We are just two episodes into the winter season of How to Get Away with Murder and Jesus Christ, things are looking bleak. Not that this show has ever been the happy-go-lucky sort, but honestly it was hard to switch to this hour-long suicide watch immediately after Riverdale (my new favorite show, don’t judge).
The only joke this week came from the episode title: “Not Everything is About Annalise.” False. Literally everything is about Annalise. You all live, sleep, breathe Annalise. That woman is a puppet master pulling the strings of every sad soul in Philadelphia, or at least she was. This week we saw Annalise at her most broken, trying to survive prison life while coping with the fact that her favorite student/adopted son/object of questionable affection is dead. And while Annalise may have not been the one to physically kill Wes, it was her actions ten years ago that set all this bullshit into motion.
While Annalise is trying to keep it together in jail, the rest of Keating Inc. is running rampant around town. Connor is one speeding ticket away from a psychotic break, Bonnie is in full Paris Gellar-during-college-application-season mode while trying to get Annalise out of jail, Oliver is coming to terms with the fact that all his friends are murderers, Laurel is lying to the police, Asher is incorporating German accents into his sex life and Frank, well, Frank is admitting to murder.
That’s right, always the martyr never the hero Frank Delfino has once again thrown himself at the mercy of Annalise and admitted to murdering Wes. To be fair, the evidence is working in his favor. He was the last person to see Wes alive, he has the vengeful boyfriend card to play, and he has that minor history of murdering his father in cold blood. Even Bonnie could close this case.
But it’s a testament to how fucking much the DA’s office hates Annalise that they decide to ignore literally all of this and avoid charging Frank until they absolutely have to. In the meantime, he’s been arrested and held for questioning, all of which consist of “why are you trying to cover up for Annalise for the love of God WHY?”
Frank claims that finding out Laurel was pregnant was the final straw, leading him to chloroform Wes and throw him in Annalise’s home before setting it on fire. Because, you know, this career criminal decides to throw subtlety out the window for his most high-profile murder yet.
The only issue there is that Frank didn’t know Laurel was pregnant. Laurel didn’t even know Laurel was pregnant until she found herself in the hospital. Nate, eager to dismantle Annalise and prove himself to the DA, figures this may be the case and heads to the hospital to talk to Laurel.
Now that she isn’t downing morphine like Pedialyte, Laurel has the sense to start keeping things to herself and kindly tells Nate to GTFO. A creeping Meggy in the hallway makes me think that she was more involved in this than she’s let on. Or she could just be naturally curious about the murder of her ex-boyfriend….sike. Not a single person on this show has moderately altruistic instincts.
Meanwhile, Michaela, Connor and Asher have been pulled into the dean’s office for a quick talk about grief counseling and maybe not suing the school for neglect and prolonged exposure to Annalise. Rather than take the quiet, brooding route that her friends have set themselves on, Michaela evolves into Annalise 2.0 and tears the school apart for abandoning one of their own, especially considering the fact that Annalise is a law school institution and the only reason people show up to this godforsaken campus. Connor is not impressed, and lets Michaela know as much before admitting to cluing Oliver into the Sam situation. Wow, remember season one? Lots of laughs.
Michaela has not come this far in life to be torn down by weak men with weaker wills, and makes this very clear by marching them all down to Oliver’s apartment for a friendly chat. Hint: not so friendly. In that creepy, calm way that only 8th grade English teachers and WASP-y moms have perfected, Michaela very assuredly lets Oliver know that, by no means, is this something that will ever be discussed again. Oh, and that they need him to hack into the DA server and see what’s being planned for Annalise. Everyone had chills, except for Asher who for sure got a boner.
Michaela:
At this point in time, so many people have died on this show that you kind of just forget about them. Well, hacking into the DA computers served as a nice refresher course, because let me tell you they have not forgotten about the body count that Keating & Co. has racked up over the last three years. Turns out it doesn’t really matter if they can’t pin Wes’ death on Annalise, because they are investigating her for all of them. Lila, Sam, Rebecca, that whiny DA, the Hapstalls. What do all these deaths have in common? Oh, you know, just the fact that Annalise wasn’t actually responsible for any of them.
This news sends the crew even further into a full-blown meltdown. Bonnie tries to fix everything by setting up an immunity deal for Annalise in return for information about all these unfortunate open cases, but the DA doesn’t bite. Which means it’s on Laurel to save the day from her hospital bed.
On the police’s next visit, Laurel breaks out the waterworks to tell them that, now free from her morphine-induced haze, she remembers some very important details that she may have left out during her original interview. The first being that she definitely told Frank she was pregnant with Wes’ child, and that she definitely saw him running out of the basement before Annalise’s home exploded and everything went black.
This leaves the very reluctant police and DA office with literally no choice but to charge Frank, meaning Annalise is home free. Just kidding. They charged him as a co-conspirator, leaving Annalise firmly stuck in jail and everyone else still in high alert mode.
The last flashback of the night shows Wes safely exiting Frank’s car. Still alive. Not dead. With all his not-burnt skin. Which confirms what we already knew: Frank is lying. But who gives him the orders to stay on Wes’ tail? Bonnie. No one believes for one second that Bonnie killed him, but this certainly raises a few questions. Thank God, things might have started to get calm around here otherwise.
