How To Get Away With Murder Review: Episode 1×07 - “He Deserved To Die”

Emotional Struggles, Voodoo Penis, Lack of Character Development, Frenemies, Pregnancy’s and Hook Ups In This Weeks Episode of How To Get Away With Murder

On this week’s How To Get Away With Murder, all hands are on deck to handle the Lila Stangard case. Annalise and her team must work to find a strategy to defend Rebecca while Griffin’s lawyer is doing all that he can to make Rebecca seem guilty. The prosecution wants to have Lila’s body exhumed to have another autopsy performed. What rules will Annalise break to try to stop this? What else is going on in the lives of the Keating Five? Let’s discuss!

Rebecca’s “Character Development” Offers Up All Of Nothing

Since the show began, Rebecca has stuck out as the weakest link but this week’s ep was apparently intended to be the first foray into her back story and character development. First off, the episode begins with her continuing to be a smart-ass to Annalise and it only furthered our disdain for her. This is a girl who is on trial for murder; her life is on the brink of destruction. Sure, she’s had a propensity for snark from the beginning so we can acknowledge the consistency. But why are we supposed to be invested in a case to save a girl from going to jail if she doesn’t even care? We can speculate that this is a defense mechanism but the problem is that there was nothing offered up to better explain Rebecca’s behavior or motivations. Hardly anything she does ever holds any semblance of rhyme or reason. At first, we could chalk it up to the fact that it was the other characters’ turns to be developed and that Rebecca was simply another mystery that would eventually be made clear to the viewers after enough time passed (along with the identity of both Lila and Sam’s killer(s)). But now, she was given her opportunity and we still know nothing about her. Her self-admission of having been in juvie, a drug dealer, and a bartender is nothing we didn’t already know.

“Oh my gosh you guys are so gullible.” ~ Rebecca
“Rebecca, take this prep seriously or go to jail.” ~ Annalise
“Isn’t it kind of your job to make sure that doesn’t happen?” ~ Rebecca
“‘You slut white-trash killer. You made Griffin strangle that girl on the roof. You liked watching her die cause that’s the piece of garbage you are.’ That’s what everyone in the world is going to say about you. You don’t care, neither do I. I’m not the one that’s gonna be beaten, raped, and violated in jail. That’s on you. So what happened the night of Friday, August the 29th? Start from the beginning.” ~ Annalise

The one moment we did like from Rebecca in this episode was when she called Wes out for his strange behavior. All season we have been watching him bend over backwards to try to help this girl and without any sort of explanation (or chemistry) to justify it. We still don’t know what to make of Wes. He told Annalise to do whatever it took to get Rebecca back, using blackmail to ensure it would get done, but then became offended by Annalise’s morally questionable actions in making it so and then this week continued to be up on his moral high horse over Rebecca’s willingness to lie in order to discredit Griffin to further help the case. None of Wes’ actions make any sense. To add on top of all of this, we see that the gap has closed between the future and present arcs to a mere two weeks. Rebecca and Wes hook up for the first time and just weeks later, she’s telling him she will kill herself if anything happens to him. How did this escalation to such melodramatics happen? We appreciated the introduction of a bit more of Wes’ back story, like how he was born in Haiti and his mother brought him to the States when he was one, and that she then killed herself when he was just twelve. But it simply wasn’t enough to help us understand him the way we need to. We can understand the fact that someone like Rebecca keeps a lot of things about her life to herself but even if she wasn’t going to share personal information with other characters, at the very least there should have been material included so we the viewers could learn more about her.

Michaela Gets Some Bad News And Laurel Digs A Deeper Hole For Herself

With Rebecca’s weak story arc, there was more material included to update us on the other members of the Keating Five. Michaela gets a call from the law firm Sterling & White and is delighted at being called in, believing that she is going to be interviewed for a position there. But she is horrified to learn that she is actually there because the parents of her fiancé Aiden have drafted a prenuptial agreement for her to sign. There wasn’t a ton of clarification on why she was offended but given the way Michaela has demonstrated a bit of classism, like in her comments about Frank’s accent in a prior episode, it made us wonder whether or not these attitudes are a way of compensating for something. If Aiden comes from an even higher status upbringing than she did, perhaps she feels she has to prove her worth. Perhaps we will learn more about this down the line (though it won’t make much of a difference if her relationship falls apart post-I-lost-my-engagement-ring-whilst-covering-up-a-murder).

“This is a pre-nup.” ~ Michaela

Laurel gets an offer from her boyfriend Khan to come work for legal aid with him and she seems to be considering it. We know she’s struggling with her feelings for Frank and how that could negatively effect her work place environment, but she has also been shown to be struggling with the morally questionable side of law practice. Laurel’s journey is an interesting one because it’s evident that she tries to do the right thing but can also get her hands dirty when she believes it’s for the greater good (remember that jury-tampering). Laurel’s arc wasn’t all that eventful this week but she finally hooked up with Frank (and on the porch, too! Who knew Laurel would risk being a bit of an exhibitionist?) This wove together the present and future arcs together, given the admission she made to the group during the murder cover-up regarding her hook-up with Frank.

Connor Begins His Breakdown While Asher Remains The Same

Connor was really struggling this week. He is having a rough time dealing with his break-up with Oliver. The ice prince warmed to somebody only to have his cold ways run Oliver off. It was interesting seeing Oliver so hung up like this because it really showed just how emotionally invested he had gotten in their relationship. Having his exchange with Michaela, who teased him for stalking Oliver online, was a nice touch because we quite enjoy Connor and Michaela exchanging biting comments. They might just be our favorite frenemies out of the whole group. But Connor’s emotional struggle was most intriguing because it demonstrated that he is already starting to break down before Sam’s murder ever even happened. The Connor we see in the future arc, with his erratic and almost hysterical behavior, is a stark contrast to the smooth operator seen for much of the present arc. It was a nice piece of character development without losing the essence of who Connor is, as we see him try to validate his ego by sleeping with a former hook-up in a bathroom stall.

“Really? You’ve gotten naked with so many boys since Hacker broke your heart you can’t even remember their names?” ~ Michaela
“The important thing is that they remember mine.” ~ Connor
“Play on, playa!” ~ Asher

If there was one thing that stayed consistent about this episode, it was good ol’ Asher with his outlandish comedy. The writers and Matt McGorry must be having such fun bringing this character to life, as he was just as entertaining as ever. Asher expressed a spot of jealousy at Connor’s ease in getting attention, albeit from the same sex, and that line about a “voodoo penis” had us laughing harder than anything else in the entire episode.

Final Verdict: Rebecca Gets Opportunity For Character Development And Falls Flat

Overall, this felt more like a filler episode than anything else. This was apparently supposed to be Rebecca’s episode but that plot line was very week when comparing with the stronger episodes in weeks past. We liked the snippet of information from Annalise that she has suffered miscarriages in the past, as it allowed for a great understanding of her and the way she carries herself. But compared to the cases of the week in which Annalise has had opportunity to sink her teeth in and for Viola Davis to deliver one of those show-stopping monologues, we were left wanting. Annalise seems to be losing motivation for this case, just as we are losing interest in seeing Rebecca get off for it. At this point, we just don’t care if she goes to jail for this crime, regardless of whether or not she is innocent. We do however want to know who killed Lila, as that part of the plot has stayed enticing. The more interesting plot developments came at the end. With Nate approaching Rebecca about trying to get Sam put away for killing Lila, our curiosity was piqued. This is a development that we are quite keen on seeing play out. Also with the revelation at the end that Lila was six weeks pregnant at the time of her murder, we can only imagine the monologue that Viola Davis will be unleashing next week and we can’t wait. Though this was the weakest episode of the season, we are still hooked on this show and feel great anticipation to learn who killed Sam (and Lila, too).

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• Nothing says ‘I love you’ like wiping a man’s blood off your face. -_-
• WHY is Wes into this mess?
• Asher, that’s not how decomposition works. x)
• Laurel, stop playing, you are not leaving Keating.
• Wes, it is not your job to try to fix this girl! #EntirelyOverThis
• Ooooh, Michael just got blind sighted, she is not happy!
• Connor pining after Oliver is so cute. #IShipIt
• “Freakin’ Millennials and your damn entitlement.” Frank being frank. #SeeWhatIDidThere #Words xD
• VOODOO PENIS. ASHER. I CAN’T. #TheAccuracy
• Oh Connor, you are WRECKED. #Pining
• Asher’s so drunk he forgot the meaning of “drunk.” xD
• Wes, maybe lock your door when you don’t want someone to follow you into your apartment. *rolls eyes*
• This Wes/Rebecca still makes no sense. I gave these writers seven weeks to convince me and NOTHING.
• Wes, you hate superhero films?! Forget it. I don’t care how cute your dimples are, this will never work.
• Frank just served up his hoagie to Laurel. *snickers rudely* *Waves #FLAUREL flag like my life depends on it*
• Nate! What are you up to??? *narrows eyes suspiciously*
• Well sheeeeeiiiit, Sam, you’re just the gift that keeps on giving! *o*