Olivia's New 'Scandal' Love Interest Could Have Ulterior Motives

Scandal's final season is officially here, and with it comes a lot of changes for Olivia Pope, and as it turns out, included in those changes is a brand new love interest for the former head of OPA. So who is Curtis Pryce on Scandal? The show hasn't revealed much about him yet — Oct. 5 was the Season 7 premiere, after all — but knowing the kind of people who come in and out of Shondaland's version of Washington D.C., it's all but guaranteed that he's going to turn into a very shady character.

When Scandal picks back up, it's 100 days into Mellie's presidency, even though Olivia, as her Chief of Staff, basically calls the shots (or at least that's what she wants to think). And despite the fact that she's busy trying to push a bill through that will grant free college to all students, that doesn't mean she doesn't have a little time for romance. Of course, the term "romance" means something a little different to Olivia, because we all know that woman always has a fair dose of relationship drama following her around.

Enter Curtis Pryce, who happens to be played by the very good looking Jay Hernandez.

For the record, the way they meet makes it obvious that they're basically meant for each other. Arguing on TV? After six seasons of Scandal, it's pretty clear that whoever Olivia ends up with needs to be up to the challenge of verbal sparring with her — and keeping her on her toes. But their relationship might not be so simple, because it already seems like something shady is going on behind the scenes with this dude.

First of all, this is Scandal. Almost no character ever has been what they seem, so that rule probably applies to Curtis as well. And can we talk about that final scene when he and Olivia kind of, sort of went on a date? There was something about the way he sipped his drink that made it seem like he was scheming.

And now, more than ever, Olivia has a lot to lose. As the Chief of Staff, Olivia's in more of a position of power than she has ever been before, so it's not exactly out of the realm of possibility that Curtis could be trying to use her to infiltrate the White House or even for his own personal gain. It seems like a given that someone as savvy as her would watch her back with any new men she's seeing, so Curtis would have to outsmart her to pull off whatever plan he's got.

Then again, there's always the chance that Scandal will use its final season as an opportunity to throw us the realest plot twist ever, matching Olivia with an intelligent, interesting man who actually has good intentions without being married or secretly being in cahoots with her father. But that is yet to be seen.

Oh, and there's the fact that Olivia and Jake have been casually sleeping together (yes, again), but it seems like there will definitely be more to that story as the season progresses. It doesn't matter if Olivia tried to shut it down and send Jake home to his wife — things never end that simply between the two of them.

It seems like Curtis is here to stay for awhile, so the potential for his character is endless. Knowing that Olivia's made it to the pinnacle of her D.C. career makes it pretty obvious that someone is going to attempt to take her right back down sooner or later, and Curtis might just be the one to do it.