That ending!
Too many plot holes for our liking.
A Verbal Smack Down, Steamy Hook-up, Covering Of Tracks, And One Final Twist After Sam Keating’s Murder
The entire season of How To Get Away With Murder has been building up to this moment. The two separate arcs have come together, Sam Keating is going to die, but who will be the one to take his life? Will it live up to our high expectations? After he’s dead, the group resumes all of what we’ve seen before with covering their tracks, this time it all happens in sequential order instead of being chunked into clusters for each character. Will it all flow in a cohesive manner and what other snippets will be worked into the plot? Once the dust has settled, there will be one final twist to knock you out of your seat. What did we think about it? Let’s discuss!
Who Killed Sam?
After all of the waiting, viewer finally got to see how Sam Keating died. First, he ran up stairs after Rebecca who locked herself in to try to get the information off his computer while Michaela called Wes, who was already on the way with Connor and Laurel, for help. The characters going from downstairs to upstairs gave an added dimension of movement to the story as we all waited to see just who would be Sam’s killer. The ups and downs between action and calmness enhanced the suspense. There was a bit of a struggle over the jump drive that ended with Laurel snatching it up, Sam charging for her, Michaela pushing him to protect Laurel, and Sam falling over the railing onto the first floor.
“Thank you.” ~ Rebecca
Our initial reaction to this was less than favourable, as we didn’t like the idea that this show that was based on the premise of getting away with murder was actually going to be about covering up an accident. But what was more so baffling was the fact that at no point did any of the five, yes five, people present check his body for a pulse. They kick off a discussion that is only interrupted by the sounds of Rebecca being strangled by a not-actually-dead Sam and it felt a bit like those cheap scare tactics employed in poor horror films. The whole sequence lacked plausibility for us. How would someone that had fallen from a second story still have the strength to attempt to strangle someone and perhaps more importantly, why would he do so in the first place? We thought perhaps they were trying to make a point about Sam’s propensity for violence with his putting his hands on the throat of Annalise in their earlier argument. But it still didn’t make any sense to us. Did he really think he’d be able to pull off killing her before the other four people in the room stepped in to intervene? If he really did somehow have that much strength in him after falling from the second story, why wouldn’t he call 911 for help (assuming that he had his phone on him, of course). With all the build-up to learning who was Sam’s killer, we did like the last delay in showing which of the group was holding the trophy, but overall, we were rather disappointed with the final product. The fact that it was Wes who killed Sam in order to save Rebecca neither impressed nor surprised us. He’s been doing baffling, illogical, nonsensical things ever since he got wrapped up in her. He still knows nothing about her and neither do we. To be frank, we’re sick of making this same point over and over again.
Connecting The Dots
Being that there is no longer any time-hopping since the show’s present arc has caught up to the murder it had been flash-forwarding to, there was a great deal of repeating footage of things we’ve already seen. The editing was strong as all of the old footage flowed well with the newer snippets that were added in to fill in the blanks and push things forward. It was a lot of filler but we can see how it was necessary to play these scenes again to show us the completed sequence of events.
“I said wait, my ring might be in one of those.” ~ Michaela
“Enough about the ring, Frodo.” ~ Connor
There were a few new plot revelations, some of which were stronger than others within the catch-up sequence. The hook-up between Nate and Annalise was quite steamy but again we couldn’t help but wonder what the deal is with Nate’s sick wife. He has spent so much time away from her trying to get revenge on Sam and at the exact time Annalise came over to his place, she was conveniently sick at the hospital? Again, it felt a bit too implausible for our liking but we do like the chemistry between these two characters and are intrigued to see if and how their relationship will develop now that Sam is dead. Connor lies to Oliver once he’s settled down and claims that the reason for his hysteria is a drug problem. We immediately thought back to the moment when Connor told Oliver that he would never let him go to jail. It’s great to see that consistency in his characterisation and we’re quite looking forward to seeing what’s next for their relationship since Oliver seemed quite set on helping Connor with his problem. Michaela pulls herself together after being in such an agitated state over the loss of her ring and goes ahead with signing the pre-nup and delivering it to her mother-in-law-to-be Mrs. Walker along with an apology for her behaviour, which she blamed on stress. Though we’re not entirely sure how this is supposed to help her situation, we’re thrilled at the prospect of having more of Lynn Whitfield on the show because she has a truly commanding presence that we love to watch. As for Laurel, we had thought that she was going to ask Frank to help cover up the murder (since we’ve seen him operate outside the bounds of legality on Annalise’s behalf) but instead she claimed that she had stolen the trophy from Asher due to stress and simply wanted to help to make sure he didn’t know she had done so. Laurel says that she’s single now and Frank says that the woman claiming to be his girlfriend is his ex-girlfriend and it all felt like a sloppy, forced resolution (and it pains us to say that since we quite like Laurel and Frank as a couple). If Frank and that woman were truly exes, why wouldn’t he have said that right when the awkward encounter was underway? Even if he has ended things now, we will be very disappointed if the writers resume the Laurel/Frank relationship without addressing this betrayal of trust.
One More Dropped Bomb
With so many plot holes and all that filler, we were feeling a little disgruntled by the end of the episode. We weren’t really sure what the point of the episode even was. But then came a truly shocking plot revelation: when Wes went back to retrieve the murder weapon and apologised to Sam’s corpse, Annalise was in the room and sitting calmly at her desk. We did not see this coming. Immediately we had to go back and re-watch the episode to truly get a proper perspective on the events we saw (and if you haven’t already, we highly recommend you do so).
“I’m so sorry.” ~ Wes
“Don’t be.” ~ Annalise
Everything Annalise did was precisely calculated and planned. Going to see Nate, leaving Sam that heartfelt voicemail about wanting to give their relationship another try (which was another stunning performance from Viola Davis - who really should have at least one or two monologues in every episode), calling Bonnie to say that she thought something was wrong, and finally calling the police to tell them about everything in regards to Sam and Lila’s relationship, was carefully manoeuvred to cover things up. Even all of the sneaking Wes did, from rigging the coin flip to destroying the jump drive, was likely done from Annalise’s orders. Above all else, we are intrigued to watch Annalise and Wes be in cahoots with one another. From the beginning, there were hints that Annalise seemed to relate to Wes in a way unlike any of her other students and now we will hopefully see more scenes of him with her instead of Rebecca, as all of those have done little but drag his character development down. The writers managed to not only breathe life back into the story, they completely revitalised the story and generated intrigue back into the plot now that the big mystery (who killed Sam) has been revealed.
Final Verdict
Despite the many plot holes and the filler and slower pacing of the middle portion of this episode, this mid-season finale ended very strong. Writers Michael Foley & Erika Green Swafford knew just how to end with a bang as they created such a strong arc for Annalise which Viola Davis played with her usual strengths and range. That first argument between Annalise and Sam packed quite the punch and Tom Verica committed entirely to the moral repugnance of Sam right to the end. Director Stephen Williams made all of the previously seen clips flow sequentially and seamlessly with the newer plot snippets. With newly rekindled couplings, lies to be told, and a murder to cover up, we’ll be waiting eagerly for How To Get Away With Murder to return in January.
Questions, Comments, Concerns…
- Wait… is this the future arc? Or the present arc? Have they finally merged fully? The blue lighting used to mean future arc but now I think we’ve reached it!
- WAIT. WHAT IF ANNALISE WAS THE ONE WHO KILLED SAM??? THIS WOULD BE SO EPIC GAH I WANT TO KNOW!
- Sam needs to stop trash-talking. All that’s going to come back and bite you in the bum.
- Annalise, go on and rub Sam’s face in your FINE AS WINE side-piece. *fans self with hand*
- Sam is such trash. I can’t wait to say good
riddancebye. - Everything’s starting to come together…
- Even now Connor can’t resist throwing some frenemy sass at Michaela. #Michonnor
- IT WAS AN ACCIDENT??? THAT IS SO LAME WHAT THE HELL THIS IS SUCH A LETDOWN. THE SHOW IS CALLED HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER NOT HOW TO COVER UP AN ACCIDENT. -_- #Miffed
- Ugh. We knew Wes never should’ve gotten involved with Rebecca. She’s been dragging down his plot since the start and now she’s going to ruin his life too. Awesome. *rolls eyes*
- Oh so NOW all of a sudden Nate cares about his wife’s well-being? Nope. Didn’t think so.
- I find it funny how Laurel is handling this pressure so much better than the two “badasses” of the group (Connor and Michaela).
- I HEREBY FORBID NATE LAHEY FROM EVER WEARING A SHIRT AGAIN. #AllTheHotness #WhatIsAnnaliseAndNatesShipName #Annalate
- “Come here, you idiot.” I CAN’T. xD #TrueLove #Bosher
- CONNOR JUST MADE A LORD OF THE RINGS REFERENCE! I’d ask him out if he wasn’t gay. xD
- Annalise’s speech would be sweet if it weren’t for the fact that Sam is, oops I mean WAS, absolute scum. Time for you to move on and upgrade, Annalise! You deserve better!
- Honestly, at this point, I don’t think Sam was Lila’s killer. It seems like it would be too obvious.
- Yaaaaaas Oliver’s back with that sexy baritone voice I need some #Coliver (or is it #Conliver?) love!
- I bet that’s not all Frank’s gonna take care of… *coughs* #ThatBedroomHairThough
- But who predicted that Laurel would frame Asher? Dayyyyyum… good girl’s gone ice queen! #ICanDigIt
- All right, I’m calling it. Asher’s going to spend loads of energy trying to win Bonnie over and when he finally succeeds, he’s going to get arrested for murder.
- Oliver being concerned for Connor is SO FREAKING CUTE ^o^
- NOW THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. All the subpar filler in this episode was WORTH IT for THAT ENDING!!!
- THIS IS WHY THIS IS MY FAVOURITE NEW SHOW.
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