'Scandal' season 6 spoilers: Eli Pope is not the puppet master?

Rowan/Eli Pope (Joe Morton) has been established as a shadowy character who is responsible for pulling the strings and who may have also been the one to orchestrate the death of Frankie Vargas (Ricardo Chavira), who was just elected president. However, episode 5 of season 6, "They All Bow Down," revealed that he might be just an instrument of a puppet master, who is played by Zoe Perry.

In true Shonda Rhimes-style, little information has been revealed about the unnamed character. Nonetheless, she already made an impact on viewers as the one possibly orchestrating the events through Eli Pope.

Scott Foley, who plays Jake Ballard, talked about the mysterious character in an interview with Variety. He said, "It's the first time in 'Scandal' history that we see Rowan is truly afraid of someone. He's always been the boss who's been pulling the strings, but now, someone is pulling his strings."

He continued, "We know she's got something on Rowan – she's got enough on him that he's willing to do whatever it is that she wants him to do." He added that one of the things she may have on him is the possibility that she will hurt Olivia (Kerry Washington).

Meanwhile, Foley, in a separate interview with TVLine, said that the door has not fully closed yet on his character's reconciliation with Olivia, especially given Ballard's rocky relationship with his wife, Vanessa (Jessalyn Gilsig). However, the couple will still keep up their façade of a power couple, given that he is now the new Vice-President.

The existence of a master puppeteer can spell disaster for the characters of "Scandal," especially given that one of her puppets is the head of B6-13, a covert intelligence group, which, while under the auspices of the US Government, does not seem to be accountable to the president of the country.

Episode 6, titled "Extinction," is set to provide more details about Perry's mysterious character. The upcoming episode is also set to show what exactly happened when Frankie got assassinated. This will air on March 16, Thursday, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.