Scandal returned Thursday night and delivered one of the most unique episodes of the series: It was all Olivia, all the time.

The show took its time following Ms. Pope after she was captured by — presumably — the Vice President’s people. Despite only focusing on Olivia, new foes kept the episode exciting as they continued to threaten her.

In order to please viewers, who’ve been anxiously waiting for the show to return, Scandal did a bit of fan-servicing so that it wasn’t only Olivia. Abby and Fitz, for example, appeared in a dream sequence to please everyone on Team Fitz. Meanwhile, [Team] Jake had the second highest amount of screen time behind Olivia.

And now, the nitty gritty Scandal recap: After the show flashes forward to the last moments of tonight’s episode in which Olivia is frantically running down a hallway, the show jumps back in time to the mid-season finale, where we see Olivia’s almost-fun night with Jake playing out as it did in November.

Olivia gets captured by a masked man seconds before Jake steps into the living room and finds that spilled glass of wine — her last for a while. He runs outside and tries to chase down the supposed getaway car in his underwear. Having lost sight of the car, he calls Huck and relays the license plate number so they can start tracking her.

But it turns out that was all a setup. The show rewinds again, and we see that Olivia’s only been taken to the apartment across the hallway.

Inside the room, Olivia is surrounded by masked men who are dressed like an alternate version of the Blue Man Group. After Jake clears out of the apartment building a second time, they kill Lois, the nice neighbor whose home they set up shop in.

Olivia’s whisked into a vehicle and knocked out with a drug shot into her neck. When she wakes up, Olivia’s in a holding chamber with another prisoner named Ian, a writer who’s been trapped there for a “long time.” Olivia speculates that they’re in Sudan based on what she’s seeing and hearing outside, but viewers could easily surmise that she’s in West Angola given the Vice President’s wishes.

(It’s not all bad news for Olivia — she traveled halfway across the world while drugged, yet her hair still looks just as good as it does during a busy day at Olivia Pope & Associates.)

Despite being trapped in an unknown location, Olivia appears to trust mystery man Ian very quickly. Does the lack of proper sleep cause her to not realize this guy could potentially be an enemy? Does she not realize it’s strange that they’re being held together despite no common connection?

Days continue to pass, and the only indicator of time is the condition of Olivia’s hair. The President hasn’t come to save her even though she believed he would — something that she had told Ian (Big mistake!). By the end of the montage she’s a changed person — she no longer cares about putting toilet paper on the seat.

Several more toilet visits pass when Olivia finally realizes that she may be able to break through the bathroom window. Unfortunately, they catch her in the act of breaking out, and as punishment they supposedly kill Ian (at this point we’re still skeptical about his intentions).

More and more time passes, and one day she wakes up to the sound of a helicopter overhead. Jake has come to save the day!

He heroically busts open the cell door and tells her they have to leave now. Team Jake all the way!

But wait… it was all a dream.

Now Olivia is dreaming of herself in a luxurious home in Vermont with Fitz, surrounded by jars of jelly and only local stop sign problems to worry about.

Her dreams — these hopes for a better tomorrow — begin to come to an end when Tom and Abby appear in her visions. Abby reminds her that none of this is possible. Olivia and Fitz can’t simply leave everyone behind.

She’s stuck in this miserable life forever.

Back in reality, Olivia’s still allowed trips to the bathroom despite her breakout attempt. This time, the window is sealed up with bricks.

She breaks down as she realizes she’s in a jam worse than a broken jar in Vermont. When she collapses onto the bathroom floor in defeat, she looks toward the sink and notices a pipe she can remove (thanks to a little assistance from Dream Abby). As she exits the bathroom, Olivia clubs the security guard and runs with his gun.

As she runs, viewers hear what’s going on inside Liv’s head — moments like “are we gladiators or are we bitches?” run through her mind as she runs towards a big red door. She runs into the other asshole security guard and shoots him point blank after several taunts. What a badass move!

Olivia breaks through the door, and she’s free! …Right?

Nope. Olivia’s been in a studio this whole time. And yep, “Ian” was pretending to be a prisoner to get some secrets out of her. Namely, the fact that the President will be desperate to save her.

“Now let’s go. We have a lot of work to do. This is just the beginning,” he tells her.

She’s not free. At least not this week. And it’s all because she keeps wanting to save people.

In a preview for next week’s episode, we see that Olivia has to record a video in which she shares “Ian’s” demands. Everyone in Washington D.C. gets to watch the video and is in shock at what’s become of Olivia’s hair what they see.

What did you think of the ‘Scandal’ mid-season premiere?

Scandal season 4, episode 11 airs Thursday, February 5 at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific on ABC.