Previously: Viola Davis’s client ran away and she agreed to represent Rebecca ’cause Wes whined about it.
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Let’s Get to Scooping
Democracy Diva: We begin, again, on Murder Night. At 12 Grimmauld Place, we rehash the Michaela is beyond terrified/Connor is verbally abusive and manic/Laurel is trying to stay calm and be helpful/Wes is snuggling Rebecca dynamic. Wes says he needs to get Rebecca out of here while the rest of them go to the woods, since she of all people can’t be found there. Then there’s an angry knock on the door and everyone panics. It’s Asher, and he is PISSED. Not because of murder!reasons, but because Michaela stole his trophy. They all pretend not to be home, except Connor, who starts cackling like a sociopath. It’s not funny, except when Asher yells, “Are you bitches seriously trying to ignore me right now?” That was weirdly hilarious. I really enjoyed this juxtaposition of the complete terror of everyone in the house, and the funny, childish shit Asher was yelling through the door. (S: +1) Connor lays down next to dead!Sam and mutters about how screwed he is.
Marines: Of all the places to duck and cover, Connor chooses inches from the pool of blood. Do better, Connor.
Diva: Seven weeks earlier, Connor shows up at Oliver’s door and tells him to get naked. Oliver says he’s probably a sex addict and wants to do a normal couple thing that doesn’t include fucking or hacking computers. (M: Um, only half normal couple stuff…)
Connor makes fun of him for using the C word (couple), and Oliver stutters and is all, “ok let’s have sex. Just stop listening to the words I’m saying.” I didn’t expect to like Oliver as much as I do. Maybe it’s just that everyone else is such a fucking psychopath that he’s the only thing normal enough for me to latch on to. (M: +1) (S: aaand cosign)
Courtroom – it’s Case of the Week time. Annalise is still wearing sleeveless dresses in the courtroom and it’s still bothering me because lawyers wear suit jackets during trials. Or at least blazers. Otherwise judges yell at them. (S: But Viola Davis’s shoulders are too fierce to be yelled at, even by judges.) (D: Fact. They are works of art.) Annalise argues with the opposing council (Fig from OITNB) over Rebecca’s confession. She wants the prosecution to turn over the video of the confession, but Fig refuses because she thinks the written version of the confession is sufficient. The judge sets bail at $1 million, so Rebecca is basically fucked. Asher jokes about how many lap-dances that’ll be, and Michaela snaps that Rebecca is a bartender, not a stripper. I knew plenty of Ashers in law school, and hated them all, so I’m incredibly gleeful anytime anyone puts him in his place, even as I enjoy his doofiness as comic relief.
Mari: The interesting part is that he, usually my least favorite of Dumbledore’s Army, seems to be innocent of the future!murder. How to get away with murder? Don’t murder.
Diva: File that one under life-saving Snark Squad advice.
On her way out of the courtroom and back to jail, Wes asks Rebecca for the code to Lila’s cell phone, but she doesn’t answer.
Cut to Paris Geller and Annalise interviewing Rebecca. They need to know every detail of what happened the night of Lila’s murder in order to help her. You’d think they would have already asked her these questions, but this is television and things need to unfold at a nonsensical pace. Annalise reminds Rebecca that what the prosecution wants is for her to stay silent so they can paint her as trash. But she can have a voice if she tells them the truth. (This is a rare moment of fantastic, non-illegal lawyering by Annalise. You can’t get anything done unless your client talks to you; figuring out how to convince them to tell you the truth is a supremely important lawyering skill.) Rebecca confesses that she did NOT kill Lila – she was coerced into confessing because she wanted to go home. She says Wes was right; he’s the one who told her Griffin was going to pin it on her.
CHALKBOARD OF MURDER.
Annalise tears Wes a new one, because what he told Rebecca made her confess.
Mari: Did it really? I’m not following her, “they are going to blame me! Better confess!” logic. And free of logic, we can’t really blame Wes. On the other hand, pretending to be a lawyer and stuff, so we can probably blame Wes for everything.
Sweeney: All of this. Wes said things to Rebecca in a stupid order, but I don’t see how it made her confess, especially not if the only piece that Annalise knows is the part where he said that she’d get blamed. I know lots of illogical things happen on this show, but this one stood out in an annoying way.
Diva: It didn’t bother me at the time, but dammit, you guys are right. I’m not seeing the link between what Wes said and what Rebecca did. But this show’s logic is not like our human logic.
Anyway, Wes insists he didn’t say anything else to her, conveniently not mentioning that he has Lila’s cell phone because of her. The rest of Dumbledore’s Army gossips about who’s going to get the trophy next. Michaela asks if Laurel has an outline by Tillman, who was a perfect student at their school and thus his outlines are basically the holy grail. But nope – the outline belongs to Kan, the Legal Aid guy who hit on Laurel at the law review party. Michaela offers to trade her property notes for Laurel’s outline. She’s like, uh, you don’t know my name, so no. Paris Geller and Frank debate who the first ‘shooting star’ will be. I assume that means the first to burn out/explode/lose their minds, but it’s not like, an actual phrase I’m familiar with and it’s mildly confusing. (M: I had no idea what was going on…) (S: I completely missed this exchange so when it came up later I was supremely confused.) Frank bets on “Prom Queen,” AKA Michaela. Their other nicknames include “Douche Face” and “Hair Gel,” so, you know, that’s hilarious and fully accurate. Annalise tells the DA that Wes is off the Rebecca Sutter case. He’s not even allowed to breathe the same air as her without permission. The group leaves to go meet their new client, Marin, but you don’t need to know that name because she is always and forever Celia from Weeds. (S: ALWAYS. I love how Jenji Kohan loaded this show is.) (D: Cosign.)
Celia is a high-powered stock broker, a self-made woman who saved up every penny and made it to the top of a male-dominated industry. Annalise basically says, “WE BADASS WOMEN HAVE TO STICK TOGETHER SO YOU BITCHES BETTER HELP HER OUT.” Celia has been charged with insider trading, and everyone looks kind of disappointed because insider trading is not murder. But I’m confident in this show’s ability to fit a murder in somehow! Anyway, they head into Celia’s office, where the feds are swarming around, tearing the place apart. Employees are panicking, but Celia is standing on a box, scolding the FBI. She sets their warrant on fire, because BADASS, but Annalise stops her and talks to the feds. (S: Psh. Job-performing BUZZKILL.)
An FBI agent exposits that Celia invested in a company right before it went big because she had insider knowledge. Annalise is all, PROVE IT, and the FBI turns on a video of Celia having sex with the CEO of that company. Celia, however, cannot be shamed, because she is just too fabulous. She tells the kids to take notes on her fabulous sex life.
After the supposedly limited commercial interruptions that are actually super-long, ABC website, so you’re not fucking fooling anyone, Paris Geller is yelling at Fig. (I’d call her by her character name, but I have no idea what it is) (S: Plus, this is her first full episode and she’s got to get that obligatory, “You are that other character first!” treatment.) Paris thinks Fig doesn’t want to release Rebecca’s confession tape because there’s something she doesn’t want them to see. Fig insists that’s not true and struts away.
Celia and Annalise in Celia’s office. It’s kind of strange and sweet to see Annalise actually bonding with another human being, though Celia notes they’ve never been allowed to talk about Annalise’s personal life. Celia insists that she never bought that stock, and her computer must have been hacked. She also tells Annalise to not look internally – her employees are loyal. I thought this was super-suspicious, and Celia was trying to keep Annalise away from the company because her employees DID do this – at Celia’s command. (Spoiler alert: I was wrong.) She also wants this thrown out during the preliminary hearing, because her company is losing millions the longer this case goes on. She can’t lose her firm. Annalise insists she’ll take care of it.
Mari: I thought Celia was super suspicious too, which is funny, because she was just being sweet and naive. Apparently I’m so jaded by TV that I thought, “MURDERER!” even though there was no murder.
Sweeney: I’m still not convinced that there’s not a murderer. THERE’S ALWAYS A MURDERER LURKING SOMEWHERE.
Diva: 3/3 Snark Ladies agree: MURDERY MURDER IS EVERYWHERE.
12 Grimmauld Place. Annalise says all the prosecution needs to win a preliminary hearing and move onto the actual trial is to show probable cause that Celia committed the crime, and that’s an easy, low evidentiary bar. So they have to find the real culprit, and Frank tells Dumbledore’s Army to interview every one of Celia’s employees and pretend it’s case research. They ask how Annalise knows it’s someone from the company, and she doesn’t, but she does know that everyone hates their boss. The DA (that’s Dumbledore’s Army, not district attorney) looks extremely uncomfortable, and I giggle. Michaela says yup, I do hate her. Connor makes fun of her for daring to want to study for another class, thereby proving she doesn’t already know everything about everything, and Michaela snaps back, “You can’t be naturally gifted at torts.” God, where were all these put-those-douchebags-in-their-places one-liners when I was in law school? Oh, right, I was too sleep-deprived to think of them. Asher is psyched because they get to be SPIES, and he gets to continue being this show’s comic relief.
Mari: You can’t murder people if you’re the comic relief.
Sweeney: That can be right up there with perm maintenance and the wonders of endorphins as one of the great legal arguments. That’s the kind of stuff I’d focus on in the TV law school in my head.
Diva: The TV law school in your head sounds awesome. I wish I went there; I’d be in way less debt.
Spy time. “I’’m not like most girls, clothes aren’t important to me,” says the obnoxious blonde girl delicately dressed in an elegant sweaterdress that she wouldn’t be wearing if she didn’t give a fuck about her clothes. Also, you’re sexist. Asher tries to interview a female employee, but she’s too quick to call out his sexism. (It’s contagious, I guess.) A few employees explain that it’s pretty easy to insider trade. Wes looks way too interested in how much easy money he could make through insider trading. A sexy guy named Paxton shows up – he’s Celia’s assistant, and he and Connor make eyes at each other.
Bitchy Blonde Girl knows that Michaela is trying to figure out who framed Celia, because Michaela is a shitty liar. That will serve her very poorly in the future, not just as a lawyer but also as a murderer. Asher flat-out asks who the Benedict Arnold is, because he is not as good a spy as he wants to be.
12 Grimmauld Place. Celia is pissed that Annalise is interrogating her staff, and I still think it’s suspicious that she wants Annalise to only look externally. (Spoiler alert: I’m still wrong.) But Celia insists those people are her family – she doesn’t want them to fear her, because she loves them. Annalise doesn’t understand because she’s kind of a robot. Celia reminds Annalise that she has been Celia’s lawyer for years and knows all her crazy, but Celia knows literally nothing about her. Because Annalise doesn’t trust anyone, not even her husband. Celia won’t let Annalise quit because she’s the best, so she grabs her classic quilted Chanel purse (excellent detail, show) and goes to leave. She sees a picture of Sam and says, “If this was my husband, I would never be able to walk straight again.” Can Celia be a recurring fixture on this show? Because I would love to see more of her particular brand of crazy. (S: PRETTY PLEASE?)
Sam and Annalise in their bedroom. She tries to have sex with him but he’s all, no, I have to go shave my hands/fuck my students/murder someone. (M: Busy schedule!) Outside, Detective Abs is breaking into Sam’s car, checking his GPS, and doing general snooping. He sees Sam and pops out of his car, pretending he was just turning off the light in Sam’s car so his battery didn’t drain. Detective Abs insists he wasn’t trying to steal Sam’s car, and then continues on his jog. Sam looks suspicious, and gets into his car. Paris Geller is watching from across the street.
After the very real commercial break, we’re back (or, forward, I guess) to Murder Night. Connor recaps how fucked they are – fingerprints, that eyewitness cop, Asher knowing they were there, rug fibers in his car, street cameras recording them – they are not going to GET AWAY WITH MURDER. He blasts Christmas music and it’s creepy.
Flashback to 12 Grimmauld Place. No one has made any headway with Celia’s employees, and Annalise is pissed. Connor thinks he might have a potential STD lead, though, and scurries off. Annalise asks Paris about the tape, but she’s still working on it. Asher catches Michaela snooping through Laurel’s bag, trying to steal her outline. Michaela snaps and yells and stutters about how they need to give a shit about other classes because Annalise only likes Wes, who has the trophy even though he’s a dumbass. Wes tells her to take the trophy if she wants it, but Michaela’s like, uh, that’s not how it works, you have to EARN it. Frank deadpans that Paris owes him $100 bucks. Michaela screams that she’s not the shooting star. (S: I GET THIS PART NOW!) Then Kan shows up to see Laurel.
Cut to Connor in the office of Pax, Celia’s gay assistant. He uses terrible lines about how no one really knows anyone to try and pry into whether Celia committed insider trading. Pax says that he’s been her assistant for eight years, and she is so not dumb enough to make that trade. They flirt, and Connor closes the door and Pax is basically like, “look how gigantic my dick is!” Then they make out, and have super hot sex on primetime network TV. God bless America.
Mari: I was going to make a comment about how I hoped Connor’s “leads” weren’t always going to be sex, but it’s like I felt the Internet swatting at me and telling me to shut up.
Sweeney: Acknowledging that it’s a hugely problematic line for the show to pursue – that Connor’s only skill is rim jobs that drive men to commit crimes – but the internet will absolutely tell you to shut your whore mouth if you’re going to both point this out and request that the show stop it.
Diva: For REAL. Looking for gifs for this show is basically just wading through 300 pages of Connor porn on tumblr.
12 Grimmauld Place. Kahn says he might be able to get $3,000 from Legal Aid for Rebecca’s bail, but that’s not even close to enough. Wes says maybe they should spin that $3,000 on the stock market.
You know, like insider trading! Frank is pissed off that Laurel brought Kan there and kicks him out because he’s an overgrown child. Kan kisses Laurel goodbye sweetly and takes the blow-off well. Team Kan! Kan and I are too cool for law review! (M: Team Being Nice to the Girls You Like!) (D: That’s the best team.)
Pax’s office. Pax’s phone rings, so Connor takes off. Pax says a lot of super-incriminating shit about how everyone thinks Celia did it, but really he just fucked one of the lawyer’s interns to be sure they still thought that. And he mentions that Connor “did this thing to my ass that made my eyes water,” which is quite a thing to say in a phone call that’s supposed to be about, you know, criminal mastermind things. Of course, Connor left a recording device behind, because he’s Veronica Mars.
After the break, it’s Murder Night. Connor is hacking up Sam’s body and tells Michaela, “let’s get to scooping.” He cackles like a maniac.
Flashback. Connor is having Oliver figure out who Pax was talking to on the phone. Connor is bitchy and Oliver is all, shut up, I’m breaking the law for you again. Connor insists he would never let Oliver get into trouble. Oliver asks how shady, law-breaking Connor managed to get this tape, and jokes that he must have slept with Celia’s assistant. Connor gives a non-answer. Oliver tells him that the call was coming from inside the company, but they don’t know the exact number.
Paris Geller at the police station. The Sergeant tells her to take a plea deal because Rebecca’s confession means she’s going down. Paris wants to know why his office is investigating Sam Keating if they’re sure Rebecca Sutter committed the crime. He has no clue what she’s talking about. Paris explains that Detective Abs illegally searched the car of the defendant’s lawyer’s husband, and that is some shady shit, so she doesn’t trust that they’re withholding the confession tape for non-shady reasons. Paris notes that a jury would find this suspect, and the press finding out would be a nightmare, so give me that fucking tape. Take a bow, Paris Geller, because you just lawyered the shit out of this.
Celia’s office. Frank, Annalise, and Connor play the incriminating recording of Pax for Celia. She can’t believe that the guy who bought her her first pair of Spanx AND helped her squeeze into them would betray her like this. Annalise says all they need is a statement from him, and Celia assures her they’ll get it. They strut out of the office and Celia marches up to Pax, calling him a bitch. She asks why he would do this. He says for eight years he’s been serving her and propping her up and this was his chance to be something. Celia tells Pax that she loved him like a son, and he tried to ruin her in return. She will prosecute the living SHIT out of him, and she says the family who rejected him will finally have a real reason to be ashamed of him. (Low blow. Pax looked devastated when she said that.) Of course, this is TV, so she can’t tell him he’s going to prison without making a prison rape comment. (M: One last week, one this week…) Then she throws her shoe at him, and all I can think is “Who throws a shoe, honestly?!”
Mari: A+
Sweeney: And a 1430 too.
Diva: Annalise finally steps in. They start to walk out of the office as Pax moves towards the window and says “I’m sorry.” One second later, he’s throwing himself backwards out the fucking window.
This was ridiculous and just thrown in for shock value, but I am proud that I knew this show would find away to make even a simple insider trading case have a side of horrible death.
Sweeney: This was the one thing in this episode that genuinely bothered me. I hate that they gave a suicide such glib treatment. No, show. Stop it.
Diva: +1.
Outside Celia’s office building, the medics take away Paxton’s body. Frank tells Michaela and Connor that that’s what a shooting star looks like. So being a shooting star isn’t a law student who burns out and then freaks out, it’s getting caught breaking the law and then committing suicide? I don’t really understand this metaphor, you guys. Maybe it’s something only gods/doctors/Chilton graduates can understand.
12 Grimmauld Place. Annalise tells Celia they can get a continuance. Celia says she shouldn’t have said those things to Pax. He wasn’t tough enough to take them, and she knew that. Annalise assures her this wasn’t her fault, but Celia insists it was. Annalise says it’s the fault of whoever he was working with, and she wants to help catch them.
Frank exposits that someone made the trade on Celia’s computer at 2:48 PM. The suspects who were logged out of their computers at that time include the Bitchy Blonde Talia and the smoker Jimmy. Asher posits that Jimmy went on a smoke break with Celia to distract her, while Talia logged onto her computer and made the deal, as Pax stood watch. Asher is pumped that they’re so good at spying.
Classroom that I kind of forgot exists. (M: ME TOO. It’s a good thing they pretty much know everything already!) Annalise tells them that getting a witness to confess on the stand is really hard and also a ton of fun. Cut to Annalise, wanting depositions from all the employees, given the extenuating circumstances. Jimmy comes in for his deposition. Classroom!Annalise says you’re no longer a lawyer, you’re a detective in an interrogation. And like a detective, you sometimes have to lie your ass off to get the information you need and pound it out of them. Annalise hands Talia and Jimmy the other’s deposition separately, explaining that each sold the other out. Annalise and Jimmy don’t bother to read the deposition in front of them, so they confess and get arrested. But the depositions were fake – Annalise tells Talia that that giant stack of papers is actually just the speech Celia wrote on the importance of female bonding in the workplace. A+, show. A+.
As Talia and Jimmy get dragged out of the office in handcuffs, Celia leads a sarcastic round of applause and heckles them. Talia says Celia would have done the same thing, and Celia’s like, no, I would have built my own company, LIKE I ALREADY DID, moron. I love how many mic drop moments Celia has had in this episode. Annalise looks at her approvingly.
Mari: And I think we just witnessed Annalise do a little female bonding. In a workplace.
Sweeney: #LOOKATALLTHELAYERS
Diva: 12 Grimmauld Place. Michaela is still freaking out about torts. Asher walks in with the Tillman outline – his cousin went to undergrad with Tillman and scored his law school outlines. Asher pretends to offer to share, and then is all, NOPE! You bitches ain’t ruining my curve! Paris Geller shows up and says it’s movie time, so they all sit down to watch Rebecca’s confession. Annalise tells Paris she did a good job. On tape, the detective asks if Rebecca was standing up when Griffin was murdering Lila. Rebecca looks up and to the left, like she’s looking at someone who’s telling her what to say, and says no, she was sitting, and helping hold Lila down. In court, Annalise says this part of the video was not in the written confession, clearly because Rebecca was manipulated into saying this part by the detectives. Annalise insists that the video undermines the credibility of the written confession (because if that part of the confession wasn’t true, who knows how much else of it was coerced), and the judge agrees, over Fig’s objections. The judge reduces bail to $100,000 and is inquiring into the detectives’ coercive interrogation tactics. He tells Fig, whose name I just learned is Ms. Parks, that he’s not happy. Rebecca panics to Paris, because $100K is still too high, but Paris reminds her that they only need to pay 10% of it, and they have it covered. Annalise tells Rebecca to smile – she’s free. Wes and Rebecca exchange long glances as he leaves the courtroom.
Murder Night. Panicked Connor shows up at Connor’s door at six in the morning. Terrified, and not cackling anymore, Connor tells Oliver he screwed up. He repeats it, over and over again, hyperventilating and crying and crouching on the floor, shaking uncontrollably. It’s difficult to watch (though somehow more comforting than his insane manic cackling from earlier).
Flashback to Connor and Oliver. He talks about how Pax cracked, but in the next room, Oliver listens to the recording of Pax saying he hooked up with one of the lawyer’s interns. Oliver’s crying. Connor says that they never said they were exclusive, and Oliver tells him to GTFO. Connor says Pax was just sex, and it wasn’t a big deal, but Oliver won’t have it.
He throws Connor out of his apartment. YOU GO, OLIVER. Also, you should probably get tested. Just saying. This boy gets around. (S: More life-saving Snark Lady advice! You’re welcome, Oliver.)
Outside Wes’s apartment, Rebecca walks up the stairs. Was he just waiting outside his door for her to finally arrive? Probably. (M: He’s slowly ruining Dean Thomas for me.) (D: Slowly but surely.) He confesses that he’s not supposed to talk to her. She hopes he doesn’t want her to say thank you. He says it’s not about that – he just needs to know what’s on the phone.
Wes brings the phone to Annalise, who stares at it with a truly devastating look on her face. She wants to know why he kept it from her until now. Wes says Rebecca trusts him now; she wouldn’t have if he gave up the phone earlier. Annalise asks if anyone else knows about this, and he swears that only he and Rebecca know it exists. Annalise says you’re right – she needs someone to trust. Annalise gets weirdly close to him and says having someone like him to trust is important to Rebecca, and to her. Wes asks if they can use the tape. Annalise just says “we’ll see.” He asks why on earth they wouldn’t use those photos, and she said, you’ve done your job, now let me do mine. She walks into her bedroom, and Wes leaves.
We watch Annalise take off her jewelry, and slowly remove her wig. She peels off layer after layer, taking off her fake eyelashes and her makeup. I’m including the gifs in full, because there’s something heartbreaking and beautiful and incredibly emotional, watching both Annalise and Viola Davis wipe away the makeup to reveal the darker skin underneath.
It felt like a very powerful moment for dark-skinned black women in pop culture, and also a brilliant moment of character development, as we watch Annalise remove the armor she wears to get through the day.
Mari: It was an incredibly powerful moment in both those cases, and for Viola Davis as an actress to go bare faced and natural on TV. Amazing. I about lost it as soon as the wig came off.
Sweeney: Same. Beautifully done, show.
Diva: Amen. When her face is clean, Sam approaches and jokes that she must have taken out a second mortgage to pay Rebecca’s bail. She halfheartedly goes along with it, but then says, “Sam?” “Yeah?” he asks. She holds up the phone and softly asks, “Why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone?” We focus on Annalise’s face, staring at her husband, and the credits roll.
For me personally, this was the episode where the show found its stride. I finally understood enough of what was going on that I didn’t have to ask myself who people were or what timeline we were in. I knew the characters and their relationships well enough that something like Asher knocking on the door and demanding his trophy back had me cracking up even as I was utterly creeped out by Connor’s insanity. And speaking of Connor, his performance during that last scene in Oliver’s apartment on the night of the murder was mind-blowing. Absolutely incredible. And the final scene of Annalise stripping off her layers- I could watch that over and over again. I think it finally gave us the tiniest glimpse into Annalise as a person, and we’ve needed to see that drop of humanity in her.
Oh, and those last nine words? Even better than the hype leading up to them. Nice work, ABC.
Next time on How to Get Away with Murder: We deal with the repercussions of having your penis be on a dead girls phone in S01 E05 – We’re Not Friends.
I'm a J.D. by day/blogger by night who directs her snark and judgment primarily towards celebrities and their many red carpet mishaps. Blogging from the style capital of the world (just kidding - I live in DC), I rant and rave over the best and worst in fashion and pop culture.
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
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