In the season 4 finale of How to Get Away with Murder, titled “Nobody Else is Dying,” Annalise and company deal with the death of yet another person close to them, and the investigation into said death leads to a major arrest. Meanwhile, Michaela makes a bold move, the fight against Laurel’s father finally comes to an end, and Nate discovers some surprising information about one of his friends.
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Denver is Dead!
As the episode begins, the medical examiner is doing an autopsy on the person killed in the “car accident” at the end of the previous episode. While this is happening, Annalise meets with Nate who says the police think this death was foul play. Nate tells Annalise that he’s still looking for the missing hard drive and Annalise warns him to be careful because the FBI will be all over this case. This is when Bonnie shows up. Bonnie thinks Laurel’s dad is responsible for the death because Bonnie left Annalise that voicemail about Denver having the missing hard drive. Yes, that’s right. The dead person is DA Denver. (This is a good twist since the show has made it a habit of pinning so many things on Denver these past few seasons. Now, at least, they’ll have to find a new villain for season 5, assuming there is one. As of now, ABC has yet to renew the show for next season.)
The next day, Asher comes home to tell Michaela that he’s moving out and their relationship is over. Michaela knows she did a terrible thing and she regrets it. Asher fires back that Michaela doesn’t regret it, she just thinks she should. He says Michaela doesn’t know who she is and I think he might have a point there. However, Asher is starting to act like his old “douche-face” self and that needs to stop ASAP. Their argument is interrupted when Annalise texts asking them to meet at her hotel.
At the DA’s office, one of the ADA’s has already been promoted to acting DA in Denver’s place. (Bonnie had contentious dealings with this guy earlier this season and I believe his name is Ronald.) He makes a speech about Denver and how important he was to all of them. He also says they need to cooperate fully with the FBI so they can find out who killed their boss.
The Keating 4 and Oliver are all discussing who might’ve killed Denver and panicking over what the FBI could discover during their investigation. Annalise tells them all to calm down. She says all they have is each other so they need to protect each other. Just then, Laurel gets a call from her father. He wants to know where Laurel’s mom is. Laurel was apparently the last person seen with her mother at her mother’s hotel. Laurel claims she doesn’t know where her mom is. Her father, who is at the hospital with baby Christopher, basically threatens Laurel’s baby if Laurel doesn’t tell him where her mother is. Laurel continues to insist that she doesn’t know, but she’s not very convincing.
Laurel is Questioned by the FBI
Annalise questions Laurel about what occurred between Laurel and her mother. Laurel claims she didn’t do anything to harm her mother, at least not physically. She did, however, say horrible things to her mom after learning that her mother was involved in Wes’ death. Laurel and Frank start to discuss options on what to do about Laurel’s dad, but Annalise says they should stick to their original plan. They’ll find the hard drive, have Simon turn over the files to the FBI in exchange for whistle-blower status, and Laurel’s father will be arrested.
Just then, Laurel gets a call from the FBI. The woman in charge of the investigation into Denver’s death wants to meet with Laurel, as Laurel was the last person to see Denver at the DA’s office before his death. Michaela tells Annalise that she and Oliver will handle things with Simon while Annalise helps Laurel out with her FBI interview/interrogation.
Back at the DA’s office, the new DA (once again, I think his name is Ronald) tells Bonnie that he can’t take over for Denver without help from everyone in the office, including her. He wants them to be friends and Bonnie agrees to this new friendship. (Later in the episode, we see that these two could become more than friends, as Bonnie sees him on a dating app and swipes right, much to his delight. I hope, for Bonnie’s sake, that he turns out to be a decent guy.)
At the hospital, Michaela and Oliver assure Simon that Annalise is finalizing his deal for whistle-blower status. Simon then tells Oliver to leave and Michaela backs his play because they need to keep Simon happy right now.
During her meeting with the FBI agent in charge of investigating Denver’s murder, Laurel claims that her unscheduled meeting with Denver prior to his death was his idea and that he wanted to talk to her about her father. Laurel claims she knew nothing of a connection between Denver and her father until Denver brought it up and she then plants the idea that the FBI should look at her father as a suspect. Later, Annalise tells the group that this will help lay the groundwork for Simon to blow the whistle on Laurel’s father’s dirty dealings.
Since Denver’s death, Nate had been digging into Denver looking for the missing hard drive and it turns out that he struck gold. When he meets with Annalise and company, he tells them that he found the missing hard drive, as well as Dominick’s phone, which Laurel gave to Denver at their last meeting.
Annalise Turns to Tegan for Help
Since Oliver is the only one with an air-gaped computer, he is the only person who can search the hard drive for the incriminating files they need on Laurel’s father’s company. Alas, this is clearly going to take a while.
Connor pulls Annalise aside and tells her that he doesn’t think they should be involved in any of this since they were trying to do good with the class action suit. If they actually win, their clients will need help and they can’t help anyone if they get arrested. Annalise then brings up the fact that she named him during her press conference in order to help him get back into law school because she knows why Connor really left in the first place.
At the hospital, Simon is starting to get suspicious that Michaela is stalling because they don’t have the hard drive. He wants to see the deal Annalise got for him, as well as proof that they have the drive, or he will tell the police what really happened that night at Caplan & Gold.
When Annalise gets wind of Simon’s threats, she asks Oliver if he’ll be able to find the files they need, but Oliver says it’s unlikely in such a short amount of time. Annalise decides they need help and she ends up going to Tegan. (I am so relieved it was Denver who was killed and not Tegan. She was one of the best things about this season.) Annalise tells Tegan that they have the hard drive and they need her help in locating the incriminating files. Annalise says that Tegan could be implicated on Laurel’s dad’s on-going crimes since she is his attorney so Annalise wants Tegan to be a whistle-blower. She also tells Tegan that Denver was likely killed because he was working for Laurel’s father. Tegan kicks Annalise out of her office. (Though we will soon learn there is more to that story.)
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Annalise Confronts Laurel’s Father
When they’re alone, Nate tells Bonnie and only Bonnie that Denver had files on all of them. Nate claims he destroyed the files, but of course, that would be too easy.
After leaving Simon asleep at the hospital, Michaela finds Annalise in the Caplan & Gold parking lot and says she has an idea of how to deal with Simon. They’ll just get him deported. Annalise refuses to do that, saying that she’s not going to ruin an innocent man’s life. She also warns Michaela against the path she’s going down because Annalise has been down it herself and it almost destroyed her.
Later that night, Frank tells Laurel that he went by her mother’s hotel and no one saw anything. Her mother apparently disappeared without a trace. Frank then asks Laurel is she had something to do with said disappearance. Laurel once again claims she didn’t hurt her mother and she tells Frank that she isn’t the sociopath in their relationship, though she eventually apologizes for that remark.
When Asher is once again complaining about Michaela cheating on him and lying about it, Connor says they all lie. He then confesses that he didn’t drop out of law school. Rather, he failed out and he didn’t say anything because he was ashamed.
After her meeting with Tegan, Annalise calls Laurel’s father and arranges a meeting with him. She brings along the hard drive and tells him that she’ll give it to him if he recants his testimony so Laurel can regain custody of her son. Laurel’s dad starts arguing with Annalise and accusing everyone close to Annalise of harming Laurel’s mother. Annalise tells him that she’s happy to turn the hard drive over to the FBI if he doesn’t agree to her terms. Laurel’s dad then accuses Annalise of stealing Laurel from him and Annalise brings up the fact that he had Wes killed. Annalise tells Laurel’s father to be a good parent for once in his life and let Laurel have her son back.
The Court Makes A Decision
In a surprise twist, Laurel’s dad agrees to Annalise’s deal. He recants his testimony in exchange for the hard drive and Laurel is granted sole custody of her son. At the hospital, Laurel gets her son back and it’s a sweet reunion. Laurel’s father once again asks her what happened to her mother and Laurel says she doesn’t know or care. As far as Laurel’s concerned, both of her parents are dead to her. Frank calls Annalise as they’re leaving the hospital with Laurel’s baby and she tells him to get out of there.
As Laurel’s dad is leaving the hospital, the FBI arrives with a warrant for his arrest. In flashbacks, we see that while Tegan verbally told Annalise she wanted nothing to do with taking down Laurel’s father, she wrote Annalise a note saying she was in. Tegan turns out to be the whistle-blower, though the FBI agent in charge assures Tegan that all of the paperwork lists her as “Jane Doe” so no one at Caplan & Gold will know about her involvement. Tegan also earned immunity for turning on Laurel’s father.
While the group watches from Bonnie’s house, the media announces that Laurel’s dad is being brought up on multiple charges, including the murder of DA Denver. The group then discusses what to do about Simon, but Michaela informs them that she already took care of that. Against Annalise’s advice, Michaela gave an anonymous tip to ICE about Simon’s felony gun charge so he would get deported. Oliver is horrified by Michaela’s actions, but Michaela tells Annalise that she did what she had to do to keep them all safe. (Should the show be renewed for season 5, it will be interesting to see if Michaela ends up feeling guilty for having Simon deported or if she continues to believe she did the right thing in order to protect everyone.)
Later, Annalise and company gather together as the announcement is made that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. Yes, that’s right. Annalise won her class action suit! According to the media, Annalise is now a national power-player, which is a far cry from where she was at the start of the season.
Who’s Kid is That?!
As the episode comes to a close, Annalise gives a radio interview where she talks about her class action win and gives yet another beautiful speech about how important this case was. She also reveals to the interviewer that she doesn’t know what’s next in her career.
After said interview, Annalise visits Laurel at Bonnie’s house, where Laurel is apparently staying now. Annalise offers to watch baby Christopher while Laurel takes a shower. As Annalise sings to the baby, we see that Laurel has some nasty scratches on her arm, possibly hinting that she did, in fact, do something to her mother.
Meanwhile, Michaela stops by Connor and Oliver’s place where Connor invites her in to help him with his law school application. Oliver, however, isn’t home because he’s busy helping Asher move into Laurel’s apartment (which used to be Wes’ apartment.) Oliver then asks Asher to be his best man and Asher happily accepts.
Despite what he told Bonnie earlier in the episode, Nate didn’t actually destroy the files Denver had on everyone. Instead, he kept said files and we see him looking through the file Denver had on Bonnie. Included in said file is a DNA test that suggests Bonnie’s child might not have died after all. (If you remember from earlier this season, we saw flashbacks to Bonnie’s testimony against one of her many abusers. During her testimony, it came out that Bonnie became pregnant by one of her abusers. Alas, Bonnie said she passed out during labor and her evil father told her that her child died. Was her horrible father lying and her child actually survived?)
Frank ends the episode by heading to Middleton for a tour because he’s apparently thinking of going there now that he passed his LSATs. While he’s there, Frank overhears a young man introduce himself as Gabriel Maddox and Frank seemingly recognizes the name. The next thing we know, Frank is calling someone and telling them that, “Her kid’s here.” Who was Frank talking to? Is the “her” Frank mentioned supposed to be Bonnie? Is this Gabriel kid Bonnie’s son or is he related to someone else?
What did you think of this episode of How to Get Away with Murder? The show is obviously hinting that this Gabriel kid is Bonnie’s son, but could that be a misdirect? If he is Bonnie’s son, how does Frank know about him? Is it possible that Bonnie knows about this kid and she told Frank? Those scratches on Laurel’s arm are certainly suspect, but do we really think she killed her mother? Did Laurel’s father kill her mother? Is Laurel’s mom even dead?
Now that Laurel’s dad is behind bars, is he still a threat? Is Michaela becoming the new Annalise, aka someone willing to do the amoral thing for the right reasons? What will Annalise do now that her reputation has been restored and she seemingly has endless options available to her? Will Connor and Frank end up joining the rest of the group at Middleton? What other questions do you hope the show answers next season, assuming we get a next season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
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(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
