‘Empire’ Could Learn From ‘How to Get Away with Murder’s’ What Did We Do?

how to get away with murder 209 what did we 2015 images

how to get away with murder 209 what did we 2015 images“How to Get Away with Murder” may get over the top, but it knows how to let a story breathe a little and then pack us with a punch, unlike Lee Daniel‘s “Empire,” which feels the need to pummel us over the head with action and silly storylines. Last season, “Empire” had a great storyline that moved quickly, but it still gave us time to catch our breath. The ratings were crazy high for it with good reason. This season, it feels like it’s trying way too hard to live up to those ratings while forgetting what it’s really all about. It’s an updated “Dynasty” with a little pinch of “Glee” thrown into the mix.

I truly hope that “Empire” can pull it together, but thank goodness we’ve got “How to Get Away with Murder” even though it’s off the air for a few months. Now off the amazing mid-season finale that kept me on the edge of my seat and ended with my mouth wide open.

I literally don’t know where to start with this winter finale of “How to Get Away with Murder.” A lot of questions are answered but yet still a lot of new questions arise. Here I go.

Bonnie is back this week because as foretold she has a big part to play in what happens to ADA Sinclair. And her return serves as the catalyst for what happens to the ADA as Bonnie delivers the blow that Asher’s dad hanged himself because everything that came out about him Asher’s mom blames him, Asher blames Annalise, Annalise’s camp points the finger to Sinclair, and thus a plot for revenge is born… kinda.

Asher “ambushes” Sinclair in a parking garage late at night after she gets Nate fired. Yea, she goes into his station and accuses him of changing Philip’s record, which we know he did, and, of course, he denies it. But that’s not what got him fired. She pushes Nate to the edge by mentioning his wife, and he pretty much threatens her in front of the whole prescient. She files a harassment suit; he gets fired but not before he counters with a discrimination lawsuit. She then meets with him in said parking lot and offers to drop her suit (because she’s a lot of things, but “not a racist”) if he helps her bring Annie down. Now back to Asher.

He confronts her about his dad as she heads back to her car and this bitch tells him that the whole world is better off with his dad dead because, “He wasn’t a good man.” This infuriates Asher, and as she walks to her car in the opposite direction (she got turned around) he puts his car in reverse and hits her, hard! He calls Bonnie, who is calm and collected. She knows what to do. Call Annalise.

Speaking of Annalise, she is dealing with a firestorm back at the house. Michaela, who slept with Caleb, who showed her the gun he found in Catherine’s room, calls Connor, and he tells her to call Annalise. She doesn’t want to because of course she wants to protect Caleb, who wants to protect his sister. They end up taking the gun to Annie’s house, which pisses her off because a) they moved the murder weapon and b) this means she has to drop Catherine as a client because clearly she and Philip are working together. Caleb protests but Annie says it has to be done, but her plan is much, much darker than just leaving Catherine to fend for herself in court. She plans to blame ADA Sinclair’s death on her too because she owes it to Asher since she is kind of the reason an investigation was opened up into his dad in the first place.

This is where it gets deep, dangerous (as if it wasn’t already) and desperate. Before this is when Annie gets two phone calls. One from Nate who tells her about the deal the ADA offered him and the other from Bonnie about the trick being dead. It sends her reeling for a moment, and that’s when she comes up with the idea to blame it all on Catherine. She tells Bonnie to bring the body to the Hapstall’s house where everything goes down.

The crew goes there, and they don’t know the sinister plan until it is too late and they have to go along with it. Annie moves quickly and tells Caleb (who has no idea what’s going on) to go to Michaela’s apartment. From there, things get super interesting.

With Caleb gone Annalise puts her plan it motion. Bonnie shows up with the body and Annie slips away so that they can put it in place (on top of the roof), but they are caught by the Keating Five who want nothing to do with it. Connor, in particular, has reached his tipping point and vehemently protests. Here we see Annalise lose her cool, something that we haven’t seen in the show’s two seasons. She tells them they have to help because their killing Sam is the reason they are in the mess in the first place. According to her, they have to help cover this up for Asher because he didn’t know she’s been covering up for them this whole time. Yes, Asher finally knows what really happened.

The reluctantly do what she says with Connor and Michaela helping Bonnie take Sinclair’s body up to the roof, but they bail as they refuse to push her body off the ledge. Meanwhile, Laurel and West argue over what to do with the gun when all of a sudden BAM! Sinclair’s body hits the ground. And then there is the climax.

Annie covers her bases by calling Catherine and Sinclair to tell them to come to the house. Then she turns to the interns to shoot her because, surprise, it has to be believable and to do that, they need to make it like Catherine shot her. But none of them will do it. Well, Connor is about to after Annie threatens to ruin Ollie’s life but Michaela jumps in front of her teacher and Connor tells Annalise, “I hate you.” He runs out, and Michaela follows suit. That leaves Laurel and West to do the do and, yep you guessed it, West pulls the trigger after Annalise tells him that Rebecca is dead and has been dead the entire time. Only, he doesn’t shoot her in the leg as she told him to. He shoots her in the stomach. Then he stands over her, points the gun and is about to pull the trigger again when Annie whispers, “Christoph, Christoph,” stopping him in his tracks. Then there is a flashback.

Ten Years Earlier…

A young Wes sits with a woman detective who questions him about his mother death. As he tells her he saw, we see an equally young Annalise AND Eve standing behind a one-way mirror and Eve asks her, “What have we done?”

Lort! What happened? What DID they do? I am all kinds of mixed up right now. And we have to wait like two months to see what happens.