If you would like to read my review of the last episode of How to Get Away With Murder, click here.
Synopsis: When Annalise receives a call from Gov. Birkhead, she’s forced to weigh an interesting offer; Bonnie reunites with her sister; Connor and Oliver try to keep their cool while their mothers are in town. (TV Guide)
Writer: Tess Leibowitz
Director: Jonathan Brown
Rating: TV-14
Running Time: 43mins
Airs: Thursdays at 10pm on ABC (United States)/Fridays at 9pm on CTV (Canada)
We’re getting closer to the midseason finale so it’s getting juicy.
The episode started with the flashforward with Miller still debating about proposing to Bonnie. In the present, Bonnie visited her sister Julie who was surprised to see her. He wasn’t ready to talk to her sister about her son. She called off Miller before going back in. Bonnie pressed her sister who revealed that her father sold her son off to someone.
Frank infiltrated Julie’s sobriety group where she revealed that she had damaging secrets that she was keeping from Bonnie. Bonnie confronted Julie about a gun she found in her house. Annalise put Frank in charge of what to do next for Bonnie. He shared a tape of Julie with her and a potential lead about where her son could be.
Connor, Oliver, and their mothers were scouting wedding venues and were becoming increasingly involved in their son’s lives. Oliver’s mother in particular was causing problems for them as Oliver’s wanting to be a good son was affecting their wedding plans. She believed that Connor was causing a rift between them. Oliver shared with his mother that he was HIV positive. He didn’t want his mother to worry and he didn’t want to disappoint her. He was ashamed but she was very supportive of him.
Annalise met with Governor Lynne Birkhead (Laura Innes) who wanted to tell her that she was wrong about her and now wanted to work together. Birkhead wanted her to pretty much do what she was doing now with Caplan & Gold but under the her office with the help of her law students. Meanwhile, Nate Sr. was still in prison waiting for a room at a mental facility. He wanted to make it up to the family of the man he killed 30 years ago. Crawford caught wind of the offer and was not thrilled at the prospect of Annalise leaving the firm. He read the offer for her and found that it wasn’t quite what Birkhead was making it out to be. Annalise tried to leverage Birkhead into guaranteeing a fixed budget and getting a pardon for Nate Sr. who Miller got into a facility.
Laurel was still suspicious of Gabriel. With Annalise gone, Tegan was in charge for the day and their next case was defending a diet pill company who was being sued for making false claims about their product. Tegan put Laurel on the case as a way to make up for what her father did and she wasn’t doing well at first. Gabriel offered to help after she had helped him previously but she wasn’t interested. Laurel and Michaela found a legal precedent that would mean much lesser damages if it the pill company chooses to settle.
When Tegan shared the news with Carver, she also pressed him about Birkhead’s offer that she caught wind of. She thought Carver should beg Annalise to stay as the firm needed her and that’s what he would need to do in order to keep her. Carver made a last ditch effort to keep her by telling the truth and vowing to have her back and crush whoever gets in her way. It worked as Annalise went to Birkhead to reject her sham offer and questioned her motives but before she left, Birkhead waved a Nate Sr. pardon in front of her in exchange for accepting her offer.
When confronted with the lead, Julie told Bonnie the truth about what happened, taking her baby and burying it in the woods near where they lived in order to protect him from their father.
At Connor and Oliver’s bachelor party, Connor called his father about the wedding while Gabriel confronted Laurel about why she was avoiding him. He thought she was interested in him for which she wasn’t and he wasn’t since it hadn’t been long since Wes had died. He pretended to not known so she wouldn’t think he was a stalker but that plan backfired.
Nate delivered the news to his father and gave him the address of the brother of the man he killed. Meanwhile, Annalise told Carver that she accepted Birkhead’s offer so Carver fired her and called to have her removed from the building. She told Nate about his father’s pardon. However, during a transfer to the mental facility, he was murdered.
Overall, this was a great episode with some of the shocking twists that this series is known for. While it didn’t really address the wedding flashforward, it still had some shocking moments to be had such as the possible truth behind what happened to Bonnie’s son and the final scene with Nate Sr.’s murder. Despite what was revealed here, there has to be more to what happened to Bonnie’s baby. Also, Birkhead is a sinister character who should not be trusted as she surely has ulterior motives in bringing Annalise into the fold. Getting murdered right after receiving a pardon is certainly not a coincidence. Gabriel is kind of stalker-y but to what extent and there’s surely still more to him. Carver’s upset and it will be interesting to see what he’ll do. The diet pill case was inconsequential, however, it wasn’t all doom and gloom as Connor and Oliver had some touching scenes with their mothers. Ultimately, the potential for massive craziness during the lead up to the midseason finale and I can’t wait!
Score: 9/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
