Hold onto your white hats, Gladiators! Things are about to get rocky on “Scandal.” It might have seemed as if Olivia (Kerry Washington) had her hands full in episode 15 of the ABC drama, but that will look like child’s play with what comes next. She’s still got to get through the first Republican debate!

Upon discovering that Edison (Norm Lewis) has teamed up with Rowan (Joe Morton) and Jake (Scott Foley) to run for president, Olivia’s willing to throw her ex-fiancé to the wolves in order to make her candidate the frontrunner. And “the wolves” in this case is Frankie Vargas’ (Ricardo Chavira) campaign. Although Cyrus (Jeff Perry) is supposed to be running the show, Frankie’s brother, Alex (Danny Pino), appears to be the one with the most power.

Episode 15 concluded with Alex exchanging some information with Olivia about Susan Ross (Artemis Pebdani). Fans didn’t see what was in the file, but based on Olivia’s facial expression, it’s something that could result in the downfall of the vice president.

The synopsis for episode 16, titled “The Miseducation of Susan Ross,” reveals that Olivia will have her Gladiators do some digging to verify the authenticity of the “damaging information” on Susan Ross. But what could it possibly be?

“She’s not just a liar, she’s a thief unfit to be president,” Quinn (Katie Lowes) says in the promo video.

Meanwhile, David (Joshua Malina) will have to deal with the rocky end to his love triangle with Susan and Elizabeth (Portia de Rossi). Right now Susan doesn’t know that Elizabeth was the “other woman” in the relationship. However, that could change in an instant.

Finally, Cyrus will work on “his own political agenda.” But what does that mean for Frankie? The presidential candidate made it clear that Cyrus has to play nice with his brother in order to continue running his campaign. Cyrus doesn’t exactly play well with others, though.

Watch ABC on Thursday, March 31 at 9 p.m. EDT to see the drama unfold on “Scandal” Season 5, episode 16.

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