How To Get Away With Murder – Who’s Dead?

By: Jamie Steinberg

This week’s episode finds The Keating Five and their classmates having one minute to defend Ted Bundy as their case study. We flash to Annalise (Viola Davis) pushing Frank (Charlie Weber) to shoot himself while Bonnie (Liza Weil) tries to get him to focus on her so she can get the gun from him. She tells him she knows he loves her and he releases the gun.

It seems Ted Bundy’s defense was their midterm exams and Annalise comes out of her office to say that for the first time in history everyone passed. She brings them several cases of champagne to celebrate. Wes meets up with Annalise and she tells him that Frank has disappeared and won’t be a problem for them anymore. At the party Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) says he is proud of Connor (Jack Falahee) passing his midterm with such a high grade, but Connor is still salty that he was referred to as “damaged” the other night. Meanwhile, Michaela (Aja Naomi King) is getting tipsy when Asher (Matt McGorry) pulls the rug out from her by saying that she needs to put the bottle down because her mother is on her way to visit. He admits that he answered her phone the other night, which ended up her mom coming to visit.

Annalise gets her hair done and is being complimented on how good she looks. Annalise begins to cry and her hairdresser (Mary J. Blige) says this is what happens when you no longer drown your feelings in alcohol. Back at the school, Laurel doesn’t believe that Frank is gone and is worried because Frank knows about them. Wes calls her out for lying to him about him not knowing and walks off. In the salon, Annalise’s hairdresser says she appreciates that Annalise referred a client, but the woman seemed too interested in Annalise’s business. Annalise figures out it is the Assistant District Attorney (Milauna Jackson) and goes to see her, pretending to apologize. The ADA says that just because she is sleeping with her man doesn’t mean a cat fight is needed, but Annalise calls her out for investigating her. Annalise snaps, “Someone may take me down, but my ass if it’s going to be you!”

Annalise runs into Nate (Billy Brown) in the parking lot and calls him out for investigating her. He denies being a rat and that chasing him away woke him up. He explains he doesn’t care if she is drunk or sober, but wants her to keep away from him. She heads home and takes a drink of vodka before beginning to binge drink.

Michaela’s mom (Brett Butler) arrives and pretends to have cancer. Michaela knows she is lying and it turns out she actually just left her husband. Over at the party, Laurel (Karla Souza) is trying to get Wes to talk to her and she explains that she lied to protect him. Wes (Alfred Enoch) thinks she is only with him to fix him, but she counters with that he is the one who wants to fix things like when he was with Rebecca. Wes gets a call from his attorney telling him to call to the police station. It seems that the prosecutor requested they lay into him, but she is interrupted by Nate. He asks if she was only hired to help because of his connection to Annalise. She is overly sweet with saying it was because he deserved it, but Nate breaks up with her.

Annalise starts a fire in the fireplace and begins to burn her files. She is drunk and uses Sam’s murder weapon to destroy her laptop. We hear quotes from various people that haunt her from her past (i.e. “why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone” and “I knew she was pregnant), which motivates her to drive over to Bonnie’s. Annalise pulls another bottle out of her purse and begins to drink.

Michaela is still trying to convince her mom to leave. She doesn’t care and doesn’t want to take care of her mother. Michaela says she has done everything for herself all her life. Her mother reminds her that she saved her life, but Michaela counters social services saved her. Michaela wants her mother to leave, but Asher barges in with a drunk Connor and Laurel. They all get drunk and Connor is playing around on the Humper app when Thomas’ picture comes up. Asher yells, “Dude! Bros before hoes!” Connor explains Thomas (Matthew Risch) reached out to him and they have plans to meet up later at a gay bar.

Wes’ attorney says he is there to sign off on his testimony now that it has been typed up. We watch as Nate looks on. Meanwhile, Bonnie is trying to get food into Annalise. She wonders what the prosecutor may know, but Annalise says she burned the files. Annalise asks if it is true that Bonnie slept with Frank, something Bonnie assures meant nothing. Later, Bonnie puts Annalise to bed and Annalise kisses her and asks her not to leave her.

We look back at Wes at the police station. The detectives want to know Wes’ relationship to Annalise and they explain they want him to cooperate with investigating her. It seems they found the body of Rebecca Sutter in the woods and want information about their relationship. One of the detectives spots Nate and wonders why he is back at the precinct. He explains he is an investigator for the DA, but she won’t give up any details into their case on Annalise.

Annalise wakes up at Bonnie’s home and we hear Bonnie telling Frank that he can fix things with the investigation by taking the fall. Frank thanks Bonnie lied about her feelings for him, but she denies it saying she just wants everyone to be safe. Annalise stumbles to her cell phone where she calls Wes, asking him to come to her house. Oliver pulls up news articles about Sam’s death and a bonfire that was held around the same time. He gets a call from Annalise who says she is on her way to see him. She also calls Laurel and says to grab the Keating Five and get to her house. She snags a drunk Asher, but can’t find Connor. We cut to Connor who has just had a hookup with Thomas. Thomas invites him for a drink, but is denied being told “this was just sex.” Thomas calls him out for being treated like a piece of meat and Connor bails.

Nate shows up at Annalise’s house, but can’t find anyone. We see Annalise talking to Oliver saying they are all in trouble, but she needs his help to hack the DA’s office. Laurel arrives at Annalise’s house and seconds later we see the house erupt in fire.

We flash to Annalise standing outside her house begging to be told who is in the ambulance. We then see Michaela giving her mother a plane ticket home. Her mother explains that her friends don’t know her the way her family does, but Michaela counters that she has never known him. Oliver arrives at Annalise’s house and is freaking out that the body could be Connor. She hands him a cell phone and says to wipe it clean. The police arrest Annalise and Oliver heads to the office to clean it. We see Annalise getting fingerprinted and the police taking her photo. Bonnie answers a call from the jail where she learns Annalise has been arrested. Bonnie rushes to Oliver outside of Annalise’s to ask if he was successful.

A firefighter learns that there was another person in the fire. We see Meggy (Corbin Reid) telling the doctor that the patient is Laurel and she is pregnant. The police tell Annalise she has been arrested for arson and first degree murder and their witness is anonymous. Meggy speaks to Oliver and Bonnie who gets a call from Frank. He wants to find out what is going on with Laurel and she explains that Laurel is pregnant. He asks if she’ll be okay and is told that she does not know. Oliver calls Connor, but gets no response. He tries again and Michaela’s mother answers because she found his found in the sofa. Michaela grabs the phone and explains about the fire. In a jail cell, Annalise asks Bonnie if the anonymous source is her. We see Laurel fighting the tube in her mouth and wants Meggy to tell her where is Wes.

The DA calls Nate about being caught outside of the interrogation room. Bonnie tells Oliver, Asher and Michaela about Annalise getting arrested. Oliver says he knows Annalise lied about the identity of who died in the fire. We see Connor come up behind him and Oliver runs into his arms. We see the medical examiner going over the death of the fire victim. Nate enters saying he is from the DA’s office and wants to see the body. When the sheet is pulled back, we see it is Wes. We flash to Annalise looking into the ambulance screaming in pain that it is Wes in front of a backdrop of her house on fire. Michaela asks who is dead and Bonnie says that it is Wes. A stunned Asher drops to his knees. We see Meggy finding out Wes died by catching a news story. She looks over at a sobbing Laurel and asks if she knows what happened. Nate asks if there is a cause of death yet and we watch time move backwards. We see Wes verifying his testimony and saying he is waiting for blanket immunity. He says if they want to take Annalise down this is the only way he’ll talk. Wes gets the message on his cellphone from Annalise saying to come to her house. We watch Wes leave the investigation room and cut to every person devastated by the loss of Wes. Wes sneaks out of the police station when no one is looking. Nate comes to visit Annalise in jail who says she is innocent. Nate says that Wes was already dead before the fire.