How To Get Away With Murder Review: Episode 1×12 - “She’s a Murderer”

Hannah Keating Shows Her Claws, Forcing Annalise To Make A Huge Sacrifice To Get Away With Murder

On this week’s How To Get Away With Murder, the police carry on with their investigation into Sam Keating’s death. There’s carpet fibbers and debris from the woods, putting Annalise in quite the predicament. Will she have to come forward with the truth and go back on her word to her students that she’d help them get away with it? Wes is still trying to figure out what happened to Rudy, the former tenant of his apartment, and is beginning to grow suspicious of Rebecca’s claims of not knowing him. Could he be on the verge of discovering a shocking secret? Connor’s feeling the heat of keeping the secret of what they’ve all done but will he be the first one to crack? It’s How To Get Away With Murder, so you know there’s plenty to discuss.

Annalise Is The Calm In The Eye Of The Storm

Annalise has a lot on her plate. Not only does she have her husband’s murder to keep covered up, everyone thinks she’s done it (except for the murder crew, of course). She’s got her murder-coverup students who are all starting to panic, and then there’s Bonnie who she doesn’t seem to trust. But Bonnie eventually puts together what really happened the night of Sam’s “disappearance,” and advises Annalise to not take the fall and let the students bring her down. But before we get to that, Annalise also has a case to take care of, in which she is representing the Lombardo crime family, one of whom is being charged with drug trafficking. Annalise wins her case once again, by proving that the prosecution had bribed the dock worker with the promise of a green card in exchange for him choosing the Lombardo cargo to “randomly” check. However, she wins with the looming threat that this prosecutor will go on a vendetta to get proof that she killed Sam. The final dramatic punch from Annalise comes when she frames her lover, Nate Lahey, for Sam’s murder so that she can keep her word to her students.

“Whatever you say to the police can and will be misconstrued to support the prosecution. So when in doubt, shut your mouth.” ~ Annalise

Viola Davis has been serving up the utmost excellence every week and tonight was no exception. Every courtroom monologue, including this one, is delivered with such conviction that it’s enough to make us believe in the justice system like never before. It was an intriguing notion that Annalise has been working with this organised crime family for over fifteen years. Immediately, we were inclined to think that perhaps Annalise found herself in a tight position of being discriminated against as both a woman, and a woman of colour, so perhaps she had to take on some “questionable” clientele. Then again, the writers may have an entirely different backstory in mind that we’re sure would be equally, if not even more compelling to watch. Later on in the episode, when Mr. Lombardo asked her out, we couldn’t help but wonder if this could evolve into some sort of fling later on but with everything going on right now, perhaps Annalise doesn’t exactly have much time for romance. The scene between her and Connor proved equally compelling, as she casually let it be known that she’s no stranger to trading sexual favours in the earlier stages of her career and that she saw much of herself in Connor. It was a strong character moment as we get to see more vulnerability and honesty from two characters that so often have their walls up.

Murder-Crew Is Starting To Panic

These poor law students have gotten more than they bargained for upon entering law school. Michaela’s still-lost engagement ring is still in play and nearly resurfaced tonight when there was a suspenseful moment in which the investigators were revealed to have found a ring in the woods. Of course it ended up being Sam’s ring, with Nate’s print on it, planted by Frank at Annalise’s orders. But in that one moment, we see the potential breakdown in our favourite shooting star and it was enough to make us miss Aja Naomi King playing even grittier moments of Michaela’s journey. Though this episode didn’t have quite as much for her, she still played what she was given beautifully. The same goes for Karla Souza, who despite our earlier sentiments about Laurel taking well to murder-coverup and how she’d been handling it better than everyone else, played a much more vulnerable Laurel in this episode. We see that she’s still like the rest of the group in her fears and worries, but now we see her connecting with Frank on a potentially more meaningful level. Could this be the beginning of a deeper relationship for Frank and Laurel? We have no doubt that Karla Souza and Charlie Weber would play that just as well.

“How? How did she do this?” ~ Laurel
“Does it matter? She’s doing what she said she’d do. She’s taking care of us.” ~ Michaela

Murder-coverup apparently isn’t enough for Wes, as he continues to play sleuth in his investigation into Rudy, the previous tenant of his apartment. It’s nice to have Wes get his own arc like this, as we’re beginning to feel like Alfred Enoch needs more material free from the snarky, overbearing girlfriend, but it can be a little bit disorienting trying to figure out what’s happening here with the Rudy plot when there’s just so much going on with the investigation into Sam’s death. It’s a testament to the cast and crew though, that we feel the stress of these main characters on such a visceral level. As for Jack Falahee, he is taking to Connor’s shaky vulnerabilities just as well as he did the icy sex-bomb ways at the show’s beginning. The writers have really paced Connor’s development well so that now as the season finale drawn near, we have a more well-rounded perspective on who he is as a character.

Hannah Keating Would Do Anything To Get Justice For Sam

Hannah Keating is not messing around, or is she? As soon as the police arrived to Annalise’s house with the news that Sam’s body had been found, the apparent reconciliation between Hannah and Annalise flew out the window as Hannah promptly began to scream at the police to arrest Annalise and accused her of being a murderer. There’s of course a tremendous amount of baggage here that hopefully the writers will elaborate further on but they’ve been doing a decent job at giving us snippets here and there to keep the tension up and our interest peaked. But at the end, when Annalise successfully orchestrates the framing of Nate Lahey for the murder of Sam, though Hannah buys the story, Hannah also remains convinced that it was still Annalise’s doing that resulted in Sam’s death. She warns Annalise that she won’t get away with this.

“I wanna be here when they drag you out of my house in handcuffs.” ~ Hannah
“It’s what you always wanted. You could never stand the idea of Sam’s mistress living in Mommy and Daddy’s precious house.” ~ Annalise
“Mistress? Is that still how you see yourself, Annalise?” ~ Hannah
“Better than the sister obsessing her entire life over her brother. How’s the saying go? Incest is best, put your brother to the test.” ~ Annalise

It takes a lot to keep up with Viola Davis, but Marcia Gay Harding has proven herself quite the powerhouse and an entirely convincing foe to Annalise our beloved hero. There’s something truly raw in the emotionality she shows, from her snapping at the police following the news of her brother’s death, to the icy digs she takes at the students and to Annalise herself. By far, the stand-out moment between Annalise and Hannah was that where Annalise shut down the smack-talking with the shadiest comeback you’ve ever heard, where she implies that Hannah had incestuous feelings for her brother Sam. Though we wouldn’t have necessarily come to that conclusion on our own, the way Hannah froze up at hearing it made us think there had to be some sort of truth here. What sort of juicy revelations lie in wait from our beloved HTGAWM writers? We can’t wait to find out!

Final Verdict

Though the overall pacing may have been just a touch slow, this is only if we’re comparing it to the rest of the show’s episodes as opposed to anything and everything else on television currently. We’d still like to know more about Frank’s back story since we still don’t know how he and Annalise came to know one another or just why it is that he’s so willing to do anything for her. Come on, he joined Team Murder-Coverup without batting an eyelash! Give up the scoop, writers! Speaking of which, episode writer Erika Harrison did phenomenal work with Annalise’s material, particularly in the courtroom and in her heart-to-heart with Connor. Director Bill D’Elia did excellent work as well, particularly with watching Annalise enter her home when the investigation was underway. We also love the continued use of the synth 80’s-like score to enhance the pulsating energy of the show especially when things get juicy. Viola Davis floored us (but really, when does she not?) and we were so touched by her vulnerability at the episode’s close where she called her mother saying she needed her. Seems like we’ll be needing a box of tissues for this reunion!

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• On a scale of 1 to Hannah Keating, how big of a chill pill do you need?
• Annalise came from a violent home? Interesting… (I get excited every time they give any sort of back story to Annalise).
• Hannah is downright devious. She belongs on Scandal where everyone is the scum of the earth (except Olivia, of course. Olivia is Queen).
• I love how Frank was just nonchalantly added to Team Murder. Frank is Ride or Die and I am here for it. 😀
• Look at this mob boss trying to pull a move on Annalise! Not that I blame him but come on, have some respect for the dismembered dead! xD
• In the land of things that surprise no one, Rebecca is still shady af. Ladeefreakingdah.
• These scientists checking for blood are STRESSING ME OUT. I think my blood pressure just sky-rocketed.
• Connor needs to shut his mouth, regardless of how pretty it is.
• The strength of character Annalise has… I AM IN AWE. #Goddess
• Annalise laying it down in court. #BossLady #SheIsEverything
• Gawddamnit Bonnie, how am I supposed to believe you managed to figure this all out?
• Who’s fingerprint is it? WHO’S FINGERPRINT IS IT??? Bonnie??? IS IT BONNIE’S??? *waits* OH NO ANNALISE YOU DID NOT JUST THROW YOUR HOT PIECE UNDER THE BUS *CLUTCHES PEARLS*
• ANNALISE CALLING HER MOTHER FOR HELP I DON’T KNOW WHAT MY EMOTIONS ARE DOING