How to Get Away With Murder (6×02) Vivian’s Here Review

For our review of the last episode of How to Get Away With Murder, click here.

Synopsis: As Michaela, Asher and Connor gear up for their last semester of law school, they take on a weighty case involving an illegal immigrant who wants asylum; Michaela boycotts going to class after a blowup with Annalise about her father. (IMDb)

Clearly, this final season can’t focus on the main storyline the entire time so Vivian’s Home throws in an extra case for some of our law students to deal with not to mention the arrival of the aforementioned Vivian (Marsha Stephanie Blake), Gabriel’s mother. This episode would also further Michaela’s role in the twist revealed at the end of last week’s episode being Annalise’s potential death. Meanwhile, the FBI are still circling but have held off thus far though this isn’t likely to happen too much longer.

The episode started with a few absences in Annalise’s class. We already knew about Laurel but Michaela was also absent as she was still upset with her for withholding information about her father. Annalise claimed that she was merely an intern working for the firm that represented Michaela’s father without ever meeting him but Michaela didn’t believe her before setting out to find him herself. Meanwhile, Connor and Asher were saddled with the case of an illegal immigrant seeking asylum who just happened to be a child who didn’t speak English. Annalise’s problems continued when she was confronted by Vivian, Sam’s first wife, who wanted answers about her relationship with Gabriel. Annalise just turned her back towards Gabriel who was still angry with her for lying about his father.

Frank was on the hunt for what Laurel’s mysterious key led to. He would even confront Jorge in prison. He claimed to not have anything to do with Laurel’s disappearance and would unsurprisingly prove to not be a big help. The key was for a safety deposit box she shared with another family member but it wasn’t him. He refused to take responsibility for his actions and accused Laurel of being the mastermind behind everything. Meanwhile, Annalise was still distracted by Vivian while Nate kept digging into Tegan. Vivian thought Sam was a deadbeat until Gabriel told him that he came back when he was younger. Either way, all she wanted to do was protect him and he had a lot to think about. Vivian also had a criminal history that included a sealed file that Bonnie had to fabricate a case file to unseal to reveal that she was on probation for drug-related offenses.

Annalise wanted Gabriel to go home to Chicago with his mother but didn’t have any ammunition to facilitate this. However, Asher told her that Gabriel implied in an earlier encounter with Michaela that he may have killed Vivian’s boyfriend (which she shared with the others). She was concerned that Vivian might be an FBI mole and learning that she met with Tegan worried her but she assured Annalise that she could trust her. To try and get rid of Vivian, she bought meth for Frank to plant on her but he immediately disposed of it. Suddenly she remembered that Laurel shared her box with Wes and its contents could be evidence about all the bad things they did.

Connor succeeded at getting a continuance in the boy case by citing earlier precedents involving the United States’ treatment of the Japanese while arguing that his living conditions were akin to torture, leading to the boy’s fragile mental state. He then doubled down by promising the boy that they would help his mother (who was also in the country illegally) to get an asylum. Meanwhile, Michaela followed her father’s trail from prison transfer to prison transfer until she learned that he died last year.

Seeing Vivian talking to FBI Special Agent Lanford (William R. Moses) led Annalise to confront her starting with the fact that Gabriel killed her boyfriend. Vivian didn’t believe her but this news wouldn’t be good for her and her son. They reminisced about Sam and Vivian blamed him and her for what they did. Meanwhile, the FBI caught up with what Bonnie did, resulting in her losing her position. Frank found a way to access the box but it was empty after being cleared by Laurel days prior. Michaela confronted Annalise about what happened to her father. She blamed for Annalise for keeping his identity from her.

The flashforward saw Michaela in custody and being interrogated by the FBI about her fingerprints being on the alleged Annalise murder weapon.

There’s got to be more to this story than Annalise and Michaela.

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Keith Noakes

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.