Did How to Get Away with Murder’s season 4 finale succeed?
How did How to Get Away with Murder bring season 4 to a close? Perhaps more importantly, did it actually achieve its intended effects?
There’s no magic and universal formula to guarantee a good episode of television. On one level, it’s because shows are always different. On another, it’s simply subjective. So, does How to Get Away with Murder make it work for the season 4 finale? Let’s dive in.
Well, it kicks off the finale with a fakeout and reveals that DA Denver is dead instead of Bonnie. Surprise! This leaves the Keating group reeling, trying to figure out where the danger is coming from now.
Fortunately for them and for bringing this all to a close, Nate rides in with Dominic’s phone and the hard drive that will allow Simon to become a whistleblower and basically make some problems go away. But the attempt to sure that that happens involves Michaela doing a Mob-style threat!
Look, there was no way that the show would put this to bed less than halfway through the season finale. There have to be some sort of roadblocks, or the impression that it’s all too easy would carry through the entire episode and make things boring.
Besides, why not have a full-on showdown between Jorge Castillo and Annalise Keating? How to Get Away with Murder has built it up that these two know how to pierce others’ armor, and they use their skills in this scene. Naturally, we root for Annalise on the grounds that she’s the protagonist and Jorge is an antagonist.
There’s actually a narrative point to this — making a “truce” as Annalise puts it — but at this point, it almost feels as though this is here just for the sake of pitting these two against each other. It’s fun to watch, sure, but one fun to watch scene doesn’t improve the episode as a whole, even if Annalise gets her way, Laurel gets her baby back, and the FBI arrests Jorge on his way out of the hospital, thanks to Tegan making a plea deal.
The show also tries to suggest that the death hasn’t stopped there. Jorge is convinced that Laurel hurt her mom. At the end of it all, though, we see that Laurel has scratches on her arm that suggest that yes, Sandrine is no longer among the living.
But where the episode succeeds most is in letting Michaela go fully dark. She calls ICE on Simon and coldly defends the choice to do so to Annalise. Aja Naomi King has absolutely no trouble with the work she has to put in here.
You can almost see the mask slide over her face in her first scene with Asher — and it stays there through most of the episode, only for it to slip when she asks Connor if he worries that she’s evil, too.
Ultimately, the episode ends on a mostly hopeful note. Connor’s re-applying to law school. Bonnie likes Donald Miller on not-Tinder. Oliver asks Asher to be his best man. Frank visiting Middleton Law as a prospective student.
But, of course, Frank literally comments that things didn’t last long, because “her kid’s back” — a kid who looks strangely familiar while Annalise is singing a lullaby to Christopher as the episode comes to a close.
At the end of the day, the quality of this season and this finale are solidly mid-tier, judging by the show’s standards (which are not high, admittedly). How to Get Away with Murder has set itself up for a decent season 5 (if season 5 happens).
It’s finally set things aside, set some new things up and has even suggested that Laurel’s now a murderer, which is definitely a thing.
Miscellaneous asides:
- Frank calling Christopher “Little C” is perhaps the most endearing thing he’s done in four seasons.
- Bonnie is totally down with having Laurel, Frank and the baby stay with her. We are down with Auntie Bonnie. And Auntie Annalise.
- Hey, surprise! Annalise won her Supreme Court case. We get an actual, genuine smile from her as a result.
- I got all three of my wishes (because I’m counting Asher moving out).
- Hopefully, Tegan is back for season 5 if there is one.
Next: Riverdale mostly redeemed itself
Will there be a season 5? Well, that’s a mystery that likely won’t be solved until May.