In the mid-season premiere of season 4 of How to Get Away with Murder, titled “He’s Dead,” the Keating 4 deal with new obstacles as the police begin to investigate Simon’s accidental shooting. Meanwhile, Annalise struggles to hold things together as complications arise with Laurel and the baby.
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Annalise and Frank are Questioned
As the episode begins, the manager at Annalise’s hotel is being questioned about what happened. She doesn’t seem to know the details, just that Annalise was involved. Once the cop doing the questioning finds out about Annalise’s involvement, he decides to call it in as a possible crime scene. (Annalise’s reputation has clearly not improved much even now that she’s sober.) While this is happening, we see Annalise arrive at the hospital with Laurel and the baby. They are rushed in for treatment and Annalise is sent to the waiting room.
At Laurel’s apartment, as creepy Dominic watches from the shadows, Connor is on the phone with Michaela. She’s trying to get him to calm down, saying that everything will be fine, but Connor thinks she’s delusional. Just then, Annalise calls and Michaela tells Connor to answer so he can ask Annalise to get Asher out of jail. When Connor picks up, Annalise says that she’s at the hospital with Laurel because Laurel had the baby. Annalise knows that they were all together at the party so she asks what happened to cause Laurel to go into premature labor, but Connor doesn’t know. Connor then fills Annalise in on Simon’s shooting and Dominic slinks away without Connor realizing he was there.
After talking to Annalise, Connor goes to see Nate and tells him that Annalise needs his help. Bonnie is still at Nate’s place after their late-night drinking session so she gets involved, too. (It’s also possible given Nate’s shirtless state that something else went down between Nate and Bonnie but I hope this is a misdirect because they both could use an actual friend and not another messy hook-up.)
At the hospital, the doctor won’t tell Annalise anything about Laurel or the baby because she isn’t family, but when Frank arrives, he says that he is the baby’s father. The doctor then takes Frank and Annalise to see Laurel’s son in the NICU. The doctor says both Laurel and the baby are stable and very lucky. Just then, two people from the Department of Human Services arrive and want to question Frank and Annalise. When they start asking about Laurel’s behavior in recent weeks and if she was using drugs, Annalise realizes they are trying to say that Laurel is an unfit mother. Annalise then spots Laurel’s father entering the NICU and she quickly realizes that he is behind all of this.
Michaela and Oliver Stick to Their Story
The woman from DHS tells Annalise that Laurel’s father has been granted emergency custody of Laurel’s son given the questions surrounding Laurel’s state of mind. Frank tries to argue that he should have custody, but the woman from DHS says that Laurel did a paternity test and it proves that Frank isn’t the father. Annalise goes into lawyer mode and scares the DHS lady into handing over the paperwork they have on Laurel. Annalise also gets Frank in to see Laurel.
When Annalise goes over the paperwork, she finds a blood test the hospital ran that shows Laurel had cocaine in her system. She also finds legal documents detailing Laurel’s previous history of mental illness. The paperwork also mentions drug-induced labor so it seems like Laurel’s father set things up to make it look like Laurel tried to harm her baby. Annalise then calls Isaac and asks him to come see Laurel at the hospital.
Meanwhile, Oliver and Michaela are back at the Caplan & Gold offices waiting to be questioned about the shooting. They are trying to figure out why Asher was arrested and Michaela realizes that Asher must have told the detective the truth, at least about him touching the gun. Oliver and Michaela then give matching statements about Simon shooting himself and Asher picking up the gun because he was in a state of shock. Their version of events match up with what Asher told the cops, as we learn when Nate goes to see Asher in jail.
Isaac arrives at the hospital just in time to hear Connor telling Annalise that he doesn’t know what happened at the law firm other than Michaela being covered in blood. Isaac wants to know what that was all about, but Annalise brushes off the question. Annalise tells Isaac that Laurel’s father is using Laurel’s history of mental illness to get custody of the baby. Annalise wants Isaac to do an evaluation on Laurel in order to clear her. Isaac initially refuses to help, but Annalise threatens him into examining Laurel.
Laurel’s Father Takes the Baby
At Caplan & Gold, Michaela gets the voicemail Connor left her about Laurel and decides to leave despite everything that’s going on. Tegan stops her before she can leave and she questions Michaela about how Simon got her key card when Michaela was the one who had Tegan’s bag. Michaela says Simon stole the card, but she doesn’t know how he did it. Tegan tells a tearful Michaela that she’s not as good of a liar as she thinks. (Now that Tegan is onto them, what will she do? I kind of hope Tegan ends up helping Michaela and company take down Laurel’s father.)
Back at the hospital, Frank and Isaac are with Laurel when she wakes up. Frank tells Laurel that her son is okay, but that her father is at the hospital. He says that Annalise is taking care of it. Meanwhile, we see Annalise talking to the woman from DHS. She wants the hospital to run another drug test because she thinks Laurel’s father paid someone off to fake the first drug test. The DHS lady then says that Laurel’s father is having the baby transferred to another facility and there’s nothing Annalise can do.
Michaela arrives at the hospital and runs into Connor. He wants to know where Oliver is and he’s angry when he learns that Michaela left Oliver at Caplan & Gold. Michaela asks about Laurel’s baby and Connor says he’s probably dead. He then blames everything that happened on Michaela for not saying no when Laurel asked for her help all those months ago. (I get that Connor is upset, but he was out of line to blame all of this on Michaela. They all went along with Laurel’s plan, even if they didn’t all agree with it.)
Annalise sees Laurel’s father leaving with the baby and tries to stop him. She pleads with him not to take the baby from Laurel, but he won’t be swayed. Annalise starts yelling that Laurel’s father will hurt the baby, but no one listens to her. Meanwhile, Laurel is upstairs screaming about wanting to see her child and the doctors end up having to sedate her.
Laurel Admits to Her Mistake
Shortly thereafter, Isaac runs into Michaela and mistakes her for Annalise. (I’m still not sure how he made that mistake, given that they look nothing alike and were dressed differently.) Isaac apparently figures out who Michaela is simply because she’s covered in blood and Connor mentioned something about that earlier. Michaela asks Isaac if the baby is dead and ends up sobbing in his arms that everyone around them dies. After she calms down a bit, Michaela asks to see Laurel, but Isaac is worried about Michaela’s state of mind. Michaela ends up rambling about Laurel being off her antidepressants and how her father must be using that against her. Isaac tries finding out more, but Michaela clearly doesn’t trust him enough to say anything else.
While all of this is happening, Bonnie has been taking care of business. After checking out the “crime scene” at Annalise’s hotel, she heads to the Caplan & Gold offices and questions Oliver about where the hard drive is. Oliver says that Laurel has the drive and we realize that Oliver still doesn’t know what happened to Laurel. Later, Bonnie uses her status with the DA’s office to get Oliver released.
Back at the hospital, Laurel is awake again when Annalise returns. (She left after her argument with Laurel’s father and apparently went somewhere to shower and change her clothes.) Laurel admits to Annalise that she was warned about going through with her plan to take down her father. Apparently, Dominic called Laurel before she went to the C&G party and told her not to go through with her plan. He said her father knew about her pregnancy and hinted that he also knew everything else she was up to. Laurel blames herself for what happened because she didn’t take Dominic’s advice. (While Laurel is the one who put this whole plan into motion, she doesn’t deserve to have her son taken away from her.)
We then see Dominic questioning Tegan about the missing key card and the breach of the server room. He wants to talk to the IT guy who witnessed the shooting and Tegan gives up Oliver’s name because even Tegan is afraid of creepy Dominic.
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Asher is Released
Later that night, Bonnie arrives at the hospital. She says the police had Laurel’s bag in evidence but she was able to sign it out. Alas, the hard drive was not there. Annalise wonders if maybe Bonnie took the drive, but Frank tells Annalise that Bonnie isn’t the enemy. Frank suggests that Laurel’s dad has the drive, but Annalise disagrees. She thinks Laurel’s dad took the baby because he believes they have the hard drive and he thinks they won’t come after him while he has the baby.
Annalise then ends up having an argument with Isaac. Isaac is starting to believe that maybe Laurel does need to be hospitalized, but Annalise tells him that Laurel’s father is setting her up. Isaac says he’s concerned about Annalise, not Laurel. He’s knows everything that happened with Laurel is a trigger for Annalise, but Annalise won’t listen to him. Annalise ends their argument by saying something pretty awful about Isaac being the reason his daughter killed herself. She then walks away, leaving Isaac speechless.
Nate and Bonnie talk to the police about the shooting. The detective thinks Michaela, Oliver, and Asher’s story is too perfect so she wants to charge Asher and see if he cracks. Bonnie manages to talk the detective into letting Asher go until they have more evidence. Asher then heads to the hospital to be with his friends.
Somehow, Asher learned that Simon survived the shooting. Oliver is relieved, but Michaela realizes that their story will only work if Simon can’t tell the police the truth. Connor says they could always have Frank finish the job and Oliver is horrified that his friends are such awful people. (Why is Oliver surprised by this? It’s not like he doesn’t know most of the shady things his friends have been involved in.)
Meanwhile, Annalise goes back to Laurel’s room and shows her a picture she took of the baby. Laurel knows that her son is only alive because of Annalise and they end up sharing a nice moment together before Laurel says she knows how to get her son back.
Frank Kills Dominic!
Dominic is looking into Oliver’s location but before he can get near Olly, Frank tracks Dominic down and knocks him out. Frank questions Dominic about the hard drive, but Dominic claims he knows nothing about it. Dominic then starts taunting Frank about his feelings for Laurel and Frank ends up snapping Dominic’s neck. Later, Frank heads back to the hospital where Laurel says she wants to use her previous connection with Dominic to convince him to help her get her baby back from her father. Alas, since Dominic is now dead, that is no longer an option.
Oliver eventually returns to his friends after storming off. He says he tried to see Simon but security wouldn’t let him in. Oliver asks them to promise him that they won’t hurt Simon. Before they can make said promise, Annalise arrives. Annalise’s anger and disappointment is written all over her face when she tells them that they never learn. She then talks to Frank about what he found on Dominic’s phone. Apparently, Dominic has a voicemail from Wes on the night he died. Was Dominic really the “In Case of Emergency” contact Wes called that night or did he simply get a hold of Wes’ message? If Dominic is the person Wes called, how do they know each other?
What did you think of this episode of How to Get Away with Murder? Are you surprised that Laurel’s father took her son? How did he know she was pregnant? Why did Dominic warn Laurel to stay out of her father’s business? Was it because of his possible connection to Wes? If Dominic was the emergency contact Wes called that night, why would Dominic kill Wes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
How to Get Away with Murder season 4 airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC. Want more news? Follow our HTGAWM Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
