How to Get Away with Murder review: Seriously, don’t touch someone’s hair

How to Get Away with Murder provided a lesson in etiquette and not much else on this week’s episode, “It’s Her Kid,” but we’ll take what we can get.

How to Get Away with Murder has a pacing problem. It really always has, but it seems to have degraded further in season 5 (and, to an extent, even season 4). It’s hard to know why fans are meant to be invested in certain plotlines when they drag out to ridiculous lengths. Let’s dive in to this week’s episode, where this problem is put on full display.

In the future, aside from Annalise delivering a slap, the shocking reveal here is that Bonnie has Nate’s phone. Meanwhile, Annalise walks back into her apartment, and it looks like she has a body on her couch. She thus breaks down.

Back in the present of the show, even though Annalise and Nate have long since broken up by this point, they still argue like two people who mean a lot to each other in one way or another. Right now, they’re bound by Nate’s dad, but this is a sore point for the two of them — on personal levels at this point. When she talks about trauma, she has a stake in this, and not just because Nate brings Bonnie up.

There’s a lot of trauma when it comes to Nate Sr.’s case, and everyone’s working hard to try and establish that when he committed murder, he wasn’t in his right mind at the time. Unfortunately, current-day Nate Sr. has a lot of trouble with that defense, though he ends up giving an eval that leads to an insanity defense.

Speaking of Bonnie, though, she — and her sister, Julie — play a big role in this episode. Not only does Bonnie have an agreement to sign to continue her relationship with DA Miller, but Nate also tracks down that sister, who has a young man hanging around. Unfortunately, that young man isn’t Bonnie’s baby.

Beyond that, though, Bonnie also has a meaningful conversation with Asher about loneliness. It’s slightly ruined by Asher bringing up “Bonbon” again, and she lets him down gently, but it seems like Asher really is cracking on some level.

At Caplan and Gold, the story of the week is Ruthie’s Burgers and trying to land that account. However, the CEO of that company is “clueless,” as Annalise puts it, and tries to touch Annalise’s hair. It’s only underscored by Ruth Stevenson being white.

However, Michaela has an in because she once worked there; however, Tegan has a better strategy. It does improve their relationship from Tegan hating Michaela to hating Michaela less.

Meanwhile, the Connor and Annalise relationship is pretty clearly degrading. He doesn’t know why she let him into the group in the first place, and it’s starting to get to him with all the talk of background check. It leads to a big blowout of a fight and Gabriel getting put as the second chair on Nate Sr.’s case, and honestly, this version of Connor’s downward spiral seems more believable.

Additionally, the Gabriel sideplot keeps on chugging, for better or for worse. While the show is spinning it as a huge mystery, he’s too new for his origins to be actually interesting. Even though he looks Bonnie up later on not-Google, it’s not clear if he’s actually Bonnie’s kid or interested in what kind of in she may give him for his attempts to change the world.

Ultimately, this episode is a little muddy and disjointed. There are, as per usual, some sharp moments that feel topical (the entire Ruthie’s Burgers story, for example), but it’s again bogged down by this insistence by the show that Gabriel is very definitely interesting when he’s not. Make no mistake: Rome Flynn is doing fine as an actor. But the character is not compelling.

Well, it could be worse. He could be Wes.

Additional thoughts:

• “Is it only your female clients you can’t be alone with?” That’s a sharp question from Annalise to Emmett, and since it keeps coming up, it’s probably going to play a part in the season to come.
• Nate crying after his dad responds positively to the news that a mental health facility is in Nate Sr’s future is a strongly touching moment. Billy Brown’s got some acting chops, and they sometimes feel like they’re not used enough.
• The Tegan and Annalise dance scene is glorious.