So much happened in this episode that, for the first time this season, I’ve come away feeling like nothing happened because it all became an inconsistent blur. Bit of a let down.
- Laurel telling Gabriel to back off. Yes, girl, about damn time!! And of course Frank and Laurel’s phone call being all “I know you and I know when you’re lying” with that little smirk. I see you, Francis.
- Coliver’s moms. Lovely moments and really interesting to see more of their histories unfold, but a lot of the nice moments were lost, as they were shoehorned in between other plot lines in 2 minute bursts.
- Choosing the governor was never an option for Annalise. Her choice there was out of character, selfish and just plain stupid. Not to mention her desperation for a pardon for Nate Snr made all of the work they did last week (which had a highly successful outcome!) pointless. As did my next point:
- Kill off Nate Snr?! Why?! I won’t judge too harshly because this may well be a plot device that moves the story along, but somehow I doubt that. This feels like another statement death so that HTGAWM can spend airtime promoting another political agenda, even though they could have explored the issue of violence in prisons more with Nate’s case in previous episodes. We’ll see where they take this but, so far, unimpressed.
- Bonnie’s anticlimactic visit to her sister. Again, had potential and good insight to her childhood but, like Connor and Oliver, it felt like it took a backseat to the Annalise drama even though it’s a main plot line?! I doubt that the baby is actually dead, but if so that’s been a lot of fuss for nothing. But I do think we can for sure discount Gabriel as Bonnie’s kid because there’s no way Frank would knowingly let her be that miserable when he could tell her the truth. However, I am here for Frank being the supportive friend, I like their ride or die friendship.
- Annalise ditching Bonnie like a hot potato to court the governor instead. What? This was a major backwards step and Bonnie deserves better, Annalise. Good thing Frank’s got her back.
- Much as I love to see Laurel owning at her job, what even was that pithy case?? If a student can solve it overnight, then the pill company shouldn’t be paying C&G over $5 million in legal fees. They did not earn that money.
- They are also making way too much of Michaela and Tegan. That dynamic - which I am here for - needs to be much subtler. It isn’t just a case of Michaela having a crush on Tegan; Michaela has deep-rooted issues with women in a position of authority over her, and so I think there’s more at play here and they shouldn’t trivialise it because it’s not a healthy obsession if she would drop her closest friend in the deep end just to get Tegan’s attention.
- Flash forward: they’re playing with the timeline again for sure and it’s a bit annoying. Once again, we don’t have anywhere near enough information to form a hypothesis and, this close to the finale, that’s frustrating. It should feel like it’s moving along better than that. Also, Miller dude - get back in your lane. Bonnie couldn’t commit to lunch in her current state of mind, let alone a marriage proposal.
And, worst of all, this flash forward order has definitely left Frank unaccounted for after the murder so he’d better be somewhere alive and well.
Also, did Asher even have any lines in this episode?? I honestly can’t remember him having any screen time at all. He’s supposed to be in murder club but at this rate, he doesn’t even feel like main cast.
Sorry to be the downer this week. To clarify, I’m still loving the season as a whole, but this was the weakest episode yet. They need to stick to the structure and let the important moments and relationships shine, rather than take a back seat to unnecessary drama and a forced political agenda that’s sometimes hard to swallow.
