'Scandal' Tweet-cap: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

Warning: This recap for “The Candidate” episode of Scandal contains spoilers.

It’s a whole new Scandal world, a new fantastic point of view. No one to tell Mellie and Olivia no, or where to go, or say they’re only dreaming.

So much of the previous four seasons of Scandal have been all about Fitz, stuck between his wife and mistress. No more — now they’re teaming up and taking their power back, drinking hooch out of a mason jar, and writing incendiary book chapters. Both Mellie and Olivia have spent so much time being defined by what they mean to Fitz; now each woman is figuring out who she is, just herself. And we’re loving it. Forget Olitz, forget Mellitz.

Long live Mellivia. And may God help any man or president who gets in their way.

Related: Catch Up on ‘Scandal’ With Our Recaps

Only another woman might stop their train to the Oval Office, and her name is Susan Ross. She’s hopped up on Gettysburgers, and ready to send everyone in the country a friend request.

Here’s went down in Scandal-land this week:

Go your own way

Olivia has finished reading about half of Mellie’s book, and the prognosis isn’t good. Chapter 2 apparently is worthless and can be cut altogether. What Mellie needs is something powerful, something memorable — what she needs is to write a chapter on why she stayed with her cheating scumbag president husband. This, of course, coming from said husband’s mistress.

If you’re tired of all the actual presidential election nonsense, Scandal is serving up the fictional variety. In this election run-up, Susan Ross is apparently polling very well, and Lizzy Bear wants her to run. But Susan had vowed not to seek the presidency, so it’s a non-starter.

Meanwhile, Cyrus and Abby are like, “But we still have a president, and he can do stuff.” They want him to go out with a bang — the “getting things done” type, not the “sex in the IT server room” type. They set him up for an interview with a respected journalist, Lillian Forrester (Annabeth Gish), but… well, it kind of looks like this might be the second kind of bang.

Meanwhile, Mellie is acting like the petulant student in a college fiction writing class who can’t take criticism. She blows up at Olivia, ranting that she doesn’t want to talk about her relationship with Fitz. “You never had what we had,” she yells at Liv. They were married for 23 years, and Liv was just a “blip on his radar.” Um, it was just some constructive criticism, Mel!

Lizzy Bear does not want to accept Susan’s decision not to run, so she goes to David to convince her, since the VP has a massive crush on the Attorney General. And David, eager to do whatever it takes to get some bear-loving, agrees. He asks Susan out on a date to Gettysburger (our new favorite fictional fast food joint), and awww, she’s so happy! It’s all an act, though, so that’s not cool.

Hoochie mamas

Over at Olivia’s apartment, Jake shows up, and they start undressing without a word. After sex, they still barely converse. She tries to tell him this is the last time, but he scoffs. As if.

Cyrus tries to talk to Fitz about topics for the Lillian Forrester interview, because this can still be a Year of Achievement, but Fitz barely cares.

After her outburst, Mellie goes to a bar to drink, and whaddya know, it’s Cyrus’s favorite drinking hole. Drunk Mellie rants a bit more about being Fitz’s appendage all these years, and how it was all a waste. Cyrus rolls his eyes and reminds her that she’s the most recognizable woman in politics at a time when the country is ready to elect a woman as president. Cue the tiny violin.

Except when Mellie sighs, “We made him. We made a president,” Cyrus tries to take all the credit. “We????”

That spurs Mellie to go over to Olivia’s and admit why she stayed with Fitz: “It was working.” Her, Fitz, Olivia — that triangle was good for her, at least for awhile. When he was with Olivia, Mellie had room to breathe. She was free. Liv tells her to write that in the book.

David and Susan’s date at Gettysburger winds down, and many a freedom fry and union ring were had. She wonders how it’ll look that she shut down a fast food restaurant for a date, and he thinks the American public will see her as a normal person. Someone who would make a good president, even.

Susan, self-deprecating as ever, says she isn’t president material. She’s a bug, inconsequential, overlooked. But David says she is none of those things, then kisses her!

Mellivia are still drunk on the hooch, and Liv admits something, too: She was happy Mellie was still Fitz’s wife. It made Fitz unavailable. And when Mellie left Fitz, Olivia got scared. She, too, enjoys her freedom. Suddenly, Liv realizes this is what Mellie needs to write about — how she was scared to strike out on her own, until she decided to filibuster that anti-Planned Parenthood bill. That made Mellie realize she could do it on her own, without Fitz or any other man.

A new start

In the Oval Office, Fitz is doing that interview with Lillian, when she gets flustered after he makes a joke about being young. She stops the tape and admits she’s got a crush on him. Of course, that’s a massive conflict of interest, but it’s OK. Fitz suggests they trash the interview and go out to dinner instead!

David meets with Lizzy Bear, and informs her that he won’t try to manipulate Susan anymore. She’s too nice and too good. But the thing is, Susan has already completed her paperwork to explore a presidential run. As the VP explains to the press, it’s like when you like a guy — you want to see if he likes you back.

Mellie and Olivia read the product of their long, hooch-fueled night, and it’s good, really good. But Liv realizes they can’t afford to wait a few months to publish it… so they leak the chapter! Even Sally Langston appears to have a tear in her eye as she reads a select passage on her news show.

And somewhere in Pennsylvania, Cyrus appears at a public forum. He’s told Fitz that his cousin died, but ha! Cyrus would send flowers and keep working. No, he’s doing something far more important: watching the Pennsylvania governor talk about his education plan.

The guy sounds smart, he’s charismatic, and most importantly, he’s passionate. Something Fitz is not, anymore. Looks like Cy has found himself a new guy.

Scandal airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.