How To Get Away With Murder – What Happened To You, Annalise?

By: Alex Steele

And so returns the OH MY GOD that is “How to Get Away With Murder.” With Viola Davis at the helm, it feels as though this show has not yet missed a beat and this premiere is no different. We left Annalise lying, bleeding out on the floor last season after being shot by Wes (Alfred Enoch). We return to that very place – where minutes after shooting Annalise, Wes, Laurel (Karla Souza) and Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) frantically try to plan their next move. Oliver bails (somewhere) while Laurel, steps in and grabs the gun. As this happens, Makayla (Aja Naomi King) walks in and Laurel covers for Wes saying that she was the one who shot her.

Flash forward, it is two weeks post shooting as Annalise returns home, looking dishevelled and fatigued. As Bonnie (Liza Weil) leads Annalise in, the lounge is made up into a bed and she refuses a nurse. Don’t worry Annalise, she knows how stubborn and independent you are. No alcohol is allowed while on her pain medication and no walking upstairs. Bonnie gives Annalise an update: the hearing is tomorrow 11am and all the kids are “fine.” Cut to Wes curled up in bed, he doesn’t look fine at all. Laurel tries to coax him out with positive reassurances, but Wes just isn’t comfortable with it all. Laurel assures him that Catherine (Amy Okuda) will be found guilty and then delivers a stirring pep talk saying that she’s concerned about everybody and that it is high time he stops feeling sorry for himself. He should be worried; however, as we come back to Annalise fidgeting on her couch, this no alcohol thing is really getting her down. How does she fix that? By taking more than the prescribed dose of Vicodin. Here comes the crazy.

After catching up with Annalise, we cut to the Keating Five, Frank (Charlie Weber) and eventually Bonnie all together in Connor’s (Jack Falahee) apartment – studying. Is it me or have Frank and Bonnie now become like surrogate parents to these five? Between Frank’s cooking and Bonnie’s devotion, I think they’re in the right place. Asher (Matt McGorry) is pumping himself full of whisky, while the others (except Wes) seem relatively okay, as much as you can be after another Keating murder fiasco.

Viola Davis: a woman whose work will leave you crying, laughing, questioning and just plain exhausted. The baby on the porch scene was flooring. As a viewer, you have no idea what is going on and Viola’s performance illustrates this confusion on a level unknown to mankind. Meanwhile back at Connor’s pad, Asher is concerned that the statement he made to police about his dad being possibly murdered isn’t working. Asher’s evolution and inclusion into the Keating Five is going to be interesting. I wonder how he’ll change as he becomes privy to the manipulative, completely unhinged ways of his counterparts. Speaking of unhinged, the drugs have taken full effect when Bonnie eventually arrives to a frantic Annalise trying to calm down the abandoned baby. As the scene moves on, we discover that it is all a figment of her imagination. There is no baby. She’s losing it.

With Annalise is such a vulnerable state, Bonnie calls up Frank for some help to bring her down – more drugs. Also, the Keating Five are now left with the responsibility to write a witness statement for Annalise – Yeah, that’s completely legal right? Lacing ice cream with drugs to knock Annalise out is the only way Bonnie sees she can help and it works. And the next morning as Annalise sobers up, Bonnie informs her of the hallucinations and that right now any good lawyer would refuse to put her on the stand as it would jeopardise the case. Annalise agrees, but demands she read over the statement before the hearing. Oh and she also throws out the pain pills. How long with that last? In the post-drug fuelled haze Annalise calls Laurel – who I believe is now the soon-to-be Bonnie. Seems like Annalise is grooming her to become her next patsy, but whatever. I’m totally here for that ride. We get a flashback to Annalise in the hospital where she asks Laurel why she took the blame for shooting her. Why not let them think it was Wes? She, like Bonnie, is looking out for everyone else. Back to reality and Annalise is asking after Nate. He hasn’t called, he hasn’t been around. Where is he? Being the best personal assistant she can be, Bonnie gets Nate (Billy Brown) to come visit. The power and pull Annalise has over these people is evident. She gets them in a position where they have no other choice than to be there for her. She protects them and they protect her. Or so Nate says.

Arriving at court, Makayla and Caleb (Kendrick Sampson) share a heated exchange where she tries her best to justify what they are doing. Is she trying to convince Caleb of what really happened or herself? The one-liners in this episode are haunting and cut-throat. Caleb’s “you all belong in hell” pretty much sums up what everyone must think. When the written statement is rejected by the court, Keating Five and Co. are left no other choice than to get Annalise to testify. When she shows up, everyone is shocked. So who called her you ask? Laurel, who will now be referred to as “Bonnie 2.0” – loyal, eager to learn and a little naive as well. As Annalise begins to testify things seem to be going well – that is until the hallucinations start. Crying baby. Bleeding wound. Things are not ok. Being granted a recess doesn’t even help, as she returns to the stand and breaks client privilege by admitting that Catherine did not in fact kill her parents. WTF? Keeping up?

As Annalise walks to her car after what we think is losing the case. Another player sits in her passenger seat. It’s Caleb. I may have even screamed WTF as this point. The twists and turns in this thing give me whiplash, but definitely a kind we keep coming back for. Annalise did what she did on the stand to protect Catherine. But not from their current plot to frame her, but for her parents’ murder. After all this time, what Caleb is trying to do is save his sister. It’s admirable. Caleb convinces Catherine that this is the only way and with that makes an admission of guilt in the shooting of Annalise.

The partnership/relationship/friendship of whatever word you choose to describe that between Bonnie and Annalise, is insidious yet completely devoted. It’s one of those “I should really walk away” from you kind of relationships, but somehow you always seem to come back. Regardless of hate, disappointment or relentless mental and emotional manipulation, Bonnie is here to stay. She can’t shake Annalise and as much as Annalise wants to shake Bonnie, she can’t. Liza Weil continues to be one of the most underrated actresses whose work, this last season especially, has taken on such grandiose power.

As Annalise arrives home to find Wes curled up in her bed after ransacking the place for Christophe evidence. The confrontation we’ve all been waiting for occurs. He demands answers. He knows she knew his mother and wants to know how and why and when. Ten years earlier we meet a younger, very pregnant Annalise (her hair in braids [totally here for this]). She sits down next to the woman from the flashbacks, who points out her son, Christophe (Wes). What does that mean? Now what’s their connection? Back to the present and we close on Viola Davis delivering one of those heart-cutting lines, “I think you ruined me.” Coupled with another hallucination, in which Annalise dances the baby to sleep, but in reality is dancing by herself in the middle of her office. The vulnerability and complete disassociation from the Annalise we know is perfection. Viola Davis is utterly flawless in this role. Such magical stuff.

*Note: Philip is still missing…