How To Get Away With Murder Review: Episode 1×03 - “Smile, or Go to Jail”

Brewing Love Connections, Dirty Secrets, and a Too-Heavy Engagement Ring in this weeks Review of How To Get Away With Murder!

This latest episode of How To Get Away With Murder sees Professor Annalise Keating asked by the head of the university to represent Griffin O’Reilly, one of the main suspects in the Lila Stangard murder. Wes continues his incessant attempts to help Rebecca, who is still locked up as the other suspect. Michaela’s fiancé Aiden comes to visit and a dirty little secret from his past is revealed. Annalise’s decision on whether to represent Griffin will stand on whether or not her on-again, off-again boyfriend Nate is able to confirm her husband’s alibi for the night of Lila’s murder, but will someone else be able to sway her decision? Let’s discuss!

RELATED | How To Get Away With Murder Review: Episode 1×02 – “It’s All Her Fault”

Wes, We Hardly Knew Ye

Wes tries to get information on Rebecca’s case and arrest but can’t get access since he’s not an attorney. The wisest thing to do would be to leave it alone, right? So naturally Wes does the complete opposite. He puts together a fake ID, wonder if we’ll ever learn how and why he learned that little trick, and goes in disguised as a public defender to visit Rebecca. She goes along with it for a moment but then kicks him out when he asks her about the phone she left at his place, which he has determined belongs to Lila. The problem that has been going on with this whole plot is that Wes’ behavior is entirely irrational and inexplicably so. But, when he later pleads to Professor Keating to defend Rebecca, we get the sense that he’s speaking from experience. We infer that his sympathy for Rebecca stems from his own experiences of being poor and lacking privilege. His impassioned plea to Professor Keating is effective, as she decides to defend Rebecca instead of Griffin. This makes us believe that perhaps she relates to Wes. Was she also poor growing up? Come up from nothing? These hints at the back stories of these two characters just make us want to learn more about them, preferably sooner rather than later. But this building of tension makes for good storytelling.

“You can’t defend Griffin. I saw him fighting with Rebecca. He’s not a good guy like you think, and he’s got everything, the school, money, but Rebecca’s got nothing. She’s alone, a pawn, and isn’t that why you do this? Defend people, so they get a fair trial? But that’s not gonna happen for her, because she’s poor, and I don’t think that’s fair or right. If you wanna fire me, fine, but she needs you.” ~ Wes Gibbins

The Honeymoon’s Over… Or Is It?

Michaela’s fiancé Aiden comes to visit and it’s all reconnecting and passion… until Connor sees Aiden and we learn that they went to boarding school together. As it turns out, they used to mess around. Michaela is worried that Aiden might be gay. She feels she has been lied to and betrayed, and Connor’s smug gloating certainly doesn’t help. As twisted as it may seem, Connor’s gloating doesn’t seem to be coming from an entirely malicious place. He very well may just be trying to throw her off her game because he sees her as strong professional competition. Or perhaps this is just how he makes friends. Is Connor even the type to make friends? Connor’s misbehavior may make him the love-to-hate or hate-to-love type but he’s undeniably one of the more fascinating characters to watch.

“I hooked up with pretty much all the hot boys in boarding school if it makes you feel any better. Also, I barely remember what his penis looks like. Wait, no, I still do.” ~ Connor Walsh

In the forward portion of the arc, there were multiple close-ups of Michaela’s engagement ring, making us wonder if she was still wearing it out of her inability to let go of a relationship that has already fallen to pieces. With her confrontation of Aiden in the past over whether he was gay, it seemed as if this relationship could be over when we’d only just been introduced to it. With such a strong emotional reaction from Michaela to this revelation, it made us wonder a few things. Did she already have suspicions regarding her fiancé’s sexuality? Is this something that’s happened to her in a previous relationship? Or maybe there are deeper problems in her relationship that she has been denying? With Professor Keating’s words of advice to her, we would wager that Michaela’s relationship woes are far from over. Not to mention, she is shown to have lost her engagement ring in the forward portion of the arc during the murder cover-up. Even if she works things out with Aiden in the flashback, that ring seems like it’s about to come back and serve as a damning piece of evidence. We also read some deeper commentary in the interaction between Michaela and Professor Keating, related to the ongoing struggles faced by females in their attempts to balance both a professional and personal life.

“Choose your husband carefully, Ms. Pratt. You’ll only have yourself to blame if it ends badly.” ~ Professor Annalise Keating

Live To Hook Up Another Day

There were so many seeds planted for eventual hook-ups and just all-around relationship drama that we can hardly believe it was all fit into just one episode. We’ve already gone through Michaela’s romantic woes, but there are plenty of others to discuss. Annalise appeared to have reconciled with her boyfriend Nate after he gave her the good news (which was a complete lie, by the way), that her husband Sam’s alibi for the night of Lila Stangard’s murder checked out. It’s not entirely clear what his motivations are for lying. Perhaps he was trying to protect her feelings, since she’s clearly far more sensitive than she tends to lead people to believe, or there could be some other dirty secret that has yet to be revealed. Considering how much has happened in just the first three episodes, that’s entirely plausible. But for now, we’re just left wondering if and what else he is up to.

We already know that Wes and Rebecca will eventually become an item. We can understand his appeal, especially with how much he’s doing to try to help her. How could anyone resist that when paired with a dimpled puppy-dog face? But it’s very hard to understand why Wes would bother to get involved with Rebecca. Putting her pretty face aside, there has yet to be anything shown to demonstrate her appeal. We don’t know any of her redeeming qualities, and surely she has to have some. Drawing this out isn’t doing her any favours. It would be better to give viewers even the smallest snippet of information to show how Wes would be drawn to her romantically. Simply wanting to help her because he relates to her lack of privilege just tells us about Wes’ honour and need to help others. That does not necessarily facilitate a romantic relationship.

Sam Keating, Annalise’s husband, not-so-subtly hints his interest in Bonnie, giving her an intense look and talking about how he loves a challenge. Sam has across as little more than an adulterous creep with all we’ve learned about him thus far and this begs the question of why Annalise ever married him in the first place. Annalise is a stunning, brilliant woman who excels professionally, and seems to care about helping people, particularly in her decision to represent Rebecca after Wes’ speech about helping those who have become pawns. It’s hard to understand why she wouldn’t have gotten married to someone truly deserving of her, that would treat her with dignity and respect. Sam continues to lie by claiming he was passed over for a job offer from Yale. In actuality, he never even visited the school (part of his faux alibi). Sam hasn’t earned any of our sympathy with his shady actions and at this point, we’re not even remotely sad that he’ll be meeting his demise.

But in the midst of all this love-life messiness from all the other characters on screen, we’re left with one brewing love connection that is mostly sweet… for now, anyways (because who really knows, with the way things seem to go for the people on this show). Laurel is shown to have some feelings for Frank, as she defends him (not to his knowledge) from the elitist judgements of Michaela. Connor’s the one to tease her about this crush, and given how insightful Connor tends to be about people’s weaknesses, we know he’s right on the money. Frank later tells Bonnie to let Laurel go to a party, which she invited both of them to stop by at, and then looks slightly dejected when he shows up and sees Laurel flirting with another student. There’s something so endearing about the way this relationship has been written, and the little looks and glances given from actors Karla Souza and Charlie Weber. It’s still in the early stages, but already we’re routing for these two to get together and deliver some much-needed happy moments, while everyone else’s lives continue to fall to pieces. There’s a lightness about this pairing that come across like a breath of fresh air.

“Looked like you and that legal aid guy were bonding pretty well last night. Oh yeah, we all saw that sloppy make-out. In fact, I think Frank was so grossed out he had to leave.” ~ Asher Millstone
“Frank was there?” ~ Laurel Castillo

FINAL VERDICT

Writer Rob Fresco’s greatest strength in writing this episode is that so many character’s stories were tended to. Often in ensemble shows, it can be difficult to maintain the same quality of plot for all of the main characters. In addition to this, the case of the week proved strong as it delivered some rather thought-provoking commentary on people’s need for adventure and the disillusionment of suburban life. The speech from Wes nicely resolved some of the issues we had with his seemingly erratic behavior, and Alfred Enoch won us mostly back over to Wes’ corner with his endearing performance. It may seem a bit repetitive to keep commending Viola Davis on her performance each week, but it’s just so hard not to when she absolutely nails it every time! There’s so many different layers to this character, and Davis delivers such range and subtle nuances in her portrayal of Annalise that we’re left craving even more with each new piece of character development. Director Randy Zisk’s strongest work was in the forward portion of the arc, as the editing was erratic enough to reflect the chaos of what the characters were experiencing but not too much as to confuse the viewer. The repeated close-ups of Michael’s wedding were a nice way to weave the story of the two time periods together but also to foreshadow her eventually losing the ring at the episode’s conclusion, which also further escalates the tension for the show’s plot. These characters already had one hell of a mess to clean up, and it doesn’t look as if it’ll go away neatly any time soon. But this is good… it means more juiciness for us to watch!

Thoughts, Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• Wes, you’re such a puppy dog! Even when I get mad at you, you just make a sympathetic face and I’m won over again! Damn you! xD
• Keating downs shots and still reigns strong over everyone. WE ALL WISH WE WERE HER.
• Viola Davis in that dress in the courtroom! GODDESS!
• Still not sure why Asher’s here. How does a frat boy bafoon decide to pursue an interest in law, anyway?
• So many hook-ups (or brewing ones) for me to keep up!
• Sam Keating, you’re just a creepy creep now, aren’t you. -_-
• Aaaah! Laurel and Frank! I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP! *HEART EYES*