‘Scandal’ Season 6 Premiere Tweet-Cap: Survival of the Fittest

Warning: This recap for the “Survival of the Fittest” episode of Scandal contains spoilers.

As the saying goes, life imitates art. But when art imitates life a little too closely, it can have a chilling effect, as it does in the Season 6 premiere of Scandal.

Last season ended with Mellie running for president against Democratic candidate Francisco Vargas. She’d finished a brutal primary, which included a slick businessman who bore a strong resemblance to one of the real-life candidates at the time. And she was on the cusp of becoming the first female president in history.

But alas, almost getting there isn’t actually getting there. Mellie loses the election (and by the way, this episode was written and filmed last summer). But a shocking turn of events — the shooting of Vargas — throws the results into question. Scandal has always been about what people will do, legally or more often illegally, to gain power. The question is, who did what in that quest for power? And can Olivia Pope fix the seemingly unfixable?

Here’s a rundown of the premiere, including our live tweets:

The episode opens with Huck and Quinn traipsing through woods — woods! — on some sort of assignment. They see a cabin in the distance … but as they approach, it goes kablooey!

Flash back a day to election night. Mellie and Olivia watch the results with Fitz and their team at the White House. The results come down to one county in California (said no actual political reporter in history).

Mellie is jubilant and confident … until the newscasters call the election for Vargas. WTF! She can’t believe it. She demands that Olivia and the team look into vote tampering. But Olivia is off crying in the hall, with Fitz praising her for running a historic campaign. Cold comfort. Mellie is still screeching for a strategy on challenging the results, but Olivia shouts her down. It’s time to be a gracious loser. It’s time to concede (even if Jake is MIA).

Mellie calls Vargas, trying to hold back the tears, as Olivia frantically writes notes on what to say. Afterward, they get drunk on a bottle of wine in the bathroom, marveling that Cyrus Beene, of all people, is now the vice president of the United States. They apologize to each other for their part in losing … when they hear a ruckus outside.

That unleashes total pandemonium. Fitz meets with David and other advisers about the shooting. Turns out, the shooter is a lone wolf, not a terrorist, and he’s been apprehended. Jake randomly shows up out of the blue to help.

Marcus, now the press secretary, tells clamoring reporters that there’s no news on Vargas’s condition. Abby strides into the hospital and orders a lockdown of the entire place — no family, no friends, no press, no nonessential personnel except doctors. The Secret Service guy tries to resist, but she shuts him down with a withering glare. This is outside your pay grade, dude.

Olivia visits Marcus and asks for the truth about Vargas, trying to lean on their friendship. She’s not his friend — she’s Olivia Pope! Marcus relents, though, and reveals that Vargas was shot in the arm, stomach … and brain. He’s a goner.

Fitz meets with David to go over the legal options in the event of Vargas’s death. Vargas and Cyrus did win the vote, but that doesn’t matter — only the Electoral College matters, and it doesn’t vote for a while. David says that legally, the next presidency is wide open — and Fitz’s opinion will matter a great deal. “The next president is who you say it is.”

A shaken Olivia goes to see her father, who appears to be working on some kind of history exhibit for some rich donor. She asks him, point-blank, if he shot Vargas. Rowan acts wounded. How could his own daughter accuse him of … well, because you’re freakin’ Command, OK?

Rowan denies any involvement in the shooting, then points her in a different direction. Who stands to gain the most from Vargas dying? “Who would, quite literally, kill for this job?” One Cyrus Beene.

Olivia and the gladiators (a group that apparently now includes Charlie) rewatch the footage of Vargas’s victory speech and note that Cyrus stepped away just a moment before the shooting. Enraged, Olivia marches over to the White House to talk to Mellie. But Mellie feels like she’s done with this whole thing. Maybe the White House is cursed. She’s already lost a child and a marriage to it. And that could’ve been her on that stage getting shot.

So, Liv goes to see Fitz. She knows that Vargas has died. She knows that his word on the next president will mean everything. Who’s he going to choose? When he hesitates, she tells him about her suspicion of Cyrus. He refuses to believe it but agrees to hold off on announcing Vargas’s death until she gets proof of Cyrus’s involvement.

Fitz finds Mellie on the balcony, where they used to have so many talks. Now they are divorced, but they still share so much history. She apologizes for thinking he was weak — she now realizes he just wasn’t power-hungry. Fitz asks if she really wants to keep her hat in the game. “You can just walk away,” he says. But Mellie isn’t ready to give in. She wants this.

The gladiators give Olivia some bad news. They combed through the FBI tip line but have nothing linking Cyrus to the shooter. She refuses to believe it and marches to the hospital to confront him herself. But when she sees him, she’s shocked. Cyrus is covered in blood and nearly catatonic. The shooting has completely devastated him. Olivia has to own up to Fitz that she was wrong.

Fitz arrives at the hospital. He’s made his choice and he’s backing Cyrus. He wants Cyrus to promise to be better. “I’m handing you America; take care of it.”

The next morning, Fitz announces Vargas’s death. The gladiators pack up their files, and Quinn and Charlie banter about going to the Caribbean. An exasperated Huck says Quinn won’t go because she’s a workaholic, but Charlie wants to go to propose. Whaaa!

That’s put on ice for a moment when Huck realizes there’s one tip-line call that they never heard. They trace it back to a woman, Jennifer Fields, and then trace her phone to that cabin seen in the opening moments. So much for questioning her. They finally retrieve the call, which was manually deleted by someone. In the message, Jennifer says it was all Cyrus.

Is the next president of the United States a murderer?

Scandal airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC. Watch clips and full episodes of Scandal for free at Yahoo View.