How to Get Away with Murder – Wes

By: Jamie Steinberg

Connor (Jack Falahee) is jogging when he sees a bus coming his way. He has his feet on the curb and allows the bus to come quite close to him before saving himself from getting hit at the last minute. We cut to Annalise (Viola Davis) who is at a support group. She seems a bit closed off, but explains, “I have a problem. With drinking, yes. I have other problems, too. Lots of them.” Girl, we know.

Over at Oliver’s, Connor is upset because his boyfriend continues to doubt his innocence. “I believe you,” Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) says yet it doesn’t stop Connor from wondering, “Do you?” Oliver replies, “Yeah…” letting the words hang in the air. “Very convincing,” replies Connor.

At the courthouse the Keating four are having a powwow. The team seems to be freaking out when Bonnie helps them snap out of it by saying, “Get in there. Sit down. And act like you actually like Annalise.” In the courtroom, ADA Atwood (Milauna Jackson) is giving testimony about having Wes’ body moved and cremated. When then watch as a new station reports on the release of Wallace Mahoney’s son, Charles, from prison. His mother tells the reporters that she is still going to keep her husband’s case open because he deserves justice.

At Michaela’s home she meets with Connor. He is still freaking out about being accused of helping the prosecution, but Michaela (Aja Naomi King) reminds him that Oliver’s lack of support doesn’t mean that they should let a man come between their friendship. Asher (Matt McGorry) isn’t in for the “bros before hoes” sentiment and lets it finally be said that they all think that “Connor might have killed Wes!”

We get a flashback to Connor hooking up with Thomas and Connor immediately dressing to bounce. “You were a lot nicer on Humpr,” Thomas complains. “That’s because I wanted to get laid,” Connor snarks. We then cut to Connor checking his voice mail and heading to Annalise’s home where he finds Wes (Alfred Enoch) in the basement. We hear Connor explain that when he found Wes’ body he tried to do CPR, but broke a rib in the process since he heard a crack sound. He couldn’t call 911 because he had no phone and he started to smell gas since someone had cut the gas line. Everyone is still uncertain of whether or not to believe Connor, but Oliver reminds them, “All of you have done terrible things and you’ve asked me to believe that you did them for the right reasons.” Laurel (Karla Souza) is not trying to hear that. She is so certain that Oliver had a hand in Wes’ death that she tells Connor to go kill himself! Annalise is tired of the fighting and goes off on Connor to see if he is truly telling the truth. In the end, she says she believes he is innocent…if he believes she is. She advises the group to “forgive him, otherwise we’ll have more blood on our hands.”

Oliver investigates Atwood, but he can’t find anything dirty to turn up. That is until Connor realizes the Medical Examiner didn’t note in her report about Wes’ cracked ribs! He can testify that he was there and about the injury so this will cause the judge to realize there has been tampering in the case by Atwood. They don’t want Connor to take the stand though and incriminate himself so they come up with the idea of having Laurel do it on his behalf. She will just repeat everything he said, but as if she was the one who experienced it. Unfortunately, when she does this A.D.A Denver (Benito Martinez) asks if she has ever perjured herself in court. It seems he has evidence that as a teenager she said she had been kidnapped, but then recanted her testimony. Denver doesn’t let her explain the circumstances so Laurel is forced to say in open court that she has perjured herself in the past.

Because of Laurel’s mishap on the stand Connor takes it upon himself to meet with Denver. He wants to save the Keating four by confessing to killing Wes. The team had found a phone number earlier that belonged to a mystery person involved in Wes’ murder, but no one was willing to try dialing it out of fear. Finally getting the nerve Asher dials it. We hear a phone ringing in Denver’s office and we see Connor picking it up. Asher is on the other end. It seems that Denver is the owner of the mystery phone number!

After Team Keating haven’t heard from Connor in quite a while, Oliver runs to the police station to make a missing person’s report. The officer is not trying to hear it though since it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours of Connor being gone. Meanwhile, Annalise meets with Wallace Mahoney’s wife Sylvia (Roxanne Hart) to talk about his death. She point blank asks, “In what world do I not get answers to what you’ve done to my family?” We cut to Connor being held by Denver and then back to Annalise’s meeting. The two discuss losing family members and Sylvia lets it slip that Wes is not Wallace’s son – but her grandson’s kid. We then flashback to seeing a moment where Sylvia and Charles (Wilson Bethel) running into a young Wes and his mother. Charles and his mother begin to walk away after a brief chat and we see him turn his head and look back at them.

We turn to Dominick (Nicholas Gonzalez) speaking to Denver. Denver then speaks to Connor and tells him that if he won’t take his deal and plead to murdering Wes that he will plant Wes’ cell phone on him. Meanwhile, Asher has a heart to heart with Michaela and finally says “the l-word.” She does not say it back to him. Later, Michaela talks with Laurel about when it was that she realized she was in love with Wes. “When it was too late,” a Laurel teary says.

At Oliver’s house police officers swarm. They have a warrant for the USB drive that he used to copy Annalise’s phone. It seems Connor gave the information up to Denver. The police hear a message that Wes left saying that the police found Rebecca’s body and he confesses to having murdered her. This was something that Annalise had erased from her phone. With this information, Annalise suddenly realizes she may have a way to save Connor – by giving up Wes. She can use his voice mail confession to get her own murder charges dropped as he can then also take the blame for killing Sam. Annalise asserts, “He would want us to do this.” But Laurel isn’t so sure saying, “You never knew him. You don’t know what he would want.”

Annalise meets with Denver and says, “I’m going to tell you what you’re going to find on my phone. Wes killed my husband. He confessed to it on the voicemail that night and that he killed his girlfriend Rebecca Sutter.” She even goes on to basically paint Wes as a sociopath! Denver isn’t buying it noting, “That boy’s death is on your hands. Maybe you didn’t do it yourself, but you’re behind it and both of us know it.” Annalise defends herself saying, “Take this gift or I’ll come for you.”

The Keating four aren’t going to let Charles Mahoney get away with murder though. Michaela goes undercover at a bar to seduce him, but when he goes to pull the car around she chickens out. She has realized she loves Asher and lets him know. Laurel is too angry to let things go and volunteers to handle business herself. She takes out a gun and goes to find Charles at his car. On her way she runs into Dominick who apparently is an old family friend. We then cut to a flashback of Wes’ murder. He is in Annalise’s house looking for her when a man (Dominick) comes up behind him and injects something in his neck. Wes is able to hit Dominick and knock him out and then stumble through the house trying to get away. He makes it to the basement before Dominick catches up with him, putting a rag into his mouth and smothering Wes to death.

A free Connor and Oliver are celebrating their reunion with some sex. Afterwards, Oliver proposes to him. We see Annalise return from her AA meeting to find Bonnie and Frank (Charlie Weber) in her home. Frank gets on his knees and vows his allegiance to her. We then see Dominick as he gets a phone call from Laurel’s father (Esai Morales) and we flashback to various scenes of him throughout the season. On one occasion, we see Mr. Castillo telling Laurel, “You’re a member of this family and you reap the benefits, mjia.” We finally realize that Laurel’s father had Wes murdered.