For an episode where Viola Davis speaks maybe 15 words, “We’re Bad People” is an acting tour de force. Turns out that when How to Get Away With Murder focuses on the characters and their relationships and a reasonable number of twists and turns, it gets a good episode!
This week, we get treated to Ghost Angel Wes blessing everyone’s lives. First, Annalise watches Ghost Angel Wes play soccer with Meggy and remembers watching him play soccer as a child. It’s a flashback within a flashback, and we know it’s a flashback in the middle of a flashback because Annalise has long Poetic Justice braids. Unfortunately, we can’t stay in the blissful ‘90s because Annalise is being transferred to county. Someone is doing an exam on Wes’s body that mirrors (literary, non?) Annalise being inspected. When the guard says they have to inspect Annalise’s hair, every black woman in the audience feels a chill down her spine. The coroner writes the final note on Wes’s autopsy: “Cause of Death: HOMICIDE.” Annalise is put in jail with two other black ladies, and I don’t think this will be as fun as Orange Is the New Black.
Meanwhile, Bonnie visits Laurel in the hospital to tell her that Wes died before the fire. That detail will be very important to the plot, so expect it to be repeated no fewer than 16 times this episode. Laurel insists that Frank must’ve done it, because fuck that guy, right? She doesn’t believe anything Bonnie tries to tell her about Frank’s noninvolvement in the crime. Pregnancy brain is a bitch.
The Keating Gang shows up to find out what’s happening with Laurel and Annalise. Bonnie drops the first hint that someone might be framing Annalise, then she leaves the hospital to meet with Frank for a three-second conversation. Bonnie then goes to visit Annalise in prison, suggests that the Mahoneys must have found out about Wes, and says that she found Annalise a lawyer. Annalise believes in Bonnie’s powers in the courtroom and wants to hold onto her as her representation.
Then, in another Ghost Angel Wes flashback, we have to watch Laurel and Wes in a bathtub. Raise your hand if you think Laurel and Ghost Angel Wes have anything that even remotely resembles chemistry. Hands? Hands? Okay. NO ONE ELSE. Listen, I’ll believe that these two crazy kids fell into some sort of bang affair, but buying that they’re in love? And we’re treated to scenes where they discuss the condom ripping like it’s no big thing? Nuh-uh. I don’t care how in love you are, no conversation about a condom breaking is that chill and takes place in a romantic bathtub. It happens in the back of an Uber on the way to CVS to buy Plan B. Also, are we to believe that Plan B was not an option? Really?
Two detectives come to see Laurel in the hospital as she’s waiting to hit her pain medicine drip. She thinks the detectives are trying to frame Annalise and it’s up to them to figure out who actually did it. She’s pretty sassy for a key eye witness. Asher, Connor, and Michaela stop by Laurel’s apartment to find that her mother has skipped town and left a note. Connor isn’t appropriately depressed about Wes’s death, so he’s making everyone uncomfortable.
Nate is refusing to cooperate with the prosecutor’s office after going to meet with Annalise in her cell. He threatens a sexual harassment suit because he’s banging the hot prosecutor, so if he gets fired, he’s suing the pants off her … again.
Connor goes to see Oliver, who tells him that Annalise asked him to delete everything on her cell phone the night of the fire. Oliver starts to put the pieces together and tries to get Connor to tell him about Sam’s disappearance. Connor knows he doesn’t really want the information, but tells him he’d understand if he went to the police. All of these relationships are too damn stressful.
Oh, there’s also a subplot about Annalise refusing to poop or pee in her jail cell. She refuses to eat, she refuses to drink, and she refuses to make eye contact with the other women in her cell, but when she does finally give in, it’s a grim sign that she’s accepting her fate. Meanwhile, Frank and Bonnie are trying to get as much evidence as they can to help Annalise. Bonnie doesn’t think she’s up to the task. Guess what? She’s not.
The Keating gang goes to visit Laurel in the hospital and everyone proffers their best theories about who killed Wes. Frank? The Mahoneys? Annalise? Connor reveals that Oliver was asked to delete Annalise’s phone, then Asher accuses him of not being upset enough, and Laurel screams out that Wes is the baby’s father. Connor says that Laurel should get an abortion because, and I quote, “Waitlist isn’t the kind of father you want for your child.” YIKES. Asher punches Connor like he’s a particularly fashionable neo-Nazi.
Michaela has a really strong reaction to Asher punching Connor, so much so that she almost breaks up with him. He promises not to act like an animal anymore. Meanwhile, Bonnie discovers something resembling a lead and finds out that Hannah Keating, Sam’s sister, called the fire department before the police had been dispatched to the scene. Did she know something? Maybe she’s trying to get back at Annalise for what she did to Sam. You know, the whole murder thing.
It’s time for Annalise’s bail hearing and the prosecution wants to deny her bail. There’s a bit of a kerfuffle about Bonnie getting some clues about the prosecution’s case, but ultimately they plan to tie Annalise to a number of disappearances and possible murders. Just as Wes was about to cooperate with the police, he was suddenly murdered in an exploding house. What are the odds? Bonnie’s attempts don’t work, and Annalise remains in jail with her cellmate, who recognizes her from court.
Then we’re treated to a classic How to Get Away With Murder montage, with moody lyrics and slo-mo, as we see Nate visiting the coroner because the autopsy didn’t reveal that Wes was dead before the fire. Frank goes to the police and admits to Wes’s murder. There’s a blue flashback of Frank picking up Wes from the police station, right when Annalise calls him: “It’s time we talked …”
