#plot: hapstall case

[dana-watches-htgawm]

HTGAWM rewatch blog "Two Birds, One Millstone" (2x06)

Besides a small case of the week, this episode mainly focused on the case of the season, as well as the plots involving Rebecca's murder and Trotter Lake. Annalise gets more and more manipulative as the episodes go on, but this episode marks a high (or rather low) point in how far she goes to keep people under control.

Hapstall case The Keating Five tries to find a new suspect because Catherine and Caleb claim that they were framed. When Asher proposes the biological parents, Wes agrees, but Michaela shoots it down. Later, the students royally screw up when they voice their suspicions of Catherine and Caleb, not realizing Catherine was recording them. So Annalise is furious with them and tells them, "You're all garbage." Ouch.

They fix their mistake when Oliver hacks the adoption website to look for the birth parents, leading to a new suspect. Turns out that Helena Hapstall had a child. Oliver keeps digging and finds out his name is Philip Jessup. Oli has hacked into his computer, unaware that Philip has hacked him back and is looking at Connor and Oliver through his webcam, though.

I honestly don't really care much about the Hapstall case.

Trotter Lake After Annalise showed Asher the tapes of the abuse Bonnie has suffered as a child, he's torn on what to do. So Annalise tells him:

Annalise: I'll protect you, Asher. But we need to protect Bonnie, too. That's what we do for people that we love. Right?

Asher ends up agreeing not to testify, and he also tells her about Trotter Lake, so Annalise promises him she'll fix it.

Bonnie has her suspicions on Asher suddenly deciding not to testify, so Annalise tells her:

Annalise: This is my fault. You're so used to me doubting you that you can't see when you've done something right. But that's exactly what you've done here. You fixed this, and it makes sense. He loves you. Maybe you can't see it, but I can.

Bonnie seems a bit wary of Annalise. Yeah, Annalise has been incredibly verbally abusive with Bonnie, so I get why the sudden turn in her behavior would make Bonnie suspicious. I think Annalise is also kinda gaslighting Bonnie? But Bonnie believes Annalise, for now.

Annalise visits Sinclair and accuses her of witness tampering and intimidation regarding Asher. She threatens to call the press, so Sinclair promises to stop harassing Asher, but ends up leaking Tiffany's name to the press anyway. So a spooked Asher tells Annalise, and mentions that his dad is also involved and can take Annalise down if he wants to.

Slight detour, but I didn't really care that much about the case of the week: Annalise's transgender friend accidentally kills someone and calls Annalise, and then uses Annalise's questions about what happened to make the crime scene look like a fight. So when the D.A. suspects Annalise was involved and threatens to press charges against both of them, Annalise bribes him. She breaks her promise to Asher about keeping his dad's name out of the David Allen case by giving the D.A. intel on Judge Millstone's corruption, on the condition that he doesn't press charges and gets Emily Sinclair to stop her witch-hunt into Annalise and her staff.

I kinda love how this betrayal will set a few things in motion in future episodes, though: Judge Millstone committing suicide as the news of his corruption gets out. Asher, running over Sinclair in a fit of rage because he thinks she's behind the leak. Saying it now, but Judge Millstone's suicide was on Annalise. And then there's also Asher cooperating with the FBI in season 6, when he finally learns from them that it wasn't Sinclair, but Annalise, who leaked news of his dad's corruption.

Anyway. That night, Judge Millstone visits Asher and accuses him of selling out his own father, because he thinks that Emily Sinclair has now gotten the D.A. to open an investigation into his career. Meanwhile, Sinclair meets with Bonnie in the parking lot of the courthouse to give her the files on Trotter Lake. Bonnie isn't interested until Sinclair tells her that Tiffany Howard was gang raped.

Rebecca's murder When Frank is taking a shower, Laurel searches through his apartment for any clues on his involvement in Rebecca's disappearance or about the suitcase. Later in class, she admits to Wes that she went through Frank's apartment, but that there is nothing to find, trying to steer Wes away from his obsession. But Wes wouldn't be Wes if he were able to let it go. Connor and especially Michaela are just done with him, and Laurel tells them all to let it go before Annalise finds out "we've all gone bananas again." Lol.

Yeah, there are a lot of similarities to the Rudy plot. Wes is obsessed with finding out the truth, and Laurel is wary but still hesitantly goes along with it while trying to keep him in check. Connor and Michaela chose to get involved once again, although they finally seemed to have learned their lesson, because in season 3, they both refuse to help Wes with the Mahoney trial.

Anyway, back at the house, Wes is just staring at Frank and making everyone else incredibly uncomfortable, so Frank urges Annalise to talk to him. Annalise tells him, "I'll handle him the way I always do." (Which I assume is gaslighting/guilt-tripping him and then showering him with affection, which she has done before, and she'll do again in this episode. Success rate: 100%).

He keeps insisting that Rebecca is dead and Annalise had something to do with it, so Laurel is over it and drags Wes with her to confront Frank, who of course denies it. He tells them that the cash was for Rebecca to make sure she'd keep quiet after they tied her up.

Meanwhile, Wes has also been trying to reach Nate to tell him about the suitcase and how Annalise might've set Levi up. When Nate finally picks up his phone, he's not interested in anything having to do with Annalise anymore and tells Wes to stop calling. Wes, persistent, tries one more time to reach out to Nate by visiting his apartment, but runs into Annalise there.

And then, Annalise strikes. She follows him to his own apartment (and is of course faster since, well, he's on his bike and she has a car), and manipulates him to the point where she breaks the poor guy, by exploiting his childhood trauma and getting him to doubt his own instincts. After she promises him she won't keep any secrets anymore, Wes decides to believe her.

At the same time, Frank takes Rebecca's body over from Bruno, and the moment Annalise leaves Wes's apartment, she calls Frank to ask him if he's done burying Rebecca's body. Brrr, Annalise is stone cold.

Wes & Annalise I really need to talk about the fight between Wes and Annalise. Annalise has been on a roll this season with manipulating people, but she reaches a new extreme in her scene with Wes.

The manipulation in that scene was absolutely disgusting. I've made a slightly disturbing puppy metaphor in my 1x10 blog, where I said that the moment Wes killed Sam and saw Annalise at the house, she put a leash on her puppy. Well, she pulled it taut in this episode, and has Wes back under her control. Feeling creeped out? I am, by that entire scene, to be honest.

There was so much manipulation happening in this scene:

Gaslighting: Annalise keeps insisting all she knows about Rebecca's disappearance is that she ran away.

Guilt-tripping: She exploits Wes's trauma by making him believe that his childhood trauma and resulting fear of abandonment are the reasons he can't trust people. His mother and Rebecca left him, so now he can't trust Annalise either.

Physical touch: She tries to cup his cheeks, which usually works creepily well to get his attention. Maybe Wes knows it, too, because he pushes her hands away before she can cup his cheeks and actually steps away from her, in a desperate attempt to set a boundary.

More guilt-tripping and some love-bombing: Annalise tells him that even though he's destroying their relationship, she's here for him and will never leave him.

False promise: To seal the deal, she goes along with Wes's demand for honesty, and tells him, "You're right, no more secrets," and then immediately continues lying to him...

Wes tries to fight Annalise's manipulation, and clearly tells her to stop as she's basically ripping open that old wound. Annalise just keeps going. Wes is usually the type of person who walks away when he gets angry, so to see him lose his temper is a first (can't blame him though).

Wes: You're NOTHING like her! She gave up everything for me. Her entire life to bring me to the States. And it killed her. You never did anything like that for anyone. Instead, you just lie and --

I wonder how Wes sees Annalise, seeing how he seems to be putting her on the same level as his mother in this instance. Annalise started when she brought up his mother, but still. Also, was Wes right about Annalise not giving up anything for anyone? She has been protecting Wes, but she also told him she just did it to protect herself.

I think he has a point, because Annalise is pretty self-serving and will throw people under the bus (like Bonnie in this episode) as long as it means staying safe. Meanwhile, Rose sacrificed her own life for Wes. Literally.

Anyway, that final guilt-trip and love-bombing did the job. The moment she tells him, "And the worst part about this is that it's destroying us," the cracks start to show, and when she tells him, "But I'm here for you, Wes, all right? I'm never leaving you," he starts crying. Wes has no one at this point but Annalise, so when she gives him the choice between believing his (correct!) instincts about Rebecca or believing her, he basically surrenders and chooses Annalise.

Their fight gave us some crucial background on Wes. Annalise is right when she points out that Wes struggles with abandonment trauma and trust issues: He doesn't really open up to people because he's scared they'll eventually leave him again. Even when he does let someone in, like Rebecca or Annalise, he starts pushing them away the moment he starts suspecting that they will leave him. He did it with Rebecca in 1x12, with Annalise in 2x01, and he'll do the same with Laurel in 3x09 after Sandrine tells him that Laurel will break his heart.

On an even darker note, I suspect that this fight marks the start of Wes's suicidal ideation. Wes has buried that trauma of his mother's suicide deep within him; the one time we see him bring it up on his own (in 1x07 to Rebecca), he's barely able to talk about it and almost immediately changes the topic again. But now Annalise not only digs up his childhood trauma, but she throws it back in his face to make him feel guilty about not trusting her. It's honestly sickening.

In a scene in S5, Annalise yells at Nate that he has no right to mess with other people's trauma, but that's exactly what Annalise is doing here with Wes. She manipulates a lot, but this might be one of the most intense and damaging manipulations she has ever done. Wes just looked broken at the end of that scene...

Some meta-analysis of their trauma bond I honestly don't understand people who are on team Annalise, she has been so incredibly abusive this season. She has been verbally abusive with Bonnie and Frank from the start, has been dismissive of Laurel, betrays Asher and Bonnie, blackmails Connor, frames Nate, and somewhat sexually harasses Michaela with the boob-comment...

What she's doing to Wes might even be worse, though. With the others, they all know (except for Asher maybe) that Annalise is manipulative and abusive. Annalise manipulates Wes more than anyone on the show, but because it's hidden under a layer of affection, it goes unnoticed by both viewers and Wes.

Their dynamic really screams "trauma bond" to me: Annalise hurts him through constantly lying to him, but he can't fully pull away because she's also the one who protects him and cares about him. As for Annalise, she needs people to need her, so as Wes grows more and more dependent on her, she will also need him more. She genuinely cares about him, but she also knows exactly how to "handle" him.

In my 2x02 blog, I mentioned that there's a cycle of punishments and rewards going through many of their scenes. In 2x01, Wes was pushing her away, so Annalise pulled him back through manipulation and affection. In 2x02 and 2x03, things are good between them, and Wes is getting a bit more loyal. Until he realizes at the end of 2x03 that Annalise lied to him about Rebecca, so he pushes her away again, until Annalise pulls him even closer in 2x06 through another cycle of punishment and rewards.

Wes and Annalise's relationship is not a sweet mother/son bond, and it's definitely not two people sexually attracted to each other. It's a 50-something-year-old woman who lost her child and feels guilty over something she did to this 21-year-old orphan in the past, so she selfishly tries to place him in the role of her son, even though he never asked for it. I know this is a very dark take, but there are a lot of grooming-like patterns in their relationship. She's teaching him that she's protecting him, so if he stays loyal, she'll give him the love and affection he desperately craves. Wes is her little puppy, who she's basically holding on a very tight leash.

People often call Wes the reason why the students are in this mess (something even Wes himself is kinda brainwashed into believing), but I can't see Wes as anything other than a victim.

The Keating Five I think that one of the reasons why Wes is so susceptible to Annalise's manipulation, is because he has been pretty isolated from the start. In this episode in particular, everyone is annoyed with him for his obsession with finding out what happened to Rebecca. Even Laurel is annoyed when she sees him trying to call someone.

Laurel: Is that your bestie Levi? How's jail treating him? Wes: I can take crap from Connor and Michaela, fine, but you know I'm not crazy.

And he's right, because then Laurel admits she combed through Frank's apartment. Michaela, however, is still furious with Wes. Usually, Connor is the one giving Wes crap, but he's surprisingly quiet while Michaela goes all out:

Michaela: Or [Frank] is saving it [the money] to hire a hit man to kill Wes for letting me sleep with a drug dealer. Michaela: Did your mother drop you on your head as a baby? Because we get it. You're sad your little girlfriend flaked out on you. Wes: You mean got killed. Michaela: No. That's the tall tale your little weenie brain made up, so do whatever you have to do to silence the lambs or I will serial kill you. Michaela: I'm adopted, and no we're not talking about it, but yes, it means I have personal feelings about this issue, which I would consider putting aside if I didn't know this was just Wes and his crazy. Wes: How is this about me? Michaela: Because everything wrong about our lives is about you. You continue to be paranoid and make us all paranoid.

How was this about Wes? He wasn't the only one supporting the birth parents' angle in the Hapstall case, but I think Michaela was just so angry with him for hiding Levi's real identity, that she took all of her frustrations out on him. She does make a point about Wes being paranoid, even though Wes has plenty of reasons to, and I suspect it's actually hypervigilance, a symptom of (complex) PTSD. Wes and Michaela are my favorites, so I wish they had some more positive interactions throughout the show...

By the way, even viewers tended to find Wes's obsession annoying, but was it? Wes just wants to find out what happened to his girlfriend, like anyone would if a loved one is missing and likely dead. In this episode in particular, he knows Annalise and Frank are working against him, so he's desperately grabbing for straws while he's being ostracized by everyone else. But I guess since we as viewers already know the truth, it might come across as annoying to many viewers.

Meanwhile, Asher rejoins the team now that the Sinclair-thing is solved. Heh, I loved this interaction:

Asher: Sorry I had to go all Jason Bourne on you guys, but, uh, your heads would literally kerplode if you knew about all the crap going on in this house. Laurel: Really? You can't tell us anything? Asher: No, not a peep. Connor: Good, I don't want to know anything that could get me into trouble. Michaela: Seriously, don't tell us anything. Asher: I-I mean, I won't. You know, AK really wants to keep this genie in a bottle, so... it's that intense.

He thinks he knows everything now, but he's still the most clueless one in the house.

Oh, by the way, I mentioned before how Michaela has a tendency to date guys that Connor has either been involved with, or recommended to her. It's happening again in this episode:

Connor: That is an ass that you could rest a drink on. Hey, you're a single lady again. You could hit that [Caleb]. Michaela: The last time I "hit that" with a guy you suggested, he turned out to have three drug arrest warrants on him.

The irony... Levi may have been a drug dealer, but Caleb is a serial killer. Connor is truly the worst wingman ever (he also urges Michaela to date Asher and Gabriel, who are also murderers).

Relationships The romantic relationships are still slowly progressing, although some of them kinda exploded at the end of the episode:

Michaela: She connects with Caleb over their shared positive views of birthparents who are unable to look after their own children. Later, Caleb hits a bit on Michaela when she apologizes for the recording, and he asks if it's true that she's single now.

Coliver: Oliver has made a list of things Connor could go to jail for, but Connor downplays it and says it actually wasn't that bad. When a thrill-seeking Oliver tells him he also did something bad and hacked into Philip's computer, Connor feels guilty and tells Oliver that he shouldn't have gotten Oliver involved.

Flaurel: They are still making out, but Laurel starts having her doubts about his involvement with Rebecca's disappearance. Frank realizes that the less he tells Laurel, the more she thinks he's bad, so she takes her to meet his incredibly warm and friendly family. It's such a stark contrast with Laurel's own family.

Bosher: Things are good between them. Now that Annalise has promised to fix everything, Asher apologizes to Bonnie for what he thinks Sam did to her, while Bonnie believes that she's the reason Asher isn't testifying anymore. But then Sinclair drops a Tiffany bomb on Bonnie.

Nate & Nia's death Nate is just done with Annalise. She visits him twice after hearing from Frank that Nia passed away, but the second time, Nate tells her that no one will ever love her like he loved Nia. Annalise genuinely seemed hurt, but I honestly think Nate has a point, because she's just so incredibly manipulative and abusive, even to the people she cares about.

Random thoughts I just want to point out that Wes knows a lot about Nate and Nia. He knows that Nia was in the hospital, he knows that she died, he knows that Nate is furious with Annalise while Annalise is hurt, and he might've overheard Nate telling Annalise that he was the one who gave Nia pills. This is important as it comes back in the next two episodes.

Annalise is annoyed with her client for asking a student to lie for her... but Annalise in a way did the same when she told Wes to lie about her involvement in Sam's murder.

About Sam's murder, Annalise got her client off on self-defense relatively easily. Why didn't she just try to do the same with the students? I mean, an autopsy would've showed that Sam was drunk, there were plenty of eye-witnesses who saw that he was strangling Rebecca, there was enough evidence tying Sam to Lila's murder...

Annalise and her client Jill had an interesting conversation about their abusive dead husbands:

Jill: A good person would cry for him right now, grieve. But I can't. I let him win for far too long. And I believed him when he said he was the only one who could ever love me. I'm so glad he's dead, Annalise. Annalise: I'm glad Sam's dead, too. He wasn't the man everyone thought he was, either. But I stayed. Who the hell knows why?

I wonder if Annalise also feels gratitude towards Wes. He 'freed' her from her toxic marriage to Sam... At the same time, Annalise kinda empathizes with her client over the love-bombing by their abusive husbands, but at the end of the episode, Annalise love-bombs Wes by making him feel as if everyone is abandoning him, but she's the one who will stay (or am I reaching now?). Wes believes her. Stays. Because she's all he has left. Just like how Annalise stayed with Sam.

Frank is such a hypocrite, btw. He tells Laurel, "It's one thing for Wes to think I'm capable of killing a girl. But it's not cool when it comes from you." Wes's instincts were spot-on, though. He just had the wrong girl in mind.

I don't really get why Michaela is so positive about birth parents and the idea of adoption, seeing her adoptive home was abusive, and in S5 she tells Laurel that her birth father shot her mother in front of her when she was 2... That might've been retconned a bit, I think.

The irony when Wes walks up the stairs while the song goes: "Murderer. Man of fire." Yeah, Wes killed someone... and shortly after Wes is killed, his body is basically set on fire...

Final thoughts This episode neatly wrapped up the Rebecca plot (for now), and set events in motion regarding the Hapstall case and the Trotter Lake plot, which will all come back in the mid-season finale. It was not my favorite episode, but I liked how both Wes and Michaela took the spotlight this episode.

Rating: 8/10

[dana-watches-htgawm]

HTGAWM rewatch blog "It's Time to Move On" (2x01)

At the start of the episode, Annalise asks her students, "Why are we more inclined to hurt the ones we love the most?" which honestly could be the tagline for this season or this show in general. In this fantastic episode, it's Wes who's been hurt by Rebecca and Annalise, Wes who is hurting Annalise (figuratively, but also literally in the flashforward as we know on a rewatch), Bonnie hurt Annalise, Annalise hurt Eve and Nate...

Anyway, this episode started off the new season with a banger.

Sam's murder/Nate's trial Last season, we ended with Nate calling the number of a lawyer Annalise handed him in prison, after she framed him for Sam. Eve visits Annalise after Nate called her, but Eve has no idea why Annalise would give Nate her number without even reaching out. She suspects Annalise and Nate killed Sam together, so Annalise desperately tries to convince Eve that Nate is innocent.

When Eve talks to Nate, he's uncooperative and tells Eve that Annalise framed him, so Eve refuses to take the case. Nate calls Annalise to tell her he might go down for Sam, but he's gonna make sure he'll take Annalise down with him. Annalise, desperate to fix everything, stops Eve at her hotel lobby, but Eve confronts Annalise with framing Nate and tells her that she's not going to let her ruin her like she ruined Nate.

Annalise later shows up crying at Eve's doorstep to tell her she's right, she ruins people. Nate, Eve, Bonnie (but more on that later)... Annalise admits that Nate was telling the truth and she did frame him, not because she killed Sam, but because she's protecting the person who did. Eve softens up and starts comforting Annalise. In the end, she takes on Nate's case.

In court, Eve convinces the judge to go along with the last-minute change, despite A.D.A. Emily Sinclair's protests. Sinclair then approaches Asher and blackmails him into telling her that Eve visited Annalise at the house.

A bit more on Annalise & Eve In this episode, we learn that Annalise is bisexual and used to have a relationship with former Harvard classmate Eve Rothlo, but they have a complicated past. Annalise hurt Eve when she left her for Sam, to which Eve ends up admitting she hasn't stopped thinking about her even now. On a rewatch, we also know that after Rose committed suicide 10 years ago and Annalise got into her car accident as a result of trying to warn the FBI to protect Christophe/Wes, they haven't seen each other, and Annalise has been avoiding Eve.

I like the chemistry between them, and out of Annalise's love interests, they are the ones who I found the most believable and engaging to watch. Chemistry is subjective, and for me their scenes aren't as electric as Wes and Annalise's scenes (although that's incredibly hard to top), but they would definitely rank in my top 5 of characters with great chemistry on this show.

We also know that Eve is very special to Annalise, because we see a rare moment of Annalise showing vulnerability and actually opening up to someone. Annalise doesn't trust people, but she seems to trust Eve enough to seek her out when she's struggling and confide in her. That's incredibly rare for Annalise; the only other people she does this with are Ophelia and Wes.

Rebecca's murder It's been ten days since Annalise and Frank found Rebecca's body in the basement. Annalise told Frank to get rid of it and handed him an old suitcase of Sam to hide Rebecca's body in... Annalise may not have killed people, but she's far from innocent...

The students have no idea Rebecca is dead, but Wes, who is acting out in class and pushing everyone away, seems to suspect it because he's looking for Jane Does on his laptop. Laurel also has a hunch that Rebecca is dead. Connor thinks Wes is the one who let Rebecca go. Michaela is more concerned about Eggs 911, the text Rebecca sent from Michaela's phone. Michaela wants to change her number, but Frank tells her not to, and in the end, Michaela ends up reaching out to the mystery person.

Meanwhile, Frank and Annalise try to find out who's behind Rebecca's murder. Frank is convinced that it's Wes, and even clones Wes's computer to prove it. Annalise is suspicious of Frank's attempts to pin it on Wes, but also has her doubts about Wes's innocence. So they set up a "puppy trap": Annalise gives Wes a fake address of a motel Rebecca would be staying at to see if he would go there. Wes doesn't check it out, so Frank is even more convinced Wes is behind it.

Annalise ends up inviting Wes for dinner, where Wes confronts her with lying about Rebecca's whereabouts, and ultimately Annalise gets Wes to open up about feeling betrayed and abandoned by Rebecca.

Annalise: Do you want to find her? Wes: Of course, but I'm not pathetic. She ran away, after I told her I believed her and after everything I did for her... Sam. And she still didn't trust me. Instead, she chose to run away. I have to respect that decision. I'll get over her soon... I promise.

Oh puppy :(. Annalise seems convinced and apologizes for not trusting him. I wonder how strategic that was, because moments before that, Wes admits how hurt he feels because Rebecca didn't trust him. It works: Wes immediately apologizes for being mean in class. I'll take a bit more meta about Wes and Annalise later because there's a lot to unpack in this episode.

After Laurel visits Frank to share her suspicions that Rebecca is dead, Frank then suspects Laurel. So Frank tells Annalise and goes on and on about how it would make sense for it to be Laurel because of her messed-up childhood, which is when Annalise realizes it was actually Bonnie. Annalise confronts Bonnie and yells at her that she's a monster now.

We need to talk about Bonnie From season 2 onwards, we start to see this pattern where every season or season-half tends to have a few spotlight characters. In season 2A, these characters are Bonnie and Asher. Bonnie gets some much-needed character development in this episode.

We get a bit more insight into Bonnie's past when Frank suspects that Laurel is behind Rebecca's murder, and tells Annalise the following:

It's like you say -- it's always the ones you least suspect, you know, the quiet ones. It makes sense with her background, too. Her father -- you don't grow up to be normal when that's who raises you. No, you become messed up.

This quote fits both Laurel and Bonnie extremely well, especially in hindsight (although I still wish we had gotten to know a bit more about Laurel's upbringing around Jorge). Bonnie later tells Rebecca in the flashback that the "worst things" happened to her.

Bonnie is such a hypocrite, though. She tells Laurel, "I didn't make this mess, so don't you dare include me in it." But she left Rebecca's body in Annalise's basement for Annalise and Frank to deal with it, and later she tells Annalise that everything is Rebecca's fault.

Bonnie also tells Rebecca, "I grew up, stopped playing the victim. And I definitely don't keep the cycle going. Hurt people, because they hurt me... Kill a girl." And then she proceeds to kill a girl. I just can't... I love Liza Weil, but Bonnie is by far my least favorite character on the show.

I sometimes see people on Reddit saying Bonnie deserved happiness, but what she did in this episode is seriously messed up. She goes to the basement to give Rebecca some water, makes some small talk and connects with Rebecca. Rebecca literally tells her she won't tell anyone, and then Bonnie just kills her in cold blood and never shows any remorse for it. Not when Annalise confronts her in this episode, not when the D.A.'s office suspects Annalise is behind Rebecca's murder in S3, not when the FBI thinks Annalise is behind Rebecca's murder in S6... Oh no, jumping a bit to S3, but in Bonnie's eyes, Wes and Rebecca are behind everything bad that happened, and Wes is a murderer (who even goes down for her crime!).

I'm sorry, but I really can't stand her. Bonnie might've had a messed-up past and killed Rebecca to protect Annalise, but trauma is no excuse for murder, and I never understood why Bonnie never even suggested turning herself in for Rebecca if she's truly 'ride-or-die' for Annalise.

I also see people on Reddit sometimes call Wes ungrateful or claim that he constantly blames Annalise, and I just don't get it. Wes is constantly beating himself up over killing Sam, blames himself for everything, and is willing to turn himself in to protect Annalise. Meanwhile, Bonnie blames Wes and Rebecca, tells Annalise that she wants her to die, tries to sabotage Annalise's class action suit, and not even once shows any remorse for killing Rebecca.

When Bonnie makes stupid decisions, it's because of her trauma, so all is forgiven. But when Wes makes stupid decisions, he should've known better despite his trauma, so he gets hate. Make it make sense... Bonnie tells Rebecca, "Bad things happened to me, too. The worst things. The difference is, I don't use them as an excuse." But fans of the show clearly do.

Annalise tells her, "You're the one sick enough to do this," and truer words have never been spoken. But Bonnie still shows not a single ounce of remorse. Nope, she says she did it for Annalise, and that she knows that Annalise would've done the same for Bonnie... Would she? I'm usually not a big Annalise defender, but Annalise has never killed anyone. Annalise yells at Bonnie that she killed Rebecca for Sam, and that she's just as bad as him.

I'm not sure if Bonnie killed Rebecca for Sam, but there's a running tread throughout the show of abused people becoming abusers, and that's something we see in Sam, Annalise, and now also in Bonnie. Maybe Bonnie's intentions were out of loyalty, but she still killed an innocent girl.

Anyway, that was my Bonnie-rant.

Keating Five Things are tense between them. Connor and Michaela get along, but Michaela is still angry with Laurel for stealing her engagement ring, so Laurel tries to get Michaela to forgive her. Asher is detached from the group and feels like an idiot when Connor and Michaela tease him about seeing Bonnie (something they overheard Asher say in 1x15, and Asher accidentally admits it in this episode). Wes is acting indifferent and is kind of isolating himself.

What they are up to in this episode:

Connor: He is on prep because of Oliver's HIV diagnosis, so he thinks it's fine to be intimate with Oliver. Oliver is afraid he's still putting Connor at risk, though, so he wants to wait until Connor's prep has fully kicked in. To show Oliver how committed he is, Connor decides to move in with him.

Michaela: She's angry with Laurel for stealing her ring, worried about Eggs 911, and looking for a new boyfriend. She tries to hit on someone in a bar, but he turns out to be gay. She then makes a dating profile in an attempt to find a new boyfriend, and ends up texting Eggs 911.

Asher: He shows up late for work and is distracted. Bonnie invites him over to his place, but Asher comes up with an excuse and walks away. He's distant because Sinclair is blackmailing him: either he gives her intel on Eve, who just took on Nate's case, or she'll out what happened at Trotter Lake.

Laurel: She tries to get the latest intel on Rebecca from Bonnie and Frank, but Bonnie refuses to tell her anything, and Frank suspects Laurel's behind Rebecca's murder when she shares her suspicions that Rebecca is dead.

Btw, Laurel starts to show a different side of herself in this episode. We got to know her in season 1 as the most level-headed and rational one of the group. In this episode, Frank brings up her father and how that must've impacted Laurel's psyche growing up. Laurel's cunning and manipulative character come through when she confronts Bonnie about being out of the loop regarding Rebecca, since Annalise only talks to Frank. She also shows she's good at deceiving people when she pretends to be a worker at a spa that Helena Hapstall visited and has video footage for the defense.

Michaela calls Laurel a "sociopath who steals engagement rings," I wonder if there's some truth to that. It's at least not the last time Laurel's called a sociopath.

Wes & Annalise Season premieres tend to be very Wes/Annalise-centric, so this episode had a lot of interactions between them. The combination of their scenes is somewhat unhinged: in class and in Annalise's office, their role is more professor/teacher-like, except that Wes is defying her openly (and gets away with it). In the kitchen, it's more maternal. In the club, it starts maternal but later shifts to somewhat sexual. As usual, their scenes are unsettling and electric at the same time.

Wes isn't doing too well after Rebecca's disappearance. He's acting out in class, isolating himself from the group, and looking for Jane Does. Turns out, he's feeling hurt and betrayed by Rebecca's 'disappearance'. Annalise sees through it and gets him to open up.

I feel sad for Wes in this episode. It's not uncommon for people with a fear of abandonment to push people away when they get the smallest suspicion someone might leave them, which is exactly what Wes is doing here with Annalise, I think. Wes has incredibly sharp instincts, and based on that classroom scene, I wouldn't be surprised if he picked up on Annalise's suspicions about his role in Rebecca's disappearance and went "attack dog" on her because of it. Annalise doesn't trust him, and for Wes, that might have caused him to think that she might leave him, too.

Annalise is the only meaningful connection Wes has besides Rebecca. (He's friendly with Laurel, but he doesn't really open up to Laurel in the way he did with Rebecca or Annalise). So Wes, still hurt from feeling abandoned by Rebecca, starts to push Annalise away before she can ultimately abandon him, too. This actually reminds me of a quote by Isaac Roa in 4x06:

Some people who've experienced immense loss develop a defense to more loss. It's an instinct to push people away before they leave us.

Isaac was talking about Annalise, but I think it also perfectly fits Wes here. Wes and Annalise tend to deal with trauma in similar ways: they both lost people, so they are scared of being alone and are desperate to save people they care about. But they also tend to isolate themselves when they are not doing okay (although they often seek each other out, probably because they see and understand each other on a level others don't).

Maybe Wes is also testing Annalise: trying to be as mean and distant as possible to see if she really cares.

Either way, Annalise sees right through him. She's so good at reading people, especially Wes. She knows he's alone, she knows about his mother, so when she tells him, "You can tell me anything, I'll protect you, always," she also knows that that's exactly what Wes needs to hear. It works like a charm: Wes opens up to her about feeling hurt and abandoned by Rebecca, and apologizes for his behavior in class.

Wes responds to Annalise's affection and physical touch, stronger than any other character on the show, and it's often emphasized through the editing. Annalise knows that Wes just wants someone to love him, so while she genuinely cares about him, she also uses it very strategically. It's something that'll happen a few more times in the first part of season 2, and every time Wes grows closer and more protective of her as a result. Which is also very characteristic of a trauma bond and Stockholm Syndrome, as far as I'm aware.

Btw, this episode has a disturbing amount of hinting at a Wesalise hookup:

Annalise is cooking for Wes and offers him wine. That in itself is odd, but the fact that Wes even agreed to have dinner with her despite his annoyance shows that there's something mutual about it. Annalise initiates odd situations, but Wes goes along with them.

In that moment on the dance floor, the sexual tension between them is through the roof. Annalise asking him to dance, cupping his face, holding hands, her hands gliding over his chest, and Wes enjoying it... Meanwhile, the others are dancing right next to him, but Wes and Annalise are so lost in their own little bubble that they just don't care. That moment gives me chills every single time... I want to look away, but at the same time, it's magnetic.

Oh, and am I the only one who noticed that the way in which Eve cups Annalise's face is almost identical to how Annalise cups Wes's face shortly after, when she's telling him to stop beating himself up?

And let's not forget about the parallels in Annalise's monologue at the start and end of the episode about your killer often being your lover, with a focus on Wes's face when the voiceover is about Rebecca, and we see Wes running away from the Hapstall mansion when the voiceover is about Annalise.

I don't think the writers ever intended for Wes and Annalise to hook up, though. My theory on why they often wrote scenes filled with sexual tension and shipped them in the subtext of the show was to emphasize how unhealthy and boundary-blurring their relationship is (which is once again typical for a trauma bond).

Hapstall case There was no case of the week in this episode, instead we were introduced to another season-long case: the case of Caleb and Catherine Hapstall, who are accused of murdering their adoptive parents.

Annalise has no clients since her reputation had taken a hit after Sam's murder, so when she sees the Hapstall case on the news, she decides to make their lawyer screw up to steal the case. Oliver obtains surveillance footage of Caleb and Catherine's aunt Helena Hapstall at a spa, so Laurel manipulates it to make it look like it was this year, and hands it to the lawyers. Turns out the footage was from a year earlier, so Caleb and Catherine fire their lawyer and hire Annalise. Catherine tells Annalise that someone is framing them.

At the end of the episode, Helena Hapstall is murdered, and since she testified in court that she saw Caleb and Catherine flee the scene of their adoptive parents' murder, it adds to their motive.

The flashforward to the season mystery About that flashforward at the end of the episode... Since this is a rewatch blog, I don't really feel like dissecting every flashforward because I already know what's going to happen in the midseason finale. The flashforward of this particular episode did nicely set up the season mystery, though: Annalise bleeding out on the floor of the Hapstall mansion and Wes running away, with the implication that he shot her.

Random thoughts and observations There's a notable shift in the show compared to season 1. First, flashforwards are fewer, and give a piece of the puzzle instead of some character background. Second, this season is incredibly Annalise-centric (with Wes as secondary lead and a few spotlight characters), while season 1 felt more balanced between Annalise and Wes, with the other students also getting a decent amount of screentime. I get that Annalise is the main character and Viola won an Emmy for her performance on the show, but especially on a rewatch, I wish others would get some more focus as well (there's still so much we don't know about Laurel's past, or even Connor's, by the end of the series).

I really loved the Lila Stangard case last season because both Annalise and Wes had personal stakes in it, which is something I find lacking with the Hapstall case. I do like the idea of a season-long case (and season 4 did it right again with Annalise's class action suit), but the Hapstall case is messy and lacked the fun twists that Lila's case had. I love season 2, but this is probably the weak spot of the season (especially knowing how it gets resolved).

Some other random thoughts:

Eve says some interesting things to Annalise when they fight in Eve's hotel lobby. "I'm not letting you ruin me the way you ruined him." That's another recurring theme: Annalise saying she ruins people.

I loved the parallels with the pilot episode: Wes on his bike, Annalise calling on Wes in class and Wes not answering, Wes studying alone in his room, Annalise rubbing Wes's chest... The writers love their Wes & Annalise parallels, and this episode was full of them.

The classroom scene about police immediately suspecting a loved one was great, especially in how it mirrored Annalise's suspicions of Wes.

I love that Connor has an Annalise ringtone xD

I also love that Annalise takes the students with her to a club. That was such a random and fun little montage.

Anyway, this was a banger of an episode and a fantastic way to start the new season :)

Rating: 10/10

[dana-watches-htgawm]

HTGAWM rewatch blog "Meet Bonnie" (2x05)

This episode didn't feature a case of the week, but revolved around the two prominent storylines that ran through the first four episodes: Sinclair blackmailing Asher, and Wes and Levi's quest to find out what happened to Rebecca.

Trotter Lake Bonnie had confessed to Asher that she killed Sam, because Sam was trying to rape her and she was defending herself. So during a closed meeting to place a wiretap on Annalise's house, Asher storms out just as Sinclair calls him onto the stand.

Annalise is furious with Bonnie for telling Asher that lie, but when Asher confronts Annalise, she goes along with it:

Annalise: You have two options. Testify to everything that you know, and Bonnie and me will likely go to jail. Or you say nothing, and we stay safe, and so do you.

"And so do you"... Is that a threat? Asher needs time to think about it. Back at the courthouse, he tries to stall by telling Sinclair he knows who killed Sam, so they have to rework his immunity deal to include Sam's murder, besides Annalise's professional illegal misconduct.

After Sinclair presents Asher with a new deal, he warns his dad about Annalise coming after him for the David Allen case, but Judge Millstone denies doing anything wrong. Asher realizes his dad also got an immunity deal and is protecting himself more than Asher, so he storms out again.

Sinclair meets up with Asher in a bar and also presents him with a choice: be like Annalise, or be a good guy. Bonnie later meets Asher in the same bar, and tries to convince him not to testify by telling him she's a good person who made a mistake. But Asher tells her that good people don't do what she did, and he has made up his mind about testifying.

Is there some subtle foreshadowing? Asher decides to be a "good person" by turning Bonnie in, but in a few episodes, he'll end up running over Sinclair, meaning he's not a good person anymore in his own words. And about the secrets catching up to him... Trotter Lake has caught up to him, and Asher running over Sinclair will catch up to him in season 6, too.

Anyway. Bonnie, desperate, calls Annalise and tells her to just pin Sam's murder on her. Annalise isn't about to let Bonnie go down for Sam, so she shows up at Asher's doorstep and shows him tapes of how Bonnie was sexually abused by her father in her childhood. Which is absolutely disgusting, the fact that Bonnie was abused like that, but also that Annalise shows Asher the tapes.

On this rewatch, I realized that Bonnie's description of how Sam came onto her might've really happened to her, except that it wasn't Sam, but one of the many men who sexually abused her in the past...

Rebecca's murder & Eggs 911 Wes is still working with Levi to figure out what happened to Rebecca, but Annalise knows Wes is getting closer to the truth after she saw him with Nate in the hospital parking lot last episode.

So Frank got Wes's phone records, and found out he's been calling Rebecca's foster brother, and also that Levi has been calling Michaela. Annalise is not pleased, so she tells Frank to keep them away from Levi.

In an attempt to get Nate to talk, she tries to manipulate him by telling him about the pills Nia requested in 2x04, and that she's telling him because she's hoping there won't be any more secrets between them (like I said in 2x04, she uses information like power). Her plan fails, though; Nate doesn't tell her anything.

Meanwhile, Levi is stalking Bruno at the cemetery. When Wes later meets up with Levi, Levi wants to confront Bruno and tells Wes, "Trust me. He won't figure out you know Frank." So Levi gets out of the car, and when Bruno asks him what this is about, Levi responds with "Frank Delfino". Heh, I love that. Wes doesn't.

When Levi pulls out a gun, Wes gets between them, gets Levi to put the gun away, and tells Bruno they'll leave if he tells them what Frank wanted from him on the night Rebecca disappeared. Bruno tells them that Frank wanted to use a storage locker, so Bruno gave him the key. Back at the house, Wes steals the key after Frank very deliberately placed it on the desk. I keep saying how Wes's instincts are excellent, but I think he was so stuck in a tunnel that he couldn't see that this was way too obvious.

After Annalise's attempt to get Nate to talk failed, she tries again with Wes. In her office, she tries to make some small talk and asks him if they are okay. Wes lies that nothing is wrong (I'll talk more about them later). Meanwhile, after Annalise asked Wes into her office, Laurel suspects that Wes knows what is going on with Asher. She was wrong, but Wes does know a lot more about Rebecca's disappearance and has been hiding that, so in a sense, she was also right.

So when Wes leaves the house to give the key to Levi, the others follow him, leading to a pretty awesome confrontation. Wes tells them that Levi is Rebecca's foster brother/Eggs 911, that Rebecca is dead, and that they have a key to a storage locker with possibly Rebecca's body in it. Shortly after, the police show up, and Levi is arrested for drug possession (because Frank planted meth in his car).

The students drive to the storage locker and find a suitcase (I love the music in that scene, btw). Wes opens it, but instead of Rebecca's body, they just find a lot of cash, placed there earlier that day by Frank. Wes can't believe it and suspects it's a set-up, but Laurel and the others don't want to hear any of it. So just like that, Wes is on his own.

Annalise and Wes/Nate Of course, I have to talk a bit more about Annalise and Wes, because let's be honest, the entire show revolves around their dynamic.

Levi is convinced Annalise is behind Rebecca's murder. Does Wes? I'm not entirely sure. Nate tells Annalise that Wes came to him because he thinks she killed Rebecca, but we never hear Wes say this out loud (in 2x06 he just accuses Annalise of knowing more about Rebecca's disappearance).

I think Wes is conflicted. He seems to think that Frank killed Rebecca, and he also knows Annalise is somehow involved. But on the other hand, Annalise has protected him, and she has really been there for him. Wes obviously wants to know what happened to Rebecca, but I think a part of him doesn't want to lose Annalise, which might be why he is holding back on confronting her directly. Or maybe he doesn't tell her because he knows she might interfere.

The Wes & Annalise scene was interesting as usual (or at least to me). Annalise asks him, "So, are you... feeling okay? About us, our relationship?" Which is just such an odd thing to ask a student. Seriously, that line gives me chills. But not Wes. No, he responds normally. Like I said, I think that Annalise means a lot to him, too, so he doesn't know how to feel now that he knows she has something to do with Rebecca's murder.

I think that a lot in this scene is said in what isn't spoken out loud. Wes tells her everything is fine, but he seems annoyed, at least at first. But when he lies about not being mad anymore because she finally told him about Asher, he seems sad, guilty even for lying to her, and is unable to keep looking at her.

Wes obviously means a lot to Annalise, which gets increasingly clear as the episodes go on. Annalise is hurt and upset when Wes lies to her. Michaela also points out that "he's the only one she really trusts." It's that obvious to everyone. Connor already noted it in 1x11, when he was sure Annalise would've at least told Wes about Hannah being in town.

I wonder what Nate was thinking when Annalise barged into his apartment, almost deranged, and demanded:

Annalise: I can't do this anymore. Why didn't you tell me about Wes? I saw you with him. And now he's lying to me, and I don't know if it's because you told him to or if it's because he doesn't trust me, but I can't take it, Nate. You're gonna tell me what's going on.

That was not normal, especially for someone like Annalise, who is usually a lot more put together. Nate has seen her emotional multiple times: when she came to him for comfort or help related to Sam, when she broke down in front of him because she knew Sam was lying to her (1x02), when she came to apologize to him in 2x03... But never as desperate as here. It's not even about her husband, which would make sense. No, it's about a student.

The Keating Five Orgy stuff I love the K5 (okay, K4) interactions in this episode. They know that Asher knows something about Sam, so Connor and Laurel are both up for drinking and an orgy, as the ship's about to go down anyway. Michaela is uninterested, and Wes is distracted.

Connor: Michaela, would you like to go to jail without having an orgasm? Michaela: Because you're gonna help me with that? Connor: I'm willing to give it a shot. Laurel: Back off. She's mine.

Love it. Wes gets up to leave, so Connor tells him he can't because they need another you-know-what in the mix. Wes dryly tells him to ask Frank.

Michaela: Ooh. If the beard is in, I might reconsider. Laurel: Excuse me? Michaela: All's fair in an orgy, right?

10/10 for this conversation xD. Also, I lowkey ship Laurel and Michaela.

Annalise once again manipulates the hell out of them Michaela is the most worried about getting arrested. Michaela, Laurel, and Connor accuse Bonnie of telling Asher that they killed Sam, so Annalise steps in for a change and protects Bonnie. She also once again manipulates the students:

Annalise: You want to know the truth? Asher was gonna testify against everyone in this house, so Bonnie told him that she killed Sam, in order to save your asses! Because that's what we do around here: ruin everyone's lives to save yours! Nate's, mine, and now Bonnie's. Who's next, huh? Whose life do you want to destroy to stay free? Michaela: Why didn't you just tell us? Annalise: Because I'm trying to protect you like always! When are you gonna finally accept that?

Eh, Connor and Michaela didn't want to stay free. They wanted to go to the police and confess, but Annalise stopped them to protect Wes, and most of all to protect herself... When is she finally gonna accept that? I'm sorry, I just can't with how Annalise constantly plays the victim, and especially how so many viewers actually fall for it.

Asher had no idea the other students were behind Sam, so Annalise is flat-out lying to them, telling them that Asher was gonna turn all of them in, and that Bonnie was protecting everyone. It's effective because now the students are all made to feel indebted to her and Bonnie.

Michaela later apologizes to Bonnie (while Connor and Laurel don't, might I add). Here's another reminder that Michaela has a lot more empathy than other members of the K5, especially Connor and Laurel.

Everyone is done with the puppy Laurel gets annoyed with Wes when she sees him sneaking off again, so he just flatly tells her he'll go get the orgy drugs... Oh Wes, he really stopped caring. When Annalise asks Wes into her office, Laurel thinks Wes knows about what's going on with Asher.

Love the students' reactions when they suspect Wes had been going behind their backs. Connor's "screw the puppy, he's a snake," is hard. Connor hasn't been the biggest fan of Wes because Connor blames everyone for everything, so Annalise brainwashed Wes into killing Sam, Rebecca is missing because of Wes, and now Wes is going behind their backs and lying to them.

Connor is also a bit of a hypocrite, though. He tells Wes, "Why would you keep this a secret from us?", but after realizing there is only money in the suitcase, he tells Wes, "Befriending a drug dealer and now this? Now, once again, Waitlist just drags us down the rabbit hole to hell." I get Connor's frustrations on the night of Sam's murder, but Michaela and Connor chose to get involved when Laurel noticed Wes spiraling over Rebecca in 1x14, and now the students again chose to follow Wes. Wes didn't ask for their help.

Btw, I loved how protective Connor was over Michaela. I also loved how Michaela placed her head against Connor's shoulder when Wes was about to open the suitcase. Love their friendship.

Laurel feels betrayed by Wes for not trusting her. Wes tries to tell her that the suitcase clearly has something to do with Rebecca, and "it is obviously--" We'll never find out what he tried to say, because Laurel cuts him off and tells him to stop. I think that Wes, with his sharp instincts, knew immediately it was a set-up.

Michaela is (rightfully) furious with Wes for letting her sleep with Eggs 911. Yeah, "jerk move" as Frank called it. Wes did tell Levi to back off from Michaela in 2x03-2x04, but when he realized Levi didn't listen, he didn't interfere anyway. (Also, poor Michaela, because in S5 the same happens when Laurel lets her date Gabriel, despite knowing who he is).

Romantic stuff Besides the orgy jokes, there were also some actual romantic developments in this episode.

Michaela really hasn't had the best luck in the romance department. She was still sexting with Levi at the start of the episode, but now that she knows who Levi is, she's done with that. She also still seems to be dealing with some Aiden scars...

Michaela: What the hell is this? Are you two gay for each other? Levi: No! [Also note the disgusted look on Wes's face XD] Michaela: I'll cut your balls off if you lie to me!

There is a bit of development with Caleb, though, who was upset after overhearing a tape of Helena Hapstall calling them all kinds of racist names. Caleb doesn't really care anymore, but he thanks Michaela for trying.

With Asher's testimony looming over his head, Connor confesses to Oliver that he might go to jail, but he can't tell Oliver why. Connor also tells Oliver that he means everything to him, and he loves him.

Connor isn't the only one who lets out the L-word.

Asher meets with Bonnie in her car to ask her a few questions. She also tells him that their hook-up was just her alibi, but that that was just how they started, and she feels different now. Later at the bar, Bonnie tells Asher that she loves him. He's a bit surprised, but says he loves her back.

Laurel just wants to screw Frank, now that they might go down. So they end up making out in the basement.

Annalise's manipulation and more cult implications Connor stopped caring after Annalise blackmailed him with his car last night. He knows he won't get fired anyway, so he tells the others:

Connor: Chill out, grab a beer, and accept the fact that our lives belong to her.

Yeah, Connor is still convinced he's stuck in a cult. There are more cult implications in what Sinclair tells Asher:

Sinclair: Maybe working in that house has messed with your head a bit, but people can't get away with killing each other. And definitely not if you're a woman responsible for educating an entire generation of law students. [...] You did a bad thing when you were younger. Who hasn't? But Annalise should know better at this point. And so should you.

I think Sinclair was right. About how working in that house has messed with his (and everyone's) head, how Annalise's influence on her students is huge, and how Annalise should know better.

We've already seen Annalise's influence on the students, but her influence on Bonnie is also huge. Bonnie tells her:

Bonnie: I deserve this, but you don't deserve any of this, so just -- just put it on me.

Annalise doesn't deserve any of this? The students aren't the only ones brainwashed... Though I doubt Bonnie knows the full extent of what went down leading up to Sam's murder. I don't think she knew Annalise tampered with evidence on Lila's phone, and I'm pretty sure Annalise never told Bonnie that she manipulated Wes into covering up Sam's body and gave him instructions.

Sinclair seemed to have gotten through to Asher, who later tells Annalise:

Asher: I think that you're responsible for a lot of this. If you let Bonnie call the cops and explain what happened, she wouldn't even be in this position!

So true, not only about Bonnie but also about the other students...

Annalise tells Nate that she's not a murderer, she tells him the 'truth' that Bonnie killed Sam, and that she hates herself for what she did to Nate. She tells Nate she doesn't want to be this person anymore and she wants to stop making people's lives worse.... but then 2x09 happens...

Hapstall case Sinclair had filed a motion to include Helena Hapstall's testimony in the trial, so the judge gives Annalise until 17:00 to raise any arguments against the motion. Helena Hapstall was the only eyewitness, so Annalise tells the students to comb through boxes of discovery in her basement to find proof that Helena Hapstall lied about seeing Caleb and Catherine flee the murder scene.

Michaela discovers a tape on which Helena Hapstall says some incredibly racist stuff about Caleb and Catherine. The footage seems to have been edited, so Michaela and Connor go to Oli for his hacking skills. Oli seems interested in working for Annalise, but Connor and Michaela both tell him he doesn't want to work for her.

Oliver gets his hands on the full footage, which includes audio that the police had forgotten to delete, in which Helena Haptall admits to being tired and that she was not sure if Catherine and Caleb killed their parents; she just heard something.

Annalise presents the evidence to the judge, but Sinclair points out that the footage was not in discovery. Annalise just says she found it on her desk. The judge doesn't believe Annalise, and says that studies show that witnesses in the midst of trauma often don't remember facts correctly at first. In the end, the judge rules that Helena Hapstall's testimony is allowed at trial.

Racism This episode had a few mentions of racism that were worth mentioning. The first one is when Annalise tells Asher that he can't understand that the law rarely takes a woman's side when she claims someone attempted to rape her, because he's a white male. Okay, maybe that's true. But then framing a black male for murder is also a bad thing.

Catherine yells at the jury that Helena Hapstall is a racist, so that's proof that she wanted the siblings to go down for it, and the judge, as a black woman, should get it. When Catherine tells Annalise that she knows she shouldn't have said it, Annalise said that someone had to, and Michaela also called it an appropriate explosion.

Random thoughts Annalise is a hypocrite...

Annalise: Men lie, Bonnie. It's all they're good at. Frank: She's right. Annalise: Of course I am

Says the pathological liar... Lol at Frank, who's also a pretty big liar, agreeing.

Love this brief exchange though:

Annalise: I caught Wes and Nate together last night. Frank: Screwing?

I also love this line by Asher when he talks to Sinclair:

Asher: What, you think the world's just gonna be full of Annalise mini-me's, that we're gonna be walking around killing people for fun?

Anyway. Our insomniac tells Annalise that he's sleeping better, probably a nod to 1x11 when he told her he was tired, and 2x03 when he came over to her house in the middle of the night. I appreciate how Wes and his sleep issues is an ongoing theme through the seasons, starting with 1x02 when he was still awake at like 4 a.m. prepping for a case. Wes still seems to be struggling with PTSD symptoms; even though his insomnia might've improved, he's still incredibly hypervigilant and on edge.

Wes tells Bonnie "bull" when she says it doesn't concern them what's going on with Asher. He once again has good instincts, but that was rude xD. I think Wes is just kinda done with the grown-ups. He knows Annalise and Frank had something to do with Rebecca's death and are hiding a lot of stuff from him. Maybe he suspects Bonnie is in on it, too? Or he's just on edge and is acting out a bit?

We've seen Annalise be incredibly abusive toward Bonnie, but this episode she actually shows a much more protective side... but also violates Bonnie's privacy behind Bonnie's back (to maybe save Bonnie and herself).

I'm not the biggest fan of Frank and Bonnie, but I loved Frank in this episode and I actually felt sorry for Bonnie. Oh, and Liza Weil gave such an amazing performance.

Final thoughts This was an exciting episode that had fun K5-scenes, another weird Wes/Annalise scene, and I loved Frank outsmarting the students.

Rating: 10/10