How to Get Away with Murder – Let’s Hurt Him

By: Dustin Bradley

We open with Gabriel (Rome Flynn) telling Connor (Jack Falahee), Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) and Michaela (Aja Naomi King) about how he witnessed the shady FBI agent murder Asher and how he at first thought it was Laurel but then figured out it was actually the FBI. They throw him out of the house before he can say anything else to make them more paranoid than they already are because now they think that the house may be bugged. Not only that but Connor may have been followed on his run later that night.

The next morning we go to a house arrest meeting with Tegan (Amirah Vann) and Annalise (Viola Davis) to extend Annalise’s locations to include C&G. They get stopped in the hall by Robert (Cas Anvar), the lawyer that Annalise went on a few dates with earlier this season. He wants to join the team pro-Bono and help win Annalise’s case. But things hit a snag when in the courtroom AUSA Montes (Lauren Bowles) drops the bomb that the federal government is seeking the death penalty for Annalise. So, now despite the fact that they were granted C&G house arrest access, they now have to fight a death penalty add-on with the Department of Justice. 

After court Tegan and Annalise head to C&G where they talk strategy with Bonnie (Liza Weil) and Frank (Charlie Weber), but they are soon interrupted by a visitor… Vivian (Marsha Stephanie Blake). She comes bearing the news to Annalise that the FBI killed Asher and Gabriel witnessed it. She gives her this information and offers up more, but only on the condition that Annalise helps protect Gabriel. At first Annalise dismisses these claims. That is until she sends Frank to tail Agent Pollock (Deborah Levin) and she leads him directly to Xavier Castillo (Gerardo Celasco). 

And Frank being Frank, he ends up kidnapping Xavier and prepares to torture him. Bonnie and Annalise try to convince him not to because he’s worth a lot to them in the courtroom, but Frank doesn’t listen. He’s able to obtain that agent Pollock is the only dirty FBI agent. From what we’ve seen so far of the FBI, we don’t know if that’s completely true but apparently Pollock is the only agent that Xavier and Jorge had in their back pocket.

Vivian goes to Gabriel‘s apartment and tells him that she asked Annalise to protect him. He immediately freaks out because of his last interaction with Frank and shows his mom the recording he has of Frank threatening him. Vivian then asks if that is Frank because apparently she knows who he is from back before Annalise ever entered the picture. According to Vivian, Frank’s family knew the Keating family, especially Sam’s sister, Hannah Keating. This adds a whole new question to the story that hopefully will be answered sooner rather than later.

Back with Michaela, Connor and Oliver we see Michaela receives an unexpected visit from her father Solomon (Ray Campbell) who is worried about Michaela after she had a meeting with her lawyer to try and get out of the immunity deal with the FBI. Michaela confronts him on her giving up Annalise‘s location and he assures her that he only did that so that he could protect Michaela and her friends. They have a nice little heart to heart.

Annalise and Teagan are continuing to strategize about what to do about the death penalty in order to get a meeting with the DOJ. It’s decided then that Annalise should “let the dragon out.” So, she does what she does best and holds a press conference where she asks the public and SJW’s (social justice warriors) to do all they can in contacting the DOJ on Annalise‘s behalf to fight the injustice that is the targeted harassment by AUSA Montes and the FBI. And, lucky for her, that press conference works and the DOJ wants to meet with her later that day.

Before Annalise can meet with the DOJ she has some things she has to do.  And that is meet with Michaela and Connor after they show up to her place with the recording they secretly took of Gabriel telling them that the FBI murdered Asher. She tells them that she already knows this information and that, despite that, it doesn’t matter because there are other informants. She finds a way to get them to admit that they are part of that. They admit that they are the informants, but they only signed an immunity deal because they felt like they were coerced by the FBI into it. They immediately apologize and tell her that they are truly sorry and that they don’t want to hand in her potential death at the hands of the government.

Little do the kids know that Annalise was recording their whole conversation and later that day presents it along with Teagan at the DOJ meeting. The DOJ decides that the death penalty is officially off the table and that the FBI and the AUSA have to do an internal investigation into all of the immunity deals reached in this case, which means the deals that Michaela, Connor and Nate (Billy Brown) now have to be looked into.

Speaking of Nate, earlier in the episode after Frank captured Xavier, it seems Annalise went to him with this information and tells him that he will have a chance to confront Xavier about the head on his father but only if he agrees to testify for her and not against her despite the immunity deal that he signed. Nate, of course, chose vengeance and goes to the warehouse where Frank is keeping Xavier. He asks him a bunch of questions and gets him to admit that the hit on his father was from the governor and that all of it was just another play to get back at Annalise for the Supreme Court case. Xavier doesn’t want to die and as a last ditch effort he offers the next best thing, his own father Jorge. Xavier tells Nate that he could get back at him and his father and that Jorge would never see him coming. Nate agrees with that but in the form of snapping Xavier’s neck. Later on the car ride home Frank is freaking out about Nate’s time alone with Xavier after Nate offers up some cryptic information.

On the topic of information, we end the episode with another visit between Vivian and Annalise. Annalise would like the information that Vivian previously offered up to her and tells her that she did in fact protect Gabriel by not mentioning him or his recording at the DOJ meeting but instead throwing Connor and Michaela under the bus. Vivian tells her that she knows who started the war against Annalise and that it wasn’t the governor or the FBI but that it was… Hannah Keating. In a weird way, Annalise somehow guessed this because (in her words), “Hannah hating me isn’t new news.” But when Vivian asks Annalise if she knows why Annalise responds with just the blatant fact that Hannah hates her. Vivian lets it slip though that Annalise doesn’t know the whole story. Annalise doesn’t know what happened to both Hannah and Sam. And that’s how we end the episode with that CLIFFHANGER!