6 Things We Want to See on the Scandal Finale

Will B613 be taken down? Will Rowan finally die? Is Rowan working with Mellie? Will David Rosen at long last get a win?

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Scandal has a lot of burning questions for its Season 4 finale (Thursday, 9/8c, ABC) -- and Joshua Malina promises answers to some. "Some things are resolved and as one would expect of a Shonda Rhimes season finale, there is plenty to look forward to in the first episode of the next season," he tells TVGuide.com. "I know the actors are dying to know what happens next. There are cliff-hanger-y elements. That'll be the next batch of theorizing, which characters are gonna pick up where....I would say there are moments of triumph and there are moments of frustration and there are moments of extremity."

Since things are as secretive as a B613 mission at Shondaland, here are six things we want to see Thursday, plus Malina's teases on what will go down.

1. Get rid of B613: They've been dangling it in front of us for a year and it's beyond overdue. While B613 was an interesting plot point upon introduction, it's turned the show, originally full of sexy political intrigue, into a convoluted spy drama. We love spy dramas as much as the next person, but there seems to be no limit to what B613 is capable of. You can argue that's the whole point of the organization, but the thing is, if you don't limit the crazy but rather insist on doubling down on it, it can spiral to the point of no return. Who isn't in B613 at this point? (Plus, how terrifying is it supposed to be when its agents can't even completely kill people?) Cut the cord now and start anew in Season 5.
What will happen: "It's funny. I just visited a friend of mine I haven't seen in years and I went to his building and the doorman said, 'You better take down B613!'" Malina says. "Strides will be made. A lot of characters in the finale will be forced to make high-stakes decisions with unpredictable results. Perhaps [B613 has gone on too long]. You wouldn't be in the minority opinion if you thought that."
2. Rowan must die: Papa Pope (Joe Morton) and B613 go hand in hand. Listen, Rowan is a fascinating villain and Joe Morton monologues like no other, but there are no stakes and suspense if Rowan is always, as Morton says, "10 steps ahead of everyone else." Let him finally get his.
What will happen: Well, the title of the episode is "You Can't Take Command." "[Morton] has his Emmy. Once you get your Emmy on this show, your life is over," Malina quips. "Dan Bucatinsky, Emmy winner, dead. Joe Morton, Emmy winner, dead? Perhaps so." But wait, is anyone dying in the first place? Guillermo Diaz has claimed at least three will. "I can neither confirm nor deny," Malina says. "This is the rumor attributable directly to Guillermo Diaz. He put a number on it, didn't he? I'm gonna let him stand out there in the wind, flapping, on that one."
3. Mellie better not be in cahoots with Rowan: The final minutes of the penultimate episode revealed Rowan's Mission Foxtail to be the first lady herself. One of the nice things about Mellie's (Bellamy Young) White House-via-Senate run was that it had nothing to do with the B613 drama, so we can only hope Rowan's using Mellie unbeknownst to her.
What will happen: We'll get the answer right away! "That's an interesting question right there. Does Foxtail know she's Foxtail?" Malina says. "What I can promise is that the whole idea of Foxtail will be jumped into within minutes of the finale. You'll definitely start to learn more pretty quickly."

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4. Let David have a win: Seriously, what does a guy have to do? It's his time. The only thing that would make Rowan's downfall better would be if David were the one to do it.
What will happen: David will do something that will definitely change your opinion on him. "I do think minds will be changed, whether for better or worse I won't say," Malina says. "I think some people are gonna flip on how they feel about it. People do [pity him] ... but it's not pity that's gonna be the main response to what he does and say in the finale. I'm sure there will be a variety of things because people view things differently, but there will be strong reactions to him. I think David is a very ballsy guy. He's more badass than maybe the audience gives him credit for. I think he's got an inner resolve, but he also has certain weak points that can be exploited."

Whether or not David's actions involve killing anyone, Malina obviously cannot say, but he teased on Twitter a few weeks ago that he'd be doing something on the show he'd never done before -- and that was no joke from the resident practical joker. "I didn't mean that necessarily to be as provocative as it came across. I enjoy watching people theorize as to what that meant. I am capable of tweeting things that are patently false," he says. "I did in fact shoot something I've never done on screen before. I can't confirm or deny whether it was shooting someone or being shot myself. It was a first for me and it was a lot of fun to shoot. It's not really a stunt, but it involved physicality. How's that for a vague answer?"

5. Expose Fitz for Operation Remington: Taking down B613 ought to mean full transparency, including revealing that Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) was the one who shot down a civilian plane all those years ago. It'll raise the stakes for everyone and further color Mellie and Fitz's complicated working partnership to get her into office.
What will happen: David won't drop it, that's for sure. "I think the massive importance and national relevance of the president having been involved in something like that is very much in David's wheelhouse and the kind of things he obsesses about," Malina says. "For all of David's faults, when he latches onto something this big, this explosive, it's not the sort of thing he'll set aside. It remains very, very important to him. Even Olivia [Kerry Washington] realized a couple [episodes] ago that she couldn't let her personal feelings get in the way of serving justice."
Plus, Malina adds, the grand jury is still not out of the question. "I think that's his basic plan, to go through the legal system," he says. "He is, as he likes to tell people, the attorney general of the United States. Maybe if he notched a big win like this, he wouldn't feel compelled to remind everyone of his title. That's what I'm hoping. One big win and people will just know that David Rosen is the attorney general. As I like to point out, that doesn't seem to stop him from ascending ever higher in stature. He is the attorney general having apparently never won a case. The sky is the limit for him!"

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6. David vs. Goliath: And by Goliath, we mean Jake (Scott Foley). Dude's been manhandling David for a while. We don't condone violence like Huck and Quinn, but with Jake still recuperating, there's no better time than now for David to kick some Jake ass.
What will happen: "I want to see how many more scenes there will be of Jake coming in and slamming my head against the desk. I'd like to put the end to that," Malina says. "I'd like either there to be a scene of David haven taken some self-defense classes and he's able to do something back or just Jake enters the room and David just slams his head against the desk, like, 'I got this.' I don't think David is above kicking a guy when he's down. I can take [Foley] down."

Maybe that's even the new thing David does? "I do like that theory."

What do you want to see on the Scandal finale?

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