being people who manage other people's crises to people who have to manage their own crisis in a big way," Washington explained. "It's one thing when it's Quinn's crisis or any other Gladiator, but when Olivia herself is at the center of it, it challenges things. It's hard for everybody to figure out their roles. If she's the client, how can she be the boss?"
Fitz actor Tony Goldwyn said the beginning of episode 1, pertaining to the press learning about the presidential affair, will play out "like a tsunami."
"It's like a Pandora's box being opened up. It's a disaster. Suddenly the White House is in crisis mode," he said to the magazine. "They need to find out who the hell did this. Who leaked this information? Why? Fitz gets really calm while Cyrus is running around like a chicken with his head cut off. Mellie's freaking out. So you're coming into this season and it's like the house is on fire."
Jeff Perry, who plays Cyrus the White House Chief of Staff and Pope's confidante, said his character will focus on finding out who leaked the affair to the press. His agenda will be "find the source; destroy the source," he told the publication. He and Mellie will make it their mission but the actor added, "something happens."
"Then Cyrus is on an almost kind of lone wolf [mission] and is about as conflicted as we've seen him - in someone who can be pretty ruthless - about the necessary agenda for the presidency," he said. "For the republic, am I going to have to compromise Olivia? Am I going to have to go after her?"
Read also: 'Scandal' Season 3 Premiere Promo VIDEO: Olivia Pope & Fitz's Affair Snitch is Revealed & Confronted
Scandal fans were left pondering after shocking revelations played out in the season 2 finale:
-Pope's affair with the president was leaked to the media
-When Pope realizes that the press is onto their affair (which they agreed to end earlier in the episode) she is whisked away by Rowan, the head of BC13 into a waiting car. Viewers learn during their car ride that he is Pope's father.
-Billy Chambers turned out to be the "Mole." Billy hired someone to get the proof on the Cytron card that Defiance exists to leak it to the media. Defiance proves that the president won the election due to ballad fraud.
-One of Pope's colleagues, David Rosen, was assisting Billy and in a shady deal when the Cytron card was retrieved ended up landing a cushy position in the White House
-The president, Fitz , tells Pope he's running for office again and he will leave his wife to marry her. In the end, he is seen on bended knee asking the first lady Mellie for forgiveness for cheating.
- Jake, who also had an affair with Pope, saved her from being killed by a female assassin. After he saved her life she ended their affair.
Season 3 of Scandal premieres Thursday at 10/9 p.m. Central on ABC.