How to Get Away with Murder season 4: The rebuilding of Bonnie Winterbottom

In a powerful, if somewhat heavy-handed episode, How to Get Away with Murder showed us the creation of the Bonnie we know today.

By the time Bonnie tearfully declares “I love her” about Annalise, completely ruining my prediction (and I’m okay with that), How to Get Away with Murder had spent almost the entire hour cycling through different time periods and showing just how Annalise built Bonnie into a woman who still sports almost the same hairstyle that Annalise does in the 2002 flashbacks.

And the episode isn’t shy about that approach, either. At one point in the flashbacks, Annalise, speaking about her cross-examination of a then long-haired Bonnie accusing a councilman of repeated abuse, flat-out says “I destroyed her.” On the surface, it just sounds like Annalise saying she did what Annalise usually does in a courtroom.

However, that particular choice of words is particularly pointed considering what we eventually see Annalise do: pick Bonnie up and give her, in Bonnie’s own words, “family.” Finally, Bonnie even screams “You made me into you!” at Annalise, though more on that scene in a bit here.

Although Isaac tries to simplify it down to Bonnie looking for a mother figure during the framing narrative of a therapy session, she herself points out that’s not quite right. Indeed, she doesn’t really specify what kind of love she’s actually confessing to. However, it’s not just love for a parent figure, or romantic, or platonic. Without really saying it (which is impressive), the show gives the sense that Bonnie’s relationship to Annalise has a heavy dose of idolization involved. The pedestal that Bonnie has Annalise on, though cracked from Annalise’s rejection, is still there, strong enough to bring Bonnie to cathartic tears as she admits she loves Annalise.

In that sense, Bonnie’s choice to destroy Annalise’s class-action suit efforts makes sense. It gets Annalise’s attention once again. That scene, where both Bonnie and Annalise are protected from the rain, gives Bonnie the attention she wants, a dose of affirmation (“I saw you,” Annalise says) and also the kind of language that can easily tear someone down (…before following it up a bit later with “look at what you’ve done.”)

This season has already devoted one episode to Annalise’s relationship with another counterpart in Michaela, and Bonnie’s episode continues the “make it explicit” trend while also giving Liza Weil some fantastic material. Frankly, How to Get Away with Murder has managed to do some excellent character work this season. With Connor visiting Annalise and getting an offer from her, presumably he’s next on the docket, especially after that scene.

Other thoughts:

• Over in Laurel’s corner of the story, she’s made a discovery about Trent Stockton, who was silenced. While this is all a grand conspiracy, it’s hard to care when all the interesting character beats are in other storylines.
• The show’s marketing continues to call things “insane,” and while we totally understand why, the show feels way less devoted to overemphasizing those twists in this season. It’s a nice twist.
• Tegan has great taste in Louboutins, and Michaela’s acknowledgement that this is so delights me.

Next: 5 things we want in a potential Veronica Mars revival

Once again, we’ll be discussing the flash-forward and Asher as part of our ongoing How to Get Away with Murder coverage.