Although Thursday’s episode of How to Get Away with Murder provided long-awaited backstory for a certain character, the episode lacked excitement. It proved to be a “filler” episode, providing little progress for the show and its characters. Hopefully, next week’s episode of the ABC drama will pick up the pace again. Either way, here are the top 5 moments from the episode.
1. Bonnie’s backstory was revealed
There has always been mystery surrounding Bonnie (Liza Weil) and her relation to Annalise (Viola Davis), but the mystery was finally cleared.
In a flashback, Bonnie was a witness against a notable councilman accused of rape. Bonnie claimed he raped her multiple times over the course of a year. Annalise served as the councilman’s attorney and had to discredit Bonnie. Although she had her reservations from being a rape victim as well, Annalise was pressured by her boss to harass Bonnie into thinking she didn’t remembered the event. Annalise won the case, but it resulted in her quitting her job. Annalise then sought out Bonnie and offered to help train her as a lawyer because of her guilt over the case.
The event led to Bonnie breaking down and confessing all of this to Annalise’s therapist, but she used pseudonyms to conceal their identities. As Bonnie cried, the therapist encouraged her to recognize that she truly does love Annalise. Although she was working against her, Bonnie realized she still has feelings for her. At the end of the episode, the therapist realized Bonnie was talking about Annalise.
Bonnie has served as Annalise’s right-hand woman since season one, so viewers can be relieved to finally understand how Bonnie got the position. Further, now that Bonnie accidentally revealed her and Annalise’s identity to the therapist, they will face repercussions in the coming episodes.
2. Annalise made progress on her suit against the system — sort of
For the past few episodes, Annalise has been building a case against the state of Pennsylvania and its governor. Annalise visited the prison to talk with prisoners that had been assigned to the negligent public defender. After much convincing, Annalise won over 40 of the prisoners and got their commitment to serve as witnesses in her case. However, the district attorney's office undermined Annalise and got the prisoners better deals, resulting in them rescinding their deals with Annalise.
Now that the DA’s office knows what Annalise is up to, they will be fighting her tooth and nail to stop her case from proceeding. It will only cause Annalise to fight harder and as viewers saw, she enlisted the help of Connor (Jack Falahee) which will likely only strengthen his relationship with Annalise. Also, it should cause huge fights between Annalise, Bonnie and Nate. (Billy Brown).
3. Michaela and Oliver break into Caplan’s system
Michaela (Aja Naomi King) finally convinced Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) to hack into her company’s system and try to help Laurel (Karla Souza). Michaela and Oliver broke into their system while the boss was out of the office, but the computer recognized their third-party program and created an automatic shutdown. Michaela screenshotted the page even though it was blocked by the alert. Laurel, Michaela and Oliver were able to obtain a few bits of information, but it was largely unsuccessful.
Oliver and Michaela will likely continue to hack into the system to get information for Laurel. It’s inevitable that they will find something, which will serve as redemption for Wes (Alfred Enoch) when they take down Laurel’s father. Also, this continuous hacking will likely be the cause for Oliver’s involvement in the crime that takes place in the flash-forward. It’s also very likely that Michaela will face repercussions from her new boss once she is likely caught.
4. Frank’s actions throughout the episode
Frank (Charlie Weber) was very involved with multiple characters this episode. Toward the beginning, Frank confronted Laurel about the identity of her baby’s father. Laurel only screamed at him to leave but also revealed that she slept with Frank last season. Frank resigned his efforts and left Laurel as she sobbed. As the episode continued, Frank studied for his LSAT law school aptitute test with Asher (Matt McGorry). Finally, Frank was shown for a brief second as he took his LSAT, looking confused and erasing his answer.
The fact that Frank is studying and taking an LSAT is very interesting. He might end up serving as a lawyer himself, potentially aiding Annalise or maybe even confronting her in court.
Also, the showrunners have effectively created an underlying mystery in the identity of Laurel’s baby’s father. Laurel was with Wes when she first found out she was pregnant, however, she also slept with Frank during that period.
Viewers know Laurel is nervous about the father’s identity, but wants to believe that it’s Wes’. This mystery will also likely be addressed in the mid-season finale so audience members can anticipate it greatly.
5. Asher is involved in the flash-forward crime.
The flash-forward scene in this episode proved to be extremely short. Bonnie walked up to the police officer in charge and asked him where the suspect is. The police officer told her the suspect is in jail, transitioning the scene to the jail cell where Asher was shown to be crying.
With Asher being sidelined for most of this season, it’s nice to see the character getting involved in the drama, even though it is a seemingly negative way. His involvement in the mystery could be a result of Asher’s growing suspicion of Michaela, but the audience won’t understand the full-story until the mid-season finale.
