‘Scandal’ Season 7 Premiere Recap: Olive Pope Seems Not Herself In ‘Watch Me’

Scandal fans enjoyed the last first season premiere of the ABC thriller with the first episode of season seven last night.

SCANDAL SEASON 7 PREMIERE RECAP

At the end of last season, Vargas died, Cyrus ascended, Mellie addressed Congress for the first time, and Olivia’s story isn’t quite black and white. Mellie is up against Senator Michaels so Olivia attempts to blackmail the man.

Olivia seems to have fallen off the deep end. She takes her father Eli to dinner, where she maintains control. Eli basically tells her that he can’t leave the house anymore, but she assures him that she’s not filming because that would imply he’s trying to run and she’s sure he wouldn’t do that. “You can’t have it all,” he tells her. “Watch me,” she says back.

Next we see Olivia on The Pryce of Power with Curtis Pryce, and Curtis belittles Olivia by cutting her off repeatedly. Meanwhile, at Quinn Perkins and Associates, they’re working with a new client who is missing his father overseas. They deduce the man is a spy, but Olivia has no time for it when Quinn approaches her.

Olivia heads back home and finds Jake in her bedroom with his pants off, but she has no time for that either. Instead, she assigns Jake work tasks – he discovers that the missing man is a CIA operative who’s been caught and compromised. He suggests they take him out, but Olivia is against it. Huck is on her side, and demands they find the guy and bring him home. She passes along the demand to Mellie, who meanwhile, is feuding with Cyrus, who wants to take her place as a rep.

While Mellie meets with an ambassador to discuss the plan, Cyrus meets with a group of young girls akin to the Girl Scouts. He’d much rather be meeting with the senator. The ambassador shuts down Mellie, however, and she appears humbled. She takes the time to thank Cyrus for his hard work, and it makes him appreciate her more and possible halt his plan to take over her job.

Back at the White House, Curtis comes to ask Olivia out and she is, of course, not interested. Jake appears to share his feelings on the missing spy, and as Olivia is arguing with him, Mellie shows up and shuts Olivia down. Olivia calls Huck and has him literally aim at the ambassador’s young son and starts to count down from five. When she gets to two, the ambassador calls the hit off and makes the call to free the agent. Olivia is really off the rails here.

Olivia moves to the situation room next and makes Mellie call off the mission. So in the end, the captured spy comes home, Cyrus stays with Mellie, and the White House gets enough votes for free college. Olivia, however, is in a bad place. She breaks up with Jake because they work together. We also learn that the senator who tried to get Cyrus to turn on Mellie was really working for Olivia.

The episode ends with Olivia going on a date with Curtis, and her explaining that the date will end in a hotel room. Olivia makes the rules and everyone else better follow them.

Tune in next week for episode 2, airing on ABC at 9 p.m.