How To Get Away With Blue
Since Annalise is about to get shot, let's enjoy how FREAKING FANTASTIC she looks in this ensemble. Viola Davis's reward for all the scenes where she went totally raw (there was one I didn't use from early in the season where she's lying in a bathtub and then her eyes open suddenly and it's NOBODY'S best angle but it was effective).
How To Get Away With Extras
ANOTHER STUDENT SPEAKS. That's two this season. Also I realized they have to be vague about when the hell this is happening because if too much time has passed, they'd be done with Annalise's class. Last season took us past Christmas, so now it's just... you know, a nebulous point in the late winter/early spring. I hope they run eight seasons and NEVER acknowledge when the hell we are or why they're still in class.
How To Get Away With Perfunctory Blazers
Michaela appears to have gotten my memo, because here she covers up her seasonally inappropriate (OR IS IT) day dress with a perfunctory blazer that has nothing to do with anything and almost looks like she borrowed it. Also, in case you're curious, the plot this week mostly involves Annalise asking them all to get her things -- Philip the Half-Blood Hapstall; anything that will help her win things in court, or otherwise interfere with her enemies -- and them being totally useless and self-involved.
How To Get Away With Totally Lazy Effects Shots
Don't ask me why I notice these things, but: This is the shittiest fake hospital signage I have ever seen. Basically it looks like they accidentally used the temp version from the Avid. Look at the one on the left building. It's THE WORST. it isn't even the same font as the other one, either. Maybe all that money they're spending on Viola's good dresses is coming out of the F/X budget.
While we're here: Nate's dead wife's nurse is really nice, and very sympathetic to him, and helped Nia knit him a shawl before Nia died...and this comes in handy when DA Sinclair investigates Nia for wrongful death. There's a lo of tooth-gnashing before Famke gets someone -- most likely Sympathetic Nurse, whom she refused to cross-examine so that she'd stay on their side -- to change the blood test results so that Nia's blood is clean of suspicious drugs. Case closed. DA Sinclair seems to have a LOT of time to handle vendetta cases personally.
How To Get Away With Being Nearly Dead
Annalise threatens her: "You've messed with the WRONG BITCH." Annalise might want to practice subtlety and/or catching flies with honey. Just every once in a while. It would confuse the shit out of people.
How To Get Away With Fighting
Bonnie is angry with Asher this whole episode because of Trotter Lake. It leaks out what happened: Asher threw a party at his house, and four guys took a girl upstairs and gang-raped her. Asher says he was on a different floor and was too drunk to be aware of the situation, and that he involved his dad for the right reasons but then his dad took over and covered it up. Bonnie doesn't respect Asher for being a coward about it. Asher is trying to explain himself, and says something like, "I get why this is your thing," which reveals to Bonnie in that moment that Annalise told Asher about her past. She slams the door in Asher's face. More than once in this hour, really -- either literally or in spirit -- and so... I mean, hooray that Asher is not a rapist, but I'm sad that he contributed to hiding one. By this show's standards he's still not a bad person, but ... ugh.
How To Get Away With Asher
And then Asher makes this face. It doesn't matter why.
How To Get Away With Green Coats
WordPress ate my original copy for this slide, so THANKS. In a nutshell: This coat owns my universe. Also, Annalise walks in on Frank and Laurel sucking each other's faces, which kicks off a whole arc in which she insults Laurel's work ethic and insinuates she's just waiting around for the menfolk to do everything for her. So then Laurel helps solve the Case Of The Week by using -- with Annalise's blessing -- her Feminine Wiles to trick a material witness. Some poor schmo doorman, who can blow opposing counsel's case wide open, is hoodwinked into thinking Laurel wants to spent time with him. And so he follows her into a courtroom at JUST THE RIGHT MAGICAL MOMENT for the witness to notice him -- Annalise knew he'd never testify against a building resident, but just the sight of his face unraveled everyone into CONFESSING and I'm SO SURE -- and Laurel is pleased with herself for being so clever. The doorman, however, feels used and sad. TEAM DOORMAN.
Annalise also doesn't appreciate Laurel begging for a pat on the head. She points out that the best thing Laurel could ask is for Annalise to ignore her because it means Annalise thinks she's competent. I also want to note that the main lesson Annalise is teaching any of them is to use sex for information. She told Michaela to use her boobs to get Caleb Hapstall to talk; she applauded Connor for nailing his way to some scoop last season; now Laurel is doing the tactical flirting; and Annalise herself did that with Nate, and may be doing it FOR Nate a little by keeping the flame alive with Famke. Just put it on the syllabus, Annalise.
How To Get Away With Hideous Outfits
Also, WHAT is Laurel wearing. What is she ever wearing, frankly, She has a terrible wardrobe. But for weeks now she's been in jeans with long shirts under cropped sweaters, and now she's in Bermuda shorts and a cardigan. Clearly the costumers don't know what season it is EITHER.
How To Get Away With Hacking
So! Frank has gotten wise and contacted Oliver directly about what they need done, rather than waiting for someone else to think of it first. Eliminating accessories to the crime, as it were. Oliver is totally juiced by all this intrigue, and even gets a heartfelt thank you from Annalise for all the times he's saved their illegal bacon.
How To Get Away With Ear Pencils
Connor is NOT AMUSED. And this actually really works for me as a character piece: Yeah, Connor liked using Oliver's skills at first, but over time part of what he's come to love about Oliver is his decency, and how he makes Connor a better human. Which, the more disillusioned Connor becomes with Annalise, is like a life raft for him, But Oliver has spent his whole life being the good guy nerd, so one taste of the Dark Side and now he's chugging the Kool-Aid straight from the giant walking pitcher who burst through the wall. It makes sense for both of them -- that Oliver would be turned on by the danger; that Connor would want to keep him clear of it - and I love the underlying visual of having Connor suddenly look so preppy, almost, and with a pencil behind his ear.
How To Get Away With Asher
And then Asher makes this face, and it's because Google has unearthed an old rap video he made. Everyone is making fun of him about it. With the angry way Bonnie shuts it down, I wonder if this ALSO went down at Trotter Lake. At the very least it underscores what we all knew, which is that Asher is something of a douche-poser. Both a douche who is a poser and a person posing as a douche.
How To Get Away With Asher
And then Asher makes this face...
How To Get Away With Asher
... AND this face...
How To Get Away With Asher
... AND this face, and it doesn't matter why.
How To Get Away With Asher
And then Asher makes THIS face, and it ABSOLUTELY doesn't matter why.
But seriously, if this was supposedly made in college... why is there a lady who may be old enough to be his mother? Who IS that extra? Maybe this wasn't college shenanigans; maybe this is how the extended Millstone clan unwinds.
How To Get Away With Red Dresses
This dress is freaking gorgeous on her. ROUND OF APPLAUSE.
How To Get Away With Trysting
Also, because Famke was defending Nate against this latest murder charge, she and Annalise get to have a rendezvous in a hotel room. They clink glasses and briefly fantasize about running off to Paris, and then they get it on while I wish they could remove Annalise's dress AND necklace and kindly drop them through the TV onto my living room floor.
But this was important: When Famke teases Annalise about Wes, and how devoted he is to her, Annalise says that it's not just any old kid. "It's HIM," she says. Famke looks astonished, and then proud. She calls Annalise a good person; Annalise doesn't seem so sure. Obviously, this is meant to add fuel to the Wes Is Annalise's Son fire, but... again I say that if this is the twist, then the sexual acting choices of Viola Davis are REALLY STRANGE unless she was not TOLD about the twist.
How To Get Away With Anger
Annalise comes home and finds a drunk Bonnie sitting in judgment at her desk. They have a searing fight about Annalise betraying Bonnie's confidence. "I traded your past but I saved your future," Annalise says. Bonnie's reply: "You knew how much this would hurt me, but you did it because you wanted to. ... You don't know how to love anyone." Annalise fires back that Bonnie should freely go back to her nice apartment, "rolling around in bed with that 25-year old boy and not hanging from a bed sheet behind metal bars, then you tell me that I don't love you." It's here that Bonnie hits her with, "I want you to die," before saying that she wishes the PLLs had killed Annalise there instead of Sam because Sam never would've done that to her.
Hard to be funny about it. The scene was great. Liza Weil knocked it out of the park.
How To Get Away With Fabulous
Well, look. Annalise may not be a great person but she LOOKS AMAZING.
How To Get Away With Fake Grindr
Oliver is at it again. He has hacked all kinds of info about Philip, and in this case, he's using Connor's photo to entice him on Fake Grindr, which has the lazy name DudeForDude.com. The fact that he picked ScruffySexyCool as Connor's user name is hilarious to me and they all should have given him a harder time about that. I wonder if whoever wrote this episode is a big TLC fan.
Anyway, the plan is to meet him for a "date" and then steal his coffee cup or something so they can test his DNA. Connor is furious about this, but yada yada yada he ends up going while Frank and Michaela and Laurel wait in the car. But when Annalise gets wind of this plan, she orders them to stop it -- interesting, because she's usually Proponent #1 for Use Sex To Get What You Need (like with Nate, and also, she has told both Michaela AND Laurel to do this). So Frank goes in and bodily removes ScruffySexyCool from the coffee shop so that they can please stick to the rivers and lakes that they're used to.
How To Get Away With Not Putting Away Your Grocerie
Sadly, Oliver is still chasing waterfalls. I laughed a little that he keeps saying "Bye Felicia" to himself -- I don't know what actual song it is; there are so many 'Bye Felicia' references in the world now. But it seems apt, because poor Oliver is putting away the groceries when someone follows him into the apartment and says, calmly, "Hi, Oliver. How's your night going?"
How To Get Away With Stalking
It's the Half-Blood Hapstall. Bye, Felicia, indeed. DON'T KILL OLIVER.
How To Get Away With Brooding
I didn't get a shot of it, because I'm a lousy recapper, but this is where we find out Wes has a gun. And he's real broody right now. Cut to...
How To Get Away With Hiding
... the present-day scenes, when we find out that Wes has the gun in his hand during this moment, where he and Laurel are hiding from Connor and Michaela. M is storming downstairs after Connor, who is muttering that "we know better this time." Laurel says they have to stop them, so they run outside and yell to Connor and Michaela... and just at that moment, a body drops between them and hits the ground in an exuberant explosion of red. It's DA Sinclair, having fallen to her death...
How To Get Away With Looking Guilty
... and then we look up and see Bonnie on a part of the roof, looking calm. The murder count was Wes 1, Frank 1, Bonnie 1, and now... Bonnie 2? I still think, based on how traumatized Asher is, that he went at DA Sinclair to save Bonnie from something, and didn't intend to kill her, but did. Because he looked so upset. That doesn't explain the blood on Bonnie's blouse, though... maybe DA Sinclair was already dead and Bonnie threw her off the roof as a diversion. WHAT FACES WILL ASHER MAKE when all this unfolds?!?