Spoilers obviously abound below for Season 2, Episode 9 of "How to Get Away with Murder," "What Did We Do?"
So, not to say we told you so, but we told you so: of course Wes shot Annalise. Otherwise, how else would she make it out of this alive and not press charges against whoever it was? Because let's all be real, there's no way Annalise dies. Just a flesh wound to the stomach, she'll be fine. She has to be, as this show IS Viola Davis. Her asking to be shot? We didn't see that coming, but that's why we love "HTGAWM" -- we're still left gasping at the end.
Back to the summary of the episode: this was one heckuva midseason finale. First off, all the kids are now murderers, since Asher angrily ran over Sinclair after she slammed his dad's integrity right after he killed himself. Yeah, that was brutal -- we kind of get where Asher is coming from.
Anyways, all the way back to the beginning -- this episode started out with Michaela trying to cover up the gun in Caleb's house, and Nate in an attempt to get out of being caught trying to frame Philip. Clearly, both of these backfire, since Annalise tries to cover for Nate being framed for Sinclair's death by MAKING WES SHOOT HER, and uses the gun Michaela is trying to hide.
But yes, let's go back to how we got here. First off -- Asher killed Sinclair.
Didn't see that coming. Should have, but didn't. He couldn't take her ribbing after his dad killed himself in light of the corruption investigation newspaper leak that Sinclair instigated, and his mother blamed him for it with a brutal speech about how he chose his work friends over his family, who covered up his involvement in the gang rape. It was an incredibly difficult conversation to watch, and we can't imagine living it. We can get why he was pushed to kill Sinclair, but the whole setup was heartbreakingly brutal.
Got to say, the only silver lining was that Bonnie hasn't totally lost her mind. Instead, she's the levelheaded one this entire episode, if you consider covering up murders for your loved ones levelheaded. The blood on her shirt in the flash-forwards? Now we know it was Sinclair's. Pushing a body off the turret? For Asher.
This cover-up just has bad news written all over it. While Annalise co-opts the other kids into helping push the already dead Sinclair off the turret by telling Asher they murdered Sam, Asher's right -- the injuries don't totally match. They can blame this and the gun on Catherine all they want, but the story isn't going to quite line up. The marks on the car are concerning. And that woman in the parking lot can place Asher at the scene of the crime. Speaking of, if that's Sinclair's blood on Bonnie, there's got to be a decent amount of it in the parking lot.
Annalise recognizes all of this, and asks all the kids to shoot her in a pretty darn heartbreaking scene to stage the absolutely insanely perfect cover-up. Because who would be crazy enough to have someone shoot you to cover this up? Annalise appeals to everyone's weaknesses -- Connor's attachment to Oliver, Michaela's internal struggles, Laurel's mob ties, and Wes' need to rationalize. She comes up short after Michaela stops Connor, and then Wes stops Laurel from pulling the trigger.
As a side note, this is the best acting of the episode and the season. The desperation and at same time genius of Annalise shows what she can't properly express. We could watch this master class in acting over and over again. This scene could have been trite, overdramatic (especially with that music), but it's just heartbreaking.
Coming up empty with the students lining up to shoot her, Annalise defaults to the only thing she knows will truly set one of them off -- she tells Wes that Rebecca is dead and she's been lying to him all along. After begging to be shot in the leg, he hauls off and shoots her, aiming to inflict a more mortal wound. Before he can get off the killer round (also, let's pause and remember he beat Annalise's husband to death last season, so this kid is starting to have some murderous issues over a girl he only knew for A FEW WEEKS), Annalise calls him Christophe.
And now we're cooking with gas. We get a flashback to 10 years earlier, with Wes (whose real name is apparently Christophe) in a room, explaining how he found his mom looking rather dead to a police officer. Outside the interrogation room, Annalise and Eve are talking about how it's all their fault.
All right, so Wes may not be her son (proving there is some sort of Mrs. Robinson-vibe after all). But it sounds like the two college lovers could be to blame for Wes' (or Christophe's) mom's death. And won't that be fun to figure out the rest of the season?
But what about all the flash-forward scenes this episode doesn't address? We know at some point, Nate spirits them all away from the scene, Frank hides Catherine to be found, drugged, later on, and most important -- Asher goes to talk to the police. Could this scheme all be for naught anyways? Could Asher blow it all up?
Only time will tell, but we're going to be hooked on these murderous law students until there are none. And Annalise better survive, as there would be no "How to Get Away with Murder" without her.
Odds and Ends
- Philip is still on the loose, literally outside the house.
- How did none of the kids have Asher's number? Come on, guys -- you worked with this kid for almost a year!
- When Bonnie said, "But there's a point where we're the ones people need to be protected from, and that's what we've become," truer words were never spoken.
- The Connor/Michaela and Wes/Laurel split is intriguing on many levels.
- Nate, you really should have run a long time ago.
- Good for Connor and Michaela for checking out early -- Wes and Laurel clearly need more help on the murderer scale.
- We stand by our previous review: Bonnie knows better than to get herself on tape at a gas station and have a car cleaning receipt, as well as throwing away bloody clothes.
- Michaela -- you slept with Caleb once, you don't need to be this involved in this.
- Connor is going to have a mental breakdown, wait for it.
- We didn't get a preview -- curse the midseason ABC gods.
- Catherine, seriously, who has silk matching pajama sets in a motel? Come on.
- Did anyone else think Sinclair was going to wake up right before they tossed her off the turret? Anyone?
- Funny how in a season we go from framing Nate to getting someone to shoot yourself to save him. Love is hard.
- Laurel and Frank are not in a good place, relationship-wise.
- Of course baby Wes was wearing plaid.
- But seriously, when will the body count end? But do we really want it to?
- Til the second half of the season on Feb. 11 ...
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