How to Get Away With Murder – Was She Ever Good at Her Job?

By starrymag | October 26, 2017

By: Dustin Bradley

 

 

So far ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder” this season is somehow less “OMG moments” and more “oooo emotional and character growth” and it is something that I am definitely here for at the moment. It’s especially significant seeing as how most of us are still reeling from one of the biggest shock moments in the shows history (RIP Wes.) Was She Ever Good at Her Job? was an episode that is highly re-watchable and very entertaining! Let’s discuss down below.

 

We open the episode with Annalise (Viola Davis), who was very serious about her claim to Dr. Isaac (Jimmy Smits) that she is filing a class action suit against the Justice department of Pennsylvania. We flash between Annalise taking notes about her next steps and three of the Keating Four in class learning about guess what? Class action lawsuits. Gotta love coincidence. In Annalise’s case she must come up with a list of plaintiffs and get more cash, seeing as how suits like these are expensive. Back in class with our three: Michaela (Aja Naomi King) is trying to balance her schedule between class and her new internship, Laurel (Karla Souza) is still obsessing and focused over this “Antares” thing and Asher (Matt McGorry) is still upset that he has no internships.

 

Annaliese’s search for cash leads her to vulnerable victim, Middleton University’s president Soraya Hargrove (Luna Velez). As we know from last season she is going through a hefty and arduous divorce. That is until Annaliese offers to help with the mediation process. Hargrove tells her that she already has a lawyer, but she will allow her to help since she kinda owes Annaliese for lying and ratting her out to A.D.A. Denver.

 

We then venture into “Coliver” (Connor/Oliver) land, where things aren’t going as smoothly after the whole “Connor two dads” bombshell. Connor believes the Mr. and Mr. Walsh are only here to get the tuition money from him and explains to Oliver the reason why he never talks about his father. It turns out that his birth father Mr. Walsh, a/k/a Jeff (D.W. Moffett), came out late in life and in marriage and caused Mrs. Walsh to have a total mental breakdown and leave. It was only a mere few weeks after that that Mr. Walsh met soon-to-be other Mr. Walsh, Ted (Jim Abele). Oliver tries to convince Connor to try and forgive his father and give him another chance, but Connor is very reluctant. This might be awkward since Ted has already messaged Oliver on a Facebook like site asking to meet up with the papas.

 

We next see Bonnie (Liza Weil) meeting with Denver (Benito Martinez) to try and assemble a team to look through public defender Cross’ former cases to try and see if there were other discrepancies that could deter the department with the public. Curious how she is doing this right as Annaliese is preparing to take down the department?

 

After class, Michaela and Laurel discuss putting a plan into action to get into the “Antares” files that Tegan (Amirah Vann) has back at the office. Michaela lets her know that it will be nearly impossible to get into the specific files seeing as how they are monitored to see how many times they get accessed by a single person. Laurel tells her to find another way. Oh and she also got taken off her depression pills now that she is pregnant so she is experiencing mood swings. She seems to have a higher sex drive, making a joke about how plump Asher’s behind is.

 

We then go to Caplan & Gold where Tegan is preparing to meet with her next client and brings Michaela along as bait. Now why would she do that? Well, that is because her client happens to be a powerful person from Middleton University (a/k/a Hargrove). Little do they both know that Hargrove has brought Annaliese along, which completely throws Michaela off. The three meet with Hargrove’s soon-to-be ex-husband who is playing rough and requesting a hefty chunk of Soraya’s money and to have full custody of the kids. His lawyer tells them that he has suffered emotional damage and is now in therapy and has proof of Soraya’s actions giving them a flash drive with a recorded video of her drunk and talking to her husband right after he told her he wanted a divorce. Annaliese and Hargrove immediately go on the defense and try to find a way to shut him down by using maybe invasion of privacy, but they need something stronger.

 

Back with Oliver, he meets up with Connor’s dad’s for lunch. They tell him that Connor came out at twelve years old and that his courage gave Jeff the strength he needed to do the same weeks later. Unfortunately, this became a cause of so much strife between him and his son. Oliver, eventually, brings them back to the apartment where Connor is there waiting for sexy times and immediately gets embarrassed by the sudden surprise.

 

Annalise has another session with Dr. Isaac (who actually has a last name that was mentioned this episode). He catches her out in the hallway working on her suit against Penn and her case Hargrove at the same time. They have their session and Dr. Isaac cuts deep when he mentions Wes and Annaliese’s speech from episode one this season about her guilt surrounding his death. She asks him what else the disciplinary board tells him and he responds that he just writes a weekly report of her progress that he has to show them. This gives Annaliese an idea.

 

Annaliese wants to get the notes from Mr. Hargrove’s therapy sessions to see if he will mention anything incriminating. This gives Michaela a chance to shine as she bosses around the fellow interns to help sift through the notes. One of the girls finds that he having an affair with a woman named “Sue.” Too bad it’s not a woman. It turns out “Su” is actually a friend of Mr. Hargrove who helped him stow away some money from Soraya before they signed the prenup. Its this information that they take him down. Not only does he go lower on his price for alimony, but he also decides to have joint custody of the kids.

 

Tegan offers Annaliese a job after the case to which Micheala rejects the idea of telling Annalises that she told them that they “weren’t good for each other anymore” so she needs to stay out of their lives. This prompts a Keating clapback, where Annalise tells her that she has some serious “mommy issues” and wants to work with these power black women so much because her relationship with her own mother is so messed up. Harsh, but very true.

 

We also get a scene at the courthouse where Annaliese runs into Nate (Billy Brown), who questions her and makes her reveal her lawsuit plans. He tries to warn Bonnie to step away, but (of course) she won’t because she is a women scorned.  She even goes as far as to become a patient of Dr. Isaac under a fake name. What is your plan here Bonnie?

 

Connor ends up talking to his dad Jeff, but is dismayed when he tries to tell him that Oliver isn’t the one for him. I’m sorry Jeff, but Coliver is endgame so you need to back off. I didn’t go through four seasons of ups and downs for you to try and come in and ruin everything!

 

Frank (Charlie Weber) showed up twice – once to try and give Annaliese the “suitcase”/”I killed your baby” money that she quickly refuses and again to help Laurel with her quest for justice. Sadly, they end up hooking up because Laurel’s in heat.

 

Laurel and Michaela decide that the best way to access Tegan’s “Antres” files would be to hire Oliver to hack her system. Girls, why you gotta rope our Ollie into this? This won’t end well.

 

This brings us to our flash forward to “Night of the Missing Baby,” which sees Bonnie try to call Dr. Isaac (who knows her as Julie Desmond). When he doesn’t pick up we see her back at Annaliese’s bloody apartment approaching a witness to the crime. Guess who that is? Our poor Ollie.

 

WHERE IS ANNALIESE during “NotMB”? WHAT DID OLIVER SEE? IS CONNOR OKAY? DOES THIS ALL HAVE TO DO WITH MR. CATILLO? Hopefully we find out more tonight when ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder” airs at 10/9c! Be sure to keep watching every Thursday on ABC and checking back here, at Starry Constellation Magazine, for a new weekly recap.