The third season of ABC's How To Get Away With Murder is fast approaching its conclusion, but Thursday's hour demonstrated that there's still a lot of storytelling yet to come, even if a few parts of this episode didn't seem to fit. "Go Cry Somewhere Else" was written by Daniel Robinson and was directed by Cherie Nowlan.
First up, my favorite character, Laurel, was released from the hospital just in time for a memorial service for Wes. Still sporting some bandages and a noticeable limp, the service was a spectacular failure from the moment Laurel opened her mouth, which resulted in a tirade of abuse towards other mourners. Not even new best friend Michaela could stem the flow, which culminated in Laurel walking out after saying her piece.
I found this scene difficult to wrap my head around. The creative team clearly intended for this to be Laurel's platform to vent, and Laurel's alone. We never saw any other speakers, which makes me question whether the memorial service was even necessary. What Laurel said wasn't sufficient enough to make any new enemies, and she clearly put herself on a pedestal above anyone else in terms of relationships with Wes. I would have preferred an outburst directed at her fellow students, maybe in a lecture theater at some other point in time as it would have had more of an impact on the series as a whole that way.
Despite this, Laurel still commanded the most screen time of all the students and Karla Souza was outstanding throughout. Still seeking closure, she convinced Nate to let her see Wes's body, only to discover that it had been moved from the morgue. This puts Nate in a very tight spot, which I'll discuss later.
Go home, mama.
Cicely Tyson returned for her fourth guest appearance as Ophelia, Annalise's mother. Her father, was also present in this episode. The pair attended their daughter's bail hearing, where Bonnie was unsuccessful in getting Annalise out. They met with Annalise in jail later, where Ophelia proposed that the fire be blamed on her and her oncoming dementia, with the story strongly resembling an actual event in Annalise's childhood concerning her brother's death.
I didn't find these scenes of any real benefit at all. It seemed to me as if the showrunners had contracted Tyson for a single episode at some point during the season and ran out of options to use it, so opted to burn it up on needless pot-stirring instead. The option to use Ophelia as a potential explanation for the fire isn't true, and is almost impossible to explain this late in the piece. The whole thing was seemingly a waste of time.
Annalise did get out on bail though, but that wasn't before she took a beating from her cellmate after she bated her one too many times. The beating provided Bonnie extra leverage to defame the DA's office should it be needed in addition to Wes's missing body, much to the disappointment of Renee Atwood.
Michaela, Asher and Connor all had a relatively quiet episode with nothing substantial occurring. In Oliver's case, he was interviewed by the police concerning his movements on the night of the fire. His fellow students gave him a solid once-over interrogation, just as if they'd been subjected to it themselves many times prior. Oliver handed the interview without any issue, and later revealed to Connor that he retained a copy of the contents he wiped from Annalise's phone that night. Investigating that looks to be next on the list.
Frank still sits in jail - we haven't seen anything of him in there, unlike Annalise - but he dumped his lawyer and opted to defend himself. This puts him and Bonnie in the unique position of being opposing counselors, allowing them extra privileges under the law. Their scheming and planning can continue, but it's private and inadmissible. This is clever, and should provide for some interesting moments in the season's final weeks.
In addition, Michaela arranged a meeting between Frank and Laurel. This was fascinating, and was yet another example of Laurel using her talent for cunning and manipulative reasons. She - and I - were convinced by the end of it that Frank had no involvement in Wes's death, and her subsequent debate with her fellow students and Bonnie saw this opinion aired in an intense scene.
Someone killed him, burned his body, and misplaced it.
That leaves Nate, who was backed into a corner concerning the disappearance of Wes's body. Laurel leveraged Nate's recently deceased wife to gain access to Wes's body, but the body was gone. He faced off with A.D.A's Denver and Atwood, who were less than impressed, but Nate wasn't going to allow it to be blamed on him, despite a transfer form later presented to him bearing his name and signature.
That flowed perfectly into the episode's final scene - a flashback to the night of the fire. At the start of the episode, the flashback showed Wes walking away from Frank, who called Bonnie to let her know he lost him. In this final flashback, we watched as Nate arrived at Annalise's house, A short time later, Wes, alive and kicking, also went into the house, and greeted Nate. This alters the assumed sequence of events which had Nate arriving at the house after Wes. It's difficult to theorize around this new knowledge, but one could assume with reasonable safety that both were there to look for Annalise.
In all, this episode was a very mixed bag. It wasn't as good as those which have come before it this season - in fact it was probably one of the worst. Laurel's moments and the final flashback were by far my favorite pieces, but the memorial service and Annalise's parents did more harm than good.
Thanks for reading! My review was late thanks to a family holiday and moving house, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Don't forget to share your thoughts and theories on my thoughts and theories in the comments below, and I'll see you right back here in just a few days time!
