Both fans and cast members of ABC's "Scandal" are still talking about the major character's death in last week's episode.
Thursday's "Trojan Horse" episode saw the death of Lizzie (Portia de Rossi) due to circumstances surrounding Mellie's (Bellamy Young) future as the president. Olivia (Kerry Washington) and company worked to release Cyrus (Jeff Perry) from prison and make him the next president of the United States. Mellie was prepared to concede, but Lizzie was not letting her back down. It turned out Lizzie was following orders from a mysterious organization. When Mellie declined their offer to help, the Mystery Woman (Zoe Perry) beat Lizzie to death with a gold club and became Mellie's new chief of staff.
De Rossi's wife Ellen DeGeneres, who is also a huge fan of the show, took to Twitter to share her reaction to the tragic episode. "I'm proud of my wife for her epic performance on #Scandal. I will miss Lizzie Bear, but I'm glad Portia Bear is sitting right next to me," the "Ellen" show host posted on Friday.
Cast members Young, Darby Stanchfield, and Katie Lowes also expressed their love for their co-star as she made her final appearance in the series.
Contrary to what most fans thought, Lizzie was not killed off just for the shock factor. The producers had no plans to cut ties with de Rossi and it was not because the writers ran out of stories for Lizzie. Instead, de Rossi recently revealed that she wanted to pursue a different direction in her career.
"Toward the end of last year, I started an [art curation and publishing] business and I realized that the business was going to be very time-consuming if I was going to make a success of it," the former model said. De Rossi added that she had sent an email to the show creator Shonda Rhimes to explain the situation and asked if she could "do less shows and perhaps even leave the show." Rhimes was kind enough to let her go from the show and move on.
The fifth season of "Scandal" airs every Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT on ABC.
