This episode definitely did not trick me, but it was full of twists and turns that surprised and thrilled me. Sure, there were some stumbles with Laurel’s emotional state, but what else is new? Any episode with American treasure Cicely Tyson is a triumph.
We start this week in a blue-tinged flashback, with Frank chasing Wes in his car. He loses him. Bonnie lets Nate know that Wes is talking to the police when she gets a call from Frank that he lost Wes. Bonnie reminds him not to hurt Wes, which is a thing people must remind Frank. Wes hops in a cab and calls his emergency contact … who could it be?
Back in the present, Laurel is looking at photos of Wes when Michaela arrives to pick her up for the hospital. This is the most reasonable and sane thing Laurel does the entire episode. Annalise is going to another special hearing after getting taunted by her less-friendly cellmate. Frank is at the hearing with his public defender, Brian Tyree Henry, a.k.a. Paper Boi, Paper Boi, all about that Paper Boi. While Annalise waits for the hearing to begin, she’s disappointed to see the Keating Gang hasn’t shown up, but her mom and dad are there in the most old black-people attire: long scarves and textured suits for men and big-ass hats for the ladies. The Keating Gang can’t make the hearing because it’s Wes’s memorial and Michaela has forced Laurel to dress like a normal human woman and shoved her feet into heels.
Someone decided it was a good idea for Laurel, the “other woman†in Wes’s life who is pregnant with his child and who was present at his death, to give the speech at his memorial. She eschews her notes and goes straight off the dome, listing the terrible things that happened in Wes’s life and ending her speech by shouting at phony-ass people who are crying but didn’t really know him. Michaela hurries Laurel off the stage. Meanwhile, Bonnie is trying yet another tactic to get some kind of relief for Annalise. This time, she’s trying to argue that Frank is a sociopath so his case should be severed from Annalise’s. Bonnie can’t keep it together and Paper Boi tries to stop her from maligning Frank before the trial. Frank tells Paper Boi that despite his title, he shouldn’t try to defend Frank so publicly. Bonnie’s attempts don’t work and I’m not even sure she’s still a lawyer at this point. Nate stops to see Annalise’s parents and they chastise him in only the way 90-year-old black parents can.
After the memorial, they can’t find Laurel. I genuinely thought they were going to cut to her standing on a bridge. No, she just walked to the morgue. I’m shocked she walked to the morgue in those high heels and I’m shocked she knew exactly where the morgue was. She unleashes another emotional purge on the woman who is working at the morgue and demands to see her boyfriend’s body. The woman rightfully refuses and then Laurel says that she’s pregnant like there’s an exemption in the rules for that. As if things couldn’t get any worse, Oliver gets a call from the detective, who says that she wants to ask him a few questions. Because Oliver has as much fortitude as a piece of tissue paper, he agrees to an interview. The Keating Gang snaps into action, preparing him for his interview by doing their best “Bad Cop, Another Bad Cop†routines. Oliver holds up to their questioning and uses what he learns to make it through his questioning at the police station.
Annalise meets with her parents at the prison and her mother says that she’s willing to take the fall for the fire. Um … what? She’s going to tell the judge how the victim, her husband’s brother, molested Annalise and how she poured — wait. Wait. What? Oh no, Annalise realizes that her mother has dementia and is confusing various episodes of her life with Annalise’s. There’s not really anything to snark on here. Tremendous, heartbreaking acting from Viola Davis and Cicely Tyson. This story line feels so emotional and really carries the whole episode while Laurel walks around with no shoes like a girl leaving a frat party. Oh! I did find something to snark about!
Laurel wanders into a parking garage to meet Nate. She asks Nate to take her to Wes’s body because she’s pregnant. When they make their way to the morgue, Wes’s body is MISSING. ACTUAL TWIST. ACTUAL SHOCKER.
Nate stomps over to the D.A.’s office and starts screaming at them about how it really looks like there’s a conspiracy now. Bonnie takes the information about the missing body to Annalise, who is more concerned about her mother’s dementia. Annalise gets another visit from her parents and her mother suggests taking the fall for a crime committed years ago. Annalise tells her father that she tried to tell him about the abuse over and over, but he wasn’t ready to listen to her and she blames him for where she is. He fires back that he’s willing to take the blame for her childhood, but he’s not going to take the blame for every choice she made, especially the ones that landed her in prison. He tells her to suck it up and get out of jail, no matter what it takes. Michaela helps Laurel go see Frank and confront him about what he did. Frank meekly apologizes but when Laurel starts pressing him about what he actually did, Paper Boi cuts the meeting short.
Laurel tells the rest of the gang that she knows Frank isn’t lying and he wouldn’t want to hurt her like that. Because of what she saw in his eyes. While she’s laying out the ocular evidence of Frank’s innocence, Bonnie gets a call from Frank that he’s fired Paper Boi and acting as his own lawyer, so any of their conversations are privileged and they can meet in private. THIS IS GETTING GOOD. Bonnie takes the case of the missing body in front of the judge and says that the D.A.’s office is targeting a prominent African-American lawyer and keeping Bonnie from getting proper evidence. What else do they have to do to get bail? The judge … denies bail again. Oh, come on.
After Annalise decides to take matters into her own hands and baits the mean inmate into battering her, Bonnie takes photos as evidence of the risk posed to Annalise and tells the judge that the photos will be released to the press if Annalise isn’t released on bail. Annalise goes home with her parents and her mom makes some raw fried chicken and Annalise decides to spare her the turmoil and tells her mom that the charges have been dropped.
In the end, Laurel breaks into Wes’s apartment to put on his clothing and roll around on the floor. Again, I just don’t buy this intense and enduring love between Laurel and Wes that drives her to cross police tape to get at his shirts. The D.A. confronts Nate about taking Laurel to see the body one more time because the request to move Wes’s body was … SIGNED BY NATE. ANOTHER GOOD TWIST!