How To Get Away With Murder – Don’t Tell Annalise

By: Alex Steele

Episode Four of “How To Get Away With Murder’s” third season revealed another survivor (??) but with a big twist. Not only that, but by the end of the episode Annalise (Viola Davis) has seemingly lost it all. The episode begins on murder night with the scene flashing between shots of Annalise pacing in the jail cell and Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) at the crime scene. Eventually, the shot lands on a distraught yet calm Annalise and with the sound of heels approaching relief and fear overcome her. Bonnie (Liza Weil) arrives and must interrupt Annalise to inform her that the police found another body and that they are alive. Cut to the hospital emergency room and the audience watches from the victim’s point of view as the doctors and nurses rush to save their life. Moving forward, we arrive back in present time where we see Annalise sitting at a bar enjoying the last of her cocktail. When the waitress takes the glass away and Annalise orders another two, the camera moves to a familiar dark-haired woman talking on the phone in the background. It’s Eve (Famke Janssen),and it seems as though the two old (but still) lovers are enjoying a night out.

Eve finishes her phone call and re-joins Annalise at the table where the two converse about the “Killer” flyers, but only for a second before the teasing begins. They trade stories about how they’d like each other’s lives (Annalise would do anything for boring) and exchange flirty remarks about the state of Annalise and Nate’s (Billy Brown) relationship. Eve is jealous, but she continues to tell herself she isn’t. It doesn’t take long before two well-dressed gentleman attempt to flirt with Eve and Annalise and use the old “we’re girlfriends” trick just encourages the men to try harder. Cheekily, it seems to work as the scene evolves into a dance party of shots, shots and more shots. Having called it a night somewhere during the dancing and drinking, Annalise arrives home fumbling and barely able to stand. Luckily for her she has Nate to take care of her and help her up the stairs. Elsewhere, Frank (Charlie Weber) wakes with a start when there is an obnoxious knock on his front door. He wakes, goes to the suitcase of money he’s still in possession of and grabs out a chunk of it. Opening the door, a woman asks for the cash in exchange for a bottle or can of something dangerous. She encourages him to be careful with that if he doesn’t want to blow himself up.

The next day, Laurel (Karla Souza) has since gotten herself a new number in attempt to reach Frank after she lied to Annalise and Bonnie last week. If she wasn’t already on edge, she certainly was after Wes (Alfred Enoch) came out of nowhere and scared her. Inside, Asher (Matt McGorry) has scored himself the coveted first chair position this week, but seems to be a little nervous. And by nervous I mean sweating up a storm. Behind, the Keating 5 assemble to show their support; Laurel giving Michaela (Aja Naomi King) shade about her “BF/GF” status with Asher while Connor (Jack Falahee) has returned to Humpr to find himself still as popular as he was before. Stumbling in, finally, Annalise hands over the reins to Asher completely especially with her brain full of vodka. This week’s case is introduced by the prosecution and involves Tristan Fullerton, on trial for stealing credit cards and money. Unfortunately, Asher’s already uncomfortable opening statement is made worse when an assistant bursts in and begins to whisper to the prosecution. What’s so important? Well, Annalise Keating is no longer allowed to practice law since her license is officially suspended. What for you ask? Remember the slap from last week, the one Annalise laid on her client after she saved him from a life behind bars? There seems to have been a video recording of said altercation, which just happened to fall into the wrong hands.

Even though Nate may think Annalise has a nice right slap, the suspension is the real deal, which means that Bonnie was left in charge. Returning to the court house, Bonnie and Asher confront Tristan about the money he stole, urging him to return it as that is the only way this could turn out right for him. Asher loses his cool, but with a strong word from Bonnie is definitely put in his place. Not surprising though is that even after the encouragement from both Bonnie and Asher, Tristan still maintains that there is no money left. Asher therefore has to put the class to work, unfortunately, Connor is preoccupied with his Humpr dates while Laurel is still trying to connect with Frank. So much so that she pays a visit to his father who hasn’t seen him and has no idea why he’d be in Coalport. He also makes mention of Frank’s time in jail and that Annalise and Sam were the ones that saved him; two pieces of information Laurel wasn’t aware of. Speaking of Frank, we find him mopping floors at the Coalport State Prison under the name of Kevin. He’s still his same old self, flirting and plotting.

Back in the trenches, the Keating Team have a breakthrough when Oliver’s money trace turns up a storage unit in Tristan’s name. Bonnie and Asher accompany their young client to find it full of baby stuff – clothes, food, essentials, etc. Laying everything out on the table, Tristan admits that the baby is due in five months but in a twist, no one can know because if they find out she’ll lose her job. The mother of his baby is a teacher at his school. With this latest development, Bonnie wastes no time in bringing the teacher in for questioning with the cover of going over her “testimony” for Tristan’s case. She holds strong, having an answer for every question that Bonnie throws her way which makes Bonnie even more determined to uncover truth. The only way she can see to do that is have Susan confess to the relationship on the stand. This plan leaves Asher a little concerned questioning Bonnie’s motivation. Bringing up her history with her father was always the wrong move, but when Bonnie snaps back with a comment about how he stood by and watched a girl get raped, the playing fields are even.

While Nate checks in with ADA Atwood (Milauna Jamai Jackson) to see if she was the one behind leaking the video, Eve pays Annalise a visit. Eve is there to brainstorm ideas of how Annalise is going to beat this suspension; they toss around the idea of retirement. But that doesn’t get too far especially when Annalise spent all of Sam’s insurance money on hiring a hit man to kill Frank. This admission shocks Eve, just a little, but her reaction is enough to warrant the fear of judgement that Annalise experiences. The chemistry between these two continues to be palpable, specifically when Annalise jokes about becoming Eve’s trophy wife, a suggestion that Eve undoubtedly is down for. The tone of the scene changes; however, when the reality of everything hits Annalise hard; Frank killed her son saying that out loud is enough to render her powerless to the emotions. Eve comforts her while Annalise assures her that she didn’t hire the hit man to kill Frank. The situation is made a little awkward when Nate arrives home, both happy and surprised to see Eve. Talk about awkward. The next day, while researching Frank, Laurel receives a call from a blocked number. She answers, cautiously, only to find out its Meggie and she’s calling to ask for Laurel’s help in organising a surprise party for Wes’ birthday.

Meanwhile, Connor leaves the others to go handle his “Humpr” business, this time the shot of the scene reveals not one, but two very young looking college boys. Initially, it looked like the three of them were going to have a threesome, but when Connor sits on the bed and throws them each a condom. Is this to say that he’s just going to be watching? Elsewhere, Annalise has discovered who leaked the video, Barry Lewenstein, a member of the University board. What ensues is a heated and very fiery confrontation in which Annalise is beaten, fair and square. She’s officially stripped of her tenure and fired. She really isn’t having a good day. The next day, Laurel is nearly caught calling Frank when Wes (lurking again) sneaks up on her. He’s concerned and knows she is hiding something and she looks like she’s about to come clean but instead reveals that Meggie is planning a surprise party. Bonnie and Asher come to blows again before heading to court, with Bonnie stating how cruel it is for him to doubt her.

After being fired, Annalise resorts to day drinking, a habit that Nate can’t seem to shake. Not only that, he seems to think that she’s still sleeping with Eve. Annalise, looking for a fight, gets one when she pokes and prods at Nate encouraging him to hit her. They exchange some cruel remarks, deep-cutting insults, before he calls her an alcoholic and urges her to get help. She leaves. The episode quickly approaches its conclusion when Bonnie calls Susan Boatman to the stand. She wastes no time with her line of questioning, immediately asking Susan whether she is pregnant? And, if in fact, the baby is Tristan’s. As he and Asher, tears welling in his eyes, watch on Bonnie rips Susan to shreds. She demands she answer the question, but upon the reminder that she can plead the fifth she does so. This is evidence enough that she had an illegal relationship with Tristan. More so, this is enough to have the charges against Tristan dropped. Unfortunately, he doesn’t see it as a success but a loss since Susan will be going to prison and the baby will be left without its parents. Bonnie may have been clear-sighted on the injustice that was Susan raping Tristan, but may have forgotten other things were at stake. Either way, Asher is proud of her and the two former lovers seem to have reconnected.

Having somehow come up with a way to get her license back, Annalise is heard making a statement in which she admits she is an alcoholic. She attributes her decline to the loss of Sam (Tom Verica) and her shooting and admits to having struggled since. Cut with scenes of Nate having very passionate sex with ADA Atwood and the Keating 5 surprising Wes, the montage is eerie. She makes a deal, she’ll enter into a treatment program if she is assured her license be reinstated. And again, Annalise Keating shows up how to win a battle. Back at the house, Eve applauds the plan saying how genius it is only to find out that it was Nate’s idea. Well, kind of anyway. The sexual tension is off the charts and when Annalise moves closer informing Eve that she’s the only one that doesn’t judge her, it becomes too much. They let the passion take hold and kiss. Letting it happen, but then pulling away, Eve says she can’t do it. Why? Because she’s met someone. If Annalise hadn’t lost enough this episode losing Eve, once and for all has got to be the last straw. She’s met someone, fallen in love and the woman wants her to move to San Francisco. Identifying that this is something Eve must do, Annalise encourages her to go and let herself be loved. The women embrace, Eve cries as does Annalise, and they bid a heartbreaking goodbye.

With everyone distracted at the party, Laurel makes a break for it. Connor confronts Oliver about their awkward relationship; Connor wants to know if he is hooking up with Simon while Oliver would prefer if Connor didn’t flaunt his conquests in front of him. Oliver also admits how hard it is to date when he’s HIV positive. The two eventually part ways on civil terms as Connor’s phone continues to buzz with potential dates. Annalise is throwing out all the salad when Bonnie arrives home with news. Unfortunately, her father has died, he was transferred to a smaller prison with a hospital. Bonnie’s voice is cut with images of Frank; he stole the nurses access card during sex, broke into the hospital wing of the Coalport Prison and killed Bonnie’s father by using hydrogen sulphide (which melts your lungs from the inside out). As Bonnie is revealing this to Annalise, Laurel arrives and overhears everything. Shortly after, she finds Laurel crying. Laurel confesses to having lied to her and Annalise that her father did find Frank and that he’s in Coalport, which mean he’s obviously the one that killed Bonnie’s father. Bonnie had only three words for her – “Don’t tell Annalise.” Flash forward to fire night and a frantic Oliver and Bonnie can’t seem to get any information regarding the survivor. Meggy (Corbin Reid); however, is working and when she enters the trauma room reveals the victim is pregnant. No sooner had she read these results does she recognize the victim, it’s Laurel. So, who’s the father? Frank? Wes?