“Scandal” returns Thursday, October 3 at 10 p.m. on ABC, picking up right where Season 2 left off. Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) has just had a startling reunion with her father Rowan (Joe Morton), President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) must do major damage control when his relationship with Olivia is made public and Pope & Associates prepares to cover more government scandals. If you’re just tuning in, here’s what you need to know from the first two seasons:
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DC “fixer” and founder of Pope & Associates Olivia Pope receives a call from the President’s Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) when former White House intern Amanda Tanner (Liza Weil) threatens to go public about her affair with President Fitzgerald Grant. She confesses to Olivia that she is pregnant with Fitz’s child, as Olivia’s own scandalous relationship with the President is revealed.
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Amanda is kidnapped from Olivia’s apartment. Pope & Associates employee Huck (Guillermo Diaz), a former assassin for CIA initiative B-613, tortures fellow spy Charlie (George Newbern) for information on Amanda’s whereabouts. Amanda’s body is recovered, as it is revealed that Cyrus hired Charlie for the murder.
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Reporter Gideon Wallace (Brendan Hines) digs deeper into Amanda’s death. When blood tests reveal the baby wasn’t the President’s, Gideon tracks down the real father – Chief of Staff to the Vice President Billy Chambers (Matt Letscher). Billy murders Gideon and Gideon’s girlfriend, Pope & Associates employee Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes), discovers the body.
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Quinn is held for questioning in Gideon’s death, but her fingerprints ID her as Lindsay Dwyer, the main suspect in a bombing at Cytron Software Company that killed her boyfriend and six others. She tells Olivia that after the bombing, she was knocked unconscious and awoke days later in a DC hotel room with a mysterious new identity. Quinn goes to trial, but is suspiciously acquitted of all charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Rosen (Joshua Malina) is nearly fired for losing the case.
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Billy chambers leaks a sex tape of the President and an unknown woman to the media, claiming it’s Amanda (but it’s really Olivia). First Lady Mellie (Bellamy Young) covers for her husband in an interview, saying that the woman on the tape is her and that she and Fitz are expecting their third child. Huck hires Charlie to kill Billy.
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Cyrus’s husband, James Novak (Dan Bucatinsky) returns to work as a journalist at The DC Times. David, still upset about losing the Cytron case, approaches James and tells him that there’s a connection between the Cytron bombing and the last presidential election. James travels to Defiance, Ohio, where he finds a set of rigged Cytron voting machines that won Fitz the election.
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Flashbacks show Fitz struggling at the polls prior to the election. Olivia, Mellie, Cyrus, Supreme Court Justice Verna Thornton (Debra Mooney) and Hollis Doyle (Gregg Henry) — a wealthy but corrupt oil tycoon — agree to rig the election. Hollis hires Quinn’s Cytron-employee boyfriend to plant software in the Defiance voting machines that will skew votes in Fitz’s favor.
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President Fitz is rushed to the hospital following an assassination attempt. A shot in the head leaves him in a coma. Vice President Sally Langston (Kate Burton) is sworn in.
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Huck is framed for the attempt on the President’s life. He locates the real culprit – his girlfriend, Becky Flynn (Susan Pourfar). She is also an assassin-for-hire.
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Mellie attempts to save Fitz’s presidency by forging his signature and claiming he is ready to return to duty. The Vice President calls her bluff, but Fitz awakes just in time. David has Hollis arrested for the Cytron bombing, while flashbacks reveal Hollis hired Becky to plant the bomb and frame Quinn. Huck kidnapped Quinn and created her new identity. When Hollis walks, David is fired.
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Verna, dying of lung cancer, tells Fitz about the rigged election and that she was the one who hired Becky to kill him. When she promises to come clean to the police, Fitz murders her to protect his presidency.
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Fitz turns his back on Olivia and Cyrus for their roles in the election scandal; he hires friend and naval officer Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) to spy on Olivia. A romance sparks between Jake and Olivia. Mellie goes public with Fitz’s past infidelity; Fitz announces his re-election campaign.
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A mole in the White House threatens to reveal the election rigging. The only piece of evidence – a Cytron memory card from the election booths – goes missing. David is seen handing it over to Billy; Billy admits to murdering Gideon and the CIA director.
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In a startling twist, Quinn tortures Billy for the location of the Cytron card after Huck is unable to – but it turns out to be fake. Olivia, Mellie, Cyrus, Hollis and Fitz are confronted by David. He hands over the Cytron card and a recording of Billy’s confession in return for a job as US Attorney. Billy is arrested; Cyrus destroys the Cytron card.
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Olivia learns that Fitz murdered Verna, and Fitz learns of Jake and Olivia’s relationship. The two part ways. Outside, Olivia is mobbed by reporters questioning her affair with the president. She is pulled through the crowd and tossed into a limousine. The commanding officer of CIA operative B-613 is inside, and is revealed as Olivia’s father.