Written By David Oliver
It’s Called the Octopus Plot Summary:
It was all about sex this week: from the Hapstall case taking an incestuous turn, to the sex party case of the week, to your favorite Keating 5 dishing the dirty. Plus, we find out who Eggs 911 is.
Let me preface this review with a “damn.” I don’t think there’s a show on network TV that is as fearless as How to Get Away With Murder in terms of pushing the boundaries on what would have been considered inappropriate on TV just five years ago, even at 10 p.m. Bravo.
In classic HTGAWM fashion, we start off in the future. Annalise’s (Viola Davis) phone vibrates, which she tries to reach with her bloodied hand, and of course doesn’t get to it in time. Who is calling but Nate (Billy Brown), who’s asking if she’s OK. Spoiler: she’s not.
Seven weeks earlier, Annalise is trying to figure out the motive for the Hapstall twins, drinking her way through her argument process, recording it. She heads to her fridge — “I hate all this healthy food” — and wants chocolate chip cookies (obviously). She looks at an email from Eve (Famke Janssen). She’ll undoubtedly come back into play, I hope.
But then: a noise. She hears something in the house and has Wes (Alfred Enoch) come over and check it out (it’s just an animal).
Cue the montage, but a key highlight: Levi (Matt Cohen) and Michaela (Aja Naomi King) start getting hot and heavy, but she kicks him out (she’s not a third date kind of girl).
Case of the week: Tonya (Sherri Saum), a sex party host, is accused of murdering a guest, Dominick. The two had rough sex that night. Tidbit we learn: Asher (Matt McGorry) wants to die having sex (on this show, this kind of information is possible foreshadowing).
The Keating 5 try and nail down a witness to testify for Tanya, though none want to be outed for going to sex parties. Connor’s (Jack Falahee) girl invites him to one.
Meanwhile, gossip emerges via a tabloid: the Hapstall siblings in an intimate moment. Asher puts it correctly: they’re “totes smushing.”
The Keating 5 get to talking about sex, and something critical comes out. Michaela has never had an orgasm. This isn’t all too shocking.
Michaela and Connor head to the sex party (and Connor doesn’t sleep with anyone). Turns out Tonya was in love with Dominick, and traded cards that night so she could sleep with him, a married man with children.
The killer twist? She did it. He was taking Viagra and she gave him nitroglycerin. Annalise naturally (and flawlessly) manages to pin the murder on his wife by framing her.
And THAT’S how you get away with murder, folks. Plain and simple.
Tanya is horrified, though this exchange is perfect:
Tonya: How do you sleep at night?
Annalise: Alone. On very comfortable sheets.
In other developments, Annalise heard more than just an animal: Asher was in Annalise’s house and managed to steal her recorder for Sinclair (Sarah Burns). Asher and Bonnie (Liza Weil) end things awkwardly, and Laurel (Karla Souza) invites Bonnie out for a drink to learn more about Frank (Charlie Weber), to which Bonnie doesn’t oblige. Asher also tells his dad (remember him?) he’s in trouble.
Later, Wes confronts Levi and discovers that Rebecca (Katie Findlay) is actually Eggs 911! Levi is her foster brother, and he thinks she’s dead.
Also, speaking of Levi, looks like Michaela was finally going to get that orgasm.
Connor tells Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) he didn’t sleep with anyone at the sex party, and the two start getting busy (finally). Annalise goes to see Nate and tells him she misses him and even was helping him out on the job front. But when Annalise leaves, who do we see the camera shift to in Nate’s apartment? WES.
Um, what?
And again in the future, Nate picks up the Keating 4 in his car.
This episode left me with more questions than answers. And is the Eggs 911 mystery that easily solved? What are Nate and Wes actually up to? Who shot Annalise? Is Oliver hiding something? When will Laurel find out what Frank is really like? Will anyone in the original cast tell Asher anything ever? I digress. But still, as always, entertaining.
Rating: 8/10
