With the winter finale of ABC's How To Get Away With Murder fast approaching, I decided to spend a Saturday afternoon skimming through the 30 flashbacks and flash forwards the last 8 episodes have provided, then compile them into one video, in (what I think is) the order they belong in.
The resulting video is 40 minutes long, and includes the last 4 minutes of Thursday's eighth episode to help provide context. This means that from the 8 episodes so far, nearly one full episode's worth of time is made up of timeshifted scenes.
While the video doesn't provide any additional answers, it provokes many additional questions. The sequence of events we've seen leaves out some massive holes too, which I wasn't previously aware of until I put the video together.
You can see the video below. I've not altered any of the flashbacks at all, aside from removing some of the regularly seen intros with the cheerleader flipping, the bonfire, and the coin being tossed. This is the case among the first of the flashbacks because those clips make things confusing. For each scene I've also added the episode number, and scene number in the video. FF stands for flash forward, FB stands for flashback. It's interesting seeing how muddled the creative team have made these scenes, so hopefully these notes on the video will help you out.
My understanding of the sequence of events on the night of Sam's murder is as follows. Text in bold is assumptions and theories I've come up with based on the content of the timeshifted scenes.
Before Lila Stangard's murder
In the months prior to Sam's murder, Lila Stangard and Rebecca spend a lot of time together, doing drugs, drinking, and talking about sex.
She then befriends one of her teachers, beginning an affair. Rebecca is made aware of this by Lila.
Sam later ends the affair, and a broken Lila decides to go to the Keating home with the intent on showing photos of Sam to Annalise, but is rebuffed by Bonnie.
On the night, but prior to the murder
- Rebecca is caught conspiring with Nate by Wes. Connor arrives, and Rebecca leaves for the Keating house with the intention of obtaining Sam's phone data with the software Nate provided. Laurel arrives shortly - after, having just ended things with Frank.
- Asher is getting himself in the mood for the bonfire and a party at his house when Michaela stops by, and steals the trophy. Asher doesn't realize the trophy is missing until some time later.
- At the Keating house, having just fired Bonnie, Annalise tells Sam she's having DNA samples obtained from all the males that had anything to do with Lila Stangard. Annalise leaves the house shortly after.
- Michaela heads to the Keating house to cash in the trophy for the upcoming exams. Unable to find Annalise, she leaves the trophy in the room where the murder occurred, and going upstairs or another part of the house to look for her.
The murder
- Rebecca sneaks into the Keating house, and is caught by Sam. In a rage, either because he sees her hacking his computer, and/or because of what Annalise just told him before leaving the house, Sam runs at Rebecca who uses the trophy Michaela just placed to kill Sam with a blow to the head.
Moments after the murder
- Michaela, still at the Keating house and heard or saw Rebecca kill Sam with the trophy she had just cashed in.
- Wes arrives at the Keating house with Laurel and Connor, having driven in Connor's car to get there, chasing after Rebecca. They find Sam's body, with blood still running indicating he had been killed moments earlier. Rebecca is covered in blood.
- Wes takes Rebecca upstairs and cleans the blood off her.
- Michaela remains in shock as Laurel tries to comfort her. She still has her engagement ring on her finger.
- Asher, now aware the trophy is missing, bangs on the Keating house door, but doesn't enter. He gives up knocking and walks toward the library following a text from Michaela that she sent to throw him off by saying she was at the library.
Deciding what to do next
- Wes takes Rebecca to a hotel room and leaves her there, as Michaela, Connor, and Laurel wait in the woods near the bonfire for Wes to return.
- While on his way back, Wes stops by the house again to get the trophy.
- The group cannot decide on the next move - to leave the body where it is or to dispose of it - so they toss a coin, with the option to dispose of the body winning.
- Before the group leave, they spend time at the bonfire, taking photos of each other and posting them online to give themselves an alibi.
Moving the body
- The group return to the Keating house, and roll Sam's body up in a rug. They clean up the crime scene and the trophy.
- As they carry the body out of the house and to Connor's car, their plan is nearly foiled by a police officer, with Michaela saving the situation. Michaela's ring cannot be seen on her finger.
- With the body in the car, the group take a long route to a gas station to buy lighter fluid and matches.
- On their way to the gas station with the body, the group nearly run down Asher, who is on the phone to Bonnie. She is asking him to come to her place.
- At the store, Wes goes in and buys the lighter fluid and matches along with other goods to mask the purchases.
- Bored in her motel room, Rebecca prank calls 911.
- Wes also buys a burner phone in the store, and calls to check up on Rebecca.
- Wes returns to the car, and the group drive to the woods.
- Asher and Bonnie have sex. Asher comments to Bonnie about not being at the bonfire, and scrolls through the photos the others had posted online.
- Annalise arrives home and discovers Sam isn't there. She notices the rug is missing, and assumes the worst. She rings Bonnie who tells her she hasn't seen, or is with, Sam.
Burning the body
- The group carry the body from Connor's car into the woods.
- Frank calls Laurel right when a couple sneak into the woods to make out. They are spooked by the phone ringing and move away. Laurel then tells the group about her affair with Frank.
- The group lay the body out and set it alight.
Disposing of the body
- The fire is just about out when Frank calls Laurel again. Frank says she will do anything for her.
- Once the fire dies down, Connor smashes the remains into pieces to make them easier to bag and transport.
- The group load the remains into Connor's car.
- Michaela notices her ring is gone, and return to search for it, with the others watching on.
- After failing to find the ring, Michaela is tasked with returning the trophy to Asher's house. She is too distressed to do so, so Laurel volunteers.
After the disposal
Laurel goes to Frank's place, and holds him to his earlier word that he would do anything. She gets him to return the trophy to Asher's house.
Wes rushes back to Rebecca, where she is still in her hotel room. He tells her that the job is done.
Connor goes to Oliver's house and wakes him up. The time is 6:00am. He tells Oliver that he has screwed up.
So that's the sequence of events as I understand them. There are many, many questions that haven't been answered yet, so let's run through a few of the larger ones:
- Where did Bonnie go after being fired?
- Where did Nate go after meeting Rebecca?
- Why were Connor and Laurel going to Wes's house?
- How did Wes get Rebecca to the hotel?
- Did Michaela witness or take part in Sam's killing?
- Did Michaela lose her ring at the Keating house, or at the disposal site, or somewhere else?
- Where was Asher going before he went to see Bonnie?
- Did Rebecca's 911 call raise any police suspicion before Wes returned?
- Why did the group choose that location to meet initially, as well as to burn Sam's body?
- Where does Michaela go after the night has ended?
- Why does Connor go to Oliver's house?
- What does Annalise do after she knows something has happened to Sam?
- Are Sam's remains still in Connor's car?
- Is Frank able to return the trophy to Asher's house?
- We don't know how long anyone took to do anything because of the lack of clocks, aside from when Connor wakes Oliver.
I could go on, but that's plenty of questions for now. I'm pretty convinced my order of events, and theory on who killed Sam is correct. The gaping holes in the timeshifted scenes are there for a reason, so I'm betting they're the catalyst for the second part of the season.
For now, leave your thought and theories in the comments below! Be sure to tell us if you think the order of events can be reinterpreted.
Also, please share this article and video using the social media buttons on the left of your screen! SpoilerTV is the first and only site to have compiled, reordered and analyzed the timeshifted scenes, so please help us share it! It's very much appreciated.
Thanks for reading, watching, sharing and commenting! Bring on next Thursday!
Jimmy.
