How To Get Away With Murder Season 1 Episode 13 recap
Once again, good things come to those who wait. Now we understand what we need to know about Frank, about Bonnie, and blissfully, everything we already wanted to be true about Asher. We learned a lot – a lot about Annalise. A little about certain interns. A little about Mama which tells you an awful lot.
I know that there aren’t many people who care for Bonnie, and I feel as though that’s probably right, but also probably not what was intended, because Liza Weil can do so much. I mean, it’s evident in how completely Paris Gellar has disappeared even though they share the same face. Still, Bonnie’s tiny victories - the ones nobody expects her to win – are pretty beautiful, and her smile when she dropped her head was pure. She was maybe the most herself she’s ever been, and that’s saying something considering we never knew her, and she was screaming for the interns’ respect not half a TV hour before.
And sometimes it takes the most ridiculous doof of an Asher to believe in you and get you to that point and to make out with you in a parking garage. I love everything about him and so I’m suspending my disbelief that Asher would so often not be pouty about being with the other interns when they go off and do things (or is there a whole separate web series about what they tell him they’re going to go do before they do it? One where every episode is called “I have to go pick up my aunt at the airport”?) But he’s getting some with Bonnie and so I will put a pin in that. But still. (Also, Frank watching them was power-manipulatey, not adorable. Okay, person I saw say that on Twitter? You have a right to make out with a dork unmonitored if that’s your thing.)
I will not put a pin in this whole ‘Oliver thinks Connor is an addict’ business. I remember how we got there, but I thought that it was sort of a thing for that night and the next week, not that poor Oliver thinks he’s being a savior who’s keeping Connor from the gutter. First of all that’s gross to do to someone, and second of all, I feel like it’s keeping them from being a real actual couple.
But let’s be honest, that’s a few people on this show. For example, while I loved Cicely Tyson, and we’ll get there more in a minute, we reeeeaaallly could use a bit more on Nate. Like, okay, there he is with Annalise getting his mute non-confession ‘confession’ on camera (I’m not legal enough to know much, but I assume that means someone will think he admitted to it but it will be inadmissible? Let’s write a pamphlet called “TV Law School”!) but who is he? What is he like? I know half of you are all “the answer is he’s beautiful” but…is that it? Are we sure?
The other person I need to know some more about is Wes. We know the least about him so we can pretend to be him – so we can put ourselves in his shoes. But it means that he doesn’t REACT to anything. He stares into the middle distance and gets that furrowed brow and ….AND? He’s not quippy, he’s not nervous – I know all the other interns got all the other traits but I need something. That’s not to say he’s a bad actor, but his presence, for a guy who’s basically the middle of a show where his girlfriend maybe-probably (probably not) killed THE murder subject of the title, he’s not doing a lot with what he’s given.
Then again, this show is quietly becoming an acting master class for actual masters, so maybe that’s why. Cicely Tyson is spectacular as Annalise’s mother. On the one hand perfectly comforting and mom-like, touching you in that way that’s so familiar it’s part of your own body. And then at the same time, no nonsense, decisive, does not waste a single word. She tells Annalise as she has her in that vulnerable position, head back with the hair getting combed, that she knows the kinds of places Annalise has been. “Maybe you did something real bad and I don’t much care if you did, but I know if you did you had your reasons.” Yeah. That gets you right back to the root of being who you are. Of being Anna Mae. “Anna Mae is a beautiful name.”
I mean, this speech was a little heavy, we knew halfway through what mommy was getting at and didn’t need the full reinforcement, but it was spectacular to watch. This is who Annalise is really. This is where she came from. From a mother who would burn down her house to avenge her little girl – and from a mother who understands the value of patience to get what you want. Yes, she knew. She knew what was happening to her daughter – so she lay in wait until she could do what she had to do.
The greatest part about this, of course, is that Annalise is just like her without ever having known how much her mother knew.
Two hours next week to wrap up the whole thing. I’m a little worried for Nate but I bet you money we never hear Sam’s name again. That guy is so over.
