How to Get Away with Murder – Annalise Keating Is Dead

By starrymag | May 14, 2020

By: Dustin Bradley

 

 

 

We start the episode with Annalise (Viola Davis) in her closet trying to decide what to wear for the first day of trial. She debates whether or not she should show her arms or not,  be more feminine or more masculine, wig or natural hair. In the end she decides that all of this means nothing really because if she is going to lose then she would rather lose having been herself. We then flashback to her conversation with Bonnie (Liza Weil) discussing the Frank situation and informing her of the plan to go to Hannah’s lawyer and convince them to testify in court on Annalise’s behalf. So, Bonnie is on a mission.

 

We then see Connor (Jack Falahee) and Michaela (Aja Naomi King) getting ready for court. Connor is with Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) discussing the immunity deals and Michaela is with her father Solomon (Ray Campbell) talking about trying to project “innocent victim” in the courtroom with the fashion choices. We then go into the courtroom where the prosecution decides that they want the very first thing that they would like to bring up to the judge is that they would like for Tegan (Amirah Vann) to be dismissed as Annalise’s counsel due to a conflict of interest. And, no, it’s not the red herring of Tegan being in love with Annalise like they tried to throw us a few weeks back. This time it’s because “new information“ comes to life by aid of a secret witness.

 

So, who is that witness? Well, that would be…Laurel (Karla Souza). She testifies that Tegan shouldn’t be counsel because of her past with not only Laurel but all of the Castillos. The judge grants this motion and the team now has an hour before they bring in the jury and begin the trial with opening statements. That means that Annalise and her team have little time to do what they need to do. She sends Frank (Charlie Weber) off to figure out details on all the kids immunity deals to see if that will help break them. Bonnie still, of course, has her mission, but in order to throw Frank off her scent she says that she was late to court because she was out looking for Nate.

 

And speaking of Nate (Billy Brown), he is nowhere to be found because it turns out he’s at the federal prison visiting none other than Jorge Castillo (Esai Morales). If he promises him that the feds will lower his sentence he will testify and tell the truth about Governor Birkhead‘s involvement with the Castillos and with the death of his pops. We then flashback to the courtroom where they begin opening statements. The prosecutor decides to try and paint Annalise as a cunning master manipulator who discovered that Sam was cheating and decided to murder him but instead of doing it herself she sent in the OG Keating 5 (a.k.a. her students). Annalise, on the other hand, tries to convince the jury that all of the murders and everything that has happened in this case is truly a whack conspiracy that was not committed by or for her but is, in fact, a conspiracy made up by the governor, the FBI and the Castillos. Tegan is making sure to track the jury’s emotions and doubts from the sidelines.

 

Next, we see Michaela and Connor confront Laurel on why she’s here and what her previous whereabouts were. She informs them that she is here to testify against Annalise at the behest of Agent Langford in the FBI.  And, all this time, it’s not like she’s been in another country or dead or anything tragic. She just was hiding out in Brooklyn, New York. Michaela is pissed that Laurel has been an hour drive away from them all this time meanwhile at the beginning of the season everybody felt so guilty about Laurel’s disappearance. Laurel tells her former pals that she is only testifying so that she won’t go to jail and will instead receive probation. It turns out the FBI only found her because they pinged her location on the night of Asher’s death when she FaceTimed them. 

 

Michaela is officially the first witness on the stand and she begins to recount the night of Sam‘s murder. Instead of telling the truth and admitting that she is the one who pushed Sam over the railing after he started to get violent towards her and the group over Rebecca she tells the jury that the murder was fully committed by Wes and that she only helped cover it up because Annalise and Wes forced her to do it. She spouts off lies such as Wes and Annalise sleeping together. Annalise is having none of it and on her cross examination she tears into Michaela and her ambition and presents the phone call to ICE back when Michaela had Simon Drake deported. With this cross, she slowly begins to poison the jury with doubt and begins to plant the seed of the FBI feeding these lies to the witnesses. On a side note, Gabriel (Rome Flynn) had just happens to walk into the quart room when Michaela was being sworn in. This means he had to hear her testimony where she admits to being a part of the coverup of Sam’s murder and lied to him about her involvement.

 

Frank goes to visit with Laurel and convince her to not betray Annelise and instead testify for her. Laurel says that she can’t agree to that because she has to protect her son and that this isn’t about protecting herself or anyone else besides baby Christoph. She also tells Frank that she actually did miss him. But what does this mean for him and Bonnie? We don’t know so far, but what we do know is that Bonnie and Hannah‘s lawyer have come up with an NDA for Annalise to sign in exchange for Hannah‘s testimony. The only hitch is that Hannah stipulates that if Annalise tells anybody the truth about her and Sam being the parents of Frank that there will be a penalty of a hundred million dollars. I bet that doesn’t matter to Annalise because she agrees to sign.

 

The next day in court Connor takes the stand, but before he can get ushered in Frank tells Annalise what he found out about the immunity deals and Annalise tells him to mention it to Connor. So he does, just as Connor is walking towards the stand. This leads to Connor having another panic attack. And after a quick recess for Connor to compose himself, they’re back on track. He spouts off the same lies that Michaela told during his cross examination. Annalise confronts him on the fact that the gay conversion therapy camp that Connor posted about in his essay was all, in fact, a lie and that the camp never existed. With this information the jury can see that Connor, himself, is most definitely no stranger to lying. After court Michaela assures Connor that they still have the same deal for the five years behind bars and that Frank only said that to him to throw him off.

 

Over at C&G Annalise, Tegan and Bonnie discuss the latest stipulation in Hannah’s NDA that states that after the trial Annalise has to confess to killing Sam. Tegan, of course, thinks that this is a horrible idea and that Annalise would be crazy to agree to it. After Annalise leaves the office, Bonnie stays behind to talk to Tegan and tell her that she can see that Tegan is in love with Annalise because she’s been there, too. Later that night when Annalise is at home she briefly considers drinking while she’s trying to contemplate actually signing. 

 

The next morning before court Annalise and Frank corner Laurel in the parking garage for one last ditch effort to convince her to not testify on behalf of the prosecution and instead help Annalise. Annalise throws a guilt trip at her because Christoph wouldn’t even be alive if it wasn’t for Annalise protecting him and saving him on the night of his birth in the elevator and that Xavier tortured Frank and almost killed him in Laurel‘s absence. Laurel doesn’t seem to take the bait and says that she doesn’t intend on flipping sides. That is until she’s on the stand and the prosecution starts talking about how Annalise exhibits all of the common traits of brainwashing. Out of nowhere Laurel says, “They are in the FBI handbook, too.” She then comes clean and tells the truth, which is everything that she said on the stand has been a lie because she was coerced into telling them by the FBI and that the testimony from Connor and Michaela was also filled with lies. Wes and Annalise were not sleeping together and that’s evidenced by the presence of baby Christoph. She reiterates that Annalise did not ask Wes to commit the murder of Sam or any of the murders there after and that Wes committed the crime alone because he was mentally ill. 

 

After their little victory in court Annalise is still not convinced that Laurel’s testimony was enough, so she decides to sign Hannah‘s contract because she believes that Hannah will be the only person to help her win. She knows that she’s signing her life away, which is why as she is leaving the room she murmurs, “Annalise Keating is dead.” 

 

In the parking garage Frank confronts Bonnie on his lingering feelings for Laurel but swears to her that what he feels for Laurel is nothing compared to what he feels for Bonnie because in the end Bonnie is the one that stayed. However, with Laurel’s return everything seems a bit complicated.

 

Michaela and Connor go to see Laurel and berate her about her flip in court. She tells them that she didn’t know she was going to flip until she was on the stand and decided in that moment that she needed to do what was right because she didn’t feel comfortable sending Annalise to prison for life. She wants to finally be a good person. Connor says that he wants to be a good person too which is the only reason why he took the immunity deal because he believes that it’s what they deserve. But Michaela disagrees and finally reveals that she did get a better deal, Laurel’s deal, probation with no jail time. So, for now It seems like Connor may be the only person in the Keating 5 to actually face jail time.

 

Bonnie takes the NDA to Hannah‘s lawyer for her signature since Annalise has already signed it and the lawyer leaves to go see Hannah right away. Meanwhile, at the same time news breaks about Xavier‘s death. Annalise and Tegan are watching it together. Annalise is honest about Nate being behind Xavier‘s death. Nate is back at the prison visiting Jorge and tells him that he can get justice for his son by bringing her kid down and testifying for Annalise at the trial. 

 

Bonnie returns to Annalise’s apartment where her and Tegan are celebrating Xavier‘s death in the news while bringing up his ties to the governor. But Bonnie can’t celebrate because there is another problem. Somebody died… Hannah Keating. Apparently, Hannah died by suicide but with this show we know what that means…murder. So, who did it? Birkhead? Or was it Frank? Because, after all, Bonnie did the one thing that Annalise asked her not to do which was reveal to Nate that Hannah and Sam conceived a child and that that child is a boy, heavily insinuating that he is that child.