How to Get Away with Murder season 4 analysis: Pathological lying

Lying isn’t new in How to Get Away with Murder, but this week’s episode is notable mostly for how much time everyone actually spends lying.

If the goal of this week’s episode of How to Get Away with Murder was to make moments of truth seem all the more powerful, then mission accomplished. For about the first 40 minutes of last night’s hour, it seemed as though all the lies were piling up — about where people are, what they’re doing, and more, with Annalise’s public call-out of DA Denver and Connor’s subsequent gushing about her standing out.

But then, at the end of it all, came the series of truth bombs, one after another. Asher finally learns what Michaela’s doing and walks out anyway, after crying about how she shouldn’t have lied because she loves him. He goes and comforts Bonnie, who’s in tears as she’s watching things fall apart yet again. We learn that Isaac’s advice sessions are with his ex-wife — and the implication is pretty strong that their daughter died, explaining why he’s fixated on Annalise’s lost baby. Frank confesses he’s still in love with Laurel.

Oh, and Annalise is bleeding out in a shower, one week after the events of this episode, which is why she isn’t answering Isaac’s calls. (We’re close to the hiatus point for this season — ABC’s press page only lists two more episodes right now, with the second airing Nov. 16.)

So why do all of these lies matter? On one level, it’s profoundly affecting relationships. Connor might be able to coax Oliver to take his tie off, but Oliver hasn’t told him anything about what’s really going on at Caplan & Gold, and there’s a brief moment of hesitation when Oliver doesn’t offer any details from his job other than “the ushe,” which sounds deliberately awkward. Asher and Michaela look to be headed for, if not a breakup, at least a very tense period.

To go further, though, it enables the end of “Stay Strong, Mama” to act as a moment of cathartic clarity for the audience and some of the characters within. It’s not particularly surprising that almost all of those short scenes involve people either in tears or close to tears. It results in a pretty uneven episode, unfortunately, that doesn’t feel correctly paced, but at least the narrative is moving.

Other thoughts:

• Frank’s rehabilitation as a character continues. This week, it’s talking about how much he loves Laurel again.
• It’s also probably another reason for the start of Bonnie’s breakdown in Asher’s arms.
• Anyone else not surprised at all that Michaela’s backing out of helping Laurel because she likes Tegan so much? We’re not.

Next: Riverdale is both way too much and exactly enough

What’d you think of this week’s episode of How to Get Away with Murder?