Scandal Finale: Will Mama Pope Assassinate Mellie?

Mama Pope has some unfinished business.

Olivia's (Kerry Washington) mom/wrist-chewer extraordinaire Maya (Khandi Alexander) was revealed to be the evil mastermind Peus (David Warshofsky) and Gertrude (Zoe Perry) were working for at the end of last week's Scandal. And now with both of them dead, she's gotta finish the job, which, as the promo teases, involves assassinating Mellie (Bellamy Young) during her inauguration in Thursday's two-hour Season 6 finale.

Naturally, Olivia wants to take alternative measures to protect the incoming POTUS. Mellie, however, balks at all of them because she ain't scared. Well, she is, but not even the threat of death will deter her from assuming her new role.
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"I think she's absolutely afraid, I think she's terrified. I just think she's at a time in her life where she can't succumb to the terror," Young tells TVGuide.com. "She's braver than ever in the face of it. She's too close [to the White House] now. She's gonna give it her all."

Motivating Mellie is not just the prospect of achieving her life-long dream but the knowledge that becoming the first female president of the United States is a title and job that is bigger than herself -- something that Marcus (Cornelius Smith Jr.) had to reminder her of a few weeks ago in a pep talk.

"When you have a mission that is much bigger than your little life, it empowers you, but courage doesn't mean the absence of fear," Young says. "Those things definitely co-exist, but she's more committed than ever to being the president she always knew she could be. She completely is at one with her path and ready to walk into the person she always dreamed she could be with great fear, because everything is terrifying right now, but also with complete resolve."

Mellie's determination to carry on as planned may not be what Liv wants and would put her right in Maya's crosshairs, but Young says Mellivia is "such a great team" right now that her chief of staff won't leave Mellie ripe for the taking. (And surely Maya has a Plan B if the inauguration scheme is thwarted, right?) After all, Liv's own dream is to get the White House as well, and like Mellie, she too is undaunted.

"I think what is more surprising in the finale is the inner good and evil," Young teases. "What they find in themselves, what they're willing to do, lengths they're willing to go to that perhaps they never knew they would."

Hmm... would Liv kill her own mother to get the Oval?

Scandal's two-hour finale airs Thursday at 9/8c on ABC.