‘How To Get Away With Murder’ Recap: No One Can Keep a Secret

With the winter finale right around the corner, the stakes in How to Get Away With Murder are really high. The news of Lilah’s pregnancy sends everyone reeling, testing loyalties and forming unlikely alliances. We even get glimpses into the beginning of Sam and Lilah’s relationship, with Rebecca being the only one who knew about it. Add to that a deadly case of sleepwalking and you have one heart stopping hour of TV.

How to Get Away with Murder Recap: What Did Rebecca Do? >>>

The Case Against Gretchen Thomas

Gretchen Thomas, a real estate broker and all American mom is on trial for the murder of her nanny. Her defense: she was asleep when she did it. The suburban wife suffers from a crazy case of sleepwalking, doing everything from ordering things online to even killing people while being sound asleep. When we first meet her, she’s busy planning her daughter’s birthday party — acting like she wasn’t going on trial for her life. Annalise insists they get her prepped for trial but Gretchen tells her she doesn’t want to testify. Even though she was sound asleep, she committed a crime and should be punished.

With their defendant refusing to defend herself, it’s up to her family to show the jury the extent of her sleepwalking and how much she loved the nanny Elka. The only one who seemed they would make the greatest impression in court is Gretchen’s son Cody. He gets on the stand and his testimony is going really well. He tells everyone that his mother adored Elka and how horrible it must be for his mother to wake up and find she did something so horrific. As he’s being cross-examined (like five minutes into it), he drops a major bombshell — he was sleeping with Elka.

Annalise is pissed that she was blindsided and the case seems all but lost. But, as we HTGAWM fans know, there’s always something that comes up that saves the day (and the case!). Since it was Connor’s responsibility to prep Cody, he goes back there to pay him a visit. Through telling him his own story about his first time with an older woman when he was young, he finds out that Cody’s relationship with Elka was not so rosy. The nanny gave him a nasty STD, one that required a specific medication. Michaela knows exactly what that antibiotic is and makes sure Annalise has it in her arsenal when she goes to court.

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The next day, Annalise is questioning the husband and she delivers the knockout punch. The day of the murder, Cody went to his father to tell him about the painful urination he was having, suspecting he had an STD. He revealed that he was sleeping with Elka. His father knows about that pain all too well — he caught the same STD from her when he started sleeping with her three months earlier. The husband purposely got his wife drunk and had her take her sleeping pills so he could kill Elka and pin it on her. Totally didn’t see that coming!

Keeping Lilah’s Pregnancy a “Secret”

Though Sam swears he didn’t know Lilah was pregnant, the writing is very clear on the wall. The girl had a virginity pact with her boyfriend Griffin and Sam was her first. Bonnie already knows (poor girl was the one to deliver the bad news) and Annalise pulls Wes aside and tells him. She asks that he doesn’t tell Rebecca, but we all know this lovesick law student is going to run home and tell her. But who she tells is a surprise — Nate. These two are working together to bring Sam down and clear Rebecca’s name. Wes finds out they’re working together and he flips out, with good reason.

Tonight’s episode gave us well-placed flashbacks of the rise and fall of Lilah and Sam’s relationship as well as how close she and Rebecca were. It was clear Rebecca was her drug dealer, but in a weird way she became a good friend, confiding in her about her relationship with Mr. Darcy. Lilah was smitten with him, being that he was first and all. But when he wanted to end things, she was heartbroken because she was ready to leave Griffin and be with him. Rebecca advised her to get over it but when she found out she was pregnant she was devastated and ready to get back at him by telling Annalise.

Up until now we’ve been trying to figure Bonnie out. Was she Team Sam or Team Annalise? Where did she fit into the whole Lilah murder? Well, it just so happens she saw Lilah the night she died. The young girl went by the Keating house, hysterically crying and wanting to talk to Annalise. Bonnie had a feeling this was yet another student Sam was sleeping with and sternly told the girl to get lost. Now that she knows Lilah was pregnant, she confronts Sam telling him that he had to know she was pregnant. He did (of course!) but swears he didn’t hurt her. With a stroke of the cheek and a hot kiss, he asks Bonnie not to tell Annalise.

So what does Bonnie do? Tells Annalise about Lilah and Sam, apologizing for not telling her sooner. The woman is in tears, the first time we ever saw her display any type of emotion. Annalise isn’t moved, promptly firing her.

• Annalise is asking the DA to get blood samples for all the men in Lilah’s life, setting Sam up.
• Frank and Laurel were getting hot heavy, until she finds out he has a girlfriend. No wonder Rebecca goes MIA after her fight with Wes. Is she going to the house to plant that bug on Sam’s phone like Nate asked her to?
• Bonnie is fired and devastated. Is that why she ends up sleeping with Asher?
• After a bad fight with the monster in law, Michaela goes to Asher’s place and steals his trophy.

How to Get Away With Murder airs on Thursdays at 10pm on ABC.

(Image courtesy of ABC)

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Margaret McGriff

Contributing Writer, BuddyTV