How to Get Away with Murder mostly spins its wheels in this week’s hour, although it does at least add yet another parent with issues to the show.
How to Get Away with Murder feels stuck in a rut. Even though there are several plotlines that could conceivably carry the show just fine, the combination just isn’t working well at the moment. “He’s a Bad Father” at least introduces a new character and has a few beats of good scenes … just not scenes that work as intended.
Our first big development is that Laurel is trilingual, as she speaks French on the phone to her mother. Said mother also plans to show up and testify at the custody hearing about how bad Jorge is at parenting. Although Annalise calls her out, and increasingly is the voice of reason at least when it comes to the entire Laurel storyline, the hearing goes on regardless, and Laurel’s mother arrives.
At the courthouse, before the hearing even starts, Laurel and her father have yet another multi-layered conversation. Although the intention seems to be a reminder that everyone here has multiple agendas — even Laurel despite saying all she wants is her baby back — it also speaks to how convoluted this plotline and the show has actually become.
The hearing tries to go unconventional, presumably to emphasize how Laurel’s father is ready for absolutely anything. Annalise is weirdly confrontational with Laurel’s mother on the stand, only for it to all turn around and show how Laurel took care of her mother. It all breaks down with Isaac — because apparently he’s a suspect in the death of his own daughter, which is specially reopened, so his testimony doesn’t work. That’s how Laurel loses the hearing. Guess this storyline isn’t over yet!
Speaking of convoluted, it seems like “He’s a Bad Father” almost tries to crack a joke about it all, with Michaela asking about how Bonnie is back to working with Annalise again and Frank just says, “For now.” Nothing is certain in the world of How to Get Away with Murder — and while that once felt like a strength, it’s becoming more of a weakness as time goes by.
Unfortunately, the episode also mostly shoves Asher, Oliver and Connor aside yet again with working on Nate’s dad as a possible “face case” for the class action lawsuit. They interact primarily with Annalise, and she then brings it back to Nate. The two of them go and visit the elder Nate Lahey in jail, and there’s a good idea here — Nate being part of the very justice system that has imprisoned his father — but it’s overplayed. Perhaps it needs to be overplayed, but in a storyline that’s now secondary to Jorge and Laurel, it doesn’t hit.
Although the show does try and tie the two together by linking Laurel mom’s mental health issues to those of Nate’s father, it still comes off as slightly forced, though it leads to good emotional work when it’s just Nate and his dad talking about what prison has done.
At least Connor gets his own bleak scene explaining that Oliver needs to stop helping Simon to avoid getting caught for his involvement. This show has tried to deal with how the pile of crimes have affected its main characters, but this scene actually … works well because it is so bleak. The point is likely to try and be emotional (Connor saying losing Oliver would “literally break [his] heart” tries to make things very sad). It works better on the level of dealing with the ramifications of the show.
Bullet points:
- Even though the Nate and his father alone scene is fairly good, the music definitely oversells it.
- “You can’t afford to make this about yourself right now,” says Bonnie, in what should be the new motto of the show.
- Part of the problem, I think, is that Jorge is mostly presented as an absolutely infallible antagonist. He cannot lose. He always has plans. He’s like Batman, but without at least the fun gadgets and also definitely evil.
- The plans apparently include working together with his ex-wife! Does that make her Evil Batwoman? Wes met with her before his death.
- This is the first time I’ve mentioned Michaela for this entire review, and that’s sad.
Next: A fan's guide to staying in love with Riverdale
What did you think of this week’s How to Get Away with Murder?