Annalee, Annalee, Don't You Know I'm On to You

     Tomorrow is episode 2 of the new season of How to Get Away with Murder, and we might have finally reached the point where getting away is not a forgone conclusion. See the above blog title, also part of a Gavin DeGraw song, for a clear explanation. It's the third year of Professor Keating's (Viola Davis) law class, and the show has finally begun adressing our burning questions as Annalise discovers a dead body and her house on fire (who handles her insurance claims, seriously?)

Answers to Real Life Questions:
1.  How do the Keating 5 stay in law school with all of the murders?
     - These kids are barely holding it together mentally, and their GPAS are revealed at the bottom of the whole law class. The new dean points out to Annalise that she is favoring these sucky lawyers and like a protective mama bear, Professor Keating defends them.

2. How does Annalise keep bringing in money with one big case a semester? How does she find time to teach her sections of Intro to Law?
     - Annalise has an expensive retainer, and she is a good lawyer. Yes, she probably makes some bank, but teaching classes has to cover some of the bills, even if it's just covering her house repairs from all the murders. She is a great teacher, but she has other obligations (lying to the police, court, convincing people she didn't murder Nate's wife)  and missed a chuck of teaching classes last year because she got shot in the stomach (at a crime scene). As per her conversation with the dean, the school is aware Annalise has become a terrible educator. She is removed from the into classes and as a last ditch attempt, convinces the dean she should run an innocence-project based law clinic.

Image from TVLine.

3. Why didn't Frank shave sooner? 
     - Actor Charlie Weber was an Abercrombie model. He is a hottie with a body. Why has he been creeping around with a beard? Oh right, he is a murderer.

4. Is Oliver now part of the group (The Keating 6)?
     - Oliver has seen some things. He was diagnosed as HIV positive,  kidnapped by a would-be murderer, and then he got his boyfriend's acceptance from Stanford pulled. Yes, he is all in, digging up dirt on Annalise to secure his place with the group. Can he come back from the dark side? Can wicked Caleb really be the good one in this pair?

5. Is Annalise a murderer?
     - The fliers in her classroom seem to suggest that she is.

More Questions:
1. Why won't Wes move out of his terrible apartment? 
     - There have been kidnappings, murders, and some seriously bad juju there. It must be very cheap.

2. What happened to Caleb Hapstall?
     - We last saw the police going to arrest Caleb after Annalise proved in court his sister and brother/cousin could not have murdered all of their parents. Did he go to jail? Did the Keating 5 come to watch his trial and figuratively dance on his grave?

3. Did the police give up on trying to wrap up the murder of D.A. Sinclair? 
     - The original setup showed that Katherine Hapstall must have killed her in a murderous rage, but with Katherine's case blowing to pieces and her innocence, did anyone believe Annalise and crew were scot-free?

4. Why is Wes so cruel to Laurel?
     - It's unclear what happened after last season's car kiss, but Wes has turned a cold shoulder on Laurel and found a (relatively normal) girlfriend. Laurel still hasn't heard from Frank since he disappeared. If anyone should be massively upset, it should be Laurel.

Image courtesy of Tumblr. 

5. What's up with Bonnie?
     - Bonnie has been too quiet. Any minute, she may turn into her Paris Gellar character from Gilmore Girls and go off about chastity belts and Harvard. She has some issues that clearly have not been dealt with (her father raping her as a child, helping Asher cover up  a murder, nursing Annalise back to mental and physical health) and her weird unspoken tension with Frank, who has now disappeared.


6. Are we going to get closure on Wes's father being shot right in front of him?
     -This was my question from moment one of the season premiere.  Also see question 1 as it relates to this matter.. Wes needs something good in his life after losing Rebecca and being driven to the point of agreeing to shoot Annalise.

7. Will there ever be a Scandal crossover?
     -I can't be the only one shipping this crossover.  Just picture it, another day at Middleton University when the next presidential debate turns deadly. Annalise represents Cyrus, because, Cyrus must have done it. Or, Olivia and Huck come in and cleans up political scandals and bodies.

8. Will Annalise and Nate finally be happy?
     - Nate came all the way to Memphis to visit Annalise and her family in the season finale. They adored Nate, and he put up with it. Now that they're both widowed, they could be together. There is a good chance this turns toxic. See #10.

9. Is Annalise over the 'Frank caused the car accident that killed my baby' news?
     - There is no answer yet, but let's go with a hard pass. Perhaps Frank is the dead body found at casa d'Annalise? This leads to...

10. Who is the body at Annalise's house?

How to Get Away with Murder.. or Die Trying

Michaela and Connor

     It's time for the last part of the How to Get Away with Murder  second season. Since we left off, Bonnie murdered Rebecca and Annalise/Frank covered it up by disposing of her body and making it look like the fled town. It's nice to have friends in low places when you're planning a murder, isn't it, Bonnie? The main case of the season is Catherine and Caleb Hapstall, rich adopted siblings that are on trial for murdering their parents. Things seem pretty bad for the siblings, because the both claim they're innocent, and no murder weapon can be recovered. Plus, their adoptive aunt accuses them of incest and insults them with tons of racial slurs, and ends up dead also. The beak outlook of the case turns around when the Keating 5 discover Aunt Helena gave a child up for adoption, and their adoptive father was the child's father too and the true heir to the Hapstall family fortune. The best quote of the season comes from Annalise to D.A. Emily Sinclair, "Good luck proving the inbred weirdo didn't do it." Viola Davis also won a SAG award for her role of Annalise for last season, so she better go, girl!

     As luck would have it, Michaela gets involved with defendant Caleb, only as a result of having a wild entanglement with Rebecca's stepbrother, a.k.a. "eggs 911." In her defense, she didn't know who he was, but Wes did. The two gents teamed up to unsuccessfully find Rebecca and it was only revealed to Wes in the final minutes of episode 9 that Rebecca was dead. Annalise tells Wes in an effort to get him angry enough to shoot her. She does this to cover for Asher, who not-so-accidentally ran over D.A. Sinclair, who pulled up compromised cases from Asher's esteemed father's career as a judge. Annalise has Catherine drugged and sets up a scene at the house to make it look like she shot Sinclar and Annalise in anger, after Annalise 's team figured out she must have to do with the murders because she had a relationship with the inbred weirdo. We get flashes at the end of the episode of Annalise and her old flame, Eve, watching a young boy, Christophe,  in a police station being interviewed about finding his mother unconscious from an apparent suicide. Wes's mom also died from a suicide...

Wes

     So what happened with the murders from the previous season? Lila's murder just went on the backburneer as Annalise proved her client rebecca's innocence. Nate was tried for the murder fo Sam, and Annalise's old flame Eve represented him. This caused a lot of drama. Nate's cancer-stricken wife Nina asked Annalise to get her some pills so she could die in peace and Annalise wouldn't go for it. Nate did get the pills to his wife, and was investigated for charges of murder, but cleared after a blood sample swap indicated Nia died with no drugs in her body. Will these two crazy kids finally be together now that their spouses are dead? I hope not. They're nuts.

     Here is the current body count because of Annalise and crew, not including the at least 5 murders involving this season's cases

• Nia Lahey            - Murdered by Nate (humanely)
• Sam Keating        - Murdered by Wes
• D.A. Sinclair       - Murdered by Asher
• Judge Millstone   - Murdered by hanging himself
• Lila                      - Murdered by Frank
• Hapstall Aunt      - Murdered by her son, Phillip

Injured/Pretty Impaired:

• Annalise               
• Catherine Hapstall

How to Get Away with Murder.. or Die Trying

Michaela and Connor

     It's time for the last part of the How to Get Away with Murder  second season. Since we left off, Bonnie murdered Rebecca and Annalise/Frank covered it up by disposing of her body and making it look like the fled town. It's nice to have friends in low places when you're planning a murder, isn't it, Bonnie? The main case of the season is Catherine and Caleb Hapstall, rich adopted siblings that are on trial for murdering their parents. Things seem pretty bad for the siblings, because the both claim they're innocent, and no murder weapon can be recovered. Plus, their adoptive aunt accuses them of incest and insults them with tons of racial slurs, and ends up dead also. The beak outlook of the case turns around when the Keating 5 discover Aunt Helena gave a child up for adoption, and their adoptive father was the child's father too and the true heir to the Hapstall family fortune. The best quote of the season comes from Annalise to D.A. Emily Sinclair, "Good luck proving the inbred weirdo didn't do it." Viola Davis also won a SAG award for her role of Annalise for last season, so she better go, girl!

     As luck would have it, Michaela gets involved with defendant Caleb, only as a result of having a wild entanglement with Rebecca's stepbrother, a.k.a. "eggs 911." In her defense, she didn't know who he was, but Wes did. The two gents teamed up to unsuccessfully find Rebecca and it was only revealed to Wes in the final minutes of episode 9 that Rebecca was dead. Annalise tells Wes in an effort to get him angry enough to shoot her. She does this to cover for Asher, who not-so-accidentally ran over D.A. Sinclair, who pulled up compromised cases from Asher's esteemed father's career as a judge. Annalise has Catherine drugged and sets up a scene at the house to make it look like she shot Sinclar and Annalise in anger, after Annalise 's team figured out she must have to do with the murders because she had a relationship with the inbred weirdo. We get flashes at the end of the episode of Annalise and her old flame, Eve, watching a young boy, Christophe,  in a police station being interviewed about finding his mother unconscious from an apparent suicide. Wes's mom also died from a suicide...

Wes

     So what happened with the murders from the previous season? Lila's murder just went on the backburneer as Annalise proved her client rebecca's innocence. Nate was tried for the murder fo Sam, and Annalise's old flame Eve represented him. This caused a lot of drama. Nate's cancer-stricken wife Nina asked Annalise to get her some pills so she could die in peace and Annalise wouldn't go for it. Nate did get the pills to his wife, and was investigated for charges of murder, but cleared after a blood sample swap indicated Nia died with no drugs in her body. Will these two crazy kids finally be together now that their spouses are dead? I hope not. They're nuts.

Here is the current body count because of Annalise and crew, not including the at least 5 murders involving this season's cases

• Nia Lahey            - Murdered by Nate (humanely)
• Sam Keating        - Murdered by Wes
• D.A. Sinclair       - Murdered by Asher
• Judge Millstone   - Murdered by hanging himself
• Lila                      - Murdered by Frank
• Hapstall Aunt      - Murdered by her son, Phillip

Injured/Pretty Impaired:

• Annalise               
• Catherine Hapstall

How to Solve a Murder -Viola Davis Style

     One of the best new shows this season, hands-down, is ABC's How to Get Away with Murder. This past Thursday, we finally got the answer to the season-long question: who killed sorority girl Lila? Now new questions have popped up and we're left waiting until the next season to figure our : "Will the Keating 5 get away with murder?" and "Who let Rebecca go?"

     Oscar winner Viola Davis leads the cast as Annalise Keating, a tough talking defense attorney and twisted mother figure to her scrappy band of first year law students. Wes, Laurel, Connor, Mikela and Asher. Despite the lessons they learn in class, these kids could not be more clueless about how to work the legal system. In their weekly cases, Annalise relies on associate Bonnie (Liza Weil, yes Paris Gellar from Gilmore Girls) and investigator Frank (Charlie Weber) to get things to go her way and to helo her clients. Due to some very complicated circumstances, Wes ends up killing Annalise's husband, Professor Sam Keating. Sam was having an affair with coed Lila, who was pregnant at the time she drowned in a campus water tower.

     My money was definitely on Sam as the murderer, although her football star boyfriend, Annalise and a shady drug dealer friend Rebecca were all equally likely suspects.  Through current events, flashbacks to the nights of Sam's and Lila's murders, we unravel a story that leaves everyone with blood on their hands. Wes only struck Sam because he was wrestling Rebecca (who became involved with Wes) for a flash drive that might prove he was guilty of the murder. The other students helped to dispose of Sam's body (minus Asher, who is so self-serving, he didn't even realize he was left out of the biggest cover-up in town). Unfortunately, Asher's trophy was the murder weapon, and Bonnie was hit on by Sam before he died, which made Annalise so disappointed in her character, they were barely speaking.

     So where does that leave us? Four of the law students must barely be passing their classes because they're covering up murders as often as they're defending the people accused of them.... and Oliver, Connor's boyfriend is one computer hacking away from going to jail for life. Annalise can finally be with her secret lover, Detective Nate Lahey, because Sam is dead. It looks like Nate might be hauled into the precinct for the murder of Sam, despite his innocence in the matter.

     As for Lila's murder, Sam instructed Frank to "take care of", a.k.a. murder Lila. Nobody knows Frank was the murderer because he is creepy, but a very convincing liar. This case may remain unsolved.  Annalise realized her students killed Sam, and in flashbacks, she told Wes what to do to cover it up, and she was really okay with her husband being murdered (a blessing in disguise?). Rebecca became so disturbed by the whole set of events (and she also takes a lot of drugs), she planned to go to the police and tell them everything. Then  the students tied her up in Annalise's basement. Before we knew it, someone let her escape.. of was she murdered to ensure her silence? In a final thought, what does "eggs 911" mean from Rebecca's last text? Who was she contacting?