If you would like to read my review of last week’s episode, click here.
Synopsis: While Annalise reconnects with an important client, she continues struggling to move forward. Meanwhile, the “Keating 4” try to move past their tarnished reputations; in flash-forward, details to a tragic crime start unfolding. (IMDB)
Writer: Maya Goldsmith
Director: Paris Barclay
Rating: TV-14
Running Time: 43mins
So now the season is in full swing. Characters may be in new places but the tension has not let up. This episode followed two different storylines with the first being Annalise talking to Isaac during a therapy session about her first case since she got her licence back where she helped one of her former cellmates from last season named Jasmine (L. Scott Caldwell) get out of jail and the other being the Keating 4 attempting to overcome their bad reputations in job interviews at other law firms.
When it came to Annalise, she was still feeling Isaac out. In the last episode, we saw Bonnie join the DA’s office but Annalise didn’t know that. It wasn’t until she went to court for Jasmine that they saw each other. This was her first case in a long time so she showed a little rust here and because of her reputation, nobody was willing to help her out. Isaac felt that she was deflecting by talking about the case.
Jasmine was a drug addict and prostitute who has lived a life of crime ever since she was 13 years old. Isaac questioned Annalise’s motives in picking Jasmine as her first client back. He believed that she was hiding from him and he was not willing to let it go. Annalise’s plan to free Jasmine was to use her troubled past. In order to do that, she needed Jasmine’s unsealed juvenile record but Bonnie wasn’t going to help her. At least Frank was there. Despite Annalise not forgiving him for what he had done, she took the file anyway.
Isaac believed that the reason why Annalise brought up the case was because she believed Jasmine was her. In a sequence that earns the episode the title “I’m Not Her”, Annalise attacks Isaac’s profiling of her while attacking the prosecutor that tried Jasmine when she was 13 and his different treatment of her because she was black. The former ended with Annalise explaining why she wasn’t like Isaac’s other patients and the latter was one of Annalise’s greatest courtroom rants. Her speech worked since she won and Jasmine was set free and her criminal record was sealed. However, Annalise was skeptical that Jasmine would change. Isaac then admitted to her that he used to be a heroin addict and she admitted to him that her last therapist became her husband.
With Bonnie working for the DA’s office, she had to prove herself again, especially to Nate who was skeptical of her true motives. This was until a later meeting with Annalise helped set the record straight and the two decided to get drunk together.
Meanwhile, the Keating 4 were set for interviews for law firms. Each of them prepared in their own ways with some perhaps taking it all more seriously than others. Connor was overconfident, Michaela took it seriously, Asher was Asher, and Laurel knew what firm she wanted to work for which was the firm that was representing her father’s company. She wasn’t over what happened to Wes.
Michaela, Asher, and Laurel’s interviews appeared to go well but Connor was not ready and he got grilled for it. The one thing they all had in common was that everyone wanted to know what it was like working for Annalise. They each had different answers with some claiming to be more involved than others. Everyone got callbacks except for Connor. He believed that he wasn’t able to provide good enough answers because he didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore. Oliver also decided to start his own IT company.
Connor tried to sneak back into an interview at a legal aid firm but was rejected for being too “white privilege”. Laurel got a callback, however, she didn’t show up since she was more focused into looking into her father’s company while Frank was looking into her. At a law firm function, Simon got under Asher’s skin and he made a scene. Connor found Laurel in Wes’ appartment and confronted her about it. He got emotional in offering his help because she hated him and he hated himself for everything that happened. She told him that it wasn’t his fault and accepted his help. Michaela got a position at Laurel’s father’s company law firm and asked her to help her take her father down.
In flashforward news, Isaac tried to call Annalise who didn’t answer. She wasn’t in her hotel room because the police were there investigating what looked to be a crime scene and the elevator was full of blood.
Overall, this was a great episode that started to set the wheels in motion for at least the first half of the season with Laurel’s quest to take down her father and also featured some great scenes between Annalise and Isaac, Laurel and Connor, and a great courtroom rant by Annalise. Who knows if Annalise will figure into the Laurel subplot or maybe she’ll get her own story besides her redemption? Either way, stay tuned.
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.