I really don’t know where to start.
That’s not saying that Who’s Dead? is a terrific finale because despite all that fuss you might be hearing over social media and that shocking ending, this is still a very flawed episode. The writers were rushing to get to the ending where all the good stuff happened, but they forgot to give us an entertaining, coherent story halfway through. What purpose does the Connor/Thomas scene provide other than possibly adding more drama in the future? And while I shockingly loved every bit of Michaela fighting with her mother, I couldn’t help but wonder what’s the point of it all? And had the writers known from the start who they wanted to kill off, they could have planned this much better.
Regardless of that rant, the final 10 minutes are without a doubt jaw-dropping. The twist with Wes’ flash-forward from a couple episodes earlier actually taking place BEFORE the fire was inspired, and I never thought this show would be capable of killing off Wes, who one would argue is as integral to the show’s mythology as Annalise. It was a pulse-pounding, breathtaking sequence executed to near-perfection with an incredibly astounding score, top notch performances and nifty camerawork. Kudos for actually living up to the #UnderTheSheet hype.
However, let’s not kid ourselves and pretend that this show is willing to kill off major characters that easily; this isn’t Game of Thrones after all. Unfortunately, we’ll continue to see a lot of Wes in the second half of the season because the show set up ANOTHER unnecessary killer mystery. That’s right, I wasn’t impressed by the writers’ decision to have Wes be killed before the fire because it’s a terrible, convoluted twist. I would have loved this show to return next year with a new sense of direction and fresh storylines, but it looks like we’ll be seeing flashbacks to the night of the Keating fire until the very end of the season. And I am not amused.
Murderous Bits
– I’m rooting for Laurel and Michaela to get together now after that quick smooch.
– Heartbreaking moment with Annalise breaking down to Mary J Blige.
– Nate is quite simply the dullest, most one-dimensional character alive on television right now.
– While I loved seeing Annalise burning the Mahoney and Rebecca files and then smashing her computer with the infamous trophy, this scene was very heavy-handed. I did like hearing “why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone” again, though.
– Nice callback to Connor’s substance abuse lie to Oliver way back in season one. Ah, simpler times.
– Yes, Wes being dead is a huge shocker and all, but the biggest OMG moment of the night was Annalise and Bonnie kissing. It was a passionate one too!
– Another shocker: everyone passed the class despite almost never studying.
– Chilling moment with the detectives revealing that they’ve found Rebecca’s body in the woods. Did not see that coming.
– It’s a great decision to kill Wes off from a writing standpoint because it tells the audience that even someone with a huge backstory like him doesn’t have immunity, but did we really need another twisty murder mystery? I’m losing count of those now.
– The montage at the end with everyone breaking down in tears was very emotional.
– Interesting how Wes has been the answer to all the mysteries on this show so far: #WhoKilledSam, #WhoShotAnnalise and who is #UnderTheSheet.
– So, let’s start speculating. Did Frank kill Wes? Who burned down the house? And who was the anonymous source that betrayed Annalise (since it’s obviously not Wes now)?
– We’ll be back on January 19th where the full #TGIT lineup finally returns!
Courtroom Exchanges
Annalise: You know, someone may take me down, but my ass if it’s gonna be you.
Trishelle: I’m your mama and I love you.
Michaela: I don’t know what that means.
Trishelle: You don’t know what love means?
Michaela: Coming from you? No.
Conclusion
A messy winter finale salvaged by an intense killer ending.
Chris Rating
B+
Nice review. As usual, time for bullet points.
Although I still have my criticisms of the show as a whole, I can’t say I was disappointed by the end result of killing off Wes, but as you said, had they know this is what they wanted to do all along it would have made for a smoother ride to that point. Even though I’m sure the last minute approach was used for the previous seasons, the lead up into those mid season finales felt smoother imo. Still, I felt this episode was pretty coherent for the most part. Having said that, I don’t mind another mystery or having Wes return in flashbacks.
Speaking of those Rebecca in the woods, ADA Atwood seemed to be pulling the strings on that as well as a part of a bigger investigation to take Annalise down. It’s unfortunate she wasn't featured more in the season like ADA Sinclair was considering how big a role that played in the events for this finale. It would have been nice to have another antagonist in the vein of Sinclair. Also, the newfound relationship with Nate could have given him more to do as well.
The callback to Connor’s “addiction problem” from S1 was a surprising point & it after he did some research on it, Oliver probably putting the puzzle pieces together about who Connor is and why he’s so distant. I’m interested to see whether or not he’ll accept him after that. That drama is more substantial than Connor randomly hooking up.
I wasn't a fan of the Annalise/Bonnie kiss and it brings up an issue I have with her and to a lesser extent Frank. I wish that prior to now they got more flashbacks fleshing out their back stories, ESPECIALLY Bonnie whom has a bunch of implied tension with Annalise.
Finally, while we're on the topic of girl on girl kissing, I miss the character of Eve and wish she would have stayed for the entirety of this season. I felt the energy and chemistry of that relationship was something that was very strong last season and was missing this season.
As far as speculations:
Frank setting off the bomb and burning down the house makes the most sense as a part of some plan he and Bonnie had to fix the situation with the investigation, but It obviously backfired. I wouldn't put it past Frank killing him either and making it look like a set up as he’s done in the past.
Nate and Connor also seem very suspicious In this episode. Its odd Nate walked in the house and saw nothing. At that point Wes had to be in the house, right? Also, notice how when Bonnie says Wes is dead Connor is the only one without a sad reaction. He did say he would kill him if he did anything to jeopardize him, so who knows if they met before the fire.
Thanks for commenting!
I wouldn't think too much about how suspicious Nate and Connor are acting or how Connor barely makes a reaction out of Bonnie telling them Wes is dead, mainly because the writers (once again) have no idea who killed Wes or why. They drop these little clues and hints and try to twist them around by the time the finale comes around, and it's just so exhausting and completely lazy from a writing standpoint.
This really could have been an amazing show (still love the premise of a group of college students getting entangled in a murder) plus Viola Davis is incredible, but the writing is simply some of the worst I've seen on television. No one wants to hear how the writers are simply making things up as they go! It's embarrassing.
And definitely agree about Eve!!! Wish she would come back already, but that may be unlikely because Famke Janssen is on The Blacklist spinoff show 🙁