How to Get Away with Murder – S3xEp05 – It’s About Frank

The Episode is ‘All About Frank, and it takes us to 11 years ago when Frank was a prisoner, locked in a cell in Jail featuring Sam Keating as his savior. Sam is visiting him because of Frank’s family getting in touch with him begging him to find a way to make sure Frank gets out on parole. Frank resists, but Sam takes the case to Annalise who has amazing micro braids down her back. Annalise doesn’t see the point, but she meets with Frank anyway. Frank has been committing crimes – like a real psychopath ( his words ) and Annalise thinks he’s trying to avoid the real world.

Bonnie traveled to Coalport to take care of her father’s funeral arrangements, but Mainly, she knows Frank is there. He transmitted a message through the killing of her father, and she thanks him through an immediate hug as soon as she sees him.

Frank and Bonnie spend time together in his motel room. They review the last few months and discuss why he killed Mahoney. Bonnie tries to convince Frank he should come back to Philadelphia, that he and Annalise just need to forgive each other for everything. She insists Annalise doesn’t really want him dead, but ultimately he doesn’t believe her.

However, things reached a new level when Bonnie heads down to sleep with Frank on the floor. He’s having a bad dream and she tries to relax him…which leads to them kissing and having sex(!). I was surprised as well, though, watching the scene that it seemed like maybe this wasn’t their first time.. The next morning, Bonnie goes out to bring back a delicious Coalport breakfast. When she returns, Frank is gone again.

Since Frank has been gone, that’s been a considerable loss to Bonnie — and it’s a surprise to her how much she’s feeling that. She’s very much been questioning her identity and her role in Annalise’s house. The dynamic has shifted so much without him. She no longer has a touchstone there, and Annalise hasn’t been available to Bonnie in the way that she craves.

Annalise attends her first AA meeting — and promptly runs into Pres. Hargrove. Our heroine’s struggle to resist the bottle leads to painful flashbacks showing us her struggles to conceive, her miscarriages and the toll they took on her marriage to Sam. Annalise’s flashbacks results in a drunk dial to Nate, a brutal bout of vomiting (cleaned up by Wes, of all people) Side note: Did anyone wonder if Annalise might bust a move on Wes after he wiped vomit from her hair? Not a romantic moment, but the way she caressed his face, asked him if Meggie was too good to him, conjured up all those latent questions about whether she feels maternal for her young protege or some other type of way.

Michaela and Oliver going to extremes to find out what Mr. Drake was hiding was a pretty good move, but I’m getting the feeling he’s not the only one behind the flyers.

It seems like that plot was tied up a little too quickly and that’s not going to be a good thing. There was nothing that felt satisfying about the way Annalise went to confront him.

It was over and done with in less than a minute. Maybe the scene will be revisited because you know how this show likes to play with your expectations. One thing that really got to me was that Mr. Drake was studying law and still kept all the evidence on his computer.

How to Get away with Murder – S3xEp03 – Always Bet Black

Since we won’t know who the dead body is until the end of the season, here’s what we already know and what has been revealed on that last episode.

After learning that Oliver is safe and working on erasing some evidence from Annalise’s phone, Bonnie comes to help out Oliver on the scene and assures us she’s not the one under the sheet.But, apparently, there’s another body being pulled out of Annalise’s house and that person still has a pulse.

This week’s case of the pro-bono clinic focuses on Toby Solomon & it’s Michaela’s turn to struggle with this week’s client ( N.B: she only got first-chair because she stood up, literally ). However, she’s also distracted by the news that her ex-fiance has gotten engaged to someone else.

Toby is one of the worst clients ever shown in this series. At some point, he confesses to killing someone named Jamie Sherman. We see a flashback of him getting bullied, and apparently, that’s a good enough excuse to kill someone. Annalise doesn’t defend his actions but asks where the body is.

Even though, Bonnie considered turning Toby in through an anonymous tip. (* because of her father rape history, Bonnie is uncomfortable letting him get away with what he did ), Annalise does her job and it’s her job to defend even the worst clients . She gets Toby three years in jail in exchange for confessing to manslaughter.

Laurel, still on the hunt for Frank, goes to see the one person she hates most – her father — and that shows the addiction to Frank is still there. After visiting her Father; a visit filled with bickering and with the help of a confused mediator ( father’s assistant ). She finally left knowing where Frank is.

It took her ‘selling a piece of her soul’ to her father, and she’s definitely keeping that information to herself. By playing a double game, she tricks Annalise in thinking she was empty handed. She’s buying herself time. She can’t trust anyone — except maybe Wes. She can’t relay that information to Annalise and Bonnie without being one step ahead, and so she’s planned that out.

I’m pretty sure Laurel is going to pursue her lead and something tells me she’s taking Wes with her. It’s only a matter of time until Wes realizes he truly has feelings for Laurel especially after his girlfriend mentioned her doubts and almost broke up with him because of it.

How to get Away with Murder – S3xEp02 – There Are Worse Things Than Murder

This week, the suspense of the incident wasn’t really put at the center. Even though the season’s premiere left us hungry for more, the second episode distracts us with a new case the students at Annalise’s law clinic are working on. It’s about Irene, a woman who brutally murdered her husband after enduring years of physical, sexual, and mental abuse. Their task is to argue in favor of her parole application — which is no easy feat, since she was not remorseful about murdering her husband.

After meeting with each of the students, Irene selects Connor to work for her, and he takes the lead on the case. Connor isn’t thrilled at first — he thinks it’s a lost battle. She knew it was the only way out of her horrible life with him and is not apologetic for that. In her eyes, she did the only thing she could to make sure she was free from him.

Irene grew under his skin, and Conner ends up delivering a passionate speech arguing that they’re focusing on her actions — they’ve implied that she wasn’t in imminent danger at the exact time of the murder — rather than focusing on the actions of the man who abused her for years. (The board actually asks Irene why she didn’t leave the relationship.) Connor tells the board that by punishing Irene for what her husband did, they’re continuing the cycle of abuse.

 

 

We also see less of Frank, the ‘fugitive’ with the sexy Shaved Beard & Hair apart from this one scene when he places a call to Annalise’s burner phone, bloody and tearful, explaining he had no choice but to kill his former boss’s new heavy. Then he does what anyone would do to cover up the murder. Drive the dead person’s car into a tree, spray it with petroleum, and set it on fire. Classic !

Bonnie does her usual snooping and learns that Laurel hasn’t really been honest and has been calling Frank for months. This all ends with Bonnie and Annalise convincing Laurel to leave Frank one last message — assuring him no one is mad, and asking him to come home. Oh-oh

On an Annalise Level, her weird relationship with Wes keeps heading towards ‘disturbing’. I can’t decide if she wants to serve as a mother figure to him, or if she’s just being a ‘cougar’. Asking him to move in was totally out of place. I doubt that the University board would approve having students moving in with their professors.

Each week, the flash-forward scenes will reveal who is not under the sheet. “Every episode, you’ll see more of the night of the house fire and you’ll always see more of who is not under that sheet. So you can follow along at home for who is alive,” said show creator Pete Nowalk last week.

Tonight, Oliver was the lucky one who will not be killed off. But why is Annalise giving Oliver her phone two months from now and asking him to delete everything?

How to get away with Murder – S3xEp01 – We’re good people Now

From the first second, we buckle up our seat belts…”We’re Good People Now” definitely was a solid start. It got us real ready for a new season full of twists and turns.

The episode opens with Wes remembering the end of the last season’s event, he takes us on a detailed tour from when he introduced himself to his father. Apparently he met up with Annalise straight after the tragedy, but we also figure out that Frank was behind it all and was the one that tricked him and led him to where he is.

Since the beginning, it’s pretty obvious that the relationship between Wes and Annalise plays an important role, and it seems that their ‘bond’ is going to be an important plot point once again, but Viola Davis and Alfred Enoch are so perfect together that it isn’t at all a bad thing.

In the Now, there’s Frank’s absence and there’s Annalise spy-texting from a burner phone she keeps hidden in her jewelry box. But just as how HTGAWM episodes usually go, the premiere is full of flashbacks giving us a ‘I know what you did last summer’ sort of vibe, since they mainly revolved around how Annalise and the Keating Five spent their summers, which on a front level is quite boring.

Annalise helped Michaela get out of trouble after a night of too much drinking & driving. ( let’s pause and point out how Michael seemed to have gone up from being an up-tight perfectionist to a party girl )

Annalise refused to money-aid Asher’s poor pocket now that rich daddy’s dead.

Annalise drenched her feet in the rooftop pool of Connor and made him a promise to never hire Oliver (a promise she very quickly breaks). ( Let’s also pause and point out that Conner weirdly opted for a quite relaxed and easy lifestyle than what we would have expected from him )

Annalise planted some flowers while arguing with Laurel who tried to convince everyone that she is not Team Frank. Although, In present-day September, it’s revealed Laurel has been calling Frank for months and leaving voicemails, seemingly getting no response.

Pieces of paper with Annalise’s face and “Killer” scrawled in red are popping up all over campus, first in her law-clinic lecture hall and then on various boards. Annalise doesn’t seem too concerned by this, but she did mention it to Nate as they exchanged massages

And most importantly this episode flashes forward two months to reveal Annalise’s house burning up in flames with a DEAD BODY being carted out on a stretcher. We’re promised a bit of a game over the next several episodes, with weekly hints on which characters are still alive.

I’m totally up for the guess game…and this couldn’t get more exiting !

How to get away with murder / S2xEp15 / Anna Mae

Anna Mae went home to Memphis to get away from her life and could you really blame her? Annalise has been through hell and back lately (you can debate about how much of it was her own doing another time) and when you feel like you have nowhere else to go, you go home.

And it was wonderful to see Ophelia back, dishing out insults and advice at every turn. Annalise and her mother have a terribly complicated relationship, but when Analise needed to get away, there was only one person to turn to.

Viola Davis gives the best performance on television, week after week. In “Anna Mae,” she’s especially spectacular because of the subtlety in what she’s given. There is a lot of weight to the material, but it isn’t excessive, it isn’t melodramatic. How To Get Away With Murder almost always gets carried away, doing too much and then doing even more. But it’s telling that in that moment in her mother’s backyard, the show never once does too much. It does just enough—just enough to make us see Annalise’s pain, see her first steps toward healing.

The one person Annalise didn’t really need to see was her father. I have to assume that this storyline will make its way into next season, because there was no real closure here. It’s hard to be mad at either Annalise or Ophelia in this situation.

The Best Flashback was the one who got us some of the real answers when Frank calls up all his courage and tells Sam about his part in the loss of Annalise’s child. Considering all the secrets that are kept on this show, it was really refreshing to see Frank of the past taking responsibility for his actions. He may not have ordered the hit on Annalise, but he was instrumental in giving her opposition the tools to do the job. It was a great scene for Charlie Weber (who plays Frank), and a touching moment for an enforcer we’ve seen do many horrible things.

We now know why Frank killed Lila, why he owed Sam, why he kept it a secret all this time. We know the truth about Caleb and Catherine Hapstall, about Philip. But these twists, especially the non-Hapstall ones, are grounded in the emotional backbone of the episode. They’re not even necessarily the focus. So much of the episode unfolds in Annalise’s childhood home in Memphis, between Annalise, her mother, her sister, and the life she left behind, a life that still informs who she is no matter how hard she tries to make herself believe it doesn’t.

Caleb is a serial killer! Just when we thought that the Hapstall portion of this season was all but wrapped up, a major bombshell cracks the case wide open. Our suspicion may have jumped around all season, but something never sat right with us about Caleb. We learned that Caleb killed Philip Jessup’s mother when she could provide evidence against Caleb. He also killed his parents, and Catherine lied about his alibi because she had more than just sisterly love for her adopted brother.

Other than all of the stuff in Memphis, the scene that stood out the most to me was the once between Annalise and Bonnie at episode’s end, when Bonnie tries to have Frank’s back. “Why do you do that?” Annalise asks Bonnie. “What?” she replies, earnestly. “Believe what men tell you.” It’s a sad and striking statement, especially since we know so much more about Bonnie and her past than we did last season. The scene is written with a lot of ambiguity, which I assume was purposeful. Annalise tells Bonnie that Frank needs to be taken care of, and even though it’s generally safe to assume that everyone on this show is always talking about murder, nothing about the scene is too clearly defined. But that’s what makes it great.

I mean, obviously, it’s not funny that Wallace was murdered. But whoever shot him (Frank, probably) could have waited until Wes was not, like, three inches from his dad. Also, Wes probably should have kept his ass home. Maybe then Wallace would not have been killed in front of him. Either way, Wes’s life is trash. His mom killed herself, his girlfriend Rebecca got killed, and his father (who raped his mother) got killed in front of him. Pray for him, pray for Frank, and pray that Masher decides to bone again.

How to Get Away with Murder / S2xEp14 / There’s My Baby

Annalise lost her baby and we knew that this was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier watching her hold her dead baby while Eve, who wasn’t technically family, had to stand around outside and wait. Soul-crushing. We know Viola can do the big scenes with power, but her subtle work is somehow even better.

In the 2005 flashbacks, it’s clear the Mahoney murder trial has her grappling with the question of conscience. Does she have one? Should she? Can she afford to if she wants to keep her job? It seems Annalise’s fatal flaw was going against her more human instincts — to admit her true feelings for Eve, to do right by Rose — and brazenly operating within the system instead: marrying Sam and proving herself professionally at any cost. Since her own actions technically drove her where she got, she’ll always feel like she killed her own baby.

Poor Wes. It’s really no wonder he and Annalise have this twisted relationship, as they’re both extremely damaged individuals. I’m very curious to see what Wes does with this information going forward. Wes isn’t exactly one to just let things go, so I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Mr. Mahoney in the future.

Meanwhile, all the little lawyer children (they are still in law school, right? They never study anymore, so it’s a little unclear) have to go to Denver and give statements on the 5 W’s of their existence on the night of Emily Sinclair’s death. This gives each of them a brief moment of welcome levity — from Connor’s admission to having a resting bitch face to Laurel’s rejection of the DA’s “Latino besties schtick.” Even Bonnie has to flash a rare smile. But there’s immunity on the line, so will someone crack?

Wait, I almost forgot about Bonnie on the warpath. Having recorded Frank and Laurel’s laundry room breakup last week, she confronts Frank about killing Lila for Sam, but he’s all, “Sorry, Bonbon, you’re a killer too, remember?” Crap. Bonnie does. “We’re all bad people here,” she reminded all the household pests earlier that day.

Asher and Michaela were both sloppy, sloppy drunk, so I fully expected this to be a one and done drunken mistake.

While drinking led to bathroom antics for two of the Keating 5, it led one of them to make a dumb, dumb confession. Annalise now knows Frank killed Lila. And worse than that, she believes Frank is telling people it was on her behalf. Sure this advances the plot forward, but I just didn’t like the way it came out. Plus, Laurel didn’t even get the story right.

How to get away with murder – S2xEp13 – Something Bad Happened

Everything gets finally revealed about Wes’s Mother on that 13th episode. Rose was involved in the case of the Mahoney family. Annalise was asking her to testify, but she refused and planned to run. With Annalise in her apartment, Rose took a knife and stabbed herself in the throat to ensure that Christophe (Wes) would stay safe from Wallace Mahoney and his family.

In a show filled with mysteries, we’ve now got another one to consider. It’s been pretty clear the Mahoney family as a whole is awful, but Rose’s cryptic final words would led me to believe there’s another bombshell out there.

Amidst all the flashbacks, I’d almost forgotten about that 2016 lives everyone’s still leading. But here’s Wes, seeking solace from the law school’s therapist instead of his one friend in the world, Laurel. In trying to rack his brain for the truth about his past, Wes comes dangerously close to telling his doc that he’s actually murdered rather recently. At one point his therapist says, “Your relationship with Annalise is very muddy and feels maternal,” which is another profound understatement of the century, but at least someone’s mentioning it!

Laurel’s not getting any satisfying answers from anyone these days. She definitively breaks up with Frank, even after he claims the reason he took so long to tell her about the two women he murdered is because…he loves her. Nope! Cute sentiment, but Laurel is out. “You think that’s the type of person I want to love me? It’s not, and the truth is I don’t love you back,” she cries softly. She claims she won’t tell the others about his murders because it would only freak them out even more. BUT…Bonnie is recording them in the basement!

Best moment; When Annalise finds out that the Assistant DA she thought could get them immunity in return for some info about Philip’s last known location is trying to get leverage on her, Annalise shows the full extent of her intelligence. Within seconds of finding out about the backstab by the DA from Nate, Connor impersonates the warrant issuing judge’s clerk and tells the cops that the warrant was issued. Since the warrant was not yet issued, it makes the police’s search illegal and gives Annalise the leverage she needs to get immunity for herself and her associates. Bam! Lawyered.

The last few minutes of any How to Get Away with Murder episode are always the craziest, and this episode was no exception. We watched as Annalise poked around Wes’ apartment looking for him after seeing his shadow at the door, only to learn that he’d been at Eve’s office the entire time. Annalise is in the apartment with an intruder. She tells Eve to call the authorities as someone grabs her leg…It’s Philipp Who’s going after her, and we’re left wondering what would happen next.

How to get away with murder / S2xEp12 / It’s a Trap

As we quickly approach the season finale, it’s about time we got some more answers to some of the questions that have been looming large for a long time. And while we still don’t know what Frank owed Sam that caused him to murder Lila, we now know more about Wes’s mother and her connection to Annalise.

Thursday’s set of flashbacks shows a much lighter, feelings-friendly version of Annalise. So much softer, in fact, that Annalise enlisted floppy-haired Frank to play bad cop to her pregnant confidant in her 2005 dealings with Rose, a key witness for the Charles Mahoney murder trial. We see Annalise steel up hard, maybe for the first time, when her client’s father, Wallace , claims he only hired her because she’s a Black woman. “Don’t give your people a bad name” .

When it comes to really small details, this show can be incredibly smart and subversive, allowing its characters to talk about race, sexuality, and gender in a way that makes the conversation personal.

Wes and Laurel Go to Cleveland to Investigate Annalise’s Old Case at the courthouse digging through files and materials from Annalise’s case.  They find out Wes’ mother Rose had planned to testify anonymously but ditched Frank as soon as she was called to the stand.  Rose had asked to testify anonymously due to her legal status in the United States.

We also get an outrageous car hookup between Laurel and Wes, who have been a delightfully matched friendship pair during this season. In Laurel’s tearful confession of her father-Frank relation, Wes takes the opportunity to reassure her that she’s not a bad person by kissing her.

When it comes to Connor, for example, do you really blame the guy for wanting to go to Stanford? He can try to make his relationship last over there, and you can also get away from Annalise Keating. If we were any character on this show, we’d run in the other direction for all of this murder drama. There’s nothing to gain by being in this position anymore.

In other News, Bonnie breaks it off with Asher (then cries in private). Michaela and Caleb hook up (though his visit to sister Catherine includes a disturbing interlude where she tries to make him think she’s the one who killed their parents). Annalise cooks dinner for Nate — then dumps it down the In-Sink-Erator when he questions her motives. She thinks maybe he’s playing along, but seeking revenge, but he’s pretty convincing when he holds her in his arms and tells her she’s already been forgiven.

How to get away with murder . S02xEp11 . She Hates Us .

The 11th episode finally gave us the flashbacks we were waiting for to fill in some of the gaps in Annalise’s past while also revealing that in the present things are starting to fall apart.

The best part about the flashbacks is seeing old-timers Bonnie and Frank during their humble beginnings at the haunted house of Annalise Keating and Associates. Frank as Annalise’s assistant (“secretary” if you’re nasty), and Bonnie is still the same organizational wizard with a soft spot for the boss, helping her lie on her side to relieve pregnancy pains. Oh, whoa, hey, Sam! Not yet murdered by a law trophy, the cheating Dr. Keating is super excited about the baby boy they’re about to have.

Week after week we watch as she pushes people away and week after week we hope she’ll get it together and stop doing that.

Meanwhile, Wes is stuck in the health center, having passive-aggressively threatened suicide in a last-ditch attempt to secure sleeping pills from a doctor. Every episode has a hilarious nod to the fact that they’re technically in law school, but this one seems serious. But you know what? At least he’ll get to nap in there. “I might check in, too,” Annalise snaps at the messenger, Laurel.

There’s also Asher, forced to realize that he may be overstaying his welcome at Connor and Oliver’s house. There’s Michaela, still shunned by Caleb, forced to contemplate whether she’ll allow him to treat her like the only wrongdoer anymore. There’s Nate, who won’t make amends with Annalise and only passingly shows interest in tracking down Philip.

Sometimes it’s hard to know whether or not Laurel is being sincere, mostly because we’ve seen her lie convincingly for two seasons now. In her scene with Frank in his apartment tonight, she seemed as sincere as she ever has. She wants someone to talk to outside of the Keating 5. She hopes that by learning Frank’s deepest, darkest secrets (that he’s hinted to before), she can feel closer to him than ever. Frank tries to hold back, he truly does, but when he sees that he’s about to lose Laurel for good, even he can’t keep every secret. He tells her that he is the one who killed Lila. We can’t wait to see the completion of this scene in next week’s episode.

Last scene was Connor getting a video in his email that seriously threatens all of their freedom. Can’t wait to see where that video leads them next week. It looks as if the Keating 5 are going to be crawling back to Annalise for guidance. If I were her, I’d let them sweat it out a minute before I helped.

 

How to get away with murder, S02xEp10,”What Happened To You, Annalise?”

Two weeks after Wes shot Annalise at the Hapstall mansion, she returns home in her purple silk pajamas and there’s nothing glamorous about her ensuing office-bound bed rest. Case in point: Bonnie’s there. Demonstrating her signature combination of protection and sabotage (it’s how she shows she cares), Bonbon cleans out Annalise’s mirrored liquor cabinet and sprinkles extra Vicodin on her desserts. She seems to know from years of career experience exactly how to induce specific visions (Rose leaving her baby with Annalise against her will) that will keep her boss occupied/scared.

It felt great to be back in the mix, with the lying, devious, backstabbing crew we’ve come to know, but there was a little something off about this installment. Maybe I’m in the minority here, but it wasn’t at all what I was expecting after the long break. And to be honest, I can’t figure out if I enjoyed it.

the episode was all about Annalise’s recovery…and yet, she’s never been worse. She’s depressed. She’s traumatized.

But Annalise did enough to spare Caleb and Catherine of the worst possible fate by taking the stand, changes the game on everyone when she crumbles on the witness stand.  No one knew about her plan to force Catherine to admit that she shot her.  Annalise sacrifices Catherine’s innocence to pin everything onto Philip.  She recruits Caleb to tell Catherine what to say in court and tell the courtroom that Philip drugged her. and for now, it appears as though some of the events there may be resolved … or at least as resolved as they can be for the show.