Maya Lewis, aka Marie Wallace (Khandi Alexander), is the recurring main villainess from Season Three of Scandal. She is the mother of the series' main protagonist, Olivia Pope.
Backstory[]
For 20 years, Maya was believed to have passed on, back when Olivia was only 12 years of age. The original report had Maya as one of 329 people killed in a civilian aircraft in Iceland, with Fitz Grant shooting down the plane under the orders of Olivia's father, Rowan "Eli" Pope, as part of a military action code known as "Operation Remington." The shooting was done due to Maya claiming that a bomb was on the plane.
Season Three[]
In actuality, Maya was very much alive and was held prisoner for 20 years by Rowan, with her first official appearance coming in episode 3.07, "Everything's Coming Up Mellie." After many demands to see Olivia, Maya escaped and appeared to her daughter for the first time in the series two episode later in "YOLO," as she was seeing protection from Rowan, who put Maya on the FBI's most wanted list. Fitz, now the President of the United States, helped capture Rowan and held him until Maya escaped safely, with Olivia helping her mother get to a plane that was heading to Hong Kong.
However, the final scenes of the episode had Olivia remembering that on the day of her mother's supposed passing, she remembered someone calling looking for Marie Wallace, which was the name that Rowan used to label Maya as a terrorist. With that, Olivia began to realized that her mother was indeed a terrorist, and that her father was attempting to protect Olivia by hiding the truth about her. Not only that, the following episode, "A Door Marked Exit," revealed that Maya had lied about the bomb on the plane, as she had intentionally tricked her husband into having the plane shot down. Realizing that Maya was directly responsible for the deaths of 329 innocent civilians, Olivia informed Fitz to have her mother arrested. However, Maya had killed the pilots on the plane, and was at large.
Beginning with the episode, "We Do Not Touch the First Ladies," the evil Maya began working with Adnan Salif in a plot to kill Fitz, which included enlisting a bomber as part of their scheme. The crazed villainess murdered a pair of prospects before settling on notorious anarchist Ivan Yushkin, while also giving various warnings to Olivia to stay out of her business. They had their bomb by the events of the episode, "The Fluffer," but as part of their plan, Maya murdered Senator Humphrey, which led to a funeral and opportunity, as Fitz would be giving the eulogy. After Dominic Bell was captured by Rowan in the following episode, ", more of Maya's past was revealed, as Dominic and Maya were collaborators in the past, as well as lovers; in fact, it was Dominic who enlisted Maya to marry Rowan to gain information from him.
Maya was informed about Dominic's capture by Rowan himself, who demanded the location of the bomb under the threat of killing Dominic. The villainess callous refused; even saying "goodbye" to Dominic shortly before Rowan killed him. The episode ended with Maya confronting her estranged husband and later stabbing him (Rowan survived), and she later activated the bomb, which was at the church. The bomb went off in the season finale, "The Price of Free and Fair Elections," but Fitz (among others) were saved when Jake had the funeral evacuated. Maya was eventually captured and arrested after being caught making a withdrawal, with the final scenes revealing that she was in the same exact hole where Huck was once held captive.