This is one of those episodes where How to Get Away With Murder is just setting up the craziness that will be unleashed in the final few episodes. If this were Game of Thrones, Jon Snow would be setting a rough-hewn wooden figurine on a table in the shape of the continent. The armies are ready and the warriors are ready to be unleashed. And if you’re asking me if I want to see Viola Davis in a leather gown ordering the demise of her enemies, the answer is, “I NEVER KNEW I WANTED THAT UNTIL I JUST IMAGINED IT.”
Unfortunately, we don’t get too many impassioned Annalise Keating speeches in this week’s episode, but we do get a whole lot of montages. Let’s get into it.
WELP. Antares made its public offering and Laurel is still in the hospital, so everything sucks. Oliver has been reduced to a quivering mass and Michaela thinks Teagan got fired and she’s responsible. Annalise is actively working to keep Laurel in the hospital by straight-up lying to her. (She keeps telling Laurel that she’s this close to getting a doctor to do her evaluation.) Frank is still holding on to Dominic’s phone, and Laurel’s father keeps calling. Frank, I know being brooding and being mysterious and murdering people is kinda your thing, but shouldn’t you understand that holding on to a dead person’s phone is a major problem? I feel like dead people’s phones set off, like, the majority of the problems for Annalise and the Keating Gang.
To keep the boy members of the Keating Gang’s mind off the whole “put Simon in a coma” debacle, Annalise is sending them to find a “face case” for the class-action suit. REMEMBER THAT? REMEMBER WHEN THAT WAS THE PLOT? Oliver can’t handle being responsible for putting Simon in a coma, so Annalise tells Connor to get Oliver in line. Meanwhile, Michaela is assigned Laurel-watching duty. Laurel remembers that her dad kept her mother in the hospital, and that there might be an obscure ruling to get Laurel out. Michaela lends Laurel her phone to look up the ruling.
Annalise goes to Wes’s apartment for no real reason, and all his stuff is still there? Annalise goes through his things and finds some baby clothes and wistfully looks at them. We really don’t need to indulge every emotional impulse of Annalise with screen time.
Laurel finds the ruling and texts Annalise to rush down to the hospital. Annalise tells her that the law won’t work, although it’s vague because she filed a motion this morning and it was turned down. Even before Michaela confronted Annalise, I knew that was a lie. Annalise is a bad liar for someone who has committed and gotten away with several crimes. Anyway, Annalise tells Michaela that she’s worried that Laurel is going to hurt herself, so Annalise is cool to leave her in the hospital.
Nate goes to see the Keating Boys to warn Asher that someone told the police that they saw Asher fighting with Simon at another party at the law firm. Asher asks if it was Teagan because she didn’t seem to buy the story they told the police. While Asher and Connor are talking to Nate, Oliver slips out to see Simon in the hospital. It’s really easy for people in this show to develop an unhealthy obsession with another person. Y’know, my favorite movie as a kid was While You Were Sleeping, so I would be very interested if the rest of the season were just Oliver pretending to Simon’s friends and family that they were in love.
Frank convinces Annalise that the only way to find the hard drive is for Annalise to apologize to Bonnie and ask for her help. I’m tired of these conversations between Annalise and Bonnie about how they’ve screwed each other up, and how they’re bonded together, and their bond is different than all other bonds, and blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile, Michaela wants to find out exactly what happened with Laurel’s premature birth, and Laurel tells her that the slow-motion stomach slap earlier in the season was the culprit.
Annalise asks Bonnie if everyone’s lives would have been easier if Bonnie let Annalise die. That. Is. Dark. But somehow it works. Bonnie goes to meet with the DA to reveal all the evidence about Antares donating to his campaign, and she records the whole encounter. I’m sure that will be useful in the future.
Laurel apologizes to the entire Keating Gang for leading them down this path, and she looks like she’s on the edge of falling into a deep, deep depression. Michaela is worried and goes to see Annalise and accidentally blurts out that Frank is the reason Laurel gave birth early. That information hurts Frank, but Annalise knows that Laurel didn’t hurt herself, so it’s finally time to spring her out!
Annalise heads to the only person who can get Laurel out of the hospital … and it’s Jimmy Smits. Here comes another tortured scene about all the ways they’ve hurt each other. Annalise pulls out the ultimate guilt trip and tells Jimmy Smits to imagine Laurel is his daughter. Maybe this isn’t about saving Laurel, but saving Annalise. Jimmy Smits sits down with Laurel and asks her if she’s ever wanted to hurt her father, and because she’s an adult woman with a heterosexual male father, she says, “Oh, duh.” She gets an immediate release.
Frank and Annalise accompany Laurel to her apartment, where Frank is going to sleep on the floor on a collection of pillows to protect her. Then Dominic’s phone rings and Laurel puts it all together. So Annalise and Frank decide to come clean about the voice-mail. While Laurel is listening to the voice-mail, the phone rings again. But it isn’t her father calling. She picks up and says …
“Hi, Mom.”