Recap: 'Scandal' is back with lots of drama and sex in season 5 premiere

This image released by ABC shows actress Kerry Washington in a scene from "Scandal." (AP/ABC)

[Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers from the season 5 premiere of "Scandal"]

Olivia Pope bedded the President and tried to solve a royal murder mystery as First Lady Millie Grant locked horns with a new rival on the season five premiere of “Scandal.”

It took less than 60 seconds for Liv (Kerry Washington) and Fitz (Tony Goodwyn) to start tearing up the sheets. Their passionate romp was interwoven in the opening scenes with footage of former Vice President Sally Langston (Kate Burton) decrying the Commander-in-Chief for hosting a State Dinner at the White House honoring the royal family of Caledonia.

Fitz, she tells viewers of “The Liberty Report,” is using the occasion to get the Queen to support opening a new military base in her country.

Mellie (Bellamy Young), meanwhile, is nowhere to be found. At the end of last season, she was booted from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and now Team Fitz is spreading the word that she has the flu and won’t be able to attend the swanky black tie affair.

In the powder room, Abby confides to Olivia that she thinks she is “off her game” at work and starts to fantasize out loud about how great it would be to have the life of Princess Emily. But — oops! — the Princess overhears her conversation then laments how no one treats her like a “real person.”

Cut to Liv and Fitz, trying to steal another moment on the bed — until the phone rings. Bad news. It’s the Queen. The Princess has been killed in some sort of car accident in a D.C. tunnel. (Shades of Princess Diana.)

Liv knows the paparazzi have photos from the scene of the accident. To keep them from getting out she convinces Prince Richard to be photographed IDing her body at the morgue. It makes a much better tabloid cover shot, after all…

Liv and Quinn are now determined to find out who caused the crash. They hone in on a suspect riding a motorcycle. She tells Attorney General Rosen (Joshua Malina) that the man is a hacker who was posing as a photographer to hack into the princesses car and cause the crash.

“Somebody wanted the Princess dead,” she figures out.

Meanwhile, Mellie is throwing shade at Fitz’s new Chief of Staff, Elizabeth North (Portia De Rossi), demanding that she deliver the President to her side when she is sworn in as the senator from Virginia the next day.

Mellie reminds Elizabeth that she previously saved her butt and “as payment, you stabbed me in the back.” She demands to know why she was betrayed.

“Your payment was that I got you elected,” Elizabeth shoots back. “You are sitting here in this office as a United States Senator because of me.”

Oh, yes. And the President will not be attending her swearing in ceremony. Or will he?

After a bit of nudging from Olivia, Fitz decides he should probably make an appearance after all. Overjoyed, Millie tries to make things right between them.

Then, the bombshell: “I’m divorcing you,” Fitz says, handing over the walking papers.

Back on the case, Liv and Quinn have concluded that the Princess was having an affair with her bodyguard. They were both murdered at the command of the Prince, she deduces.

Olivia wants to try to convince the Queen to waive diplomatic immunity and aid in her son’s prosecution. Fitz is not on board. Liv reminds him that she works for the Queen and should have gone to her first with the information. Fitz threatens to prosecute her if she does.

Olivia heads home, where she finds Huck sleeping on her sofa. He wants to go home and see his kids but can’t without her help. “You always fix me,” he says. “I can’t go home until you fix me.”

“I don’t know how to fix you,” Liv responds. “You need a much better plan than me.”

Mellie, sensing she is running out of options, heads to the home of Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) to try to lure him back as Chief of Staff. They can have eight more years together, she pitches. But he’s not biting.

Rosen arrives at the offices of Pope & Associate with a top secret autopsy report and urges Liv to spring into action before her client, the Royal Family, tells everyone the Princess died in a routine accident.

Liv decides to come clean and tells the Queen she believes her son hired someone to kill his wife — because she was pregnant with the bodyguard’s baby. But the Queen insists her son is innocent. That’s because SHE was behind the killing.

“[The Princess] had one job — to give us an heir and a spare,” the Queen explains. But Olivia can’t turn her in. She is protected by diplomatic immunity and a non-disclosure agreement.

The Queen appears to have gotten way with murder — until Olivia has a chat with her son.

As the royal family prepares to leave the country, the Prince tells his mother that he knows the truth and will tell the entire word if she doesn’t step down from the throne.

Huck pays a visit to Jake Ballard looking for help while Olivia and Fitz get into a heated argument on the White House balcony. He wants to go public with their relationship, but she doesn’t.

“How could we make it work in public when we can barely make it work in private,” she asks. “It’s not a solution, Fitz.”

And what they both need now are solutions as Sally Langston goes on live television in the final scene to tell America that the president’s relationship with Mellie is a sham and he is secretly bedding Olivia.

“America’s truth seeking freedom missiles are squarely locked on their target,” she says. “You, Mr. President, I see you sir.”

“Scandal” airs Thursdays on ABC.