Following last week's incredible final scene and shocking final seconds, How To Get Away With Murder had a lot riding on last night's episode. The pressure was on to follow up well, and the episode did a pretty good job of that.Written by Tracey A. Bellomo and directed by Michael Listo, "We're Not Friends" weaved in more flashbacks than we've seen before, all heavily focused on Laurel, and with the procedural element also placing Karla Souza's character front and center.
Most other series would have leveraged the last nine words Annalise Keating uttered last week to really ramp things up, but this isn't what I wanted to see. That's something that made ABC's Scandal famous, but Murder's creative team know that consistently building the story is their best way to move forward and leverage last week's events. This episode was nothing spectacular, just rock solid and reliable.
That's not to say that the fallout from those last nine words wasn't explored. Sam and Annalise had a fight, with the former outlining his reasons for not revealing the affair he had with Lila Stangard earlier. But what interested me more is that Bonnie overheard said fight. What's happening here is Annalise's dirty secrets are being spread around her colleagues. Wes interrupting an intimate moment between Nate and Annalise in the series premiere is another such example. The foundation is clearly being laid for all this dirty laundry to suddenly end up in the same pile, where it gets mixed around, opening up the possibility of others hanging it out to dry.Laurel's character development was well timed but it did border on excessive. The timeshifted scenes were good, but weaving them in with present day scenes made them tricky to follow at times. The news of the day was that it was confirmed she slept with Frank at some point, but I strongly suspect her decision to answer her phone at the body disposal site will backfire at some point. Karla Souza's character has been very much reserved, preferring to sit back and scheme rather than stand up and shout. Souza grew a lot on me with her performance, with the role well suited to her style.
I was critical in last week's review of the lack of classroom scenes in the weeks prior. I'm glad this resolved itself, with ample time being spent in the classroom as jury selection and bias was discussed. Hopefully we see more of these scenes in the remaining 10 episodes. However, I want to commend the writers for giving us a case that ended in a mistrial as opposed to a verdict, which is something you see less often in shows with a legal spin than cats being herded successfully.
Also worth commending were the scenes between Wes and Rebecca, and later Rebecca and Sam. Rebecca continues to be my favorite character, with her and Wes interacting the most since the the latter conned his way into the cells to warn Rebecca about her then impending trial. It was Rebecca's turn to end the episode with another bombshell, revealing that the photo of Sam Keating was taken at his house, adding to the complexity of the affair that is looking increasingly likely to be what gives his killer probable cause.
Thanks as always for reading! Share your thoughts and theories on last night's episode of Murder in the comments below. Don't forget to track How To Get Away With Murder's ratings on my website, www.seriesmonitor.com/howtogetawaywithmurder. Next week's episode looks to be a blinder, if the promo is of any indication.
Jimmy
Great review!
ReplyDelete-I really enjoyed this episode, I loved how Annalise braced herself together after hearing the truth abt her husband's alibi, she didn't panic like last time, which means she figured out her next move.
-her husband lied again abt his affair, he left the crucial detail that he took laila on his marriage bed, and he might as well killed her there.
-Kate's story wasn't as strong as Connor's and Michaela's,but nonetheless: tolerable.
-The case was really simple, not much lefts and turns, and it made room for characters development.
-Rebecca proved to be as smart as anyone else, I really grew to like her too.
all in all, HTGAWM keeps proving why it's one of my favorite show in years.
Glad you liked the review! Especially agree with your thoughts on Rebecca. She's not one you can judge at face value. She's also much more articulate than she looks. Her background could be really interesting
ReplyDeleteYeah, Sam's hesitation before listing all the places he and Lila were intimate definitely told me something took place between them at his home-I had a feeling they slept together in the Keatings' bed, too. If that's the case, God help him when that not so little detail comes to light, if it ever does.
ReplyDeleteI liked the case this week mostly because of the issue of the police protecting their own. Unfortunately, that IS something that happens sometimes in domestic violence cases involving someone who's married to a person in law enforcement. Taking the law into one's own hands is generally not a good idea for so many reasons, but there's always moments like this where that issue can be very murky water to tread, so I like that they dealt with both sides of that debate.
Add me to the list of people who like Rebecca. She and Wes have some really good scenes together, and I'm interested to see where else things go with those two and their friendship (and possibly more, should things ever take that turn).
Nice review, Jimmy! I always enjoy seeing all the theories and speculation people share after each new episode-and to think it's only going to get crazier from here. I can't even begin to predict where things will go next, and I like that. Keeps us all on our toes.
Thanks for the comment! There's always someone who comments that has a different perspective and it always opens my eyes to new theories too
ReplyDeleteLike you I am intrigued by Bonnie. She is mostly discrete but she is there, hearing everything, seeing everything. The fact that she overheard the fight was very interesting indeed. And then Annalise confronted her, About how she got the confession tape, just when Bonnie was going to open up about the fight. And this is what took Bonnie by suprise, I believe Bonnie thought the fight was about her somehow. She recovered from her suprise pretty quickly. It's pretty ironic really, when Annalise is loosing control little by little, we see how in control Bonnie is.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe I am going a bit ahead of myself there.
I like Laurel but I am afraid they're starting to loose the balance they had in the first episodes with the flashforwards. First of all the repeat of flashforwards scenes we already saw is starting to be really annoying. The orders of the flashworwards can be tricky too. And all this mix up with the present... I hope they'll fix it.
Other than that, I pretty much agree with everything you said about Laurel and Souza.
I wondered where the classroom went too, I was very glad to see it again.
Also, I am happy that you like Rebbeca. She my favourite character since episode one. I am a bit sad that people only started to like her, but hey. better late than never. I am saying that, but it's only episode 5. So much for being late.
Either way, I really like how they handled Rebbeca this episode, with Keating husband and with Wes. I always liked their interactions. This episode was not an exception. Is it possible to smell food through a wall ? Must be pretty thin. I am curious.
Great review!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this episode, indeed it wasn't the best but Laurel was great! So I think next week's episode is about Asher?
Awesome review. I'm wondering why no one is questioning Annalise's bizarre hypocrisy - she's all bent out of shape that Tom had an affair, when we saw her getting it on with the Nate in her office/home! I can't buy her outrage. Seriously, who does she run to - Nate near end of episode. It makes no sense and, frankly, tarnishes a great character. If her hands were clean, I'd buy it, but knowing what we know, she comes across as a bitter shrew.
ReplyDelete