The camera focuses on Michaela’s engagement ring in the opening scene of this week’s How to Get Away with Murder, and it’s fitting since some relationships are at the forefront of this episode. She is making love to her fiancé (hello, 10 pm timeslot!) who is visiting, and she is excited to introduce him to her fellow students. Initially, it appears that the main storyline will take a backseat to some character development, but, don’t worry; Anna will take on a new client by the episode’s end.
Anna takes the case of Paula Murphy (an always welcome Ana Ortiz), a soccer mom arrested for engaging in some not to park-friendly behavior with a man that’s not her husband. The moment that Asher expresses his disappointment in the case, Paula is arrested on the street under her real name Elena Agular. It turns out that Elena’s fingerprints were found on a pipe bomb that exploded in 1994 and killed a janitor when she was part of a small group that railed against big money. Elena is ready to throw in the towel and accept the defense’s plea bargain, but Anna insists that they can win. Connor later says that he doesn’t think that they can win, and Anna strips the safety idol from him.
When the students are in Anna’s office, the phone Wes found in Rebecca’s phone rings, but he’s surprised to find out that the caller is looking for Lila Stanguard, not Rebecca. Wes doesn’t have the 4-digit code to unlock the phone and look for evidence to help get Rebecca out of jail. He impersonates a lawyer (he does a quick tutorial for a fake ID for all of us out there) to get her into an interrogation room, and he’s surprised that he has her thrown out. Wes urges Anna to not represent Griffin O’Reilly after the school asks her to. Alfred Enoch’s Wes delivers a nice speech about how Rebecca will take the fall for Griffin. Rebecca is poor, and Griffin has had almost everything handed to him. Wes also points out that he doesn’t think Griffin is a good person.
Anna wants to clear her husband of any involvement in Lila’s murder, so she has Nate look into Sam’s whereabouts. Nate finds out that Sam’s car was missing from the hotel’s parking garage on the night of Lila’s disappearance, but Nate assures Anna that her husband’s alibi is airtight anyway. The scene is one of the more emotionally complicated scenes this fall season. Anna and Nate are sitting in the car, and she is so relieved that her husband is innocent, but then she tells Nate that she misses him, placing her hand high up on his leg. Is Anna just happy that her husband can be cleared, or is she actually in love with both men?
It appears that the Paula/Elena storyline will be put on hold or spill into another episode, but it comes back to it. Anna tracks down the leader of the group Elena was part of (he’s been mixed up in the prison system), Gabriel Shaw, and he says that he will claim that Elena had no involvement or knowledge of the bomb. When the prosecution calls him to the stand, however, he says he was promised a reduced sentence if he ratted out Elena and says she knew everything. After a small recess, Elena is nowhere to be found and a warrant is issued for her arrest. The last we see of Elena is her getting onto a Greyhound and she sits next to Gabriel, giving him a kiss as the bus pulls away.
Wes becomes the idol’s newest owner. Anna awards it to him in class, and then she announces she will be defending Rebecca in court. When the group goes to interview her, however, a member of the prosecution informs them that Rebecca confessed to Lila’s murder.
And what about that ring? The students realize they have the perfect alibi with the bonfire raging on campus, so they join the festivities and take as many pictures as possible—ahhhhh, social media. When they climb out of the woods after burning the body, Michaela realizes that her giant diamond ring is missing from her finger. Dun dun dun!!!
While this episode was short on shocks, the interactions continue the deepening of these characters. Connor reveals that he and Michaela’s fiancé, Aiden, fooled around when they were boarding together in school when they were 16. Connor, ever the asshole, teases her about it the entire episode (“Don’t worry, I don’t remember what his penis looks like…wait, I totally do…”), and Michaela eventually forgives Aiden for “lying to her.” She promises him that if they get married and he turns out to be gay, she will divorce him and not only take all his money, but she will ruin his political career.
Next week’s episode promises to be intense. The promos claim that the game will change with “Viola Davis’ last 9 words.” What could they be? Any guesses?
Asher Millstone is actually behind Sam Keating’s mysterious murder!
Do not trust the cute wait listed law student!
Viola Davis definitely deserved Meryl Streep’s third Academy Award!
