‘How to Get Away with Murder’
Grade: A-
This third in the ABC Thursday night Shondaland trifecta is the pièce de résistance.
The midseason return of “How to Get Away with Murder” opens with a two-pronged scene that recaps where the show left off. It also makes it clear through Viola Davis’ Screen Actors Guild award-winning talents that Annalise Keating is the queen of strategic deception.
It is wonderful to have this show back in my life. Like Shonda Rhimes’ other dramas, “How to Get Away with Murder” juggles a large cast and all their intertwining plot threads with devastating flair and confidence.
The writing and acting together produce scenes that leave me without fingernails.
And it goes without saying that Jack Falahee is distractingly handsome as ever, even as his character, Connor Walsh, writhes in paranoia along with his peers.
There were some enjoyable performances from the cast of young actors, playing an ensemble of law students handling the pressure of their covert crime in their own ways.
Laurel Castillo’s descent into moral ambiguity deepens as she lies during her police interview to help protect herself, Annalise and the others. Seeing Laurel’s intensifying moral struggle over time has been both compelling as well as telling of what the discipline of duplicity can do to a person.
Wes Gibbons, on the other hand, is excelling under the pressure and thinking outside the box as he normally does. This brings a smile to Annalise’s face, leaving the audience to wonder if she’s proud of his growth as a fledgling lawyer, glad to have him on her team or contented that this puppy dog is so dutiful to his master — despite the fact that he should know by now how dangerous his master is.
Of course, hats and wigs are truly off to Davis as Annalise works to keep Wes, played by Alfred Enoch, under her command to ensure that his fellow body snatchers stay in line.
Annalise is a maternal figure toward Wes, who is one minute self-serving, the next tender and borderline Oedipal. Through their shared knowledge of the truth about ex-husband Sam Keating’s death, Wes is the only person with whom Annalise can appear vulnerable, especially because her husband is a collection of ashes in a dump by now.
During their first mommy and son scene together in this episode, Wes gives Annalise Sam’s wedding ring, the one thing saved from the fire that destroyed his DNA.
Now if this isn’t going to be the Chekhov’s gun of this second half of the first season, then I’ll go ahead and eat my laptop right now. If you don’t know what I mean by “Chekhov’s gun,” I am sure Siri can fill you in.
Davis’ agility with which she switches between legal warrior and exposed nerve acts as the turf that buries the plot nugget that is the salvaged ring.
The episode ends with Annalise promising the uneasy and nearly mutinous law students, “You will get away with this.”
As she says this, however, police lights flash red and blue across their faces, making me wonder if Annalise’s vow is fulfilled or not.
The show may be called “How to Get Away with Murder,” but that title doesn’t specify who gets away.
