In the second episode of season 4 of How to Get Away with Murder, titled “I’m Not Her,” Annalise struggles to move forward with her personal life even as she takes steps to restore her career. For her first case since getting her license back, Annalise works to free her former cellmate from prison. Meanwhile, the Keating 4 return to campus but have difficulty overcoming their ruined reputations, and we learn more about the night Laurel’s baby goes missing.
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Annalise Gets Back to Work
Though she’s still struggling to move forward, Annalise gets back to work in this episode when she takes on her former cellmate as her first client. (Jasmine is the cellmate who tried to help her and not the one who beat her up.) Jasmine is being charged with fire-arm possession, but since she had previous felony convictions for solicitation, that could affect her case. Annalise says she will be taking the case free of charge and the woman is delighted to have Queen Annalise representing her. Alas, Annalise loses her initial motion and the case moves forward to trial.
Annalise approaches the A.D.A. and asks him to have some sympathy for her client since it makes sense that she would need protection in her line of work. It turns out the A.D.A. already helped her client out by not charging her with additional violations since Jasmine tried to solicit the arresting officer. Annalise tells Jasmine that she has to be honest with her so Annalise doesn’t get blindsided in court, but Jasmine is upset that Annalise is blaming this on her. She knows Annalise only took her case to make herself feel good, but the only way to truly help her would be to go back in time and stop her father from selling her to be gang-raped at the age of 13.
Annalise looks into Jasmine’s criminal history and finds arrest records going back decades, but nothing before she was 18 because the records were sealed. She seeks out the A.D.A’s help to unseal them, but he refuses. She then turns to Bonnie for help since Bonnie now works for the D.A, but Bonnie slams the door in her face. It is Frank who ultimately helps Annalise out by showing up at her place with the sealed file. He tells Annalise that he will always be there for her, whether she wants his help or not.
Annalise Opens Up
As the episode begins, Annalise’s therapist is having a mysterious phone call with someone that will likely prove to be important later on. When Annalise shows up for her appointment, she tells her therapist that she took on her first case since getting her license back and she wants to talk about it. Her therapist, whose name is Isaac Roa, wants Annalise to fill out a form about past trauma that could’ve led to her substance abuse problem. Annalise lies on the form and doesn’t tick the box that mentions sexual assault.
When Annalise continues to talk about her client, Isaac asks why she chose this woman to be her first client. Annalise claims that this woman helped her out when they were locked up together and she just wants to return to the favor. Isaac doesn’t believe that’s the real reason. He says she’s deflecting because she doesn’t want to talk about herself and he won’t have that.
Annalise admits that she failed to check off a few of the boxes, but Isaac already knows this. Annalise doesn’t think it’s unreasonable to want to feel comfortable before opening up about all of the horrible things that have happened to her. Annalise says there is a reason she keeps bringing up her client and Isaac thinks it’s because the woman reminds Annalise of herself. He thinks she took Jasmine’s case because of the abuse they both suffered as children. Annalise admits that horrible things happened to her as a child, but she insists that she isn’t like her client because she had a mother who loved her and teachers who believed in her.
Annalise tells her therapist that the reason she wanted to talk about her case was because she won it and that felt good. That being said, she knows it’s very likely her former cellmate will wind up back in prison in a few months’ time because addicts don’t change. Isaac says that he was once a heroin addict and he got cleaned so it is possible for people to change. Annalise then tells him that the last time she was in therapy, her therapist taught her how to share and she wound up opening up about all sorts of things. Her former therapist then became her husband and we all know what happened there so it’s easy to see why Annalise is having trouble trusting Isaac.
The Keating 4 Seek New Job Opportunities
Since Annalise dumped them, the Keating 4 are busy with job interviews. Michaela, of course, nails hers and gets five callbacks, but the others don’t fair as well. Asher does manage to get a few callbacks, but Connor doesn’t get any and Laurel apparently only gets one from Legal Aid which she does not show up for. Michaela, Asher, and Drake the douche all get callbacks for the firm of Caplan & Gold. They are all thrilled about this because it apparently means lots of money and experience. Michaela once again charms her potential employers, but Asher ends up losing his cool when Drake taunts him that the firm probably won’t want him once they learn about his family history.
Michaela and Drake end up scoring jobs with Caplan & Gold, much to Laurel’s relief. It turns out that Caplan & Gold is the firm that represents her father and Laurel wants Michaela to work from inside the firm to help her take her father down since she believes he’s responsible for Wes’ death. (Way to kill Michaela’s excitement about her new job, Laurel.) It also seems like Caplan & Gold was the law firm Annalise went to work for right out of law school so I imagine there’s quite a story there.
While Michaela is back on track with her career, Connor isn’t doing so well. He blows all of his interviews and later claims that maybe he doesn’t even want to be a lawyer anymore. Oliver points out that since they all got away with multiple crimes, maybe they should think about doing some good with their lives. So, Connor ends up seeking a position with Legal Aid. He’s turned down because the woman thinks he’s only after the job as a last resort, but when he hears Laurel missed her callback, he goes to track her down. This leads to a very important conversation between the two.
Once Connor finds Laurel at Wes’ apartment, he asks why she didn’t show up for her callback and she says that maybe she just doesn’t care anymore. Connor wonders if she’s still looking into Wes’ murder and this leads to them actually talking about Connor’s role in what happened. Connor knows Laurel hates him for lying to her for weeks about finding Wes dead that night, but he tells her that she can’t possibly hate him as much as he hates himself. Despite her obvious anger over the whole situation, Laurel realizes that it wasn’t Connor’s fault and she tells him to stop hating himself, for her if not for himself.
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Will Bonnie and Nate Become Friends?
Early in the episode, Annalise runs into Bonnie in the courtroom and realizes that Bonnie has gone to work for the D.A.’s office. Annalise is surprised, to say the least. Nate, on the other hand, still believes Bonnie is a spy for Annalise so he refuses to help Bonnie when she asks him for assistance with the case she’s been assigned. When he runs into Annalise at the courthouse, Annalise tells Nate that she fired Bonnie because everyone is better off without her. Later that day, Nate gives Bonnie information for her case and jokes that they should start a support club called Annalise Anonymous. It will be interesting to see where this relationship goes.
Speaking of Bonnie, when she calls Frank to complain about Annalise asking her for a favor, we see that Frank is sitting parked outside Laurel’s place, keeping an eye on her. While Frank spies on Laurel, Bonnie drinks away her problems because now that she’s free of Annalise, she can have booze in the house again. (It’s nice that Bonnie found a silver lining to that break-up.)
Where is Annalise?
Once she has her client’s sealed file, Annalise calls a former prosecutor to the stand. This man is the one who charged her client with solicitation back when she was only 13 years old.
The former prosecutor claims he was only following the letter of the law for 1968, but Annalise points out that when other underage girls were brought before him, he argued for them to be sent for rehabilitation. The only difference between those girls and Annalise’s client is that Jasmine is black. Annalise argues that if her client had been white, she would’ve been given a chance to turn her life around instead of being treated as a criminal by the people who were supposed to protect her. The system doomed her to a life in and out of prison and Annalise demands that she be shown the basic human decency she’s been denied all her life.
The judge is moved by Annalise’s passionate plea and he apologizes to Annalise’s client for how the system let her down all those years ago. He also seals her records so as long as she stays out of court, she won’t have to reveal her criminal history when applying for jobs or assistance. Upon her release, Annalise gives Jasmine a government I.D. and some money to help her with her fresh start.
In the final scene’s flash-forward, we see Isaac leave Annalise a voicemail telling her that Laurel is awake and demanding to know where she is. We then see Bonnie arrive at a crime scene and the scene in question turns out to be Annalise’s hotel room. There’s blood everywhere and one of the investigators mentions a gun being found in the room. Is this where Laurel had the baby? If so, is Annalise behind the baby’s disappearance?
What did you think of this episode of How to Get Away with Murder? Will Michaela agree to help Laurel take down her father, even if it means putting her career at risk? Will Michaela even believe Laurel that her father was responsible for Wes’ murder? Will Connor, Asher, and Laurel be able to land actual jobs or will they all have to go work for Oliver? Why is Frank spying on Laurel? Does he think she’s in danger? Is he working on his own to find out what really happened to Wes? Do you think Annalise’s therapist can be trusted? Why is he involved in whatever is going on with Laurel in the flash-forward? And do you think Annalise took Laurel’s baby? If so, I’m guessing she took the baby to protect it from someone/something. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
How to Get Away with Murder airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC. Want more news? Follow our HTGAWM Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
