"Scandal" has found Olivia Pope's mother.
Khandi Alexander has been cast as the enigmatic figure, Maya Lewis, a show representative told The Wrap. The 56-year-old actress will make her first appearance on Thursday in a series of flashbacks.
A recent episode of "Scandal" revealed that President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) was responsible for shooting down a civilian airliner with more than 300 passengers on board one of which was the mother of Kerry Washington's character. Huck (Guillermo Diaz) and Jake (Scott Foley) discovered the president's involvement in the plane crash during the Thursday, Oct. 31 episode of "Scandal."
"You can only imagine what that would be like to find out that your mother did not die in the way that you thought she died, in terms of it being a willful act. It's surreal for Olivia," Goldwyn told The Hollywood Reporter. Goldwyn said Alexander's character would be a "major issue" in the show's plot.
Scott Foley, who plays Jake Ballard, a naval officer hired by president Grant to spy on Pope, said the show would flash back to when Pope was a little girl.
"The audience can imagine what that must be like to find out that your mother was murdered along with hundreds of other people. So the fact that her father was behind it is incomprehensible" The Hollywood Reporter reported. "It's going to really complicate [Olivia and Rowan's relationship] because Rowan remains a very dangerous person. It's not like everyone can just expose him or take him out. It becomes a very volatile and dangerous situation. You can imagine how devastating it is for Olivia."
Alexander currently plays LaDonna Batiste-Williams on HBO's "Treme," which returns with its fourth and final season on Dec. 1. Her other major TV credits include CBS's "CSI: Miami," NBC's "ER" and "Newsradio."
"Scandal" airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.
