ABCOlitz shippers finally got their wishes granted in the Scandal season five premiere, as Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) were happily in love and actually in an official relationship. Seriously! They're really, truly, finally a couple—albeit a secret one (at least at the beginning).
The pair, who had clearly christened every single room in the White House (um, those bedroom scenes were quite racy to include in the first five minutes of the episode!), struggled with taking their feelings public considering the fact that as far as the American public was concerned, Fitz and Mellie were still married. But the president served his newly elected senator wife with divorce papers, if you were wondering how serious he is about Olivia.
E! News caught up with Washington the night of the premiere at an event in support of the Allstate Foundation Purple Purse's campaign to bring awareness to domestic violence and financial abuse, which she hosted alongside Dee and Tommy Hilfiger and Saks Fifth Avenue, and she revealed that she sees the Olitz coupling as a jumping-off point for the show, not a hindrance.
"You know, in a lot of shows when the central love relationship finally comes together, that's the end of the show," she says, "which I was really nervous about when I read our finale last year. I was like, 'Do we get a season five? Do we not get a season five?' But I think it's more like in life, that when our relationship begins, that's the beginning, not the end."
Instead of viewing Olivia and Fitz's relationship as the culmination of something, it's more like a fresh start. "They get to discover what that means, what's it like with all that tension of not being able to be together," Washington adds. "What will it be like for them?"
While Olivia wasn't quite ready to go public following Fitz and Mellie's divorce—she wanted to slow things down and work on their relationship before other factors got involved—they were forced out of their White House love nest by none other than the deliciously evil Sally Langston. "Okay, we wait until we're ready," Fitz sexily told his love, but was interrupted when his former veep broadcast photos of the couple on her cable show and spilled the beans on their relationship. OH CRAP!
As for the rest of the episode, here's what you need to know:
—Mellie's a senator! And she was actually hoping to possibly reconcile with her hubby, so she was a little blindsided with the divorce papers. (She later visited a retired Cyrus and spilled her feelings in a really touching, heartbreaking scene.)
—The case Olivia worked this week revolved around a Princess Diana/Amal Clooney/Kate Middleton/Grace Kelly amalgamation, an American human rights lawyer who married a prince of the fictional Caledonia, who was killed in a car accident.
—David Rosen popped up when Olivia had him investigate the crime as a murder once her team uncovered the fact that the princess had been having an affair with her bodyguard, but when the royal family tried to sweep the real cause of the crash under the rug Olivia found out it was the prince's scary mother, the queen, who'd set up the accident in the first place. (The evil woman got her comeupppance when her son blackmailed her into abdicating her throne, lest he reveal to the world what she'd done.)
—Huck's alive! And living with Olivia as he recovers from his trauma with Quinn (maybe we'll get to that next week).
What did you think of the Scandal season five premiere? Are you worried about Fitz and Olivia going public with their relationship? Leave your thoughts in the comments!