How To Get Away With Murder Season 2 Episode 7 recap
Well, we got motive. Bonnie says, in so many words, that she wishes Annalise were dead. From the previews, she’s only the first of several to give voice to that sentiment. Our lady Ms. Keating is not popular.
This week, though, we understand a little more why people might be conflicted about straight-up dislike. She’s good at her job, she’s benevolent when it suits her, casting a rare warm-and-wry smile at Oliver, and, as she tells Eve, “It’s him”.
Now I know what we’re supposed to think. That Wes is Annalise’s son that she gave up for adoption. This is maybe true, and I don’t feel slighted or like I learned too early if it is. But I’m not sure I believe it, because an explanation like that is always too simple for this show. Plus there’s the sexual touching in the season premiere when they were all at the rave. That’s not so parental—although parents who don’t live with their children maybe don’t have the same boundaries?
Either way, it doesn’t keep him from wielding a gun in two weeks. And it’s worth noting that Laurel is on his side, on the other ‘side’ from Connor and Michaela. They’ve been doing not much at all with the Laurel character, so I like that they approached everything with ‘so what good is she anyway’, and added a side of ‘so is it OK to use your sexuality for this job or not?’
The answer, of course, is don’t get caught up in it. Laurel, as we see, clearly doesn’t, at least not in this episode. But she’s about the only one. Annalise is hopelessly mixed up with Nate, Bonnie being ‘ruined’ for Asher is quite obviously her motivating agenda in the next few episodes, and Connor and Oliver are about to be terrifyingly entangled with Phillip Jessup. You know, the Hapstall’s cousin who may have murdered everyone? Oh, and then there’s Michaela, whose relationship with Caleb is not super kosher either. And then there’s Frank, depositing Catherine’s body in the woods…
The point is, sex is an essential weapon on this show but it’s almost never one that you can use unscathed. It’s dangerous, the show wants you to know, and it’s going to get you into trouble. This would be fine messaging if it wasn’t also one of Annalise’s favourite offense-defenses, and also one of the places where she herself muddies the water, over and over again. Why is the only person she trusts for Nate Eve? Is there something about knowing her, biblically, that helps her to know she’ll help him?
It should be noted here that the chemistry between Annalise and Eve is off the charts. If I could feel like this about her and Nate, I’d be in business. But there’s no sign of Eve on the night at the Hapstall house.
So far we know that Bonnie knows everything, that Asher’s season-long guilt trip will make him run, that Wes has a gun, Connor has guilt and fear – remember, he’s the one who, in an early sequence, tries to stop Annalise from bleeding before Laurel tells him that there’s nothing they can do – and four of the Keating 5, plus Bonnie, see the D.A.’s body drop to the ground (with amazing/repulsive blood spatter CGI). Oh, and then they all get into Nate’s car, Bonnie tries to do some budget dry cleaning at the gas station, and Frank convinces the cameras at the hospital that he really really cares whether Annalise lives or dies.
Remember, Wes still doesn’t know what really happened to Rebecca. And he has a gun.
One more week of clues – but I’m going to spend it saying an incantation to save sweet Oliver from harm. I hope he can get by just losing an ear, or something. That would be cute, right?
