In the fifth episode of season 4 of How to Get Away with Murder, titled “I Love Her,” Annalise continues to move forward with preparations for her class action suit while Bonnie’s suspicions of Annalise’s behavior lead her to take action. Meanwhile, flashbacks reveal more about the Bonnie-Annalise relationship, Oliver helps Michaela break into Tegan’s files, and we find out where Asher is on the night Laurel’s baby goes missing.
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Bonnie is Onto Annalise
Annalise begins the week on a good note. She goes to the prison to speak with some of Virginia Cross’ former clients. She pitches them on joining her class action lawsuit, and eventually, they all sign up. With Cross’ clients joining the suit, Annalise only needs 16 more plaintiffs.
Meanwhile, Bonnie is also looking into Cross’ former clients and she sees that quite a few of their files have been updated with “attorney pending.” She points this out to Nate and asks him to go to the prison to see what he can find out. Bonnie apparently already looked into it but no one would tell her anything. She thinks they’ll talk to Nate.
When Nate gets to the prison, he tells Annalise that Bonnie is onto her. He also confronts her about the way she’s been getting these prisoners to sign up for the suit. She’s been sneaking around and bribing guards to let her talk to the prisoners. Nate is worried that she’ll get caught and everything she promised those prisoners will be for nothing. He tells her to get the rest of the plaintiffs the right way. (Nate also mentions that he knows someone she could use in the suit, but he won’t give up the name. Perhaps this will be brought up again later on.) When Nate gets back to the D.A.’s office, he lies to Bonnie and says no one has seen Annalise at the prison.
Annalise and Bonnie Have It Out
At the prison, Annalise meets with her other former cellmate, Claudia. (Claudia is the one who gave Annalise a hard time and eventually beat her up.) Annalise tells Claudia that Jasmine is dead. She also tells Claudia about the class action suit and says she wants Claudia to join it. Apparently, Annalise’s pitch works because Claudia calls her later that day and tells her that she’s in. So are 15 other prisoners Claudia talked to. Annalise now has the number of plaintiffs she needs to move forward with the suit. Annalise celebrates with an adorable dance, but her happiness is short-lived.
One of the other plaintiffs calls Annalise and says she has to drop out of the suit because the “DA lady” offered her a better deal. Several of the other plaintiffs also drop out because Bonnie offered them all deals. (Apparently, she checked the security footage and saw that Annalise had been at the prison after all.) Annalise is now nowhere near close to the number of plaintiffs she needs.
In a fantastic scene, Annalise confronts Bonnie about stealing away the plaintiffs she needs for her suit. Annalise says she was trying to do good with the lawsuit, but Bonnie believes that everything Annalise does is for herself. Annalise claims that’s not why she helped Bonnie all those years ago. Annalise says she helped her because she saw that they were the same. Bonnie says they were never the same, but Annalise tried to turn Bonnie into her and when it didn’t work, she threw her away. Bonnie tearfully says that even after everything she did for Annalise, Annalise threw her away like she was nothing.
Annalise admits that maybe Bonnie never needed her, but she says that she never saw Bonnie as nothing. Annalise leaves, hurt and disappointed in her former friend. (Can we just talk about how incredible Liza Weil is in this episode? She broke my heart in at least four different scenes, including this one.)
How Bonnie Met Annalise
In flashbacks to 2002, we see that Bonnie first met Annalise in court when Annalise was one of the lawyers defending a councilman Bonnie was accusing of rape. Bonnie is a very compelling witness so Annalise’s co-counsel tells Annalise that she needs to do the cross-examination. Annalise is hesitant, but he promises her that if she wins the case, he’ll make sure the partners’ know what a great job she did.
Back at home, Sam finds Annalise stressing out about this cross-examination. Annalise clearly doesn’t want to tear apart a young woman who reminds her so much of herself, but she doesn’t want to be seen as weak for not being able to do the cross.
During her first attempt at the cross-examination, Annalise goes easy on Bonnie and Bonnie maintains perfect composure. Annalise’s co-counsel tells her to do better or she will no longer have a job. For her second cross-examination, Annalise picks apart Bonnie’s testimony, making it seem like Bonnie’s memory of the events might be hazy thanks to all the trauma she went through. Bonnie is clearly devastated by Annalise’s questioning, but it’s enough for Annalise to win the case. Later, Sam comes home to find Annalise drinking and she tells him that she quit her job. She also tells him that she wants them to help Bonnie.
In the final flashbacks of the episode, Annalise approaches Bonnie and tells her that she just started teaching at the university. She thinks Bonnie would make a great lawyer and she promises to do whatever she can to help Bonnie out. We then see Bonnie arriving at Annalise’s old house for the first time where she meets Sam. (Like Bonnie, I really miss Annalise’s old house.)
(During Bonnie’s testimony, we find out that Bonnie once had a child, but she doesn’t know what happened to the baby because she passed out during labor and her horrible father told her the baby died. I don’t know if the show will ever introduce Bonnie’s supposedly dead baby, but this does help us understand why Bonnie was always so upset over Annalise’s loss of her child.)
Bonnie Finally Admits the Truth
As the episode begins, a distraught “Julie” — aka Bonnie — arrives at Isaac’s office. Isaac realizes that Bonnie saw “May” earlier that night. Bonnie says that she lied to him. She didn’t come see him to get better. She came because she wanted to hurt “May.” (“May” of course is Annalise.)
Isaac tries to talk to Bonnie about what happened that night, but she says it doesn’t matter. She thinks about how much she and Annalise have in common and wonders if that’s what messed them up. Bonnie says Annalise wanted a child and Bonnie just wanted to be whatever Annalise needed. Isaac asks if that’s what their relationship was about, but Bonnie says it was also about guilt. Annalise’s guilt, to be specific.
Isaac asks “Julie” to tell him a good memory she has of “May” because she came to therapy to get over her. Bonnie then compares her relationship with Annalise to her relationship with her father because both relationships were abusive and she only turned to Annalise because of what her father did to her. She says she was so desperate for someone who wouldn’t rape her that she took what she could get and that’s not love. Isaac tells Bonnie that until she admits that she loves “May,” she won’t be able to let go of her anger and obsession.
Bonnie says she just wants to feel better and Isaac prompts her into admitting that she loves “May.” Bonnie finally says the words “I love her” out loud, over and over again. Isaac asks her how she feels and she says that it hurts because she misses “May.” Bonnie says, “she made me feel safe even when I hated her.”
Once Bonnie starts really opening up about how she feels, she can’t stop herself and she ends up revealing that the “May” she’s talking about is actually Annalise. Isaac is both shocked and angry when he figures it out.
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The Frank-Laurel Situation is More Complicated Than We Knew
Laurel starts the episode by sleeping with Frank. She leaves to go to work but says she’ll text him later. When Frank stops by that night, it’s not for sex which is good because they both feel bad about sleeping together behind Bonnie’s back. Frank then asks Laurel if he is the baby’s father and Laurel confirms that she and Frank did sleep together when he returned to Philadelphia last season and she lied to Wes about it. Laurel insists that the baby isn’t his and she kicks him out.
(Upon a re-watch, the car scene with Frank and Laurel in the previous episode came across as pretty non-consensual. Laurel just climbs on top of Frank and tells him to take it while Frank tells her to wait. I doubt this was the show’s intention with that scene so Frank’s lack of consent probably won’t be mentioned but I thought it was worth noting.)
Connor Reaches Out to Annalise
Connor is clearly feeling down in this episode, thanks to his lack of a job and purpose in life. When Oliver cancels their dinner plans, Connor falls back on his old ways and texts some guy on Humpr. Alas, instead of going to the hook-up, Connor heads to Annalise’s place. She asks why he quit law school and he blames her. He is so messed up from all the bad things they’ve done. He also says he thinks Wes is the lucky one because he no longer has to do with any of this. Annalise tells Connor that he’s stronger than he knows because even though he tells Annalise that he wants to kill himself, he came to her instead.
Oliver Helps Michaela
At Caplan & Gold, Oliver helps Michaela break into Tegan’s files so they can look into Laurel’s dad’s company. Alas, Tegan has a secondary security protection so all they can do is take a photo of a cease and desist letter they find addressed to Trent Stockton, aka the one-time employ of Laurel’s dad’s company who died under mysterious circumstances.
What Did Asher Do?
The episode ends with a montage of Frank taking his LSATs, Annalise bringing Connor on to help her with the class action lawsuit, and Asher spotting Michaela at Wes’ apartment when she claims she’s still at work. Laurel tells Michaela and Oliver that the cease and desist letter was sent one week before Stockton’s mysterious death so Laurel thinks her father had Stockton killed because he was ready to blow the whistle on the company. Poor Oliver is worried they could all be next.
In this week’s very brief flash-forward, we see Bonnie at the Caplan & Gold offices. She asks a cop where the suspect is and he says the suspect is in jail. We then cut to crying in jail sobbing their eyes out. This person is revealed to be Asher! Is Asher responsible for whatever went down in Tegan’s office or did he just arrive on the scene after the fact?
What did you think of this episode of How to Get Away with Murder season 4? Whose blood is that near Tegan’s office? Are you surprised that Connor is the first person Annalise brought onto the class action suit? Will they make a good team? Is Frank really the father of Laurel’s baby? Do you want to see them together again or are you hoping they move on from one another? Will Asher learn about Michaela and Laurel’s investigation into Laurel’s dad? Is that why he ends up at the C&G offices in the flash-forward? 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.
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Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
