Olivia Pope may be a white hat-wielding badass, but no matter how much you love Scandal’s fierce protagonist, it’s impossible to deny the fact that the show has gotten more than a little unrealistic. [If you're not caught up, beware: major spoilers ahead.]
When the show began, Olivia’s unwillingness to open up about her parentage was questionable but not nearly as suspect as the reality: Her father runs a secret organization with more power than the U.S. government, and her mother is a wanted terrorist? Umm...
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But no matter how many times Olivia Pope got kidnapped or how many people the president of the United States smuggled with a pillow (yes, POTUS is a murderer too; EVERYONE IS A MURDERER), the most ridiculous of all plot twists came in the Season 6 finale, when we found out that the mourning widow Luna Vargas was actually the mastermind behind her husband Frankie’s murder after winning the presidential election.
Ahead of the final midseason premiere on Thursday (at 10 p.m. ET on ABC), we've rounded up the seven most hilariously unrealistic plot twists that Shonda Rhimes has ever thrown at us on Scandal.
When the director of B613 was Olivia's dad
Finding out the identity of Olivia Pope's father was the O.G. Scandal plot twist. Shondaland fans everywhere gasped when Olivia finally met the man behind the murderous secret government organization B613 and responded with one word: "Dad?"
When Olivia and Mellie rigged the election
Nope, Fitz didn't deserve to win the presidency. Instead, he was elected because his mistress and his wife teamed up with some high-powered government officials and businessmen to rig polling stations in Defiance, Ohio. In 2017, this may seem more believable, but back in the first season, the Defiance storyline was quite the twist.
When Olivia's mom was a wanted terrorist
Rowan Pope isn't the only murderer in the family. Olivia's mom, Maya, was not in fact killed in a plane crash. In fact, she was never on the plane. This terrorist mastermind had more than one trick up her sleeve.
When Fitz's son was killed before election night
Just when you thought President Fitzgerald Grant wasn't winning re-election, his son Jerry died on stage, giving him the sympathy vote. The murder was actually the brainchild of Rowan Pope, who had Secret Service (and B613) agent Tom do his dirty work. Don't worry about Jerry, though: The actor who played him, Dylan Minnette, went on to be the breakout star of Netflix's hit 13 Reasons Why.
When Olivia Got Full-On Truman Showe-ed
In Season 4 Episode 10, Olivia Pope finds herself kidnapped in a barren prison cell. Judging by the noises and the view outside her window, she determines herself to be in a third-world country and far from her D.C. reality. She finds a way to escape, shooting a guard in the process, but when she makes her way outside the prison doors, she finds that she's actually in a warehouse in rural Pennsylvania. Her prison was created by soundtracks and projections, and she's far from free. Yup, she got Truman Show-ed.
When Olivia killed Andrew Nichols with a chair
This wasn't Olivia's first kill, but it was definitely her most savage one. When the former Vice President threatened to expose her secrets, she banged his head in with a metal chair. Where's your white hat now, Liv?
When Luna Vargas actually killed her husband
When Frankie Vargas was killed after winning the presidential election, Luna perfectly played the role of the mourning widow. But as we found out in the Season 6 finale, she actually orchestrated her husband's murder because she didn't want to be just a first lady. Neither did Mellie Grant, hun, but there are better ways to go about becoming president than killing your spouse.
