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‘How to Get Away with Murder’ Recap: ‘Smile or Go to Jail’

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Week three of How To Get Away With Murder picks right back up in the past with more and more clues shaking loose around Sam’s murder, Annalise is still trying to get info from Nate about Sam’s alibi in the present, and Annalise being pressured to represent Lila’s boyfriend, the star quarterback, for the university.  And Viola perfecting her “No effs to give” face for her students, husband, and client and it’s beautiful.

The Case

Annalise is summoned to the police station to represent a typical housewife arrested for having sex in a public park, not with her husband by the way. Of course, it’s not a typical housewife as she’s really Elena Aguilar, who’s disappeared after being granted bond for a “cult” bombing case 10 years ago. While the kids are set loose to find facts to represent Elena, Connor runs his mouth and loses the “immunity statue,” because he’s an idiot. Annalise, via Asher, gets her client a meeting with the ringleader, Gabriel Shaw, of the bombing group in prison, where they promptly demonstrate that would get it on right on the table if it weren’t for his shackles. He agrees to testify in Elena’s defense, and waaaaaay too easily I might add.

The prosecution calls the ringleader as a witness, where he promptly blames the entire bombing plan and execution on Elena for an early release. Saw that coming a mile away. As Michaela chases down a lead to counter the new evidence, the entire team realizes that Elena has slipped bail yet again.  What was surprising was Elena sneaking onto a greyhound bus next to the ringleader and making out with him. This bitch just up and left her husband and kids like she was changing clothes and not her family. On the other hand, she is 1000% in love with the ringleader for well over a decade and love makes you do really stupid things. Ask Annalise, she’s still desperate for any scrap of attention from Nate.

The Coed’s Murder

The university is coercing Annalise to represent Lila’s boyfriend because they can’t have the star quarterback going to jail. It just wouldn’t look right. I roll my eyes, and then I remember all the real world college scandals and remember it’s not that far off from the truth. Meanwhile, Annalise is trying to get any info from Nate, the sidepiece, about Sam, the husband and his alibi for night of Lila’s murder. Annalise meets with the quarterback to hear his side of the story, and Wes literally cannot sit still during the interview because his spidey sense is tingling. The quarterback is blaming the entire murder on Rebecca, because he claims she set up Lila to catch him and Rebecca in bed. He also claims Lila hooked everyone up with coke from her drug dealer. Soooo Lila isn’t so sweet and innocent as she is colored to be, imagine that.

Wes, the adorkable idiot, takes it upon himself to impersonate a public defender to get to Rebecca in jail after getting a call from someone looking for a drug deal on the cell phone he found under his bathroom. A cell phone that happens to belong to Lila and the one that Rebecca hid. Wes the do-gooder tries to convince Rebecca to come clean about whatever happened to Lila because the quarterback is going to pin it squarely on her. Rebecca is the Quinn of How To Get Away With Murder, so she annoyingly gets Wes busted and Annalise has to come pick him up at the jail like she’s picking up her son from detention. He presents his case as to why Annalise should defend Rebecca and not the quarterback, and his vehemence about it not being fair she won’t get a fair defense because she’s poor makes me think this kid has been in the system, don’t ask me why, I just do.

In the interim of Annalise’s current case, Nate has continued to investigate Sam’s alibi and it turns out Sam has not a single one. He didn’t show up at the college he was supposed to speak at and his car was not in the hotel parking lot on the evening of Lila’s death. Basically, Sam is one shady dude who just keeps getting shadier. When Nate and Annalise finally meet up to go over what he found, he straight up lies to her face and says Sam has a rock solid alibi for that night. He also rebuffs Annalise’s advances for make-up sex in car. Um, what guy does that?? A very very angry one. Nate has just simultaneously set up and shut down Annalise in one fell swoop and she fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

The Murder and The Kids

We get to meet Michaela’s boyfriend, Aiden, and the gorgeous engagement ring he gave her. And since nothing on this show is done randomly so you just know that ring is important. We also get to watch Connor torment Michaela with the knowledge that he and Aiden hooked up as teens in their boarding school, and Aiden hasn’t told Michaela about it. Ooopsie. She should have returned the ring right then for him lying to her about his past, but Michaela and Aiden work through it, so to speak, and the ring stays put.

In flashbacks, we see that the kids use the bonfire as their alibis for the night of Sam’s murder and make sure to take pictures around the fire.  As the kids leave Sam’s burning corpse, Michaela notices that she’s missing her gorgeous ring. Told you she should have given the ring back earlier.

Overall, it was a great episode. If I didn’t love Annalise for her “ends justify the means” attitude, I now adore her for her vodka drinking skills. Vodka snobs unite. In other news, I’m kinda falling for Laurel and Frank, the well dressed investigator. They’re both so stupid about dancing around each other’s feelings that I can’t help but root for them to figure it out. Bonnie still just needs to get laid, and while she would bang Sam in a heartbeat, I feel like Sam already has a list going in that area of his life and she’s low on the totem pole. I also get the sense that Sam is silently cursing his wife for taking Rebecca’s case and not the quarterback’s.

Angela Romack
Angela Romack is writes what you’re thinking about when it comes to your favorite TV shows. If you don’t agree, that's fine. She's okay with being right. Follow her on Twitter at @AngelaMRomack.

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