Scandal: It's all hands on deck to take down mysterious organization

It’s all hands on deck to take down the mysterious organization, forcing allies and enemies to team up as Scandal charges toward potentially electing a new president.

In the wake of realizing that Cyrus (Jeff Perry) was not actually responsible for the death of Frankie Vargas (Ricardo Chavira) but framed by the mysterious organization headed up by Peus (David Warshofsky) and the Mystery Woman (Zoe Perry), Olivia (Kerry Washington) and Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) teamed up at the close of the 100th episode to get Cyrus rightfully elected. But doing so may put everyone in danger, thus facilitating everyone to work together to take down this organization once and for all.

“Olivia will be faced with a lot of difficult decisions in the upcoming episodes,” Washington tells EW, hinting Olivia may even work with Rowan (Joe Morton) to achieve their goals. “They have such a beautifully conflicted relationship. I love their love because it’s so fraught, so it’s hard for her to have to be on his team. But she also loves him, and in many ways, she’s modeling herself after the parts of him that she thinks are redeemable.”

Of course, not everyone will be pleased about reaching across the party lines, but it will become imperative to rally the troops to make sure the organization does not obtain its goal. “Mystery Woman is trouble and there’s more to it,” Darby Stanchfield cautions. “It’s bigger than the audience knows. It’s going to take a lot of man and women power.”

“This is one of the bigger things that [we] as a team will have ever had to take down, so yeah, we’ll have to call in everybody, everything we know,” Katie Lowes adds.

Therefore, “It will bring everybody back into the fold,” Scott Foley concurs. “In order to make sure that the next president gets to the throne, people who have said, ‘I’m out, I don’t want to be a part of it,’ will be brought back into the fold, and everybody is involved in doing their part.”

However, getting Cyrus elected means Olivia must swallow her own pride in realizing, once again, that Mellie (Bellamy Young) may not be going to the White House, which won’t be easy for either of them. “As we draw closer to figuring out who the president is going to be, the closer you get to anything, the more you want it,” Young says. “But the circumstances around which Mellie might have her dream achieved feels like nothing she can live with, so it really is a crossroads. She thought she faced everything she could in the fight to get to this dream, and for one of the last hurdles to be her own morality and her own conscience, it’s the biggest demon. What really will you do to get what you want? She’s going to stare it right down.”

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