How to Get Away with Murder addressed an ongoing human rights issue without making it overbearing, which it deserves some props for.
This week on How to Get Away with Murder, it’s time to get topical. It’s time for a review!
Back in the future, we find out that it’s Bonnie carrying baby Christopher through the snow. She brings him into the bathroom, when Michaela and Laurel both walk in. However, we learn in the last scene of the episode Bonnie has blood on her foot, which only Michaela notices.
In the present, changes are happening in homes for all of the characters of How to Get Away with Murder. Annalise has a swanky new apartment, while the new group home has baby and laundry issues. Honestly, the trouble of roommate life allows for a bit of light-hearted and realistic humor.
As for the ongoing look into Bonnie’s baby, the blood sample used to run that DNA test came from the Infant Abductions portion of the U.S. Organization for Missing Children, as Nate discovers. It turns out that someone who looks an awful lot like Bonnie is the only suspect in the kidnapping case.
In the other identity search, Frank tries to clone Gabriel’s phone. Unfortunately, it’s a flip phone, so he instead works up a scheme using Christopher to get Gabriel’s roommate to kick him out. It’s convoluted, but long story short, Gabriel lives across the hall from Asher in Wes’ old building.
In Annalise’s class, Emmett Crawford pays a visit to hear about how things are going, and it’s time for another case of the week! There’s some character work here, between Annalise and Michaela, because Michaela gets picked last and then starts overworking the case of a Rohingya Muslim woman charged with killing her wife. (According to a tweet from showrunner Pete Nowalk, that was absolutely intentional.)
Aja Naomi King has long been one of this reviewer’s favorite members of the cast not named Viola Davis, and she proves why here. Michaela is alternatively confident and then rocked when Annalise casually calls this a “death penalty” case due to the client, Nanda, getting deported after serving her sentence.
By virtue of the seriousness of the case — and King and Davis both getting to shine in court scenes — it’s the most interesting plot of this week’s episode. Sure, it’s also the most temporary story, although there is some plot development, but there’s a lot of courtroom theatrics. When the other, more long-running plotlines, like the investigations into Bonnie’s child and Gabriel, are particularly muddled, having something be engaging and guaranteed to resolve itself helps you get through the less-intriguing storylines.
There is one exception, though, and that’s still getting to watch Timothy Hutton and Davis spar against each other, with the bonus of the occasional Amirah Vann. It takes him until the end of the episode, but his Emmett gets the upper hand for once. Liza Weil gets to do something interesting for Bonnie, too, with a scene that lets her break down in front of Annalise.
All in all, this episode isn’t quite as strong as the premiere from last week, but it’s at least serviceable and not too off-the-wall yet. But this season of How to Get Away with Murder is still young.
Side thoughts:
- The millennial commentary in Asher’s storyline is really weak, honestly.
- Laurel pinning the betrayal of her father on her mother is low.