The back and forth time jump in this installment pulled the curtain back a bit more and revealed an additional chess piece, Rebecca, being comforted by Wes, in Annalise’s office while the other three try to wrap their heads around their options for the disposing of Sam’s corpse. I wonder if Professor Keating thought the coveted Lady Justice statue would be used for murder. Lila was killed and dumped in the water tank two months prior to Sam’s murder. We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out that Rebecca, who has been implicated in her death, came to possess her smart phone and poorly hide it in Wes’s bathroom cabinet. Will Michaela grow up to become Annalise or Olivia Pope? Her pedigree is more akin to Olivia, but her doggedness to marry someone she loves and trusts hearkens back to Annalise’s original intentions. She threatened to ruin Aiden’s future life and political career if he hasn’t aired all of his past sexual partners. Annalise has abandoned her romantic fantasies of picket fences and a nuclear family, whereas Michaela would kill for it. Do each of the central four students represent a side of Annalise? Ambition, guile, fragility and determination in the persons of Wes, Connor, Laurel and Michaela. I’d venture a bet that Asher’s the third wheel much like Frank is to Professor Keating. Everyone has a role to play. Places everyone on this three-dimensional chess board with trap doors and landmines. Mind where you step! Connor and Aiden’s boarding school dalliance can’t count as an affair, but it was enough to cast doubt in Michaela’s mind. In the chaos of moving and incinerating Sam’s body, the large engagement ring goes missing, and possibly will connect her to the body disposal site. Last-minute alibi at the bonfire be damned! Statement of fact this time around, unhappy marriages and couplings can be a solid foundation on which to build dramatic television shows. One always wants something the other promised, yet forgot to deliver. One expects the other to read their mind and create simple or elaborate fantasies after a tough day at the office. This episode’s example is Paula Kelly, bored at home soccer mom, caught with her hand far below the cookie jar. Things happen too easily or without explanation on many daytime soaps and primetime shows, and HTGAWM is no exception. Case in point: how did the FBI roll up on Annalise and her students moments after leaving the police precinct with tonight’s naughty soccer mom? Yes, for dramatic purposes and network time constraints, the FBI had to arrive afterward or there wouldn’t have been a client on trail. I want the writers to do more than paint by numbers and surprise me in future episodes. I want to trust that the writers have a handle on this show and won’t leave any or too many loose ends after each successive episode. Who at the prison or courthouse dropped the ball and didn’t handcuff Gabriel Shaw before and immediately after his testimony? Paula touched a nerve in Annalise and Michaela on their return from the prison. Paula’s glee and their uncertainty or discomfort played well. Paula has always been a wild child dating back to her time in the cult with Gabriel. Her arrest for public indecency in a park is testament to her thrill-seeking. Annalise and Michaela are wired differently, yet the connective tissue was established. Gabriela and Paula are crazy in love. Is this the type of imperfect love Annalise longed for with Sam? No one’s happy in love, lust or their infatuation. We’re obviously not at Disneyland, but maybe someone would have a moment’s peace and bliss without the world crashing down on them. Happy, well-adjusted characters make for boring fiction, movies, and television. Wes, Rebecca’s self-appointed white knight, has faith in Rebecca’s innocence when no one else does. He gets through to Annalise, but is it too late to save her after she confesses? Tune in next Thursday for the answer to this and other questions.
