How To Get Away With Murder Season 1 Finale Review: Episode 1×14/1×15 - “The Day Lila Died”/”It’s All My Fault”

How To Get Away With Murder Serves Up Double The Drama And Answers Questions We’ve Been Asking All Season Long

On this jam-packed season finale of How To Get Away With Murder, two episodes are aired back-to-back and given how intertwined much of the greatest plot revelations are that span across both, we’re coming both episodes into our review and extending it to cover more ground. Wes and Laurel are still working to find the truth regarding Rebecca, Rudy, and poor little Lila, but when they hit a breaking point, will Connor and Michaela need to be the ones to get their hands dirty and pull up the truth? What will be uncovered once Rebecca gets confronted? Will the truth finally come out? Before any of that, Annalise must try to save a priest, Father Andrew, who is on trial for murdering another priest, Father Andrew. But what dirty secrets are being hidden behind this cloth? With everyone’s truly insidious secrets being revealed, there’s hardly any happy couples left intact. Though things are heating up with Bonnie and Asher, could some devastating news halt Connor and Oliver’s relationship before it’s even fully reconciled? But of course the greatest revelations must be saved for last, as we will finally learn who it was that killed Lila. But even after learning the who, will this only serve to raise further questions? Will it all live up to the months of anticipation? Let’s get to discussing this tremendous season finale!

Take Me To Church

It wouldn’t be How To Get Away With Murder without another heavy-duty case of the week to deliver some powerful commentary. This week, Annalise’s client is Father Andrew, a priest who is on trial for murdering another priest, Father Bernard. Though at first questions arise amongst the defence team about whether Father Andrew was molesting a boy named Bryan who ended up committing suicide, Father Andrew reveals that it was Father Bernard who was molesting Bryan and this was what led him to commit this brutal murder. To further complicate the fact that Father Andrew doesn’t want to break his religious vow by sharing what he had learned during Father Bernard’s confession, he also flip-flops on how he wants to plea (manslaughter, not guilty, guilty to First Degree murder) due to the fact that he is in mutual love with a woman named Agnes. The final straw for Father Andrew is when Agnes testifies to give Father Andrew an alibi, which sends Father Andrew signing himself up as pleading guilty to First Degree murder.

“I waited for the guilt to come, and when it didn’t I was confused. Part of me wondered if I hadn’t done His will. I know what I did was wrong, I just don’t feel it was wrong.” ~ Father Andrew

Writer Michael Foley infused some pretty impressive and not-always-subtle commentary about (organised) religion here, particularly when Annalise dropped that line about the hypocrisy of Father Andrew being unwilling to break the vow against the religion that created the environment that was conducive to the abuse to take place in the first place. It was also borderline existential as far as Father Andrew’s doubts about his own reactions to committing murder and his beliefs influencing his decision-making and how he coped with it all. Then there was the forbidden love element of it all, and when combining all these parts together, it was indeed a solid case for the season to go out on (since the very last episode didn’t have a typical case-of-the-week in it). We certainly hope that the show will continue to bring forth more of these cases next season as there have been so many excellent ones that have more depth and substance to the material compared to other shows that have a weekly crime to solve.

Wrap It Up, Boys

This was one plot-twist we really didn’t see coming. As Oliver and Connor are well on their way to reconciling, there’s just one thing left to do: consummate their rekindled relationship. But Oliver, being the practical one, tells Connor that they need to get tested for STDs, HIV, etc. Oliver is rightfully weary of Connor’s promiscuity and Connor finds himself feeling foolish and ignorant because he learns just how uneducated and irresponsible he is about his sex life while being questioned by the nurse. His anxiety is heightened when he can’t get hold of the nurse on the phone later on, wanting to know his results. Oliver tells him that his results are clean and eventually Connor hears back that he is too. But upon returning home later, he finds an emotionally distraught Oliver who drops one of many explosive bombs in this season finale: he is HIV positive.

“One in five gay guys is HIV-positive and half of them don’t even know it.” ~ Oliver

Far too often, media content glamourises sexual activity and promiscuity which can be dangerous to impressionable viewers who don’t take into account the risks attached to this behaviour if the proper safety precautions are not implemented. But it is so refreshing to have writers brave enough to address these heavy social issues without cheapening the importance for dramatic effect. Conrad Ricamora and Jack Falahee beautifully played this plot out, particularly with the final reveal and we have little doubt that they will continue to do so in season 2 with whatever ups and downs this gives them as far as material goes.

“F” Is For Friends Who Do Stuff Together

The climactic transition between each of these episodes comes in the form of the Keating Four pulling Rebecca in for a heavy-duty interrogation. While Wes and Laurel have been working to determine whether Rebecca may have killed Lila, they’ve also been disagreeing over how to proceed. Wes’ suspicions are only increasing, whereas Laurel thinks that there is still reasonable doubt and shouldn’t go jumping to conclusions. But once they are overheard arguing about it, by Michaela and Connor, they must now bring the rest of the Keating Four into the fold. Unsurprisingly, this is the final spark needed to catalyse their confrontation with Rebecca, who is upset and seemingly hurt by Wes’ betrayal. When Rebecca threatens to get in touch with law enforcement and expose Sam’s murder/cover-up, they promptly tie her up and gag her after which they stick her in the bathroom.

“Wes…” ~ Rebecca
“No, do not look at him!” ~ Michaela

We’ve been left entirely disgruntled by the handling of Wes’ character arc, as we spent much of this season being baffled about why it was that he was wasting time better spent bettering his professional future studying under the great Annalise Keating, on a garble-speeched snarky mess without ever being given an explanation or justification as to why. The entire arc lacked believability and was bad enough to make us file it away with other unmentionable speed bumps we’ve been subjected to on other shows. But now we can revel in the fact that things are starting to come together just as they should. Wes’ being brought more into the group is just what we’ve been waiting for and it feels as if there will be more cohesion from here on out. Though there was surely a self-preservation aspect to Connor, Michaela, and Laurel grilling Rebecca with their questions, the fact that they also made repeated mentions of their refusal to allow Rebecca to manipulate Wes was an excellent writing point to demonstrate just how much closer the group has become. We couldn’t help but be particularly moved by Michaela’s impassioned delivery, making us hold out hope that Aja Naomi King and Alfred Enoch get more material to play alongside one another next season.

The Truth Shall Set You Free, Or Maybe Just Dead In A Basement

Much of Rebecca’s story is told throughout these episodes with flashbacks. Many of the key plot points are played out with Griffin’s testimony in order to demonstrate that much of what he had been saying was the truth. Rebecca did indeed manipulate him into hooking up so that they could be caught by Lila, whom Rebecca had texted to come over from Griffin’s phone. Though Rebecca and Lila had been friends, they had a falling out after Lila got pregnant and lashed out at Rebecca in order to place the blame on someone other than herself or even Sam Keating. Rebecca goes looking for Rebecca to try to patch things up but instead finds her dead in the water tank, where she goes to hide upon realising that she’s about to get caught with a dead body. But despite the fact that she’s not Lila’s murder, as the last episode or so was beginning to hint at, she did indeed drug Rudy with some marijuana laced with something called “Purple X” and then bam! Rudy lost his mind and ended up locked up in an asylum from the drug-induced mental break. What was the reason for all of this? Because he had spotted her returning to the apartment dripping wet immediately afterwards.

“Wes…” ~ Rebecca
“No, do not look at him!” ~ Michaela

We’ve never hid our disdain for Rebecca as a character, as she consistently lacked substance, development, and depth. This backstory didn’t offer much up in any of those areas, either. Though there was a brief twinge of sympathy when Lila unleashed her cold and low-blowing comments against Rebecca, any compassion we might have felt for her went out the window at her cruel actions against Rudy, who in a short amount of screen time still managed to garner more sympathy than Rebecca ever did. The up-side of her death is not simply good for the screen time it will free up for better written and acted characters, but another murder means more dramatic intensity from our favourite band of murder-cover-uppers. We should’ve seen this one coming, to be honest. The show is called “How To Get Away With Murder,” after all. Someone else was bound to end up dead.

It All Comes Down To This

One of the greatest mysteries of season one, particularly after the reveal of who killed Sam Keating, was the identity of Lila Stangard’s murderer. Suspicions have bounced around from one person to another as to just who might have been the one and after a great deal of winding everyone up, the writers finally revealed it to us: Frank Delfino. There was a great deal of tension in the scene between Lila and Sam, as the look in his eye didn’t look quite right and his hands were lingering dangerously close to Lila’s neck. Given that it was already established that Lila’s murderer had strangled her, this was a solid bait-and-switch on the part of the writers. But Sam was still in many ways Lila’s murderer, given the fact that he was the one to call up Frank and leverage some yet-to-be-revealed piece of blackmail in order to force Frank to commit the murder in the first place.

“Frank, what’s the end game here? If Rebecca talks to the police, we all go down. But that’s not gonna happen. Right? Because you’re gonna take care of it? Her?” ~ Laurel
“Do you think I’m going to whack Rebecca? Is that what you think I am? Some freaking hit man? Wow, no wonder you dumped me.” ~ Frank

Much of Frank’s back-story has been a mystery, but his willingness to get his hands dirty for whatever Annalise needs has been nothing short of intriguing. Presumably, season 2 will dive into more of how he came to be this shady character and what exactly it was that Sam had over him that was bad enough for committing murder to be the “better” option. We’ll also be interested in what’s to come regarding Frank and Laurel’s relationship, since we have an inkling that Laurel was the one who killed Rebecca. Given the fact that Laurel has taken to the whole post-murder life better than the rest of the Keating Four and rose from that whole debacle like a phoenix, we don’t rule out the possibility of these two having an entirely new and exciting new relationship dynamic once the truths (maybe) come out what they’ve done. Think Bonnie and Clyde, but with a bit more discretion.

Final Verdict

This was a fantastic ending to an incredible debut season for How To Get Away With Murder! Director Laura Innes added a grand feel with close shots on the actors that monologued about their beliefs and spirituality in “The Day Lila Died,” while writer Michael Foley loaded the episode up with some pretty spot-on commentary on some of the more controversial aspects of religion. As for the final episode itself, director Bill D’Elia seamlessly wove all the mysteries and different threads together. Also, writer and show-runner Peter Nowalk delivered the most exciting of plot twists and developments with both the death of Rebecca and the tension-fuelled build-up to the reveal of Frank being the murderer. Wes is now free to develop his own arc, as well as fuller relationships with the rest of the lead characters. Annalise has never been anything but exquisite so if the writers keep giving Viola Davis solid material, we know we’ll be blown away week after week. The “I love myself” speech from Michaela had us cheering and pumping our fists in the air. Though we’d still love for Michaela to get some good-loving, hopefully the next person to deliver it will be someone more appreciative of all her qualities. Aja Naomi King was arguably our favourite break-out star (since we already knew that Viola Davis was a powerhouse). But Jack Falahee was also very impressive; the only thing better than the performances those two is when they work together. We always had a feeling that Michael and Connor could make it onto the friendlier side of their frenemy relationship, and by the end of the season, this certainly seemed to be the case. There are so many plot points now ready to jump into for season 2 that we can’t wait for the show to return!

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• This is it, this is it, my gawd, this is it! We’re about to get the end of How To Get Away With Murder!
• Ugh, Wes and Rebecca doing this telling-lies dance is so damn annoying. Hate this relationship. Drop it, squash it, kill it with fire.
• Regardless of Sam probably not being Lila’s murderer, I’m not even remotely sad that he’s dead. Sleezy misogynistic trash bag.
• EW! Why do we have to watch them hook up? *barfs*
• Wow. I still don’t like Rebecca but now I don’t like Lila either. This show doesn’t need either of these hot messes.
• Four for you Oliver for being responsible about STDs and using protection! Positive examples! Love this!
• A case with religion involved? Oh boy… this is bound to get saucy.
• Lila was terrible to Rebecca but this manner of retaliation doesn’t make me even remotely sympathetic towards Rebecca.
• See! What did I say! It’s always scandalous when strict religions are thrown into the equation! Oppression only fans the flames of rebellion.
• Murdering a priest who molests people? Ah snap, I’m not even mad at this priest. He doesn’t feel guilty, either!
• Griffin is trash, too. Seriously, please tell me all of these basic characters are going to be gone after this finale is through. This is HTGAWM, not the basic fools club.
• Oh lord, Annalise… what are you up to??? It wasn’t enough to get your boo-thang locked up, now you want him beat up too? Tell me what your end game is, you mad brilliant goddess!
• Connor, you may be smart but LORD, you are also NOT. #WrapItUpBoo
• NOOOOOOOO ANNALISE HAD NATE BEAT UP FOR NOTHING, OUCH, MY HEART, OUCHHHH
• Oh no, what are they setting Asher up for? Dayum! Then again, I still haven’t forgiven him for his horrendous low-blow to Bonnie (who I’m not even a big fan of) so it’s whatever.
• Wow, Wes! Timing the walk?! Aren’t you the meticulous one!
• This priest is being noble and all but really, I’m entirely over him giving Annalise the run-around.
• Wes should’ve told Michaela and Connor a long time ago. You know those two are ruthless enough to make sure they get to the bottom of it all.
• Is it wrong that I am still holding out hope for Annalise and Nate? So much has happened but… I SHIP ITTTTTTT!
• “We need to talk.” Damn straight!
• I LOVE THAT THE TEAM IS LOOKING OUT FOR WES (I know they’re also looking out for themselves) BUT I AM HERE FOR THEM LAYING INTO REBECCA’S WACK AF SELF.
• Michaela is a godesssssssss can she and Wes be a thing now? PLEASE???
• Ugh. Ugh. Feckin. Ugh. This is where I gloat with the full extent of my gloating prowess since people tried to act like I was being too quick to judge Rebecca.
• HAHAHAHAHAHAHA THEY ARE READY TO MESS REBECCA UP KARMAAAAAAAAAA I can’t even believe she was dumb enough to try to muscle them out. Bye bye, basic-becca!
• Annalise shutting the damn door behind her ready to get down to business yesssss!!!
• Ending up in a basement with Frank? That sounds like way more fun than it was probably supposed to… *coughs*
• ASHER TALKING ABOUT A SNACK ATTACK I THINK HE JUST WON ME BACK OVER WITH THAT LINE
• Ugh! Rebecca dragging out Wes’ dirty laundry! What a gutter bucket! Please tell me she’s going to be off this show!
• How the hell did Rebecca get a phone? No one thought to pat her down? This is about as ridiculous as the whole not-checking-Sam for a pulse thing. -_-
• Wow. I literally care more about whether Rebecca is going to get the boot off this show than learning who killed Lila. Didn’t realise that’s the journey this show would take me on but here we are.
• Whoa! Mama-in-law has warmed to Michaela??? *narrows eyes suspiciously* What’s going on here…
• Yaaaaaas I am here for Michaela choosing herself and loving the hell out of herself over some whiney baby that wasn’t good enough for her, anyway. *flips hair*
• Whoooo!!! Annalise is snapping back and getting Wes into shape! GO IN!
• Awwww, Rudy is like a baby puppy! The writers are clearly trying to make sure any ounce of sympathy we might have had for Rebecca is out the window. If they keep her around, I’m pretty sure someone will start a riot. Maybe me. Definitely me.
• Wes, please learn to love yourself enough to know that you can do better, good lorddddd. Preferably Michaela. #HeyNow
• How many times have I said that Rebecca brings out the worst in Wes??? Stop stomping all over Alfred’s opportunity to achieve some greatness here. Give him better material to play! *rubs temples furiously*
• Wow! Laurel! That was pure genius right there with the ring! SNAP!
• No no no no don’t you dare tell me that Oliver has… what… OH MY GAWD NO WHY WHY WHY WHY THIS IS THE WORST THING TO HAPPEN TO ME EVER IN MY TV-WATCHING LIFE.
• I am clenching so hard right now! I totally thought Sam was about to strangle her!
• Who’s doing this? Is it Bonnie? OH MY GAWD IT’S FRANK! WHAAAAAAAT!!!
• WAIT WHAT WHY AM I LAUGHING THIS ISN’T FUNNY BUT IT KIND OF IS!! WHAT KIND OF HITMAN RIDICULOUSNESS IS THIS??? I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO PROCESS THIS.
• REBECCA IS DEAD, FRANK IS SOME NEXT-LEVEL ISH, ANNALISE HAS ANOTHER MURDER TO COVER UP AND THIS IS THE BEST DAMN SHOW EVER BYEEEEEEEEEE