Season 5 of the American political drama TV series “Scandal” premiered on September 24 on ABC and the show was off to the races as the first episode focused on the relationship of Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington, and President Fitzgerald ‘Fitz’ Thomas Grant III, played by Tony Goldwyn.
However, the Olitz relationship, as fans prefer to call it, is predicted by most fans not to last before Season 5 draws to a close. In fact, just before the premiere episode wrapped up, someone within the White House leaked a footage of Sally Langston, played by Kate Burton, and Fitz, looking very cozy, details the International Business Times.
Episode 2 of Season 5 of “Scandal” will most likely focus on how Olivia and Fitz will deal with this new early bump or obstacle to their relationship. Many of the astute fans of the popular TV show believe that the only way that Olitz can handle the situation is for them to separate, at least in the eyes of the public, that is.
It seems that would be the direction that the President and Ms. Pope will do in the second episode titled “Yes,” whose synopsis indicates that Olivia and her crisis management associates will simply be taking a short break from Washington D.C. to work on a new case and get away from the President.
As Olivia focus on damage control, the way she has been known to effectively handle during the past seasons, Fitz will be doing everything in his White House power to find out who leaked the footage to Sally Langston.
Based on the premiere episode, Elizabeth North, played by Portia de Rossi, and Cyrus Beene, played by Jeff Perry, could be the prime suspects. But it is only showrunner Shonda Rhimes knows who at this point and she is not talking at all. As it is now, only time and the remainder of the Season 5 episodes of “Scandal” will unveil the mystery.
But judging from how Shonda Rhimes played out the plots in the previous seasons of “Scandal,” it is just unthinkable that anyone would make it through a whole season without heaps of drama being thrown his or her way, cites the Entertainment Weekly.
Political scandals galore
As its name implies, “Scandal” will continue to focus on Olivia Pope and her crisis management firm, Olivia Pope & Associates and its staff, working together with some of the staff of the White House in Washington D.C. especially in dealing with various political scandals.
In a recent interview before the Season 5 premiere, Shonda Rhimes said that Season 5 of “Scandal” will see Olivia and Fitz becoming the only people standing in a single piece. She described that the world will be fairly blown apart for everybody except Olitz. Rhimes said that the storyline of Season 5 will up right at that moment in that kind of environment and the characters and plotlines will just take it from there.
The showrunner also talked about Cyrus and First Lady/Senator Melody ‘Mellie’ Grant’ not being in the White House anymore in Season 5, which became obvious when Fitz officially divorced Mellie during the premiere episode.
Reconstituting the crisis management team
Season 5 will also feature the reconstitution of Olivia Pope & Associates as Rhimes hinted that the Gladiator conceit was sidelined a bit during the fourth season to focus instead on healing Olivia.
Rhimes added that there were a lot of times during Season 4 of “Scandal” that only Huck and Quinn are gladiating by themselves, which was altogether a different dynamic.