ABCTwo words: Jake. Ballard.
The Scandal midseason five premiere brought us up to speed with Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and co. several months following the tragic Olitz breakup of '15—and the pendulum swung right back into Jake's court (as we found out when Olivia and Jake had a sexy-ass love scene in the opening few minutes of the episode).
But, of course, it didn't last too long, because we found out that Jake (Scott Foley) schemed against Olivia's client of the week to not only depose her from her top job at the NSA so he would get the position himself, but to kill her boyfriend in the process. JAKE. COME ON.
Real talk: Both Jake and Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) are murderers, but it always sucks to be reminded of that.
What will the future hold now that Jake has a powerful, legitimate position in government? And what does this mean for B613?
In addition to that hot love scene (sorry, still cooling down), the episode also saw some incredible female friendship developments: Olivia and Abby's (Darby Stanchfield) girl talk was much-needed, and could Olivia and Mellie (Bellamy Young) become—gasp!—friends? Olivia is helping Mellie with her autobiography with an eye on getting her back in the White House—as president this time—and it feels like they might both be harboring a begrudging respect for one another.
Speaking of friends: Fitz is leaning hard on Abby right now, and Cyrus (Jeff Perry) is totally letting it happen. Is he trying to groom her to become Fitz's new Chief of Staff? Oh, and poor new guy in the Pope & Associates office. He has no friends! But that's only because Huck (Guillermo Diaz) and Quinn (Katie Lowes) want to protect him from their crazy. They're pushing him away because they love him!
What did you think of the Scandal premiere? Was that sex scene everything the promos promised it would be? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Scandal airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.