Where the hell is Olivia Pope? That's the question that's been on every Shonda Rhimes fan's mind since the mid-season finale of Scandal , when Kerry Washington's sharply dressed wine-loving D.C. fixer abruptly went missing during a late-night booty call with boyfriend Jake. He went to the bedroom to grab some pillows so they could do it on her piano, and when he came back... she was gone, the curtains in her open window fluttering ominously in the breeze. It felt very finale-esque, but the Scandal Season 4 finale is actually quite a ways away.
Well, don't you fret — we have plenty of time to find out where Olivia is gone and who took her. Although fellow Shonda Rhimes production (and one-third of ABC's landmark T.G.I.T. programming) How To Get Away With Murder is ending its first season after only another five weeks, Scandal will continue well into the spring. That's because, while HTGAWM has a short 15-episode order due to star Viola Davis's contract, Scandal has the more typical-for-broadcast 22-episode order. Phew! There's no need to put that white hat back on the shelf anytime soon.
So when is the the show's Season 4 finale? Scandal returns with Episode 10 this Thursday night and, although an official date for the finale has not yet been set, I can hazard an educated guess. The schedule shows that Scandal will take one more week off on Feb. 26 to make room for HTGAWM's two-hour Season 1 finale. Assuming the show takes no more breaks after that, the Season 4 finale will air on Thursday, April 30. Unless, of course, ABC decides to air the final two episodes on the same night like they're doing with HTGAWM, then the season could end a week earlier; but no season of Scandal has ever ended with a two-hour finale before, so that seems unlikely.
Rest easy, Gladiators. You have three months left in which to unravel the many mysteries of Olivia Pope's life... before we're almost certainly given a gasp-inducing season-ending twist that will leave us frantic all summer long. Thanks, Shonda Rhimes!
Images: Nicole Wilder/ABC
