How to Get Away with Murder Season 3, Episode 5 Recap: Backstories and Flashbacks

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On tonight’s How to Get Away with Murder, we spent plenty of time learning how the past has affected the present, especially for Frank and Annalise.

Warning: this post contains spoilers for the October 20 episode of How to Get Away with Murder.

How to Get Away with Murder promised us a lot for this episode: Bonnie and Frank meeting up! More about Laurel’s pregnancy! Dramatic reveals! And…Sam Keating? Let’s get right to it.

We start in the flash-forward, and the dramatic music tells us that Laural and her baby are not in a good situation right now. Meggie tells Bonnie and Oliver that there’s a problem with smoke inhalation. Bonnie walks away to take a call, and informs the caller that Laurel’s pregnant.

3 weeks earlier, Bonnie says she wants her dead father cremated. Laurel calls her, and while they’re on the phone, Bonnie sees Frank, but lies to Laurel about it. After hanging up, Bonnie gives him a hug and thanks him for killing her father.

In the clinic workroom, we find out that Wes will meet Meggie’s dad tonight. Connor encourages him to break up with her, because none of them are capable of healthy relationships with “civilians”. (We hate to say it, but he’s right.) Simon plays a prank on Connor and points out that Mommy Annalise isn’t around to do anything.

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Speaking of Annalise, she sits in a chair and gets her hair done by Mary J. Blige. She drifts in and out of the conversation.

Time for Frank Backstory

With Bonnie and Frank, she accuses him of shooting Wallace Mahoney, and Frank admits to it. He took Wes in order to throw Annalise off the scent. 11 years earlier, two prison guards tell a jumpsuited Frank (sporting some excellent mid-2000’s hair) that he has a visitor: Dr. Sam Keating. Apparently Frank has been in prison since he was 13, but has a chance at parole. Sam offers a way out via his wife.

Once again, speaking of Annalise, she asks why he wants her to help “a white boy with violent tendencies”. Sam coaxes her to go see him.

Sam wins. She and Frank trade barbs, and he admits he’s always been a moron, in his words.

In the present, Frank gives Bonnie her phone while she showers. Annalise has called, and Bonnie tells a pack of lies to her. Annalise walks in to her first AA meeting and gets applause for joining. It turns out President Hargrove attends the same meetings. She tells Annalise to stop fighting, because it isn’t cute anymore.

How to Get Away with Murder 3×05 still, “It’s About Frank”. Screengrab via ABC.

Back in the workroom, Simon gleefully reads the news about a new teacher for the legal clinic, further cementing his status as a jerk.

Bonnie asks Frank to come back, saying that Sam got in his head. She insists that if he just talks to Annalise, it could all be smoothed over.

Speaking of Ms. Keating, currently-not-an-Esq., she starts getting rid of her well-stocked liquor cabinet. Perhaps those meetings may have an effect after all.

Flashback (What a Feeling)

11 years earlier, Annalise argues with Sam about taking Frank’s case on. She says he saw a boy in need of a father, and they start sniping back and forth about her not wanting to be a mother.

We see a series of Annalise flashbacks as she tries to get rid of her liquor in the present:

  • 1999: moving into the house with Sam
  • 2001: she appears to have a miscarriage
  • 2002: getting hired to have two Professors Keating on campus

She pulls a bottle of vodka out of the trash and takes a drink.

Simon Drake accuses the Keating 5 of stealing a laptop and calls them all spoiled. Michaela proceeds to light into him, and he walks away like a wise man.

Wes meets with Meggie’s father and, naturally, has to deal with plenty of questions. He lies about what happened to his mother.

Hugging her vodka, Annalise has some music playing, and then she drunk-dials Nate, telling him she’s a mess.

Frank says that neither he nor Bonnie have to go back. Instead, she should run away with him, and they can go have normal lives and babies. Shedding a tear or two, she doesn’t give a direct answer.

Still from How to Get Away with Murder 3×05. Screengrab via ABC.

Sam visits prison Frank once again, telling him of being unable to forgive himself for what he did. Though Sam insists what happened is an accident, Frank says he planned it all. It dawns on us all that Frank tried to kill his father at 13, and that’s why his father’s in a wheelchair now. Tears start flowing.

In the present, we see Frank in the middle of a nightmare about his father. Bonnie wakes him, then lays down to cuddle with him. She starts talking about leaving now, doing things like hiking. They start kissing, and things get intimate right there on the floor.

While hanging out with the Keating 5 minus Wes, Laurel sees a text from Bonnie saying that he’s fine. Insert eyebrow waggling here.

…Surprise, We Guess?

A very drunk Annalise opens the door to Wes. Meanwhile, Nate listens to her voicemail, then snuggles with his new ADA girlfriend.

Oliver walks in on the Keating 5 meeting with Simon’s missing laptop, which Michaela stole. Turns out that he has the killer poster file saved! (What an undramatic reveal.)

Wes helps clean a still-drunk Annalise up after vomiting. He gets her in bed and tells her to drink more water, which is really just good life advice all around. Drink water, everybody.

11 years earlier, she tells Frank he has a lawyer. Before she can get started, though, she hurls into a garbage can, and he asks if she’s pregnant. In the present, we see the Keating 5 give Simon’s laptop to her after they wake her from a dream of all of the pregnancy story from last season. She deems them all safe, since Simon doesn’t know anything and just made it up.

To be sure, she pays Mr. Drake a visit, tells him she knows, and leaves some veiled threats.

Still from How to Get Away with Murder 3×05. Screengrab via ABC.

Simon then drops off the outline they’ve been looking for, looking seriously chastened. Wes and Laurel meet in the stairwell after he sends her a text. He needs to break up with Meggie because he can no longer lie to her. With Frank gone, they can get together, right?

Wrong. Laurel tells him that Frank isn’t gone.

Bonnie brings food to the hotel room she and Frank have shared, only to find him gone. She breaks down in tears.

Annalise drops off a lawsuit off in President Hargrove’s office, and she’s looking for a $50 million payday. If she doesn’t want a lawsuit, Annalise gets to teach again. Hargrove gives in, tries to offer help to Annalise, but gets blown off.

That night at the Keating house, Laurel and Wes argue before Annalise walks in. Wes drops “It’s about Frank,” and Laurel spills everything, but then asks if the whole hitman thing is true.

Bonnie then walks in at exactly the worst time.

In the flash-forward, Oliver calls Connor, who does not pick up. Michaela’s mother picks up Connor’s phone, which she found in the couch. (This after an entire episode of speculating about Michaela’s past. Subtle.) Michaela herself then walks in, and he tells her about Laurel.

As he walks off-screen, we get a look at the TV playing in the hospital. They found an unidentified male in the house. That narrows it down to Wes, Connor, Asher, Frank, and Nate of the major characters.

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On the next episode, everyone fights with Wes. No, seriously, everyone fights with Wes. Annalise threatens to chain him in the basement.

How to Get Away with Murder airs Thursdays on ABC.