How To Get Away With Murder 1×12 – She’s A Murderer

An entertaining episode this week that ended with quite a bang.

What worked about this week’s episode is that it steered away from any ridiculous and often unnecessary storytelling device and decided to just give us actual story. That and the fact that we spent almost the entire hour speculating with the law students where and when Annalise was going to turn on them—and then she ended up having an entirely different plan.

Flipping on Nate was quite the unexpected twist that makes me love-hate this show. I still worry that the writers here sometimes make Gotham look like a wonderfully-written show, but that ending was satisfying and thrilling that it made me forget most of the terrible things that went on before (example: case-of-the-week).

I’m still baffled by every show nowadays that continues to be formulaic without using its cases-of-the-week to tell a larger story throughout the season. Was anyone really interested or even listening to the case this week? Does anyone really care if Annalise wins or not? I certainly didn’t because it made little to no sense at all compared to the bigger plot here which involved Hannah Keating making sure that Annalise’s house gets a search warrant.

Marcia Gay Harden delivered quite the impressive performance, particularly in the courtroom where she made Bonnie look like a laughingstock in front of an audience. It was rewarding to see that kind of soapy, disastrous scene take place—why, I’m not sure. And that’s a feeling that I have every time I watch this show.

But other than that, I’m starting to enjoy how unsettled the students are about any piece of evidence that comes to light. I don’t care about whatever crap Rebecca was involved in with that Rudy kid, but Michaela and Connor (and even Laurel sometimes) are proving to be intriguing enough to keep me invested. With only 1 episode left before the 2-hour finale, I hope the show doesn’t screw up again after what’s been a very rocky season.

Sneaky Courtroom Bits

– Even with that shocking ending, I worry the show isn’t using shock-value (like it has before) at the expense of character development. I sincerely hope Annalise has her reasons for turning on Nate, even though she could have easily brought down the Keating Five and walked out without (less) blood on her hands.

– I LOVED Bonnie’s scene with Annalise where she tells her she’s figured it all out and that she won’t get away with this.

– Asher continues to be clueless about everything going on around him.

– Of course Annalise cleaned the floor after they all killed Sam. Because she’s a part-time cleaning lady when she’s not busy being a murderous plotter or a manipulative law professor/attorney.

– Speaking of which, how scheming is Annalise when she tells Connor without her, he goes to prison? Same goes to the flashback that reminds us how she similarly manipulated Michaela and Wes into trusting her.

– Why is Frank such a good boy to Annalise? Is there anything else here, or are we supposed to believe this guy is freakishly loyal?

Amusing Keating One-Liners

Annalise: Here’s the thing, Mr. Walsh. You’re not gonna trust me. That’s just not in your nature. But you can stop worrying because—and you might have forgotten this—but I’m your only option here. Without me, you’ll go to prison.

Connor: That doesn’t mean we won’t end up there.
Annalise: No, it doesn’t. But the odds are better with me.

Asher: What did you think they’d find, the bloody knife Annalise hid under her mattress? Our boss would be a better killer than that, yo.

Bonnie: You’re not going to get away with this, Annalise. Not if you keep avoiding the police. Hannah’s smart. She loves Sam too much not to solve this. And I know why you want to protect them, but they’re sneaking off all the time to talk. You didn’t do this. They did. Don’t let them ruin you.

Conclusion
A solid episode, with a twist in the end that could make or break the show.

Chris Rating
B