Welcome back to the world of “Scandal.” The show may have taken a couple month hiatus, but Season 5 returned with a bang … and a crash.

The Season 5 premiere kick starts with everyone’s favorite lovebirds, Olivia (Kerry Washington) and Fitz (Tony Goldwyn), engaging in a steamy hookup … right before an important dinner with the Nation of Caldonia. The two don’t miss a beat, picking their relationship right back up. But unfortunately for Mellie (Bellamy Young), that means she’s on the outs. So far out that she’s not invited to the State Dinner.

The dinner is a big deal due to the fact that an American named Emily married the Prince of Caldonia. However, Fitz is working on schmoozing with the Queen of Caldonia to convince her to allow the US to build a naval base on their soil.

Meanwhile, Abby (Darby Stanchfield) is trying to get to the bottom of the rumors surrounding Fitz and Mellie. She knows that things are done between the two, however Olivia hasn’t told her that she’s back together with Fitz … and it doesn’t sound like she has plans to!

Besides the Queen of Caldonia asking Fitz for more time to think about the naval base, the dinner goes off without a hitch. That is, until a fatal car accident takes the life of Princess Emily in a Princess Diana-like twist.

Olivia is called by the Queen of Caldonia to handle the situation, which involves retrieving all the photos of the body from the paparazzi before they hit the papers. With Quinn’s (Katie Lowe) help – and a large sum of money – they manage to track down every photographer but one and pay them off. Unfortunately there is one newspaper that has the photos and is not interested in accepting a payout. As a compromise, Olivia manages to get Princess Emily’s husband, Prince Richard, to be photographed while IDing the body of his wife at the morgue.

However, there is another twist – the one paparazzi member that Quinn can’t find isn’t an actual photographer. A closer look at the photo they have of him reveals that he’s actually a hacker. He used a device to hack into the system of the car and case the fatal crash. Olivia brings this new information to David Rosen, hoping that as Attorney General he’ll be able to investigate the accident.

Meanwhile, Mellie is freaking out about being sworn in as Senator without Fitz by her side – and rightfully so. She’s burned so many bridges, including that of Elizabeth North (Portia de Rossi), that no one is willing to help her. In fact, Elizabeth, who is now Fitz’s new Chief of Staff, has fun telling off the First Lady and promising that Fitz will not be supporting her at the event. Fortunately for Mellie, Olivia talks some sense into Fitz and tells him that he must go to his wife’s swearing in. Fitz caves and goes, but he has something else up his sleeve. He hands Mellie divorce papers and promises to ruin her political career if she doesn’t sign.

Mellie’s in shock over the divorce papers – and so is Olivia.

“I don’t want to wait,” Fitz tells her. “This is good.”

“This is good,” Olivia repeats. However, her face tells a different story. And it doesn’t help that she returns to her own apartment to spend the night.

But Olivia’s relationship is the least of her problems when David returns with more information on Princess Emily’s death. It turns out that the car was going 120 miles an hour … when the gage said it was going 55. Why did someone want Princess Emily dead? Olivia and Quinn put the pieces together and discover that the Princess was having an affair with her bodyguard.

Olivia suspects that the Prince killed his wife and wants to hold him accountable for the death of an American on American soil. However, Fitz isn’t interested in pursuing – not because it’s a lost cause with diplomatic immunity – but because the naval base is more important to him.

The two have a big blowout fight in front of Elizabeth, who catches on that Olivia and Fitz are hooking up again. She breaks the news to Abby, who had no idea that her friend was back together with the President.

Outside the White House, Mellie makes one last attempt to stop Fitz from going through with the divorce by seeking out Cyrus (Jeff Perry). She begs him to help her, but Cyrus isn’t interested just in case he can ever get back in Fitz’s good graces.

Meanwhile, Huck is taking a different route in trying to get back in good graces after his Season 4 finale bender. However, the only person mad at him is Quinn because he still hasn’t told Olivia about his involvement in the death of the jurors. He stays at Olivia’s house and asks her to “fix” him when she finally returns home. But Olivia breaks the news to him that she can’t “fix people on the inside.” So, what does Huck do next? He goes to Jake (Scott Foley).

Olivia is stuck on what to do with Princess Emily when David delivers the autopsy. The Princess was pregnant. With that added fuel, Olivia visits the Queen and tells her the theory about the Prince’s involvement in the accident. The Queen drops a bombshell – there will be no investigation because her son is innocent. He was so in love that he was blind to his wife’s affair … so the Queen took care of it.

A contract that Olivia signed before working for the royal family prevents her from going to anyone with the Queen’s confession. However, Olivia thinks on her feet and decides to go to the Prince to tell him what his mother did. The prince threatens his mother and tells her that she’s going to abdicate for health reasons or he will have no problem telling the world what she did.

It’s a happy ending for Olivia, who got to see the “Evil Queen” get shut down. But the shake up with the throne of Caldonia messed things up with the Naval Base for Fitz.

The two butt heads over the Caldonia situation, but only because there are deeper issues. Olivia is not ready to come out in the open with Fitz, despite his desire to. For Olivia, going public with their relationship is “not a solution, just another complication.”

“I want you, I want us,” she tells him. “But I want to slow down. I want our business handled. I want our problems fixed. I want to be ready before the world is watching.”
Fitz agrees with Olivia. But unfortunately their plan to wait hits a bump. Sally Langston (Kate Burton) reveals photos of Olivia and Fitz on her talk show. The photos show Olivia on the White House surveillance camera getting cozy with Fitz.

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