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    30 Things You Need To Remember Before "Scandal" Returns From Its Midseason Break

    We're so close, guys. #threedays #copewithoutpope

    OliviaRoat
    by OliviaRoat

    Community Contributor

    Do you believe that we have gone over 2 months without a new episode of Scandal?!

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    Withdrawal has been rough, and to deal, you may have turned to wine...

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    looking at GIFs to relive this season's emotional moments...

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    checking the stars' Twitter accounts...

    (Josh Malina is a gem.)

    and keeping up with the Scandal Insta.

    But we are soooo close, because a new episode airs in THREE DAYS, and being giddy is totally normal.

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    So catch up on the 30 most important things that happened in the midseason finale. The alternative: not being prepared for this Thursday.

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    1. Daniel Douglas gets murdered. (We see how it transpired via flashback.)

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    After Cyrus shows Sally the photos of Daniel and James'...encounter, Sally confronts Daniel, and they begin arguing. Daniel says he is "done" with it all and that he is going to leave her. A seething Sally stabs him.

    2. Sally calls Cyrus and he comes over.

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    Sally tells Cyrus that she "committed a sin." As she puts it, "the devil came in." Oh, and when Cyrus sees what happened, he blows chunks.

    3. Olivia asks the gladiators to gather information on Mama Pope.

    Via abc.com

    Olivia knows her mom used the alias Marie Wallace and that she is the bad guy...err girl rather, but she needs details.

    4. Quinn's mouth goes through some more hell.

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    After Quinn is unable to inject Rowan with a syringe at B-613, she goes to the bathroom and yanks out the tracking device Huck put in her mouth where one of her teeth used to be.

    5. Rowan's on the hunt to track down Mama Pope, but he gets taken to the Pentagon by agents working for Fitz.

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    Fitz wants him detained there until Mama Pope lands. He also wants to have a little chat with Rowan.

    6. Charlie and Quinn clean up Daniel's murder.

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    After Quinn emerges tracking device free from the bathroom, Charlie tells her that they have a "client." The client is Cyrus, and he needs Daniel's murder cleaned up. So Quinn and Charlie get to work.

    7. Abby asks David for the file on Marie Wallace.

    Via tv.com

    She gets it bc of course.

    8. Cyrus is able to get the doctor to declare Daniel's death a heart attack without getting too up close and personal with the body.

    Via uproxx.com

    When the doctor starts to examine Daniel Douglas, Sally plays the grief-stricken spouse. Cyrus asks if, given Sally's shock, the doctor can just rule the death a heart attack without examining Daniel. The doctor agrees. "We all know what happened here," says Cyrus. Yeaaaa we do. Murder.

    9. A distraught Cyrus spills the beans (ha! had to) to Mellie.

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    Cyrus is back at the White House, drinking at 7 am, and when Mellie expresses her joy that Daniel Douglas is dead, he tells her the truth. Mellie tells him to get his shit together.

    10. Back at the Pentagon, Fitz talks with Rowan.

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    He wants to know why he was ordered to shoot down the plane. During the talk, he throws in some info about his and Olivia's sex life to try to get a rise out of Rowan.

    11. But Rowan is all "you're a boy" and "you disappoint me as a suitor for my daughter's hand."

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    Rowan tells Fitz that Fitz doesn't love Olivia; he loves that she is "a door marked exit." If he is with Olivia, he doesn't have to fulfill his father's dreams. How's that for some Pentagon-chair psychology?

    12. Abby fills in Olivia on the details about Mama Pope.

    Via scandalmoments.tumblr.com

    Basically, Olivia's mom was a gun for hire. She traveled all over the world, adopting different aliases, selling top secret government information to the highest bidder. She was stealing CIA secrets from Olivia's father. To her contacts overseas, she was known as Marie Wallace.

    13. Mellie visits Sally to pay her respects.

    Via tv.com

    But she's really there to let Sally know that she knows how Daniel's death went down. Mellie engages in a kind of "softer" form of manipulation. She tells Sally that Sally is now part of their "family" and that she looks forward to both of them supporting their President. Aka now that I have this info you have no choice other than to get on board with Fitz and not run on your own.

    14. We see Quinn and Charlie together.

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    Quinn talks to Charlie about how her life was once kind of normal but now she's got people pulling her teeth out. Charlie tells her that she was never meant to be normal because she's got special skills that very few people have. He says if she wants to leave, he won't stop her but she should sleep on it. Also this relationship feels creepy.

    15. James suspects foul play regarding Daniel Douglas' death, and he voices his suspicions to David Rosen.

    Via tv.com

    James wants David to investigate, but David is like, "Oh hey remember that time I investigated election rigging and trusted my career to you and then I had to become a substitute teacher and my life was shit? Yea, not investigating this death."

    16. Huck and Jake tell Olivia her dad is at the Pentagon. Olivia goes there and discusses her mom.

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    Olivia's figured it out: Rowan ordered Fitz to shoot down the plane because Mama Pope had told him there was a bomb on the plane that was going to detonate over London. But there was no bomb! Mama Pope lied and got Rowan to kill hundreds of people...for nothing.

    17. Olivia tells Fitz that she wants her mother arrested the second that plane lands in Hong Kong.

    Via tv.com

    18. Before Rowan leaves the Pentagon, he says these words to Fitz:

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    (They become important later.)

    19. Quinn pays a visit to Olivia Pope and Associates to talk to Huck.

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    Huck tells her that if Quinn is expecting an apology, she's not going to get one. He says the only reason he didn't kill her is because of Olivia and because Quinn betrayed Olivia, she is no longer a gladiator.

    20. Cyrus asks James what happens now.

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    Cyrus lets James know that leaving isn't really an option: James has no proof that Daniel was murdered; he has no job or income, so he won't win custody of their daughter; and he won't be able to outrun Cyrus' legal connections. Cyrus also says that he still loves James, and that Cyrus is still the man James married. James just didn't see Cyrus' evil side until now.

    21. Fitz calls Olivia and tells her that Mama Pope's plane never made it to Hong Kong.

    Via abc.com

    It was found in Mongolia with all crew members dead. Mama Pope is in the wind.

    22. Jake says goodbye to Olivia, but not before he kisses her and tells her he loves her.

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    What could have been?!?! Will there be more to this relationship?! Jake is too attractive to be forgotten, Olivia!

    23. Quinn comes back to Charlie.

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    Does this relationship feel weird to anyone else?

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    24. Leo is able to discern that Sally killed Daniel Douglas.

    Via abc.com

    Leo's response to learning that Sally killed Daniel and that her first call was to the White House: "I am your first call, Sally. I am always your first call. You kill someone, you call me." Loyal and unscrupulous?! Killer combo right there. Now three people other than Sally know about Daniel's death: Mellie, Cyrus, and Leo. Let's not forget that none of these people are trustworthy in the least.

    25. A girl named Shelby visits David Rosen.

    Via abc.com

    Shelby is an engineer who wrote the code for the software that allows the NSA to hack into people's cell phones and record what's going on in the room. She plays David a recording of Sally Langston calling Cyrus saying, "I have committed a sin." UH OH.

    26. Jake has replaced Rowan as the head of B-613, c/o Fitz.

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    Rowan walks into his office only to find Jake there. Jake is command now BAM.

    27. Jake echoes the words Rowan previously said to Fitz.

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    Right after this, Jake calls Fitz, who says "We're gonna make a good team, Jake."

    28. James tells Cyrus that if Cyrus names him White House Press Secretary, he will not leave Cyrus.

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    Trading favors: always the basis of a healthy marriage. Also, why do they sleep in such a small bed?

    29. Mama Pope gives Olivia a call.

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    30. She's standing in the front of the White House OMG and her last words to Olivia before she hangs up and tosses the cell phone are:

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    And with that recap, I leave you with this. February 27, y'all.

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