By 
This week’s episode of How to Get Away with Murder picks back up in the classroom present with a new case to tackle and Lila’s murder, and in the past with more and more clues shaking loose around Sam’s murder. Annalise is also paying for her behavior last week with Nate, and side-eying Sam for his shady behavior concerning Lila. These people are a mess, so let’s get to the How to Get Away with Murder recap for episode two, “It’s All Her Fault.”
The Case | Annalise and her students take on the case of Max St. Vincent (Steven Webber), accused of stabbing his wife, Majorie St. Vincent, 17 times in bed. This dude is weird, like really weird. I wouldn’t trust him with my dog, but everyone needs a defense, right? The kids (for all reviews, it’s just easier to call the law students this) are assigned to find ways to launch a defense. Annalise sends Wes “The Puppy” to go find more evidence in the district attorney’s office, and he succeeds. As do Michaela “Prom Queen” and Asher “Douche Face” while dumpster diving for evidence. Poor Laurel gets stuck with “Frank’s Girl” but she is so it’s fair. What’s a little confusing is how Annalise and her team missed their client’s first wife’s shady death.
Annalise has 7 people working for her, and no one found a report of this guy’s wife being stabbed? Everyone should fail for that miss alone. Of course, turns out the husband did murder the first wife but because it was so precise there’s no way he could have killed his second wife in such a sloppy manner, or so says Annalise because of Laurel’s idea. Gotta love lawyers. Shout out to The Puppy for figuring it out that the husband’s daughter killed her stepmother way before everyone else. I guess he does belong there with the other kids.
The Three-way and the Coed’s Murder | Annalise is a M-E-S-S. She literally screwed Nate in her house and on the stand, and she STILL thinks she can get back in his good graces. Or even use him to investigate Sam’s maybe involvement with Lila Stangard. What’s interesting is she seems to really have feelings for him in the split second she shows real vulnerability. Nate, however, is not here for her and ready to spill every detail of their trysts if she doesn’t leave him alone.
On the other hand, Annalise fish eyeing Sam every single moment they’re together, and apparently not without cause. It seems Sam has had an affair with a coed before. Oopsie. The even bigger blunder is Sam not having a passcode on his phone, mainly because it’s 2014 and even my mother has a passcode on her phone, but I digress. Anyway, Annalise gets into his email and doesn’t see any super incriminating emails, BUT she does see that Lila signed an email with “-L.” Here’s the thing. You don’t sign an email with just an initial unless you know that person pretty damn well. And you definitely don’t sign an email to just a professor that way.
Sam realizes that Annalise has been into his phone, because later on when Annalise goes to check something else allllll those emails from Lila on his phone are gone. Rut Roh. Who the hell knows if Sam killed Lila, but he sure did lay pipe on her, and Annalise is not amused with his shadiness, but she also is desperate to hold onto their marriage. The scene where she’s frantically trying to convince Nate to investigate Sam juxtaposed with her taking Sam to bed is so juicy and confusing. Have to give props to Tom Verica for giving Sam a dark edge that makes you think he’s definitely done some bad things. You just know Bonnie wishes they were with her.
The Murder | More details are revealed about the kids covering up Sam’s murder, and a surprising detail is Wes lying and saying that his coin flip chose to go back and move Sam’s body, when it was really his choice. WHY?? Also, remember when he went into the gas station to buy lighter fluid to torch Sam’s body, turns out he called someone, Rebecca to be exact. Yup, the annoying and weird neighbor, Rebecca.
Here’s where I had to re-watch the last few minutes approximately 7 times to follow the flashbacks and flash-forwards. Apparently Rebecca left a phone hidden in Wes’ bathroom when she borrowed his shower in the present day. Hers, of course, has a passcode because she’s not an idiot. Then again, she did get arrested for Lila’s murder along with Lila’s boyfriend so maybe she is. What’s confusing is that all the kids are pretty pissed off at Rebecca while they’re waiting for Wes to show up as they get rid the body in the flash-forward. AND not only did Wes made a detour to Rebecca’s motel room after the body burning, but also he appears to be her boyfriend. Huh? Once again, I have many, many questions.
Let’s take minute to bow down to Viola Davis’ layered portrayal of Annalise Keating. She says so much more in her facial expressions and body language, than just the words in the scene. Annalise’s shift from coddling to sexing up Wes is in the blink of an eye and so disturbing you can’t turn away. The same goes for the multiple layers Viola and Tom Verica play in their complicated chess match of a marriage. There is a double entendre to EVERYTHING they say or don’t say to each other. It’s pretty good stuff.
Comments