Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) won’t be playing any games in “Scandal” Season 7.

Olivia is expected to show a darker side of herself in the upcoming episodes of the hit ABC TV series. TV Line writer Michael Ausiello confirmed this on Tuesday in his Ask Ausiello column for the publication. While talking about Olivia, Ausiello said that liking or disliking the character in Season 7 is something very subjective. “But I can say that there’s a good chance you’ll fear her more than you have in the past,” he wrote.

Additionally, Olivia isn’t scared to get her hands dirty, even though she’s no longer heading Olivia Pope and Associates (OPA). In the premiere episode this week, Olivia will also be delivering her longest speech in “Scandal” history.

Meanwhile, ABC dropped two sneak peeks for episode 1, titled “Watch Me,” which sees Olivia having a conversation with President Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) and Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) at the Oval Office. The three couldn’t agree on how they should deal with the media.

In the second teaser, Quinn Perkins and Associates (QPA) are having problems securing clients. Since Olivia left OPA, Quinn (Katie Lowes) decided to take over the company and rename it QPA. Unfortunately, she, Huck (Guillermo Diaz), Abby (Darby Stanchfield) and Quinn’s fiancé Charlie (George Newbern) are not as famous as Olivia so no one wants to hire their services.

The 57-second clip shows Quinn practically begging David (Joshua Malina) to help them find their first client. Quinn stresses the fact that David knows a lot of famous people so she’s certain that he can help them out.

Unfortunately, David doesn’t want to get on board with Quinn and her team. He explains that they couldn’t find clients because they changed the name of their company. Quinn counters this by saying that it’s just one letter, but David says that the one letter stands for Olivia – the most important factor in getting clients.

After Quinn threatens to not allow David to leave until he finds them their first client, a woman walks in the door and asks for Quinn.

“Scandal” Season 7 will premiere on ABC on Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT.

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