"Scandal" creator Shonda Rhimes took to Twitter to announce the second season of her hit drama starring Kerry Washington and Columbus Short. With season one ready to wrap up its short seven-episode run (season finale airs Thursday, May 17, 10 p.m. ET on ABC), Rhimes is in that rarefied space where she can call the shots whenever she wants. Washington, who plays Olivia Pope, a high-powered fixer with a resourceful crisis management team behind her — and a complicated relationship with her old boss, the President of the United States — also took to the social media giant to express her joy at returning for a second season.

"Scandal" has a case-of-the-week element, but also carries a larger mystery within the first season, which Rhimes has promised will wrap up in the finale, leaving fans with some lingering questions to address in Season 2. 

"I felt really strongly when we got our episode order that, instead of going, 'We're doing seven [episodes] but are hoping for 13' — given that I'll be doing 54 episodes of television this year — we could look at these seven like you would a British miniseries. 'Let's 'State of Play' this and have a really great seven episodes that's a complete and total story.' So, yes, it does have a beginning, middle and an end."