How to Get Away with Murder season 4: Examining the Tegan, Michaela and Annalise dynamic

Never mind that this was closer to a case of the week. The most interesting part of this week’s How to Get Away with Murder centered on Michaela.

In a way, this season of How to Get Away with Murder is Michaela’s in a way that doesn’t seem expected. Shouldn’t we all be focusing on Laurel, pregnant, interning for Bonnie and also trying to take her father down? But instead, it’s Michaela who is moving forward, Michaela who we see caught in the middle of “Was She Ever Good at Her Job?” and Michaela who gets to have emotional conflict.

To put it mildly, there was no way that the showrunners and writers of this show could resist the idea at the heart of this week’s episode. What happens when Michaela’s recent past in the form of Annalise confronts her hopeful future in the form of Tegan?

The episode didn’t even have to use the word mentor to get the point across, though it does at least once. It’s important to note that for the most part, Michaela openly sides with Tegan, even when Annalise still likes what Michaela’s doing. (And yes, Tegan even picks up on it.)

Perhaps the second elevator scene with Annalise and Michaela sums what’s going on best. Yes, the show ventures a little far into pointing out Michaela’s fairly obvious desire for a parent figure through the mouth of Annalise — but at the same time, there’s also a good reason for it.

After all, that’s exactly what Michaela’s doing, defying a former parent figure while making nice with the current iteration, playing the two against each other and then putting her fellow interns to work as if they’re her younger siblings and she can just boss them around.

Additionally, it proves that Annalise gets through to Michaela in a way that Tegan can’t quite yet. Tegan can rattle Michaela and get gossip out of her, but Annalise can get an even bigger reaction because for all the times Michaela’s used the word hate in relation to Annalise, it’s clear that things are slightly more complicated than that. If it was intentional (and it almost has to be) to inject the almost familial dynamics in an episode also clearly concerned with the idea of Connor’s family relations, then it was well done.

In a greater scope, though, this season has done a lot with the idea of family. Annalise’s family plays a major role in the first episode. Laurel is in conflict with her father and is told she’ll be an “awesome mom” by Frank. He also lies and uses his family as an excuse to leave Bonnie alone. Asher’s father has come up a couple times in passing. Michaela, Tegan and Annalise are really just the next iteration of this familial conflict, and we suspect this isn’t the last we’ll see of it.

Other thoughts

• Bonnie is on her own an awful lot this season, isn’t she? Nate comes back briefly to assist her, but it’s clear he doesn’t want to stay around. Meanwhile, Frank’s lying to her, and Laurel gets sticky notes because she just up and leaves.
• DA Denver is back and looming large as he runs for still-higher office, and it’s become part of Laurel’s growing obsession, which keeps coming up every episode, just like her being pregnant.
• We’ll be diving more into the flash-forward reveal, but poor Oliver has a trauma blanket, and he looks so forlorn.

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How to Get Away with Murder is tying things together just a bit more than usual this season. What did you think of this week’s episode?