Christmas themed episodes are usually the feature of the last month of the year, but ABC's How To Get Away With Murder bucked that trend last night, screening their Christmas themed episode two months late, or ten months early, depending on how you look at it.
Ironically, Christmas was the last thing on the agenda. What was, however, was a superb hour full of excellent character development, and beautifully crafted storyline progression. "Best Christmas Ever" was expertly written and directed by Erika Harrison and Bill D’Elia. From start to finish my eyes didn't leave the screen.
The hour kicked off inside the walls of the Hamrick Hotel in Philadelphia, on Christmas Day, as we watched with Annalise Keating lumber through the days between then and New Year on a heavy diet of strong liquor. The make-up and wig were absent too - something we look to be seeing more and more as the creative team use them as a vehicle to display vulnerability to the viewer.
Arriving back at the home she once shared with her deceased husband, her sister-in-law, Hannah, stopped by to voice her concerns that Sam was being wrongfully blamed for the crimes for which he was being accused of, and that no one had made any attempt to find him. This follows last week's dismissal of the case against Rebecca for the Lila Stangard murder, with the blame now being pointed in Sam's direction.
For the Keating Five, it was more or less business as usual. The procedural element of the series resumed too, with the wife of a man who held two women captive in his basement commanding the group's attention. The case was nicely constructed, and had differing effects on everyone involved, in particular Annalise, who resigned as the woman's lawyer after the location of the young girl she had been looking after separately was revealed.
Though the morals of the case were interesting, they were pushed well into the back of my mind after watching how the students spent their Christmas period. The first of the five we saw was Wes, with Rebecca. Clearly the couple have grown closer, but Wes is still reeling from the night of the murder, with nightmares plaguing him. I didn't pick Rebecca to be the supportive type but she's sticking by him through this rough patch. It was interesting watching him repeatedly look at the deep scratch marks in the bedroom wall. Having been an unexplained feature from the series premiere, there's more to come from them, I'm sure.
Next up was Laurel, who tormented her family with her affairs during her semester. It provided one of the more entertaining scenes of the hour, but quickly flashed back to present day, with Laurel suggesting to Frank that something needed to be done about Connor's car, which was used to transport Sam Keating's body on the night of the murder. Following on from trends seen last week, Laurel remains very calm and collected, and is willing to play the long game to stay out of jail. Her attempts to encourage her guilty colleagues to talk was the right idea, but as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
Connor was up next, at a more conventional sort of family gathering, where he revealed his feelings for Oliver to his sister, who had hooked him up for the night with another man. Later we saw Connor and Oliver make things official, though I highly doubt things will be smooth sailing considering their rocky past and connection to the murder. In present day, his car was stolen, though unbeknownst to him, Frank was responsible, with Laurel coming up with the idea.
Frank and Asher were up next, though their holiday was very brief. The pair shared a drink at a bar, with Asher attempting to score a few pretty looking women across the bar. Asher remains oblivious to his peers' involvement with Sam's murder, and Frank is working hard to keep it that way.
Michaela was last, and the most concerning of the group. She embarrassed her fiance at a glitzy function - so much so that he was thinking seriously about postponing the wedding. It seems that from the four in the know, Michaela is the one who is displaying the most outward signs of stress.
But it's Bonnie that could be the dark horse. We saw nothing of her Christmas break, but we saw plenty of arrogance directed toward her, most notably from Asher regarding their one night stand, and also from Annalise. Annalise's sister-in-law, Hannah pleaded with Bonnie to assist her in finding out the truth on what happened to Sam, and you could see in Bonnie's eyes that she thought Hannah had a point.
Hannah was committed to being as disruptive as possible, pushing and prodding in many areas to try and gather more information on Sam's disappearance. She even followed Annalise to Nate's house, where Nate revealed that he had, presumably, a wife in hospital who sounded as if she was terminally ill. This is interesting to learn because it provides additional depth to the as yet unexplored character, and tones down the potential severity of the relationship.
The final moments of the hour were the most important. We saw Annalise sit down to a home cooked dinner with Hannah, in a last ditch attempt to prevent the latter's investigation from progressing any further. This was a beautifully acted and directed scene, that portrayed two completely different sets of emotions from both characters.
But the final scene was played out by Rebecca and Wes, with the former watching the news only to learn that remains of a body had been discovered in a landfill, and that they had been identified as belonging to Sam Keating. I think it goes without saying that Wes's nightmares are about to get a lot worse, but that's music to the ears of the viewer, because, in Annalise's words, "we could use some fun around here."
The last word goes to the entire cast, who were brilliant throughout, with no particular standouts because they were all so good. The guest stars were also on top of their game which was great to see.
Thanks for reading! Share your thoughts and theories on what you think's going to happen next in the comments below, and check out next week's episode promo and press release. Don't forget to follow How To Get Away With Murder's ratings on my TV ratings website, www.seriesmonitor.com/howtogetawaywithmurder.
