Hot To Get Away With Murder Season 1 Episodes 14&15 season finale recap
Well. Aren’t they?
One of the weirdest things about this crazy show is that we’ve known from the minute we met the Keating Five that they’re in this. They took on this thing, and we flashed back to ‘before’, so we know they’ll never be the same, just like poor bath salts Rudy.
So, are they monsters? Debatable.
They’re obviously forever changed. They’re, you know, murder conspirators.
But are they monsters?
I’m going with yes, and I hope you understand my reason why: It’s more interesting. It’s more interesting to think you’re a terrible person and have to kind of get your mind around the ramifications of that than to be someone just wishing and hoping to be good and watching everyone around you kind of shrug.
The problem is, I still don’t like any of the interns, really. Connor is shifty and cannot commit to an emotion. Do you want to date Oliver? Do you want to get an HIV test? Or do you want to be free of everyone, and not have to care and be the sociopath that Laurel apparently is? I don’t care at all for her romantic relationships, but I like that her no-nonsense-ness has made her hold on to the stupid ring Michaela was so obsessed with just to ensure the girl’s silence.
And Wes ….I don’t know. I don’t hope for anything from him, because he’s so fragile already and he doesn’t know that (SPOILER, don’t yell at me, we’re way below the jump) Rebecca is super dead. How’s he going to react to the fact that he didn’t believe her and she promptly died? He’s already kind of snivelly and pathetic and sad, and I really hate the construct of ‘Are You A Man’. I am interested in when Annalise gave him up for adoption, or whatever it is that occurred to make them so weirdly incesty and desperate with one another.
In fact, most of the interns suck. With a shining exception:
Asher is magical. They had him on kind of oblivious pause for much of the season, and while I get that, he can’t evade the dark side forever, not least because Bonnie will have no opportunity to keep her hands clean whatsoever, and he’ll get dragged into it. But I love him as he is – pure, unfettered, and unselfconscious enough to squirm around in a pair of khakis.
But overall – did you care a lot? Sam killed Lila Stangard, by proxy, while Frank did the dirty work. Bonnie knew that might have been the case, Annalise knows it maybe is, but he’s useful to her and so he’s going to stay around, not in spite of him being a callous hitman, but because of it.
Also, the show opened up approximately nine million more secrets, as you do, and that’s cool for ongoing secrets. But I kind of wonder if these are the people to take them on.
Is it an accident that everyone has kind of a bland personality? Bonnie is actively hiding something, that’s fine. Frank is a bit mustache-twirly, I’ll allow it. But Nate? Come on, let’s be honest, Nate has not much going for him at all except a body, and we’re supposed to care deeply about him. I can’t. It’s too much. There’s nothing to hold onto. I’m similarly delighted from the obligation of having to care about Rebecca, who I just found too smug for words, even if she wasn’t a murderer. She still slept with her best friend’s erstwhile boyfriend to make a point! She was gross! But even with all that, she was boring…
Which is why the Connor-Oliver-HIV storyline was curious. Those two don’t seem boring. They have enough natural drama between them that they wouldn’t get boring. A square and a risktaker, one committed and one who doesn’t know that he’s dating AN ACCESSORY TO MURDER. I’ll be very curious to see where they go with this.
And then there’s Annalise. She’s straightforward, she’s blunt, she’s familiar with the romantic proclivities of priests. She’s a force, and she regularly wins court cases. But you don’t bleed for her. You don’t hurt for her. I don’t know why, except maybe when she takes off her armor.
I guess that’s the most interesting part about this show. It has promised to be about the ‘How’, so I want the how. I don’t get too in depth with the why, because it slows everything down. When we have to care about Michaela’s marriage or not, or Wes’ date night or not (although what did happen to his mother?). Curiously, the less emotion the better for what is becoming a show that everyone enjoys, but nobody loves.
How To Get Away With Murder has had a curious year and a strong pedigree. It’s an interesting show but still not a beloved one. In a way, that’s a better place to be. You can’t offend anyone if nobody knows what exactly you’re going to become. See you next year.
