Tuesday, November 26, 2019

My Review of How To Get Away With Murder's 6x09: "Are You The Mole?"


Written by Maisha Closson
Directed by Stephen Cragg

Mourner: "And now we invite all those who would like to come up and share their own thoughts, memories and prayers for Annalise."

Oh boy. This was a doozy and a half, wasn't it? I have to admit that I have not been as focused on this mole stuff as I should've been because to be brutally honest, it should've been obvious that it was going to be Asher and this episode certainly revealed it all in glorious detail before Asher ended up being dead.

I'm not surprised that Connor and Michaela reacted the way they did and I'm not surprised that the FBI used Asher's family to get him to betray the gang but Oliver hitting him with a fire poker did throw me off. Oliver has been acting erratic all season long and this was a way to make him look guilty as we'd later discover that Asher would be murdered by someone else with a fire poker and left outside Gabriel's.

Right now, the obvious suspects are Frank and Bonnie and given that Asher essentially blamed Annalise for everything, it would make sense for either one of them to do the deed. Then there's also Nate, but he was mostly too mad at Annalise and even tried to attack before relenting and hoping that he would there when Annalise got sent down. There's six episodes left, so can we please get rid of him, show?

With Nate being a general pest this week and both Bonnie and Frank on damage control duties with the kids and Gabriel, this episode also saw Annalise making the tentative moves to get out of the mess that is her life, which included a nice emotional moment with her mother on the phone and a faculty party scene with Tegan before giving her students a rather on the nose speech about being better people.

Annalise might have left this episode on a plane but the damage is pretty big in her wake. Asher's dead, both Connor and Michaela are suspects, Oliver is feeling guilty, Gabriel could be framed for a crime he didn't commit by Frank and Bonnie and Nate's off being angry somewhere. Oh, what else happened then because surely the above mentioned isn't enough, yeah?

Let's see - we opened the episode with our mostly strung out Keating 4 getting some Facetime from Laurel, who managed to reveal that Tegan helped her escape and in flash forwards, we saw a mysterious man at Annalise's "funeral", played by Alfred Enoch. Either Wes didn't die, has a twin or clone or we're really ahead in the future and it's a grown up Christophe (the likeliest option) but we're going to waiting for the remaining six episodes before we get solid answers to that one.

- I kind of thought both Robert and Solomon would've factored into this episode but I guess both will likely reappear in the latter half of the season.
- Lot of interesting flashbacks to previous episodes during the final sequence this week. Also a pity we didn't get to see Ophelia on screen but the phone message was a nice moment nonetheless.
- Standout music: Les Friction's Dark Matter.
- Chronology: The night before Graduation for the Keating 4. The show will return for it's final six episodes in April 2020.

Are You The Mole is easily the strongest episode of the season and certainly upped the ante. I really do hope when the show returns in the Spring, it will end the series on a satisfying note. Asher's death certainly provides great drama for the remaining six episodes and I'm curious whether we're seeing an alive Wes (???) or an older Christophe.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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