How to Get Away With Murder – Nobody Roots for Goliath

By: Dustin Bradley

ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder” is having a very successful creative season this year. The character development and relationships have made many of these characters even more interesting than before. Viola Davis has continued to shine but in my opinion, Karla Souza is the real MVP of this season. The work she does as Laurel this year has really made her character one of the most important members of the Keating clan. She has basically taken over the Wes role as the main focus of the younger cast. The “Antares” plot has really brought a lot more for Laurel to do and most fans have been loving it. Let’s dive into “Nobody Roots for Goliath” below.

Let’s start with Annalise’s (Viola Davis) story. She is still pursuing her class action suit with the help of Connor (Jack Falahee). They have a hearing with the Pennsylvania Attorney General, Mr. Chase (Oded Fehr) where him and his office have began to try and destroy her case by questioning her sobriety. They even paid someone to place a bottle of scotch on her car that forces her to pick it up and throw it away, which gives them the chance to photograph her and use it against her in court. The only solution that Annalise has is to strike a deal with A.D.A. Denver (Benito Martinez) that will require the D.A.’s office to say that they planted the bottle and took the photo at the request of the Attorney General. A.G. Chase goes so far as to try and subpoena Isaac (Jimmy Smits), at the suggestion of Bonnie (Liza Weil). Isaac kinda perjures himself on the stand by suggesting that Annalise is pretty well off, even though he truly doesn’t believe this. Or does he?

Speaking of Isaac, we got to see more of Annalise’s interaction with Jacqueline (Kathryn Erbe) from the previous episode. It turns out that Jacqueline showed up to try and convince Annalise to see a different therapist since she is clearly triggering Isaac and Jacqueline believes that Isaac is using again. Annalise signs over her care to Jacqueline but after the events in court, Annalise continues her sessions with him. He even slips up and mentions Bonnie in one of their many interactions so here’s to hopefully seeing the fallout from that.

Over in “Antares” land, the keating clan is reeling from the discovery that Asher (Matt McGorry) now knows what’s been going on with Laurel (Karla Souza), Oliver (Conrad Ricamora), and especially Michaela (Aja Naomi King). He is pissed at Michaela for not only lying to him once again and putting herself in danger but for some lingering feelings about her lack of love and loss of her previous life. He’s angry that she doesn’t take him and their relationship seriously. He only has one drawer in the apartment and Michaela still has her Aiden wedding dress. More on that later.

Asher decides to take the group to Frank before deciding what to do with the information Michaela and Laurel have provided him. Initially Frank is very clear that he wants all of them to stay out of this for the sake of their safety since he believes that Mr. Castillo is way more dangerous than they know. It takes some pleading from Laurel for him to come on board. They map out a plan for the leak of the “”Antares” dealings. Michaela is still adamant about not inviting Tegan (Amirah Vann) but in the end they decide to still use Tegan but to blame everything on Simon Drake (Behzad Dabu). Even though Simon is a huge a**hole, I feel bad that they could possibly get him deported for this, seeing as how he’s a DACA kid. #CharacterRehab for Simon?

So let’s talk about some ships, shall we! Back to #Masher… Michaela has made the decision to prove herself to Asher by destroying the $20,000 dress as a means of showing him that from now on it is no more secrets and just real love between them. She will make the effort to appreciate him more and make sure that they are equal partners in the relationship. This ship has been a favorite of mine from the beginning. Even though I loved me some #Basher (Bon-Bon and Asher) when it was happening.

#Flaurel is gonna take the paternity test and truly see if the baby is Frank’s or Wes’ and I think we can all agree that storywise the baby needs to be Wes’ in order to honor the real relationship that they had instead of the messy one that Laurel and Frank have shared.

#Coliver had some great moments this episode. Beginning with the sheet fort and ending with the cuddle fort. The sheet fort had Connor expressing that he truly is happy working with Annalise and making a difference for the first time in his life. And after the whole Asher and “Antares” issue, we end in the cuddle fort with Connor finally agreeing to Oliver’s proposal. This might be thwarted though because Oli soon reveals to Connor the truth behind Wes’ death and his involvement with the others and their plan. Let’s hope that this doesn’t mess up our sweet Coliver because we have been through enough to see this be their undoing.

This Oli confession leads into our flasforward to “The Night of the Missing Baby” which shows us surgeons hovering over an unidentified male who is losing his life before our eyes. We end the episode with a flatline. IS THAT CONNOR? Or is it a classic misdirect and it actually be Nate, Denver, Simon, or any other male character besides Isaac, Asher, Frank, and Oliver who are all accounted for. I really hope it isn’t Connor.