It's hard to believe fourteen episodes of the second season of How To Get Away With Murder have passed, leaving only the season finale to come next week. But last night's second-to-last episode provided a couple of juicy answers, and setting the stage for next week. "There's My Baby" was written by J.C. Lee & Erika Harrison with Stephen Williams directing.
Every aspect of this episode was pretty well done, and made for a solid penultimate hour, but it also kept things pretty simple and straightforward. It picked right up from last week's cliffhanger which saw Annalise under attack from Philip in Wes's apartment. While many would have held grave fears for Analise's well-being, she actually came out of the fight with only a few scratches and bruises. Annalise being on the phone with Eve at the same time paid dividends here as Eve was able to instruct Wes to call the police to his apartment immediately. Philip wasn't seen again in this episode, which was a little surprising.
The attack prompted Eve and Wes to return to the Keating household. Annalise immediately introduced a sanction preventing any of her team leaving the office alone. Eve tried her luck at luring Annalise to New York with her, and though she was tempted, she turned the offer down.
Like the last few weeks, this episode spent a good amount of time in the past, telling the story of the death of Wes's mother. With the majority of the pieces of the puzzle already in place, we finally got the answers we have been waiting for, including a fairly large and unexpected bombshell.
In the flashbacks we saw Annalise confronted by Wallace Mahoney, the father of Charles Mahoney, the man Annalise had been defending at trial in Ohio. Livid that the only alibi in his son's case was out of the picture, his anger gave away the secret that he had raped and therefore fathered Wes, or Christophe as he was formerly known. Annalise was fired on the spot, but the truth was out. This was a fantastic twist that I never saw coming, and back in the present day, with Annalise later getting herself drunk enough, she told Wes just that.
He's very much alive. And his name is Wallace Mahoney.
As promised in the promo for last night's episode, what happened to Annalise's unborn child was also revealed. Tragically, while working in Ohio Annalise's vehicle was blindsided by another vehicle which ran a red light. Annalise was rushed to hospital but an emergency C-section was unsuccessful in saving her baby. In one of the series' finest and most heartbreaking scenes, we watched Annalise and husband Tom grieve while holding their dead son. The acting performances by Viola Davis and guest star Tom Verica were outstanding in these moments.
In present day it was Todd Denver causing Annalise and her team the most trouble. As his investigation into the case against Philip continues, Denver interviewed all of the members of the Keating 5 about the night at the Hapstall mansion. Unsurprisingly, all of the Keating 5's guards were up, and they all attempted to wriggle out of the questions whenever possible, with Bonnie, acting as their lawyer, also doing the same. Interestingly, Michaela's now boyfriend, Caleb, was missing, prompting Michaela to miss no opportunity to reiterate what may be happening to him at the hands of Philip while police resources were allocated elsewhere. Connor had this to say regarding his interview:
Good luck screwing me because you're not really my type.
An aspect of this episode that I enjoyed immensely was the backstabbing between those in the know. We saw this occur between Bonnie and Frank, with Bonnie aware that Frank killed Lila, and Frank countering that by ensuring Bonnie knew that he knew that she was responsible for the death of Rebecca. Add to that the final minutes of the episode which saw Laurel drunkenly spill the beans to Annalise about the role that Frank had to play in the murder of Lila.
The beauty about this wee triangle is that everyone knows part of the story, but no one knows the whole story. The assumptions everyone is making is what is making this thing so much more toxic. It's a lot of fun to watch play out. Annalise had enough of Bonnie's probing resulting in her kicking everyone out of her house bar Wes.
Who is he, Annalise?
Free to roam the bars, Michaela and Asher hooked up in an unexpected drunken raunchy moment. I wouldn't be surprised if this throws another spanner in the increasingly complex web of relationships between the characters.
This episode didn't have much of a cliffhanger which was surprising, but also a good thing in the end. After Laurel's drunken rant in the final minutes, Annalise wasted no time packing a suitcase and heading to her mother's house. Cicely Tyson's return was very brief in this episode, but looks to be much more prominent next week.
The last interesting point I will touch on in this review is the flashback scene we saw which featured Bonnie and Tom. A couple of weeks back a flashback hinted at a relationship between these two, and this episode confirmed just that. We watched as Sam role played with Bonnie as a way of helping cure her anxiety. It's not hard to imagine how the pair may have escalated things from there.
In all, this episode did what needed to do. It gave us some big answers but did not introduce any new questions of significance. The creative team chose to produce a more functional hour than a spectacular one. It was light on character development, but heavy on backstabbing, leaving plenty to be explored in next week's season 2 finale, which will surely be spectacular. I, for one, cannot wait for next Thursday night.
Thanks so much for reading! As always, please jump in the comments below and share your thoughts and theories on this episode and what you think will happen in next week's season finale. You can check out the season finale press release, promotional photos, and promo here.
