Tuesday, February 07, 2017

My Review of How To Get Away With Murder's 3x11: "Not Everything's About Annalise"


Written by Abby Ajayi
Directed by Nicole Rubio

Frank (to Bonnie): "Not everything's about Annalise."

Only when it is about Annalise. Like this episode trying it's best to get her out of custody, only for things to escalate so much worse here. Bonnie came up with an almost good plan to secure Annalise's release, only to be met with another set back. Granted, it was a set back that I think we all saw coming though.

Frank turning himself in for Wes's death automatically rules him out as Wes's killer. He might have had the motives (Annalise and Laurel being two big motivators here) but it's clear that while Frank would be capable of killing Wes and not feeling too bad about things, it's clearly not him. However this episode did end on the possibility of another suspect - Bonnie.

Like Frank, Bonnie has the form to kill and her devotion to Annalise can be rather extreme at times. It's not within the realms of impossible that Bonnie might have feared Wes betraying Annalise and decided to take action and she's been more focused on getting Annalise out of prison than trying to find out who killed Wes to begin with.

Whether or not it will be Bonnie, I guess other episodes will have yet to confirm for us but right now, she looks somewhat a likely candidate to be honest. Speaking of Wes, the flashbacks with Frank aside, I did like that Michaela brought up to Hargrove about having a memorial service for the guy when her, Connor and Asher were being interviewed. I also liked that Hargrove went to visit Annalise in prison even if nothing too helpful came out of it for either of them.

As for Annalise, the struggle of prison life was setting in this one for her. The reality that her team might not get her out resulted in her cutting her weave along with the hostility she was facing from some of her fellow inmates as well. I do like that she does have something of a tiny support system in there (especially with Rose from Lost in her corner). That said, I am hoping they do manage to get Annalise out of the slammer before the finale though.

As for the rest of the gang, we saw some tender moments with Michaela/Asher and Connor/Oliver, which was nice along with the gang comforting Laurel as well. I also liked the scenes with Michaela and Oliver where the former was attempting damage control and there was a particular tense moment with Laurel and Meggy that worked rather well too.

-  We saw the gang watching The Golden Girls in this episode. I loved that little moment.
-  What is Atwood's problem with Annalise? You get the impression that she's aware Annalise is innocent but she seems determined to have Annalise incarcerated nonetheless.
- There was a lot of continuity porn in this one with Sam, Lila, Rebecca, Sinclair, the siblings from last season and so on getting referenced in this episode.

A strong episode. Not Everything's About Annalise didn't further too much, other than presenting us with a possible suspect for Wes's killer (or maybe not) but again there was some truly beautiful character moments and next week also boasts a rather welcome return to boot.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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