After a couple month long hiatus, ABC’s “Scandal” is finally returning to complete the second half of their drama packed third season. Fans have been dying for the show to return, and we’ve got a brief recap refresher of spoilers to get you right back on track with Pope & Associates before the midseason premiere, episode 11:

1. Sally Langston’s Sin

In an attempt to blackmail VP Sally Langston, Cyrus set up James to have an affair with Daniel Douglas. Cyrus assumed that James would stay faithful to him if Daniel Douglas hit on him – but that didn’t end up being the case. Hiring someone to photograph the affair, Cyrus tried to use the images against Sally. But the VP wouldn’t bite. Instead she held her composure until later on … when she confronted her husband and stabbed him repeatedly with a letter opener.

2. Sally’s Fixer

Instead of calling her campaign consultant Leo Bergen, Sally made the mistake of turning to Cyrus to help cover up Daniel Douglas’ murder. Cyrus hired Charlie and Quinn who staged his death to look like he died peacefully in his sleep. With the knowledge of Sally’s crime, Cyrus and Mellie take advantage of her situation and use it against her to force her to stay on board Fitz’ re-election campaign.

3. Who Is Momma Pope?

Fearing that her mother’s life was in danger, Olivia tried to get her on a flight to Hong Kong but discovered that her dad had put Maya on the no-fly list under the name of “Marie Wallace.” Believing that her father framed her mother for a series of crimes to keep her in the country, Olivia turned to Fitz for help. Fitz orders a military plane to fly Maya directly to Hong Kong and enables her to bypass customs.

But it’s after her mother gets on the plane that Olivia realizes that her mother IS Marie Wallace – a wanted terrorist. For years Marie used different identities all over the world to steal government secrets and sell them to terrorists. She was supposed to be on her way to sell something to terrorists in London, but was pulled off the plane by Rowan before it crashed. Olivia’s theory (although not confirmed by Rowan) is that Marie convinced him that there was a bomb on the plane heading to London. Rowan had the plane shot down believing that the death of a couple hundred people would save thousands of lives. However Marie lied about the bomb and got him to kill hundreds of people for nothing.

4. James And David

Suspicious of Daniel Douglas’ death, James turns to David Rosen for help. But David Rosen doesn’t trust James after the whole voter fraud fiasco. Turning James away, David is later approached by a NSA worker who has a recording of Sally Langston calling Cyrus the night of Daniel Douglas’ death and stating that she “committed a sin.”

5. Quinn Switches Teams

Despite being tortured by Huck, Quinn still returns to Pope & Associates with the hope of being forgiven. Unfortunately Abby and Harrison have no idea what went down between Huck and Quinn, and Huck tells Quinn that she’s not a Gladiator anymore. Leaving the building in a hurry, Quinn returns to Charlie and B613.

6. B613’s New Leader

Rowan threatened Fitz that if you cut off a snake’s head another one will come up. Fitz twists that threat and places Jake as the new head of B613.

7. James And Cyrus’ Deal

James initially threatened Cyrus with divorce after discovering that he set him up to have an affair with Daniel Douglas. However he was forced to retract that threat when Cyrus promises to take their daughter away. James comes up with a compromise and tells him that if Cyrus appoints him as Press Secretary he won’t leave.

8. Momma Pope’s On The Loose

After discovering the real identity of her mother, Olivia orders that she be detained as soon as her flight lands in Hong Kong. But Momma Pope is one step ahead of her. Olivia gets a call that the plane never made it to Japan, and that it landed in Mongolia with everyone on board dead … and her mother missing.

But her mother isn’t ready to fall off the grid. The midseason finale ended with Olivia getting a call from Marie. She refused to reveal her whereabouts, but promised Olivia that she would see her real soon. The camera cut away to show Marie standing in front of the White House and throwing away the phone she used to call Olivia.

“Scandal” returns to ABC on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 10 p.m. What do you think will happen in the midseason premiere, episode 11? Let us know your thoughts by sending a tweet to @AmandaTVScoop.

For more TV scoop and spoilers follow Amanda Remling on Twitter - @AmandaTVScoop.

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