#meta: savior complex

[dana-watches-htgawm]

HTGAWM rewatch blog "He Deserved to Die" (1x07)

Wesbecca was my favorite ship, so an episode focusing on Wes & Rebecca is of course gonna be one of my favorites :)

This episode doesn't have a very clear theme, unlike some of the other episodes, but if there's one thing many characters have in common, it's that they are dealing with relationship issues. Annalise & Sam, Wes & Rebecca, Laurel & Kan/Frank, Michaela & Aiden, Connor...

In the spotlight this episode: Rebecca Sutter (& Wes Gibbins) Seriously, Rebecca gets more and more awesome on every rewatch. People tend to call her awful, but I really don't get why. Did she do an awful thing when she drugged Rudy? Yes. Is she a vulnerable orphan with no support system, a rough upbringing, and who always had to look out for herself? Also, yes. Does she have trust issues? Absolutely, but seeing her past, I wouldn't say that's surprising. Rebecca does the things she does because she's always had to fend for herself. I don't think she's a horrible person, she's just incredibly misunderstood by both people in the show and many viewers.

Rebecca doesn't trust people, so she has her walls up and acts snarky and manipulative around everyone. But underneath that mask is a very vulnerable person, who comes through when Lila's mother accuses her of killing Lila, and when Wes tries to kiss her. She's also protective of people she cares about, which we see in the present day where she manipulates Laurel and Michaela into shutting up about Rebecca sleeping with Wes, and also in the flashforward where she offers to take the fall to protect Wes.

Despite her armor, we've gradually seen her open up to Wes, and this episode marks another step in their relationship. Wes is very similar to Rebecca: he also had a rough upbringing, is the outsider, and doesn't let people in. He desperately tries to help Rebecca, but at the same time, she still knows little to nothing about him. In this episode, she calls him out on it twice: first when she teasingly calls him "the most privatest person ever," the second time when they fight and she asks him if his parents had issues and if that's why he's so obsessed with her life. She absolutely has a point there.

Wes just keeps insisting that he wants to help her, but if she doesn't want that, he'll stop. Which is honestly a bit manipulative and very characteristic of someone with a savior complex. I don't think Wes is doing it intentionally, unlike Annalise or Rebecca, who manipulate the hell out of people. But he is doing it, and it gives us a glimpse into Wes's dark past and how he has no idea how to be in a healthy relationship.

Wes and Rebecca then just... start making out... in the heat of the moment, which is also kinda toxic, and I guess that is expressed by intercutting their make-out scene with Lila's autopsy scene. I guess that's also a bit of foreshadowing that Rebecca is doomed, basically. She also showed up twice in a bathroom, once in the present day and once in the flashforward.

I love how Wes finally opens up to Rebecca. He tells her a lot of random things about his hobbies and his life, but also drops a bomb when he somewhat casually glosses over how his mom killed herself when he was 12. Rebecca stops him, but he barely seems to be able to talk about it, which shows how deeply that trauma or even PTSD is still buried. He tells her his mom is messed up, too, just like he is. Rebecca is there for him, accepts him.

I really, really love that moment after they made out and they're just lying in Wes's bed. I also love that Rebecca is looking for Wes's favorite ice cream when she's in the supermarket, and tells Nate that her "boyfriend" is waiting for her in the car. I just find it sweet how two guarded, somewhat broken outsiders open up to and protect each other.

In the flashforwards two weeks later, they are madly in love. Wes lifts her upstairs moments after Sam's death. He cleans the blood off her face. They kiss, and he tells her everything's gonna be fine over and over throughout their flashforward scenes. Is it? No, but that's his savior complex speaking. Rebecca lets Wes take care of her (which I think is very rare for Rebecca). Rebecca mostly looks out for herself, but her willingness to take the fall for Wes shows how much she cares about him.

The Lila Stangard case This episode didn't feature a case of the week, but focused solely on the Lila Stangard case. Rebecca and Griffin have their hearings, but things get a bit ugly as the press gets involved, rumors are spread, and plea deals are (almost) made.

Griffin's lawyer wants to exhumate Lila's body to prove Griffin's innocence, but Annalise and the prosecutor (Wendy Parks, who is one of the most awesome minor characters) are against it. Sam gives Annalise a hint on how to block it, but ultimately, the judge orders to continue with the exhumation. Turns out that some red marks were ant bites instead of Rebecca's fingernails, and Lila was six weeks pregnant.

Annalise and Sam have been working on their relationship. Annalise tells Sam she needs more time, but things improve throughout the episode. At least, until Bonnie reveals that Lila was pregnant. Annalise seems shattered while Sam couldn't look more guilty after that revelation.

Meanwhile, Nate confronts Annalise with planting Lila's phone in Griffin's car, and says he knows she doesn't believe that Sam is innocent. He approaches Rebecca in the convenience store and asks for her help to take Sam down. Nate, what the hell.

Wes & Annalise... don't really have any scenes together. Wes still seems to be a bit annoyed with her and intervenes when Annalise yells at Rebecca for not taking her trial prep seriously. Annalise still has a sweet spot when she actually listens to Wes's suggestion to take a break. But when Annalise & Rebecca team up to leak a fake story to the press, Wes is annoyed with both of them.

Just an observation, but Wes's behavior toward Rebecca is very similar to Annalise's behavior towards the Keating Five (and Wes especially) later on. In the flashforwards, Wes keeps telling Rebecca that he's just trying to help her and that things will be fine (even though he just killed a man), and Annalise constantly does that with people later on. Pete Nowalk has said in interviews that he sees Wes and Annalise as two sides of the same coin, and even though this episode showed once again how different their values are, they are very similar in the lengths they go to protect the people they love. Wes isn't the only one with a savior complex.

Wes and Annalise are both traumatized by losing people, feel they might be unlovable (or "messed up," as Wes calls himself), and basically have built a fortress around themselves. But deep down, they are both just craving connection. Wes finds it in Rebecca while Annalise works on restoring it with Sam, but eventually they'll find it in each other.

The Keating Five This episode didn't really have that many group scenes, but the moments they had together were mostly spent mocking Wes (or "Romeo") with his obvious crush on Rebecca. Asher thinks they are doing the nasty, Connor says some people just have it up for crazy, Michaela calls it inappropriate, and even Laurel seems a bit awkward when she says it's kinda sweet.

This episode has a few scenes in a row that are comedic gold. It starts with Bonnie asking the guys to go to a bar to get Wendy Parks's assistant to talk:

Asher: On it. Bonnie: Connor and Wes, you go, too. Asher: What do I need them for? Connor: This works on women as well as men. Bonnie: He's right. Rebecca: Hey, can I go, too? I'm really good at flirting with girls. Bonnie: I'm sure. You stay here with us. Rebecca: Girls' night. Whoo-hoo...

Followed by a scene where Rebecca skillfully manipulates both Laurel and Michaela to get them to stop talking about her and Wes. Laurel can be pretty manipulative, and she's also a bit more resistant to Annalise's manipulation than the others, but she's no match for Rebecca. Michaela is just incredibly easy to manipulate.

Next is the scene at the bar, where Connor is talking to the assistant, drunk, dumping his worries about him cheating on his girlfriend "Olive." Followed by a hilarious interaction between Wes, who only cares about getting the assistant to talk, and Asher, who just wants to "release the kraken." It's a mystery to me how Alfie (Wes) managed to keep a straight face while Matt (Asher) was saying the most ridiculous lines ever, but I love it xD.

Finally, Wes and a drunk Asher report back to Annalise and Bonnie. I love that interaction between Asher and Bonnie (and how he makes a complete idiot of himself in front of Annalise), before Wes steps in and kills the fun.

Oh, and for the record: it is Wes who got the assistant to talk. Not Asher, who insisted he didn't need Connor and Wes. Not Connor, who said 'this' works on both women and men. But the puppy. Don't underestimate the puppy.

Besides the comedic moments in this episode, the students also have some more serious individual plotlines:

Connor hooks up with a random guy through Humpr, but can't seem to get over Oliver. When Connor shows up in front of Oliver's door with flowers, a random guy opens and tells Connor to stay away.

Kan offers Laurel a job at Legal Aid, but Laurel is torn. Frank is still pissed at Laurel for telling him she's not interested, but when he finds out she's considering taking another job, he tells her he'll get over his feelings for Laurel. Laurel tells him she doesn't want him to get over it, and they kiss.

Michaela thinks she's invited for an interview at a famous law office, but when she shows up, it turns out Aiden's family wants her to sign a prenup.

(Asher... has the trophy, flirts with someone at the bar by using the lamest pick-up line ever, and gets drunk.)

A few other random observations Connor mentions that "Romeo saves Juliet again" implying Wes has been mediating between Annalise and Rebecca more than once. Not really an observation, but I just love that moment where Annalise yells at Rebecca, Wes proposes to take a break, and Annalise slowly turns to Wes without saying a word. It's such an awkward moment, I love it.

Annalise mentions having miscarriages. She may have been manipulating Wes in the pilot when she told him she and Sam were trying for a baby, but she wasn't entirely lying. We'll see it play out a bit through flashbacks in 3x05.

Also, I have a feeling the writers very intentionally had both Annalise bring up her miscarriages, and Wes bring up his mother's suicide in the same episode. Love how the writers are planting seeds for their relationship in the back half of season 1.

Rebecca is really smart, btw. During her psych evaluation with Sam in 1x05, she already said she had a high IQ. In this episode, she brings up the O.J. trial, showing she's clearly done her research, and we learn that she's really good at reading people. Annalise, Laurel, Michaela, Wes...

We can also piece together Wes's academic background based on this episode. He went to community college and got his degree from a night school. Wes is 21 throughout most of his 1L year (his DOB is 6 October 1993, this episode takes place early December 2014), so I suspect he graduated from high school at 17 and got an Associate's Degree at his community college at 19. He then may have transferred his credits to his night school and crammed a lot of courses into one year to obtain his degree at 20. In that same year, he was placed on the waitlist of an Ivy League-level university, which is seriously impressive when you think about it. Wes is really smart, he just doesn't brag about it.

Final thoughts This is one of my favorite episodes. It has some great comedy, is full of Wes & Rebecca moments, Wendy Parks and Keegan bring some spice to the court scenes, we get some more background on Wes... There are so many moments I like in this episode that I don't even notice the lack of Wes & Annalise scenes (and they still have their moments, even though they only happen in group scenes). I'd say this episode is an underrated gem, at least for the Wes and Rebecca fans out there.

Rating: 10/10

[dana-watches-htgawm]

HTGAWM rewatch blog "We're Not Friends" (1x05)

This episode is all about emotion vs. law. Laurel feels for the client, and breaks the law by tampering with the jury. Annalise's emotions regarding Sam's involvement with Lila prevent her from turning in Lila's phone to the police, to protect Sam from becoming a possible suspect.

Annalise tells the jury in her closing statement: "Don't send this young man to prison for doing the same thing you would've done for someone you loved. You would protect them, and that is not a crime," essentially playing on their emotions. I love how this is also foreshadowing Wes killing Sam to protect Rebecca, and Annalise protecting Wes in the aftermath.

This episode also revolves around people lying: the episode starts with Annalise calling Sam out for lying to her, Nate accuses Annalise of lying to him, Annalise calls Bonnie out for lying about how she got Rebecca's confession tape, and she calls Frank out for lying about who leaked information on jury nullification to the jury. She also gets called out by Wes, who realizes she lied about the picture on Lila's phone.

In the spotlight this episode: Laurel Castillo Laurel is an idealist: we see it in this week's case about defending a minor who protected his mother from his abusive father, in her budding friendship with similar-minded Wes, and especially in her interest in Kan and Legal Aid.

Laurel wants to help people. Annalise still doesn't seem to be very impressed with Laurel, and calls her a show-off in class when she gives a correct answer. Despite not caring as much about Annalise's validation as Connor, Michaela, or Asher, Laurel still wants to prove herself. So she informs the jury of nullification, which ultimately leads to a mistrial. Frank protects Laurel by not ratting her out to Annalise, but Laurel is disappointed in him for not telling Annalise. Even if Laurel doesn't care as much about Annalise's praise as some of the other students, she still wants it.

Laurel's love life There's a bit of a love triangle going on between Laurel, Frank, and Kan. Laurel and Kan are seemingly in a relationship: Laurel is spending a lot of time working (or making out) with Kan at Legal Aid. Meanwhile, Frank asks her out for lunch, and is clearly crushing on her. After a heated argument about Laurel's jury-tampering, they kiss. Laurel breaks it off, though, tells him she has a boyfriend, and proceeds to make out with Kan at Legal Aid.

Laurel's relationship with Frank is also the focus of the flashforwards. Frank keeps calling her, and when confronted by the others, Laurel admits to sleeping with Frank and that she's a cheater. She doesn't want to talk to Frank, but the others later insist she pick up the phone to establish their alibi. Laurel is pissed, though, telling Frank how she's just another person on his list of student conquests.

Laurel is allowed to cheat on Kan with Frank, but when Frank has a girlfriend, she gets pissed. A bit of a double standard, but who doesn't have those on the show.

Foreshadowing Laurel's past This episode gives us some implicit foreshadowing to Laurel's past. When Frank asks her, "Why the hell are you so worked up about this case, anyway? Unless your father beat you," Laurel scoffs, but there's some truth to it. Laurel's interest in the case can easily be connected to her own family situation: the father in the case was a cop who abused his wife, so even if the client called for help, there was no point due to his father's job. So he shot his father to protect his mother. We know that Laurel's mother was also a victim of Laurel's father, that Laurel's father put her into a mental institution, and is a very manipulative, powerful, and almost untouchable man. In the series finale, Laurel ends up getting her father killed with help from Tegan, so that she and Christopher will be safe.

I love how the editing very subtly gives hints toward character backgrounds. When Annalise says "sociopath who hated his father," the camera focuses on Laurel... who hates her father, and will be referred to as a sociopath by Connor much later on. That's not the only hint in the editing: when Annalise talks about the "mother's abuse," the camera jumps to Wes, again (see 1x02).

A bit about Wes's "issues" and his relationships There's more foreshadowing when it comes to Wes, not only about his mother potentially being abused (which, as we find out in season 2, she was).

Wes & Rebecca Wes has been keeping his distance from Rebecca, not sure if Rebecca wants to talk to him. Rebecca, lonely and bored, seeks him out. When she barges into his room to steal his pizza, she calls him out on pretending to be a lawyer to talk to a neighbor he barely knows, and says he's got issues. Wes doesn't deny it. When Rebecca says she likes making people feel uncomfortable, he points out he's not the only one with issues.

I really like how Rebecca softens up to him. She still has her walls up, but after everything Wes has done for her and trusting him with the info on Lila's phone, he seems to have broken through to them. It's a one-way street, though; Wes is still a mystery to Rebecca for now.

On a rewatch, it's much easier to attribute Wes's behavior around Rebecca to a savior complex. I also brought it up in my 1x03 blog, but Wes connects with Rebecca, believes she's innocent, and desperately wants to help her, possibly for not being able to save his own mother. In this episode, he once again crosses a line in doing so though...

Wes & Annalise Wes just walking into Annalise's bedroom late at night while calling her a liar is not normal or healthy... at all. Annalise has been coming onto him a few times (including in a scene that sadly got deleted from this episode), but Wes also has no idea what boundaries are. There's a connection between Wes and Annalise that goes both ways, and while the previous two episodes hightlighted the weak spot Annalise had for Wes, in this episode we once again get a glimpse of the pull Wes feels toward her (whether positive or negative), and on a rewatch we know this is connected to the "issues" Rebecca referred to.

Wes is lonely and guarded, but when people start to trust him or open up to him, he starts clinging, too. I'd say he's very torn about Annalise in this episode: on one hand, she's taken on Rebecca's case, has given him the trophy, and put her trust in him. She's giving him special treatment, everyone has been picking up on that, and I think it's also drawing Wes to her, because he's not used to being valued. But on the other hand, she also lies to him, and when Wes feels betrayed, he gets reckless, which is something that'll come back a few times.

I love how Wes confronts Annalise, though. People tend to tiptoe around her, but Wes has no issues calling her out on her manipulation and lies. It's not the first time, and definitely not the last time. I also love how he gets away with it.

The Keating Five Wes and Laurel are not the only ones who are annoyed with Annalise. When Annalise tells the K5 to stay up and go through the client's blog, they all seem annoyed (especially Michaela).

I love how the relationships between the K5 members keep developing, as subtle as they are. Wes and Laurel share more sweet moments, and in this episode it's Wes who is supportive of Laurel. Michaela and Connor are still enemies, in this episode Michaela shuts Connor up when she mentions his boy problems (also subtly hinting at Connor's broken heart over Oliver, together with Connor constantly being on Humpr potentially looking for a rebound). Asher is still not a fan of Laurel and her "cute" scoring card, but he is warming up to Connor. Asher is especially fascinated with Connor being gay, and makes multiple jokes and remarks throughout the episode.

The Lila Stangard case Things are progressing quickly in this episode: we start with Annalise confronting Sam about lying to her, and admitting he slept with Lila over the summer. (Btw, Sam's behavior in that scene was absolutely disgusting). After class, Wes suggests to Annalise that she hand Lila's phone over to the police, but Annalise doesn't want to (to protect Sam), which leaves Wes confused.

Annalise, conflicted about Sam's involvement with Lila, is unraveling and seeks out Nate again. Nate is done with her, though. He got fired after Bonnie blackmailed his boss for Rebecca's confession tape and blames Annalise for it. He calls Sam a killer and tells her Sam drove back to Philly on the night Lila was killed, leaving Annalise in shock.

What follows is the first solo-scene between Annalise and Bonnie, and a tense one at that. The show has already been hinting at Bonnie's feelings toward Sam since the very first episode, but in this particular moment, Annalise clearly shows her awareness when she sarcastically thanks Bonnie for protecting her husband. Their relationship was so strained at the start of the show, with Bonnie just quietly standing there and apologizing, while Annalise acts ice cold.

So Annalise confronts Sam with his whereabouts on the night of Lila's murder, and has Wes and Rebecca come over so Sam can do a psych evaluation on Rebecca, but really just to check if Rebecca knows Sam was sleeping with Lila. Rebecca seems clueless, but just like Sam, lies about Lila's phone, claiming Lila left it at her apartment the night before she was killed.

This episode has another explosive ending: Wes comes home the next day and sees that Rebecca's apartment is empty, so he calls her. Rebecca is not sure if she can trust him or Annalise and tells him to check the wallpaper in Annalise's bedroom. Just like how the episode started with a confrontation in Annalise's bedroom, it also ends with one, but this time it's Wes calling Annalise a liar. Love the parallel.

Final thoughts One reason why I keep rewatching this show is because of the subtle foreshadowing in every episode. I've lost count on how much I've rewatched the first 2,5 seasons, but I keep picking up new things.

I personally enjoy the flashy over-the-top cases and Annalise kicking ass in court. This episode had a bit less of that, and more emotional Annalise and Laurel/Frank/Kan antics... which I personally don't care that much for. I still really like this episode though, especially for the K5 dynamic which remains a highlight for me, the variation in the case of the week, and the developments in the Lila Stangard case now that Rebecca is out of jail and Annalise (and Wes) know about Sam's involvement.

Rating: 8/10