How to Get Away with Murder season 4: Trying to figure out the flash-forward

How to Get Away with Murder wants its fans to figure out what’s going on in the season 4 flash forward, and here’s our current theory.

Okay, How to Get Away with Murder. We’ll play your game. Last night’s episode ended with a promo for next week’s mid-season finale, promising that it’ll explain all of “what happened” in the now-48-hour-away (in the show’s timeline) flash forward with Laurel asking where her baby is, Annalise in the shower, someone dying on an operating room table, Asher in jail and Oliver as a witness.

Let’s start with the obvious: almost all of this ties into the party Michaela’s planning at Caplan & Gold. It’s taken Murder this long to reveal that that’s why everyone’s there. It’s when Laurel’s group intends to steal the Antares files, after all, and she has an excuse to be there in the sense that she’s also related to the head of Antares.

So, let’s place Michaela, Asher, Oliver, Laurel and Frank at Caplan & Gold during the night of the party. Laurel makes comments that she’s ready for the baby to be born in this week’s episode, so it’s possible she goes into labor (presumably a little early). This doesn’t quite answer the question of where the baby has gone.

Michaela has to be there because she’s Tegan’s assistant; Asher’s there because he’s her boyfriend; Oliver’s another employee; Frank is presumably escorting Laurel or might be waiting outside for any stolen materials.

While the show wants us to think it’s Connor dying in the operating room by cutting from his proposal to the flash forward, this would be a pretty easy misdirect. I’ll reiterate my theory from my initial discussion of Asher that it’s actually Simon Drake who’s in surgery and flatlines on the table.

Now that we know Simon’s actually a key part of the plan in that he’s going to be the unwitting fall guy, it makes sense that he might be the one who’s flatlining. Michaela does pointedly say that “he’s dead,” although this could also refer to Laurel’s baby. Additionally, my idea that whatever happens is more an accident or not intended still holds water.

As for Annalise’s involvement, her story seems to be separate based on the different locations Bonnie visits. I’m going to hold to my theory that Bonnie’s actually involved with that — because we now know she’s partnering with the attorney general to try and defeat Annalise’s class-action lawsuit.

Other thoughts:

• Will the paternity test results be back in the next episode?
• Even though it was a grand, symbolic gesture, it’s hard not to agree with Asher’s initial statement that Michaela should have just sold the wedding dress.
• The staging of the photo was pretty poor if no one even bothered to research Annalise’s preferences, like by asking Bonnie.
• D.A. Denver agreeing to let a secretary perjure herself is terrible, but also very in line with what he did all of last season.

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The show promises that things will be at least a bit clearer after next week’s episode, but for now, that’s the theory this writer’s going with. How to Get Away with Murder airs Thursdays on ABC.