As How to Get Away with Murder races to it’s mid-season finale, we finally get closer to finding out who really shot Annalise. This week with Bonnie still MIA Annalise promotes Laurel to “the new Bonnie” while they deal with trying to close out the Hapstall case amidst shocking new revelations.
All Signs Point to Bonnie
Bonnie joins the Keating Five and tells them to calm down after Sinclaire’s body has fallen to the ground. She then takes Wes’ gun from him and walks back into the house. Is it to shoot Annalise?
<<<How to Get Away with Murder Recap: Suspicious Minds>>>
3 Days to Go
After being dropped off by Frank, Connor goes into his home only to find that Oliver has been taken by Phillip. He then rushes to Annalise’s house, where everyone has gathered to try and figure out a way to save Oliver, with Connor threatening Annalise that if anything happens to Oliver, it’ll be her fault. They decide to call Oliver missing to the police, but just as Nate is about to file the report, Oliver walks in through the door with Phillip by his side.
Phillip explains that he’s been spying on them, that the he isn’t related to the Hapstall’s at all, and that even though he may be weird, he isn’t a killer. Annalise says that she believes him. He says that he doesn’t believe her and promises he will sue her. When he leaves, Michaela suggest swabbing his DNA to prove whether or not he is the killer. Frank then gets tasked by Annalise to get the lab report of the DNA.
Annalise finally catches up Caleb and Catherine with what’s going on with Phillip, which only enrages Caleb. He threatens to fire them if they mess up one more time. Meanwhile, Laurel receives a phone call from Sinclaire offering the siblings a plea deal for each of them serving 15 years, with the offer expiring at 5:00 p.m.
<<<How to Get Away with Murder Episode 2.8 Photos: Can Sinclaire Take Down Annalise?>>>
Emily Sinclaire Goes Down
Annalise advises both of them to not take the deal as it’s a sign that Sinclaire is losing and they are getting the upper hand. Caleb disagrees with her and says he needs to think about it. Back at the Keating house, Annalise gets a phone call from Catherine asking her to send Wes over. Wes and Michaela both go over to the Hapstall house to talk to Catherine and Caleb, respectively. They each ask them separately what they would do if Michaela and Wes were in their shoes. While Michaela tells Caleb to “bet on Annalise,” Wes tells Catherine to take the deal.
Back at the house, Annalise throws Wes off the case for being too emotional and raw over Rebecca, thus skewing his judgement on this case.
While at the lab, Frank is told that he can’t have his DNA processed since the lab is inundated with requests. When Asher questions if all the requests came from Sinclaire’s office is confirmed, Asher tells the group that the Keating house must be tapped by Sinclaire and that she’s been listening to everything they’ve been discussing which is why she offered the plea deal.
Annalise then orders the students to search the house for the bug when she gets a phone call from a shaken Catherine telling her that Caleb has gone behind her back and made a deal with Sinclaire, taking on a 30-year sentence so that Catherine receives none. Annalise and Michaela go to the house leaving the rest of the team to search for the bug. They tell Caleb it was a stupid thing for him to do while they try and figure out a way to get him out of his own mess.
Back at the house, Asher finds the bug inside of a pen and Annalise and company plant a false story about finding the murder weapon in the basement of the home after Caleb admitted to murdering his parents.
When Emily Sinclaire follows suit and shows up to the Hapstall house with a search warrant, she falls right into Annalise’s neat trap. After her search yields no results Sinclaire realizes that she’s been had. When Sinclaire asks for the time she finds out it’s after five, meaning her deal with Caleb is no longer valid. Annalise – 1, Sinclaire – 0.
Frank Proves His Worth
Phillip goes to the police station to give a statement, Nate tells Annalise of his presence and tells her that he’ll take care of it and doesn’t offer details. Nate then creates fake files on a database to make Phillip appear as if he’s made false accusations before, thereby discrediting him.
At the Keating house, Michaela gets a phone call from Caleb telling her that now Catherine has made a plea deal with Sinclaire behind Annalise’s back. (Seriously what is going on with these siblings?) Sinclaire’s new deal with Catherine is her taking all the blame for the murders for 10 years with Caleb serving no time. This time, Sinclaire schedules the hearing so that Annalise has only half an hour to come up with a defense.
Annalise stalls the court proceedings while Connor, Michaela, Laurel, and Asher work up to the minute to try and find a loop hole to prevent Catherine from accepting the deal. However they run out of time and are unable to come up with anything.
Just as Catherine is about to accept the plea deal, Frank rushes in with the lab reports (which cost him a cool $50,000) and gives them to Annalise. Annalise shows the reports to Catherine who then promptly rejects the plea deal.
Catherine’s Secret
Annalise walks into a clearly frustrated and defeated Emily Sinclaire – sorry girl! – and tells her that Phillip Jessup’s DNA was a 99 percent match to the DNA found at the scene of the crime. And not only that, but that he is most likely the son of the murdered brother and sister…that’s right, we’re back at incest everyone.
Later that night, Wes is delivered a painting by Catherine, however the painting causes Wes to have an “A-HA” moment and he rushes to Annalise’s. While Wes shows Annalise that Phillip has one of Catherine’s paintings in his room, Caleb leads Michaela to Catherine’s painting room and shows her the gun that was most likely used in his parents murder.
As the episode ends, we see Catherine waiting in a car for Phillip, who tells her that he’ll take care of everything.
Tune into How to Get Away with Murder Thursdays at 10PM on ABC
(image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
