Olivia Pope Is Officially Done With Her White Hat

Over the entire course of Scandal's history, the show has never failed to throw me for a loop or two... but Thursday night's episode is a brand new kind of crazy. After Andrew Nichols — the former vice president and Olivia's kidnapper — made a return, threatening to expose the West Angola story to the world, Olivia planned to do anything she could to keep that story from getting out, and she did mean anything. On the latest edition of Scandal , Olivia kills Andrew, and proves that nobody should ever cross her, once and for all.

At first, I had a feeling Huck would be the one to take Andrew out, but I totally underestimated how important it was to her to keep this story from getting out. When Andrew starts making totally ridiculous demands for his silence, they need to find another solution, and Fitz wants to take the fall. His plan is to say that Andrew's assassination attempt was a set up in order to get the people on his side about the war, but Abby's not happy about it. Olivia tells her something that's resoundingly true: "He's being the president. Finally." But that's not good enough for Abby, and she knows she needs to do something.

After a sleepless night, Abby goes to see Andrew and makes a new deal with him. He will change the angle of his story to be about his affair with Mellie instead of the war, and that way the whole thing will be pinned on her instead. But Olivia isn't having it, so she takes matters into her own hands. She tries to talk to Andrew, but he threatens to have her kidnapped again and sold. Then, something snaps. She beats him with a chair until his skull is bashed in and she's dead, and later Fitz finds Liv standing there, covered in blood.

For as many shady dealings Olivia's been involved in, I never thought we'd see the day where this white hat wearing gladiator would actually take someone's life like this, but what is Scandal if not full of surprises? As the episode ends, Olivia's dad welcomes her home as she walks into his house, apparently to safety. But nothing is ever safe with Papa Pope, and I have a feeling things are about to get worse instead of better.

One thing's for sure, though: Abby is probably going to think twice the next time she tries to be a monster. Olivia officially has dibs on that title after this. BRB, watching endless episodes of Full House to get Olivia's blood spattered face out of my head before bedtime! Seriously nightmare-worthy.

Image: Richard Cartwright/ABC