Recap/Review: How To Get Away With Murder's 1x02: It's All Her Fault

These reviews will be a little earlier from next week onwards (Fridays most likely). As for the second episode, yup, still hooked.

Written by Peter Nowalk
Directed by Bill D'Elia

Blame Rebecca: Well, Michaela certainly wanted and she did quite repeatedly during the flash forward scenes as she, Connor and Laurel were stuck in the woods while Wes went off to get cleaning supplies and whatnot. Personally, two episodes in and I just don't like Rebecca a great deal. It's not the actress fault, I just find the character cold and annoying and the closeness with her and Wes in this episode just seemed convenient rather than meaningful. I'm not sure if Rebecca is responsible for Sam's death but clearly she's had some role to play in the events and Wes's vow to protect her will probably blow up in his face as well. In the present day though, Rebecca briefly had a shower in his apartment before getting arrested in relation to Lila Stangard's murder.

He Doesn't Do Boyfriends: But clearly Connor likes Oliver enough to feel bad about blowing him off. He might be a cool customer who likes to use sex as a tool but clearly Oliver means enough to Connor if the latter was willing to try and make it up to him during this episode with some takeout and more sex scenes. I'm not going to lie - Connor is rapidly becoming one of my new favourite characters this year and his scenes continue to be a highlight in this episode - even the ones where he's sniping at Michaela, questioning Wes's credentials or even shocking Asher, the latter was surprised to learn that Connor is gay. Basically, more Connor please. Even the inappropriate one in flash forwards who seems to make Christmas songs sound creepy.

Sleeping With A Killer: For someone who doesn't seem all that bothered about her clients being killers, Annalise certainly was a lot more worried about the idea of her husband being Lila's murderer though. Viola Davis is fantastic, there's no doubt of that and here, she was even better than the opening episode. I don't know if Sam murdered Lila, but you don't have to be a genius to have figured out that he was sleeping with her at the very least. The scenes with Annalise confiding in her former detective lover were brilliant. I was though surprised that Nate seemed unconvinced by Sam's guilt and that sex scene between Annalise and Sam was pretty uncomfortable to watch. This show like to talk about surprise witnesses and the likes, so when it comes to Lila, I'm going to assume that Sam, Rebecca and the boyfriend probably didn't kill her. There's a chance we probably haven't met the killer yet.

Remember Her Name: With Bonnie and Frank still yet to make a real impression, isn't a bit hypocritical of Bonnie to castigate Laurel. I know both Laurel and Asher haven't stood out in the same way that Connor, Wes and Michaela have done so far, but generally they're decent enough characters and I do think that Bonnie was perhaps a little too snappy with Laurel at times too, even if her fears about Frank sleeping with Laurel are justified. Speaking of Frank, I liked that he got both Michaela and Asher as a team for a bit of bin snooping during this episode.

Wife Hunter: The case in the first episode felt pretty bog standard stuff but the case in this episode was actually interesting. That's probably not something I'll say every week but here, I was genuinely interested in trying to figure out whether or not Steven Weber's oddball millionaire Max St Vincent actually killed his second wife. The various twists were actually quite interesting (even if his daughter was a tad annoying) and the fact that Max had no problem using both Connor and Bonnie as crash test dummies to disprove his guilt in two separate scenes was well executed as well. Connor in particularly looked both uncomfortable and a bit turned on by Max simulating a murder on him.

Next week, more flash forwards, the arrival of Michaela's husband to be and Ana Ortiz as a woman wanted by the FBI.