How To Get Away With Murder Season 2 Episode 6 recap
It’s a busy episode and a lot goes on, but there was a standout moment for me, and it wasn’t when Catherine wakes up gasping in a field. I guess, technically, that could be considered a spoiler, but this show has such a loose relationship with reality and time that I don’t think it actually matters, do you?
No, the standout moment to me is when Annalise reveals to the Hapstall siblings that the break in the case – a secret cousin they never knew existed – comes from the work of the Keating 5.
Oh my goodness, they’re worth something? Imagine that we are reminded of this in the sixth episode this season! They do actual stuff that occasionally matters!
Don’t get me wrong. I am all about buckling up for the craziness of this show. But it would be great if there was something that they all thought they were doing, in addition to what they’re actually doing (i.e. f*cking winsome Italian hitmen for information/dinners with family, flirting with probably incestuous probable murderers). It’s a little startling that Oliver and his convenient hacking is the one actually doing the most to crack this case, even though Philip Jessup is reverse hacking them both. I’m just going to call it now – ‘Philip Jessup’ is a cult-adherent’s name, and you know I’m right.
But the thing about the Keating 5, especially since we know they’re in some serious mess in a very few episodes, is they’ve learned nothing from Season 1. They’re just sort of flailing in the direction of general creepiness or, in Asher’s case, trying to cover his own ass from what appears to be at least a gang rape, if not more.
[As a sidebar, I hope we don’t need a lot more footage of the little girl in the abuse footage. I think we get it without having to be exploitative, don’t we?]
As usual, the case of the week has some interesting social things to say about a transgendered woman experiencing domestic violence, but also as usual, it’s totally hidden and buffered behind hijinks with the Hapstalls, ill-contextualized scenes with Nate we don’t care about, and juicy scenes like Asher’s father cutting their family ties, but with so little background that you’re just eating it up without thinking about what comes next. Imagine this show was about a defense attorney who was also actually teaching the students something of merit that they were taking into their own lives, in the here and now, instead of endlessly looking for Rebecca? Shouldn’t someone be fake-getting in touch with Wes to throw him off the scent of thinking she’s dead? A few dead texts? You’re falling down on the job, Frank.
Speaking of Wes. His mother risked everything to bring him to this country, and Annalise knows that. Did she defend his mother against some murder charge? Or do we just assume her obsessive interest in Wes is due to a misplaced mothering situation? Which child did Annalise give up for adoption that we’re going to find out about in season 2B?
Having said that, I’m ready to try to solve the puzzle for this half anyway. Ready?
Pure speculation ahead with plenty of plot holes. Skip if you don’t want a half-baked idea …
Annalise discovers that Catherine is on some sort of drug with a weird psychotic side effect. Oh, she leers at Caleb, this could be how she killed your parents. But he says no, because it was him or he was in cahoots with the racist aunt or something. So, Annalise says, if we set her up as having killed me, she’ll be rendered insane and go to a hospital instead of to jail. Which is why Catherine has blood spatter on her and why she ‘wakes up’ totally away from the house.
There is no explanation for half the things we know in there, but that’s my guess. No accounting yet for when and how we get Oliver gleefully saying that all the murder digging is fun, but we need to, because that was my favourite.
