I didn't really enjoy last week's episode of How To Get Away With Murder, but the episode we were treated to last night managed to right some of those wrongs, achieve reasonable character development, and move the multiple storylines forward as the winter finale fast approaches. "We Can Find Him" was written by Tess Leibowitz and directed by Jonathan Brown.
Let's begin with Annalise, because her newest story arc was introduced in this episode. In last week's hour we saw as Governor Lynne Birkhead watched with ruffled feathers as Annalise stated in a press conference that her mission to improve the public defense system wasn't going to stop. In this hour, the Governor appeared again, inviting Annalise to her office to present to her a proposal to run the Fair Defense Project.
For Annalise, this was an appetizing proposition. She gets to remove herself from the Caplan & Gold environment that she had no other choice but to take on, she gets to pursue her passion, and her students will remain a part of the project, too. On paper this was a win for everyone, and would have been the perfect vehicle for a more positive and progressive storyline which could have gained some notoriety for the series given the state of affairs in real life.
Sadly, however, it looks as if there's something more sinister at play, so instead of bringing the Governor in as a protagonist, she's very likely an antagonist - yet another person to throw roadblocks in the way and endanger people because of her position of power. This began with Emmett, interestingly, who, thanks to friends in high places, managed to get his hands on a copy of Annalise's offer, and dissected it himself, finding a few hiccups with it that suggested it wasn't all good news. He was right when it came to the performance-based budget, and he also revealed the source of the misconduct allegations he was facing, and the fact that he genuinely believed in what Annalise was doing. I have to say I like the guy, but his time on the series is surely limited unless Annalise remains involved with Caplan & Gold in some way, shape or form.
The Lahey case was far too dominant last week, and in this episode the reason for that became clear. Annalise accepted the job offer from the Governor provided the funding is resolved, and Nate Lahey Sr. gets a pardon and is released to his son's care. To fill up time, Lahey Sr. was desperate to pen a note to the victim of his crimes while he was declared insane. At the end of the hour, while this letter was narrated, and what was surely minutes before his release, Lahey Sr. was found dead in an outdoor area of his prison. He is lying in a pool of blood. He may have jumped - or been pushed - from the balconies seen in the shot - or something else happened.
This is a significant and unexpected turn of events. This series doesn't often drop bodies during the regular season, and almost all of the main characters will take this news fairly hard once it's made public.
We can't really discuss much more about Lahey Sr.'s death because that's all we know, and it occurred right at the end of the episode, so let's move on to Bonnie's seriously screwed up family. Last week we saw her meet her sister, Julie, at the latter's house. Last night we saw the first words between the pair, in addition to Julie's daughter. Miller and Annalise were rightly concerned with the stories Julie would spin concerning Bonnie's missing baby, but eventually the more plausible version of events became clear. Julie said that on the night she took the baby from the hospital, she made a run from the car on the ride home and buried the baby in the woods somewhere. I'd be quite content for this to be the end of the matter because I don't care much for Bonnie or her storyline, but Frank's investigations and surveillance on Julie is the most interesting thing for me. He even went to a meeting to record Julie's admissions on what was happening, which largely aligned with the version of events she recounted for Bonnie.
However, Frank kept digging, and after looking at Julie's criminal record more closely, he concluded that her father had sold Bonnie's baby to a family that lived not far from them. She was caught trespassing once while likely trying to check on him. The baby is now grown up somewhat, and named Jake.
Occupying the students this week was Tegan, who, with Annalise preoccupied, led them in a case to prevent a weight loss pill company from getting sued for $100 million. Michaela was again occupied with wowing her idol, but Tegan wasn't having any of that, instead handing over the lead role among the students to Laurel. Knowing she had more experience with these sorts of corporate cases, Michaela held back somewhat, and when a solution was found, Laurel presented it and credited Michaela in part of it for her pitch to Tegan. Nothing else of note happened here.
The major time-waster for Connor and Oliver in particular was their mothers. They were far more involved than I expected them to be, and there were far too many awkward moments between all four people to recount in depth. Connor and Oliver also disagreed on many things, which only caused more tension between everyone. Perhaps the best moment in all of this was Oliver confessing to his mother that he was HIV positive. This was a pretty big event when it was first confirmed a couple of seasons ago, but perhaps more importantly in the context of this season, it showed that Oliver and his mom have a much closer and more trusting bond than that shared between Connor and his mom. This could come into play at a later date, and be a foreshadowing of sorts for what may be occurring in the flash forwards.
Adding to the intrigue was Oliver's mom then sitting down with Connor and showing him the scrapbook Oliver made in his junior years. Her subsequent conversation told Connor indirectly that she approved of him, and that's big news for Connor, who has had difficulty finding his place this season.
Building on their intriguing development last week, Laurel and Gabriel went the other way in this episode thanks largely to Laurel's discovery that Frank was looking into him. It wasn't directly stated what Frank had told Laurel, but I think it's safe to assume that he told her about the stashed IDs and cash in Gabriel's apartment. With Laurel leading the case at Caplan & Gold, Gabriel thought he would return Laurel's favor from last week and give her some assistance after hours again. Laurel turned down that offer with a surprisingly sour tone, and again rebuffed him when he tried to say that he wouldn't take advantage of her, along with mentioning he knew about Wes. This is good stuff, and again these two are right at the top of my favorite parts of this episode.
In what must be a first for this series for when flash forwards are expected, there was no flash forward at the end of this episode. Instead the solitary flash forward was at the very beginning of the hour. This is the third time in a row there's been a single flash forward in an episode, and that alone is disappointing. I think the reason for the flash forward residing at the start was to leave Lahey Sr's death as the final moment.
Moving on to the flash forward itself. It was pretty short and sweet, and confirmed Bonnie's boyfriend, Miller, is likely not the victim. He doesn't appear to have been invited to the wedding because he's sitting in the carpark in his car, and texts Bonnie asking if they can talk. He also has an engagement ring which is rather scary given the flash forwards occur just one month after the present day events in this episode, and they are nowhere near what I'd consider ready for that step. Worse still, getting engaged at someone else's wedding is frowned upon by many.
Unlike the other flash forwards, this one may not slot in sequentially after the ones seen in previous episodes. It could likely stand on its own two feet, although limited somewhat by Bonnie's location. Assuming it is in fact sequential, and because they're in the carpark, my money is on Miller seeing the fallout between Asher, Connor and his mom, and becoming involved in that sorry state of affairs that we saw in last week's flash forward. As an aside, this episode did confirm that Asher definitely knew who Connor's mom was, so there could be no case of mistaken identity. I won't hazard a guess as to what forces may have brought them together to have oral sex in a cold carpark.
The final point I'll mention is how surprised I was at Annalise accepting the job offer from Governor Birkhead. She became transfixed on getting Lahey Sr. out of prison, and despite being warned by her gut, her differences, and Emmett about accepting the job, she did anyway. It's a decision that, knowing this series, will very likely prove to be a big mistake, and one that will cause a sizable amount of unnecessary turmoil. I think it's fair to say this decision is certainly out of Annalise's character.
In all, this episode was better than last week because it didn't have an overbearing case sapping the screen time away from the other more interesting storylines. That being said, I'm really only along for the ride as opposed to being invested in what's happening at this point, and sadly that includes the flash forwards. What used to be a star trait is rapidly sliding down to a very mediocre level. It's leaving me wondering whether there will be any flash forwards at all in a potential sixth season. Annalise's new job was a golden opportunity to introduce a new protagonist, but instead her acceptance has "terrible decision" written all over it.
Thanks as always for reading. What did you think of what happened between the Coliver parents? And what are your theories on Lahey Sr.'s death and Annalise's new job? I'd love to hear your thoughts as always in the comments below so make yourself heard! See you all right back here for the year's penultimate episode next week.
