My Review of How To Get Away With Murder's 6x06: "Family Sucks"

Written by Vanessa James Benton
Directed by Laura Innes

Asher (to Michaela): "You were right, families suck."

Well, Asher's certainly do and given the way things predictably soured in this episode, I take it this will be the last we'll be seeing of his sister and mother for a bit, yeah? It started moderately okay with some Irish dancing and Chloe dancing with Connor before ending with the reveal that Asher's mother still blames him for his father's death.

I can't say I'm surprised by the turn of events really and it did serve as enough of a plot device to get Asher and Michaela to reconnect and sleep together as well. I should be a tiny bit bothered that Michaela is cheating on Gabriel with Asher but that would imply that I care about Gabriel as a character and I really don't.

When Michaela wasn't sleeping with Asher, snarking about how Connor made his way into the K5 or briefly giving Chloe the benefit of the doubt she was mostly mad at her father and Annalise and pretty told Solomon to stay away from her but the chances of that actually happening seem to be very unlikely given that he's being set up as too prominent a character this season to quickly written out - unlike Vivian and Asher's family.

Then there's the Connor bit of the episode. Bonnie's reasons for picking him did make sense but it still surprised me given as we've not had that many nice scenes between Bonnie and Connor during the show's run. Bonnie also cooled things a little with Frank (who seems to be serious in his profession of love to her) and she was there to comfort a bloodied Asher during the last scene so that's another would be suspect to mull over until the mid season finale reveal.

As for the rest of the episode - hats off to Cora for outsmarting Nate and essentially choosing to help Tegan over him. I think Tegan had every right to be mad at Nate but the fact that she's willing to help him get justice for his dad in spite of his obsessively annoying towards her does show that Tegan is the better person.

- Did the show really have to go down the predictable route of having Annalise and Solomon go with a romantic past? Annalise now has the alias of Justine Brooks for when she flees the country.
- This episode was directed by Laura Innes, who should be returning to the series as Governor Birkhead.
- Oliver had little to do other than look after Frank for about a scene. Annalise also tried to file a restraining order against the Castilos.
- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Family Sucks at least gave us closure on the mystery of why Connor was selected for the Keating 5 and threw another good but inevitably misleading flash forward moment. I guess I'm happy that Tegan managed to get one over on Nate and I do like Solomon but right now, it feels like we're treading water til the mid series finale.

Rating: 7 out of 10