In this episode of How to Get Away with Murder season 2, “It’s a Trap,” Annalise gets past her anger at her students and agrees to help them deal with Philip’s latest threat. Meanwhile, Laurel helps Wes look into the case his mother was involved in and flashbacks to 10 years earlier reveal more details about said case.
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Annalise Helps Her Students
As the episode begins, Connor goes to Annalise for help in dealing with Philip’s threat, but Annalise is not sure why she should get involved given that she’s not in the video. (She’s also apparently still bitter they all walked out on her.) Annalise even accuses Connor of being the one who recorded the video since he wasn’t in it. Connor denies her accusation and points out that he might have been the one who saved her life the night she was shot. It is clear that Annalise knew nothing about this and Connor eventually apologizes. He then politely asks her for her help and Annalise agrees.
Annalise gathers everyone together to try and come up with a plan for dealing with Philip. She tells Frank to get his source to trace where the email came from but since Philip is a hacker, they probably will not have much luck. Annalise points out that Philip sent the video to them instead of the police because it proves he was also at the crime scene that night. Just then, Connor gets another email with another video of that night and a demand of a one million dollar pay-out or the video will be sent to the cops.
While the students freak out over this threat, Annalise tells Frank that she can come up with some of blackmail money thanks to Sam’s life insurance but she apparently cannot swing the full one million. Annalise decides to hit up Caleb for the rest of the money by agreeing to be his lawyer again and asking for a large retainer fee. She then tells him to go see Catherine and ask her to tell them everything she knows about Philip.
Caleb does what Annalise asks and goes to see Catherine. He asks her if she knows anything that she hasn’t already told them but Catherine is in no mood to talk. Caleb asks her point-blank if Philip killed their parents and Catherine says maybe she did it for Philip because he loved her and supported her the way Caleb was supposed to. (Are we all in agreement that Catherine is innocent and her brothers are the creepy ones?)
When Bonnie tells Annalise that Caleb’s chat with Catherine did not pan out, Annalise tells the students to go home and they will come up with a plan in the morning. Annalise then spends the night with Nate. The next day, Annalise tells Nate about the video and Philip’s blackmail attempt.
Nate tells Annalise that he thinks she should do nothing because “you don’t negotiate with crazies.” Since there is no time-stamp on the video and no way to prove it was taken that night, Annalise decides to take Nate’s advice and she lets the deadline pass without handing over the money. Alas, they then get another email with a video attachment. This one shows Nate and Annalise together the night before meaning that Philip is watching them. (I understand why they think Philip is behind the threats but that seems a bit obvious, doesn’t it?)
Does Laurel Have a Thing for the Bad Boys?
Laurel refuses to believe that Frank is telling the truth about killing Lila. Everything that happened was because they all believed Sam killed Lila. That is what made it okay that Wes killed Sam. Frank keeps insisting that he killed Lila and Laurel wants to know why. When Frank refuses to say, Laurel assumes he did it for Annalise because Annalise knew Sam got Lila pregnant. Frank decides to take that moment to answer a call from Bonnie and when he is distracted, Laurel leaves.
Later, Wes asks Laurel what her fight with Frank was about and Laurel tells Wes that Frank is just like her father. She says her father is not a good person and she thought she got away from him but she ended up falling for a guy who is just like him. Wes says that Frank and her father might be bad people but she isn’t. He thanks her for looking out for him and they end up making out. (I think we all saw this coming, yes? Though I am not sure how I feel about it.)
Later on, Laurel finds something in Wes’ mother’s medical report that she hides from Wes. Laurel then goes to Annalise and asks if she knew about it and we see that the report says Wes was a suspect in his mother’s death.
Wes and Laurel Team Up to Get Answers
After her fight with Frank, Laurel stops by to see Wes. Wes is busy freaking out over the file Annalise left for him. Wes and Laurel talk around what they are upset about until Wes tells Laurel that Annalise knew his mother. They discuss the Mahoney case file Annalise left for him and realize the trial took place in Ohio. Laurel then books them both on a flight to Ohio.
It turns out that all of the transcripts for the Mahoney case are kept on hard copies so Wes and Laurel have a lot of paperwork to go through. They cannot find any information on Wes’ mother but they eventually find information about an anonymous witness. Wes believes that witness was his mother but in reading over the transcripts, they learn that the anonymous witness never testified.
Wes tells Laurel that he believes the Mahoney family had his mother killed because she failed to testify. He also thinks that is why Annalise has been helping him all this time. She got his mother killed so she made sure he would get into law school, brought him onto the team so they could work together, and covered up Sam’s murder to protect him. Laurel cannot tell him he is wrong about any of that.
The next day, Laurel and Wes look into everything connected to his mother’s death, including the autopsy report and the police investigation. Wes reads that his mother’s death was ruled a suicide and two medical examiners plus the case detective signed off on that finding.
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Annalise Works With Wes’ Mother
While Laurel and Wes investigate the Mahoney case, we get flashbacks to Annalise working on said case. Annalise’s client, Charles Mahoney, is accused of killing his fiancee. At trial, the D.A. says Mahoney killed his fiancee because she was about to come forward with information proving that the Mahoney family had swindled their clients for millions of dollars. Annalise argues that there is no physical evidence against her client and she has a witness who can testify to her client’s innocence.
In earlier flashbacks, Annalise talks to Wes’ mother to see if her story matches up with what her client says happened that night. Since their stories line up, Annalise tells her client that Rose can act as his alibi. Alas, when it is time for Rose to testify via closed-circuit television, she is a no-show.
Annalise’s client’s father, a racist jerk, makes it clear that he only hired Annalise because he was told that a woman of color would help them win over the jury. He also tells Annalise that she better fix this if she wants to keep her job. Annalise goes to see Rose and tells her that she does not know what the Mahoney family will do if she does not testify, essentially trying to scare the poor woman into testifying.
In a final flashback, we see Wes standing over his mother holding a knife while she bleeds out in front of him. Did Wes really kill his mother or did he just find her like that and picked up the knife?
Other Happenings
— Annalise invites Nate over for dinner but when he makes a comment asking her what said dinner is really about, Annalise gets angry and ends up admitting that she thinks Nate might be biding his time until he turns on her. Nate tells Annalise that she is wrong and he has forgiven her. He also points out that it would not do any good for him to tell the truth now. Annalise seems to believe him and they spend the night together.
— With Philip’s threat hanging over his head, Connor tells Oliver that he is applying to Stanford and he wants Oliver to go with him. Since Philip knows where they live, Connor thinks they need to move. Oliver agrees but does not understand why they have to leave town. They eventually decide to wait and see if Connor even gets into Stanford before making any decisions.
— When Annalise sends the students home for the night, Michaela visits Caleb and they clear the air. He tells her he’s missed her and they end up making out. I was hoping Michaela had learned her lesson when it comes to this guy.
— Asher is dealing with Philip’s threat by trying to come up with ways he can confess to killing Sinclair without spending the rest of his life in jail. He goes to Bonnie to talk things over with her, but Bonnie says she is not his lawyer or his girlfriend. She tells him she cannot be that person for him anymore and that will not change with time.
What did you think of this episode of How to Get Away with Murder? What was up that with random flashback of Bonnie watching Sam during his phone call with Annalise? Was it just about her crush on Sam or were we supposed to read more into it? What did you think of Annalise’s confession to Bonnie that she never wanted children and now she has 5 of them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
How to Get Away with Murder airs Thursday nights at 10pm on ABC.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Photo AlbumHow to Get Away with Murder – 2.12- “It’s a Trap”
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
