How to Get Away With Murder – Your Funeral

By: Dustin Bradley

ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder” is back for an all new season! Episode “Your Funeral” was a far less dramatic opener than we are accustomed to, but coming off the previous two seasons this was a step in the right direction. And this season we are joined by three new series regulars, two of which we have met. Amirah Vann, who plays Caplan and Gold HBIC Tegan Price, has been upped to series regular alongside Rome Flynn, who portrays mystery kid Gabriel Maddox. To complete the new series regular group is Timothy Hutton as the new head of Caplan and Gold, Emmett Crawford. The aforementioned group adds a whole new layer to this soapy show and chances are one of them won’t make it out alive. Let’s dive in down below.

We open in our flashforward which I’m gonna call, “Night of the bloody snow.” It seems to be the wedding of “Coliver” (Oliver and Conrad) and of course something has to go wrong. Right when Annalise (Viola Davis) is getting her groove on on the dance floor in comes Frank (Charlie Weber) ready to ruin the night. We then shift to see through the eyes of a bloody victim out in the snow. This year we got a murder night in the POV of the victim so that’s pretty interesting. Let’s see how long that sticks around.

We then flashback to three weeks earlier and the start of a new semester. The camera work seems to suggest that murder night POV was new guy Gabriel Maddox (Flynn) who at the end last season was revealed to be “her kid” by Frank to a mysterious caller. It’s his first day of Middleton and of course his first class is Annalise’s new clinic/class. She has finally back teaching where she belongs. He is joined in class by none other than the OG Keating four: Laurel (Karla Souza), Michaela (Aja Naomi King), Connor (Jack Falahee) and Asher (Matt McGorry). After a gruesome speech she begins her quest to select the top twenty-five to participate in the course. She ends up dismissing half the class, which I’m pretty sure isn’t allowed in real life. She decides that in order to make the cut you need to argue a potential SCOTUS case.

Outside of the classroom Frank is waiting with baby Christopher at the ready to greet Laurel after her first day. He has taken on the duty of being the father figure in our little baby’s life. And for someone as messed up as Frank, he sure does know how to take care of this kid. The Keating four meet him outside and try to talk to Annaliese who shuts them down because this year she wants to practice “boundaries” with the kids and not let people think she is playing favorites. With this group, I doubt that will last long. At this point, when Annalise is trying to walk away, she is followed by Gabriel who makes it very clear that the reason he transferred to Middleton was for one reason only and that is Annalise. What connection does he have with her? That maybe a huge part of the mystery this year.

Annalise though has her own stuff to tend to as she interviews with several new law firms to find a good fit. At this point though we already know who she will end up working for that this is Caplan and Gold alongside new head of the firm Emmett Crawford (Hutton) and Tegan (Vann), who advises Ms. Keating to not take the job because her and her students have already caused a lot of drama with the firm after the whole Jorge situation. One thing that doesn’t remain clear to me is if Tegan is pressed at Annalise for taking a job that should be hers or if she is feeling something for our pretty much canon bisexual goddess.

Speaking of goddess, Laurel is looking really good for someone who spent most of last season pregnant and in and out of huge emotional distress. This time around she is playing house with Frank and the baby while practically using him for sex and a free babysitter. It doesn’t seem like she be falling back in love with Frank since towards the end of the episode she rejects his marriage proposal. Lucky for her, things shouldn’t be too awkward after that because she gets a chance to move in with some good pals.

Who are those pals? Well, that would be freshly engaged Coliver and Michaela in an old frat house near campus. The move comes in order for Connor and Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) to save up money for their wedding since Connor is still on the outs with his fathers and they don’t have enough income to afford the lavish apartment. Speaking of Michaela, she suddenly has the idea that she wants to fully try a relationship with “Scandal” character Marcus as she attempts to leave him messages. (Little does she know that, um, well he’s currently back in the sheets with POTUS Mellie Grant, which was a long time coming for them to reunite.)

Back in the classroom the competition is underway and sees Gabriel and three of our Keating four selected. Sadly for Asher, that means that he is cut from the course and while Annaliese states it’s because she doesn’t believe he is ready, part of me believes that she thinks he’s the one who would be best to disinclude because he is the weakest of the four. I’d like to add tho that the last time we underestimated Asher he ended up running over Emily Sinclair.

The other two plot points of the episode were Bonnie’s (Liza Weil) continued employment at the D.A.’s office to try and figure out if the now deceased Denver shared his files with anyone of importance and that includes her little Tinder man from around the office, Ronald (John Hensley), who just happens to be her interim boss. She even decides to ditch Annalise’s offer to come back to work with her for a chance to explore what Ronald knows about Denver. The other big thing was Nate’s (Billy Brown) research into a certain page in the Denver files about Bonnie’s potential child. He even sleeps with a lab tech in order to get results that show that Bonnie’s DNA matches the child’s sample. Now the only question is will we find out that Gabriel is the lost child?

From Frank’s behavior that includes hushed phone calls, deep research, keeping him away from Annalise and even infiltrating his life by way of basketball, it is unclear if Gabriel is perhaps Bonnie’s or Annalise’s kid. All of the signs point to Bonnie but does the timeline match up?

We end the episode with a montage of baby Christopher’s baptism that was brought to attention by a package from Laurel’s mother (Does this mean she’s alive? We still don’t know even with this gift.). Laurel decides to ask Frank and Annalise to be the baby’s Godparents and with the ceremony being watched by Bonnie and the remaining of the Keating five (this time including Oliver), we are treated to one last flashforward which shows us that baby Christopher was left out in the snow practically watching someone die. Then, along comes a woman in a dress who is revealed to be BONNIE! It seems that maybe Bonnie is giving this victim the Rebecca treatment and putting them out of their misery.

This season looks to be a tad more emotionally raw this year with just as many twists and turns that are expected to come. Be sure to catch this season of “How to Get Away with Murder” on Thursday nights at 10/9c on ABC!