Written by Michael Foley & Erika Green Swafford
Directed by Stephen Williams
And The Killer Was: Michaela, cos she totally like pushed him over the bannister and so forth. Except it was more of an accident and that didn't finish him off. Nope, Sam had enough energy to try and strangle Rebecca before being clubbed over the head by the trophy courtesy of Wes. Wes being the one to strike the deadly blow isn't actually that surprising. It's the fact that the episode ended with Annalise being aware of her husband's murder and her coercion of the Keating Five (minus Asher) disposing of Sam's body for good measure. Now that's how you leave an audience wanting more. That and the fact that Annalise really does know how to cover herself.
Bad Husband: Of course prior to Sam being bumped off, the episode almost made a last minute attempt to make him come across as a right bastard. We had Annalise spitefully tell him that she was shagging Nate (which she actually did in this episode), only for Sam to make crass remarks about her race/sexual prowess while nearly attempting to strangle her. Then there was the fact that Rebecca copied his phone records on a flashdrive and nearly got killed for it. In spite of Sam's pretty nasty behaviour, I still don't believe he actually killed Lila. Because whoever did has to be alive right now for it to have an actual impact in the proper finale, don't they?
Body Disposal: I got it wrong. They didn't burn Sam's body. They (mainly Connor) hacked it to bits, burned the evidence and then got rid of his body in bin bags. I really liked how all the flash forwards from the previous episodes now fit together seamlessly throughout this episode but I'm not sure if their method of disposal will turn out to be truly successful though, especially considering the fact that Michaela lost her ring, Connor's car was spotted at the Keatings residents and other things that will inevitably resurface. Plus wanting to get Asher involved - there's a reason why Rebecca hasn't been endearing to audiences and that was it. I actually get now why Michaela was happy to blame her for everything.
Aftermath: So, what do you do after killing your professor's husband and getting rid of his corpse? Various things it seems. For Wes and Rebecca, it was destroying a flash drive (making the whole pointless in the first place), Michaela signing a prenuptial agreement, Laurel it was lying to Frank and getting him to hand the trophy back (which they at least had the sense to clean) and for Connor, it involved going to Oliver, having a proper meltdown and then pretending that he was a drug addict. I'm up for seeing more of Oliver in the second half of the season and while I actually think Connor was smart not to tell him what really happened, I'm not so keen on a pretend addiction plotline either with him and Oliver for the second half of the season either.
The Innocent Parties: And possibly the only two people not included in any way connecting to Sam's death were Asher and Bonnie. I liked their scenes in this episode and while I understand that Bonnie might not want to broadcast that she slept with Asher, he was a step up on that oily guy she met at a bar though. Also, I think Asher was spot on when he said was the most mature of the Keating Five too. The sex scene between Asher and Bonnie was also delightfully awkward as well and a definite contrast towards the more racier we had earlier in the episode with Annalise and Nate. However, I do get the feeling that somehow both of them will get sucked into the whole Sam saga. For a mid-season though, that was brilliant stuff from start to finish with many twisty moments. I definitely can't wait to see what the remaining six episodes will offer. Can this lot get away with murder and who actually killed Lila now?
The show returns on ABC from January 29th for US viewers. Universal will air the remaining episodes in the Spring for UK viewers.
And this is the ep where Connor acted his butt off (or Jack, I should say) That looked scary real. Phenomenal and very impressive. If I didn't like him before (which I did, cause I liked him before I'd seen the show) I certainly would have started paying attention here.
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