How to Get Away with Murder review: Wedding bells

There are two major reveals in the How to Get Away with Murder winter finale, and it’s a shame that only one of them feels like it has any punch.

Blood in snow always looks stark. So it’s no surprise that the shot is repeated again at the start of How to Get Away with Murder‘s winter finale, only to cut to Gabriel’s blood dripping into the sink, still trying to sell that it’s he who will die at the wedding. The conversation between Laurel, Bonnie, and Frank only continues to set Gabriel up as a massive threat.

As the snow falls, though, we cut back to pre-wedding festivities, with Connor and Oliver’s parents being extremely embarrassing. It’s into this event that Laurel walks super flustered, while Connor’s mom and Asher finally make the connection that leads to their tryst at the wedding.

Bonnie, though, doesn’t get to go to the party; she gets an invite to Annalise’s instead, where Nate is, which leads into a nasty confrontation despite the favor they want from Bonnie about asking DA Miller a question.

Connor does convince Annalise to come to the wedding, as much as she doesn’t want to. However, Connor takes some convincing of his own to go through with the wedding from Michaela. The series does a good job of showing how things can slow down when you’re nervous and how seeing one person’s face can get you through it. In Connor’s case, it’s Oliver.

For all that How to Get Away with Murder can sometimes mess up dialogue, the vows Oliver and Connor make to each other are adorable, and Conrad Ricamora and Jack Falahee sell that these characters are in love with each other. Their hands shaking as they exchange rings? That’s such a nice touch.

Receptions are generally cheesy anyway, but the setting for this reception is epic in its cheesiness. No wonder Bonnie’s so upset (that’s not true).

But while the party goes down, Frank does some searching in Gabriel’s apartment, finding what looks like a birth certificate. Unfortunately, it’s too late — or it seems like it is. Gabriel confronts Annalise in the sanctuary, accusing her of drinking and finding her flask. But though it seems that we’re building to a true climax, we’re faked out here.

We get faked out twice more, since Nate and Oliver leave the reception tent, both to take calls. Finally, though, there’s someone who appears instead of disappears, because Frank shows up to get slapped by Annalise — but we don’t hear what he says. Instead, we get to see the document, and it is a birth certificate, though we see nothing but Gabriel’s name.

However, we end up seeing DA Miller on the ground, his face bloodied as Christopher cries and Bonnie approaches. The episode actually has an internal flashback to the fight between Miller and Bonnie, as well as other scenes with people telling Bonnie to worry about her relationship with him. She gets a fateful text from him at the reception, he gets out of the car, she confronts him with the accusation that he had the hit put on Nate Sr. and breaks up with him then and there.

This is about when he runs into Nate, who has evidence that Miller made the call to put the hit out; Bonnie gets the baby from Mrs. Hampton and heads outside. She’s almost too late, however, because Nate has already laid a beatdown on Miller. For all that the cast hits some strong emotional marks in this, Liza Weil’s “Oh no, oh God no” line as she approaches Miller comes off really weakly, especially in contrast with Billy Brown’s delivery of “He murdered my pops.”

In fact, it’s Bonnie who suffocates Miller, then gives Nate some instructions on how to cover up the crime. Oliver lives and gets to sing slightly modified John Legend to his husband (pretty decently, we must say). It’s to this track that we see Annalise return to her apartment and break down … but Gabriel’s in her apartment with her, because he stole her keys.

Finally, though, we learn who Gabriel is: Sam Keating’s son from his first marriage. This feels like it should be a bigger reveal than it is, if only because it means that he could have a serious vendetta, but honestly, it just feels a bit lackluster compared to what it could have been.

That’s not to say that the entire episode is itself lackluster, but after all this tension (and the reveal of how DA Miller dies), there’s just a slight letdown here. We don’t know why he’s here other than to presumably try and take Annalise down as revenge for his not having a father in his life?

It’s just kind of weak, and when compared with the big emotions present in the episode (Connor and Oliver’s love as well as the slow breakdown of Bonnie), it fades off.

But all the same, How to Get Away with Murder abides, and it’ll be back in the spring. Until then, fans.

Additional thoughts:

• Oliver’s nightmare about the wedding and Connor’s reassuring him with a sexy joke? Those are good character beats.
• The birth certificate probably shouldn’t be green. Sure, it may have thrown some viewers off the scent, but with all the hype about Gabriel’s identity, it ends up looking like a really ineffective ruse.
• Does anyone believe that Miller actually ordered the hit? I can’t decide.