Shonda Rhimes has no mercy for the fans of How to Get Away with Murder as this week, and she takes us all the way off the cliff.
West killed his momma ya’ll. I’m sorry, I could not hold it till the end of the recap. The episode starts off nice and slow and easy but then by the close of the story, Shonda hits us with an “in yo face” plot twist. Now, here is how we get to the big reveal.
Laurel is still pissed at Frank. In fact, she denies that he’s telling her the truth because she just can’t fathom that he would do something like this and led everyone to believe that Sam killed Lila. While he deals with a heartbroken girlfriend, Bonnie calls him because the situation at the Keating House just got real.
The crew gathers at Annalise’s after Connor shows her the video that everyone assumes Phillip sent. They now have 36 hours to get whoever is blackmailing them $1 million or the tape goes to the cops. The kids scramble as they believe this is the end of the road, but Annie tells them to sit tight and “Let mommy take care of this like she always does.”
Now, Annalise is a big time lawyer, and we all know she has big time lawyer money. She also has Sam’s life insurance, so $1 million doesn’t seem like a big deal. Nonetheless, she uses the ransom as an excuse to contact Caleb. She also uses Michaela to help get what she wants out of the sad, lonely Hapstall. They pay him a visit and Annalise “apologizes.” She says that she wants to find Phillip, and she needs a $250,000 retainer fee to get started. Along with Miss Pratt’s help, they get what they need out of Caleb.
Laurel is still upset with Frank, so she and Wes forge an alliance to get to the bottom of the papers Annalise left at his door. Their investigating leads them to Ohio.There, they find the paperwork that reveals what happened during the case that eventually lead to Rose’s death.
Through their digging, we get some juicy flashbacks. Ten years ago, Annalise was hired by Wallace Mahoney to defend his son Charles, both hedge fund managers, who supposedly killed his girlfriend. The story goes that he and his father embezzled money, his girlfriend found out and was about to rat on him when he did the deed. Enter West’s mother Rose. She is the only “witness” who can corroborate Charles’ alibi as she worked for the Mahoney’s. Annie gets the judge to agree to let her testify anonymously via a closed circuit TV feed but on the day of the trial, she is a no show. Rose’s absence shakes things up in court and not in a good way. Wallace then says some pretty insulting things to Annalise. And by insulting, I’m mean telling Annie that he hired her because she was a pregnant black woman and tells her “Don’t give your people a bad name.” Whew.
Back in PA, it’s late, so Annalise tells everyone to go home as the deadline for the money ticks away. Michaela visits Caleb, and they get it on. Connor tells Ollie he wants to transfer to Stanford to start a new life. Asher tells Bonnie that he wants to turn himself in to the police, and she tells him to snap out of it. Annalise also has some down time with Nate. She makes them dinner; they have a tense moment where she wonders why he’s been so sweet and they end up in bed (naturally). The next morning, she shows him the ransom video, and he advises her to call the blackmailer’s bluff, which is what she does, to the Keating Five’s consternation. Right when they think they successfully “got” him, the blackmailer sends another video. This time, it is of Nate and Annalise the night before, which makes it clear they are being stalked.
As the team realizes they just f***ked up, Laurel bursts in and demands to speak to Annalise alone. They rush to her office, and the young law student pulls out a piece of paper that she stole while going through the court case in Ohio. On it reads, “Potential homicide; primary suspect- Victim’s- 12-year-old son.”
Talk about heavy. Next week, it looks like Wes may be regaining his memory about what happened the night “he found” his mother’s body. It’s going to be soooooo good, but it does leave one wondering if How to Get Away with Murder has painted itself into a corner it will be able to get itself out of.