ABC/Eric McCandless(LOS ANGELES) — It’s the beginning of the end, as Scandal returns tonight for its seventh and final season. But for series stars Darby Stanchfield and Katie Lowes, it almost feels like a new beginning.

“Everything is getting re-established,” Stanchfield, who plays Abby Whelan, tells ABC Radio. “I mean sets are new, and storylines are new…” Lowes, who plays Quinn Perkins, chimes in, “Our characters are new, relationships are new, so yes, it’s more full-throttle.”

The stars say there’s also a new energy on set, or maybe a familiar, old energy.

“It feels like everyone wants to leave it all out on the dance floor,” Stanchfield says.

“It almost feels like the first season in that way,” Lowes notes, remembering what it felt like when the show had just seven episodes to prove itself.  “We were given seven episodes, and we were like OK, then these seven episodes…we are going to, just in every way shape and form, blow them out of the park.”

Now of course the show has a full season to tie up loose ends and say farewell to fans, something Lowes is thankful for.

“We are so lucky to get to know in advance that we get a long goodbye and a long opportunity to really play the heck out of these roles,” she says.

But where is it all going?  Only creator Shonda Rhimes knows.

“We don’t even know what happens next week! We are told nothing,” Lowes says.

“[Shonda] will only say in interviews, I think she’s told us too, like, ‘I have a very specific ending in mind,'” Stanchfield says. “But beyond that, no.”  

You can find out what’s in store beginning Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

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