How to Get Away with Murder Season 3, Episode 3 Recap: Poor Roulette Strategies
On tonight’s How to Get Away with Murder, no one likes the case of the week, and we learn a bit more about Laurel and Michaela.
Warning: this post contains spoilers from the October 5 episode of How to Get Away with Murder, “Always Bet Black”. Read at your own risk!
We actually start in the future. Oliver furtively deletes the phone’s data. Since we cut to a cop asking about Annalise’s phone, we can easily conclude that it’s hers. The plot, thus, thickens.
Six weeks earlier, Nate prepares a seriously ugly green smoothie for Annalise to take to work. He lets her know he’s filed a missing person report on Frank to see if he gets any hits, and he does it before she has any coffee. Very rude, Nate.
On campus, she runs into the new president. She doesn’t have any news in the smear campaign case, but she really, really wants Annalise to work with her. “Working with her” entails keeping a low profile. Unfortunately, that won’t happen because of the latest case.
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Toby Solomon, the “Call Girl Creeper”, ends up being the new case of the week. A call girl ended up dying on an appointment with him. Annalise’s clinic takes the case on midway through. Michaela gets first chair literally by standing up first Toby ends up being basically the most terrible, but Annalise quickly puts him in his place with a threat.
In the actual courtroom, she can’t get some serious evidence — a selfie with the corpse — excluded. Approximately no one, Michaela included, likes the case. Annalise also casually learns that Connor and Oliver broke up (our hearts still hurt).
Family Mediation? Not In My Job Description!
In Florida, Laurel meets with her dad. After some awkward compliments, he talks about her boyfriend. He calls in Ursula, a corporate conflict resolution specialist, which does not make her a real therapist.
Back at Middleton, Wes tries to hack in to Laurel’s dad’s corporate website, because he now knows she really isn’t gone for a funeral, thanks to Annalise. Meanwhile, Bonnie tries to get Annalise to cut a deal on Toby’s case. In the clinic workroom, we find out that Aidan, Michaela’s ex, has gotten engaged, which will turn out to be significant.
In Florida, we learn Laurel was kidnapped at sixteen, and her dad didn’t pay the ransom. That’s some serious stuff, and poor Ursula has to demand that they switch back to English. Though Laurel’s dad wants to reconcile, she walks out.
We return to Middleton yet again, where Annalise tries to deal with the ADA. In fact, the ADA will have no truck with her at all, and nor will anyone else in the DA’s office. Things are getting tough for our favorite defense attorney, it seems.
Image via ABC.
In bed, Meggie starts playing doctor with Wes. Turns out that his birthday’s coming up, and though he hates his birthday, he’s happy to start kissing her again. Unfortunately, Laurel calls, and he kicks his actual girlfriend out of bed. Though he tries to get her to talk about what she’s doing with her dad, she hangs up, because her father is at her door. He comes bearing pastries.
She asks about Frank, and he declares Frank completely unworthy. He knows about the voicemails and everything. Though he tries to give her some property contract for his business, she tosses it in the trash and kicks him out again. Seriously, does no one in this show have a functional relationship with their parents? Or at all, really?
Bribes, Too?
Annalise tries calling Laurel, but she ignores it. Then, Oliver walks in and reveals that Toby just tried to bribe someone. When they find him, he says he needs the money for his last lawyer, because our client killed another girl, named Jamie. This other lawyer knows.
Annalise kicks Michaela off the case. Oliver, who just earned points for dubbing Aidan’s new fiancée “Fake Michaela”, says that they should go out.
Jamie turns out to be a runaway. Toby took a baseball bat to her after she disparaged his looks. Annalise finds out what he did with the body.
Still from How to Get Away with Murder 3×03. Image via ABC.
“Going out” turns out to entail going to Atlantic City. Oliver, Connor, Michaela, and Asher are here to gamble, which strikes no one as awkward, totally. Connor says that maybe he and Oliver can be friends. Michaela bets all Toby’s bribe money on black, and she wins.
Back at the office, Bonnie suggests that they turn Toby in to the DA for killing Jamie. She even suggests using the “moral and ethical reasons” excuse, which Annalise dubs “cute.” She says that Jamie could have been her, because of what her father did to her. Though she also says that she could call in an anonymous tip, Annalise kills that suggestion as well and offers to let Bonnie stay. What is it with her offering places to sleep to her employees and students lately?
However, Bonnie leaves.
Maybe Always Bet Black Isn’t a Proper Strategy
Back in Atlantic City, Michaela gets the episode title, “Always Bet Black.” Asher tries to make a terrible joke off it, proving again that he is 12. He then catches Oliver flirting with some guy in the casino, and then goes to act as Connor’s wingman, trying to get him to go mark his territory.
With Meggie in bed beside him, Wes texts Laurel. She ignores it.
Image via ABC.
In the casino, the same guy Oliver was talking with brings Connor a drink, and says that he’s not into Asian guys. Oliver walks over, wanting to know what’s going on, because Connor is super offended. It does not lead to getting back together, because Michaela walks over with Asher. They just lost all of the bribery money.
In bed, Bonnie looks at Jamie’s mom’s website. Annalise and Nate, meanwhile, start making a deal about telling each other secrets, and she mentions Jamie as a dead girl in a freezer she can’t do anything about. Also in bed, Laurel gets a call from Frank, who mentions Annalise can stop sending hitmen any day now.
His message to his ex-boss: “We’re even.” Laurel hangs up, horrified.
Michaela: Pawn Star
Oliver and Connor have a Serious Adult Conversation about what happened in the casino, which still doesn’t lead to them getting back together. They’re in the car outside of a pawn shop, because Michaela’s going to get the money back by pawning her ring.
In court, Toby’s on the stand. He says a cellmate told him about killing Jamie, thanks to Nate finding his cellmate, who just happens to have killed women violently before. In short, Annalise has put together a way to prove Toby never got a fair trial at all, and uses it to out the ADA for not being willing to deal.
Toby doesn’t like the deal of three years, so Annalise hauls off and slaps him. Then he agrees to take the deal.
Laurel walks back into her father’s office to return the contract, signed. She wants a deal. Her father thus hands over Frank’s location: a motel near Pittsburgh. He bugs her phone because he wants her to return his calls, and also, he’s proud of her. We may have a reconciliation on our hands.
Back at Annalise’s office, Bonnie catches Michaela trying to return the stolen money. She also refuses to accept the apology about Michaela getting together with Asher, saying that she’s free to bone whoever she likes. Meanwhile, Annalise gets a very positive headline for solving the case of the missing Jamie.
Someone is…ALIVE!
Wes leaves a message for Laurel, asking her to call him. He then walks in to Meggie, who has no illusions about what he was doing. She sees that Laurel makes him happy, and he says something quite sappy to lead to more kissing.
Laurel reports to Annalise, but says that she doesn’t have the information she actually has.
Six weeks later, Annalise finishes getting booked and is put in a holding cell. Bonnie turns out to be the next survivor. She asks Oliver if the phone is clean. When he says yes, she pushes past the line to go talk to the detective.
Meanwhile, Oliver casually drops Annalise’s phone near the ambulance. However, we learn that someone else was in the burning house — and that they have a pulse, but need to go to a hospital.
Next: Project Runway recap: Sink or Swim
Next episode, it turns out that someone has video of Annalise slapping Toby, which will not be good for her reputation at all.
How to Get Away with Murder airs Thursdays on ABC.