Where in the world is Olivia Pope?
ABC’s Scandal left viewers with that question, when at the close of Season 4’s winter finale Liv vanished into thin air, in the midst of a romantic rendezvous with Jake. The short answer, as the season resumed?
Olivia was only taken about 15 feet away, to the apartment across the hall from hers — while Jake sprinted to the street below in nothing but his BVDs, to chase after a red herring.


Here are six other reveals/fun facts about Olivia’s disappearance, who was responsible and where she ultimately ended up.
♦ If you’re in the kidnapping game, Olivia Pope is not someone to grab. She’s crafty (deftly leaving her ring behind, for Jake to hopefully find) and sooooo much smarter than you (quickly assessing the hierarchy among her kidnappers, thus gleaning who isn’t calling the shots/is not to be afraid of).
♦ If you are among the similarly kidnapped, Olivia Pope is the person you want sharing a dingy cell with you. One of her motivational speeches — especially when fueled by an anecdote about your young daughter — will put the pep back in your imprisoned, gruel-gobbling step. (Then again, Liv might freak you out a bit by having you search her body for a tracker. Oh, and her smart mouth might get you killed. Or, “killed.”)

♦ No, really — Liv is crafty. Like, Sydney Bristow levels of crafty, hacking into her underwire bra to jerry-rig a lock pick of sorts.


♦ Olivia’s nightmares are clever, even a bit fun — populated with wink-wink props like White Hat Jams — and highly helpful, leaving her with clues about where a loose copper pipe aka weapon might be found.
♦ Olivia’s a good shot. “Heart, hips, head…. Heart, hips. head.” Or, you know, just head.
♦ But most of all, most shocking about Olivia’s “captivity,” is that is was an elaborate facade. So that when she finally put down Otto and got past the locked red door, she wasn’t in Qatar or the like, but inside a warehouse, emerging from what was basically a fancy movie set. And Ian, the “dead” journo (played by Alcatraz‘s Jason Butler Harner)? He’s the puppetmaster here, having put Liv through this ruse to extract intel from her — at the very least, the fact that POTUS will never stop searching for her.