The fourth season of the American television drama series Scandal began airing on September 25, 2014, in the United States on ABC and consists of 22 episodes.

The season focuses on Olivia's return to Washington, D.C., after spending two months relocated to an island off the coast of Zanzibar with Jake, and how her absence has affected the people around her.

The season also focuses on how Olivia Pope & Associates has been closed, which has led Abby, Huck, and Quinn to seek alternative employment.

Later in the season, Abby finds herself even more stressed by the presence of her abusive ex-husband, who has been nominated for Virginia State Senator.

The case takes an unexpected twist when Quinn discovers that the killer of Catherine's daughter, Kobiak, has been working with both the head of the RNC, Elizabeth North, and Vice President Andrew Nichols.

She finally comes to terms with her loss after finding out that Jerry was murdered due to being deliberately exposed to bacterial meningitis rather than contracting the disease naturally, and she chooses to form an alliance with Elizabeth North.

While Olivia is being held captive, the team that Nichols hired experiences an internal issue leading to its ringleader being killed by Gus, one of his employees.

Stephen Finch, a former Pope & Associates "gladiator" gone for three seasons, returns to rescue Olivia in Russia, and she is safely brought back to America.

Despite the team's concerns regarding her mental and physical state, Olivia chooses to return to her work, starting with a case of an African-American boy who was shot by a white police officer.

The team's further investigation finds out that the white police officer set the entire thing up to look like he shot the boy in self-defense, and he is consequently arrested.

Susanne threatens to reveal secrets about D.C.'s top politicians on her new book; while the team was able to eventually convince her not to do so, Huck suddenly kills her.

Mellie faces problems in her campaign when her half-sister visits the White House and threatens to reveal her past, but Fitz manages to persuade her not to.

Mellie then uses the opportunity to raise her ratings, by giving a speech on how the military mishandled the case, showing sympathy for the female officer instead of talking about her son.

[1] Production started at the beginning of July, as Rhimes tweeted that the writers were hard at work collaborating ideas and mapping out the fourth season.

[16] In an interview with showrunner Shonda Rhimes, she revealed that the fourth season would highlight Darby Stanchfield's character, Abby Whelan.

Kerry Washington continued her role as protagonist of the series, Olivia Pope, a former White House Director of Communications with her own crisis management firm.

Darby Stanchfield played Abby Whelan, now the White House Press Secretary after quitting Pope & Associates.

Katie Lowes acted as Quinn Perkins, and Guillermo Díaz portrayed the character Huck, the troubled tech guy who works for Olivia.

Jeff Perry continued to portray Cyrus Beene, the Chief of Staff at the White House, who gets forced to marry a prostitute to avoid a news scandal.

[17] Television host Ellen DeGeneres revealed on Twitter that her wife, Portia de Rossi, was cast in a multiple-episode "top secret arc".

[21] On August 12, 2014, Mary McCormack and Josh Randall were announced to appear on the show as a couple, which aired as part of the season's second episode.

[32] Jason Butler Harner was cast for the show in a recurring role, and first appeared in the winter premiere, playing Ian Woods.

[33] On February 20, 2015, it was reported that comedian Lena Dunham had been cast in an unknown guest role,[34] and will appear in the sixteenth episode.

Henry Ian Cusick returned as Stephen Finch after leaving the series after the first season as the character would try and live a normal life with his fiancé Georgia.

[36] On March 5, 2015, it was announced that both Kate Burton and Dan Bucatinsky will return playing the characters Sally Langston and James Novak respectively.

[40] The fourth season began airing September 25, 2014, in the U.S. in a new timeslot as a result of making room for ShondaLand produced show, How to Get Away with Murder.

The site's critics consensus reads: "Romantic tensions and twisty plot lines come to a head to create even more chaos in the delicious political fantasy that is Scandal".

If only Scandal had been a bit braver in not making Brandon a saint and Newton such an obvious bad guy, it might have made for the realest episode yet.

"[76] Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic praised the episode calling it "a tightly controlled and very deliberate exploration of race, identity, bigotry, and conscience.

"[78] Lauren Hoffman of Cosmopolitan also criticized the unrealistic element in the episode as she said: Are there people who will watch the white cop's racist tirade and, because it went unquestioned by any of Scandal's characters, determine that his actions were partially warranted?