Written by Matt Taylor
Is it fair to judge an episode by its promos? How to Get Away with Murder’s most recent episode begs the question. While “There’s My Baby” certainly delivered some thrills and resolved many of the series’ ongoing subplots, it failed to live up to the hype being built by the short clips advertising it. With an unprecedented hook-up between characters, and a lack of cliffhangers, this was certainly an odd step forward towards the finale.
The best thing about this week’s episode was the blanks involving Wes’ childhood, and Annalise’s involvement in it, were finally filled in. The answers were pretty emotional, with the inevitable loss of Annalise’s baby playing a big part in the reveal. At this point, saying that Viola Davis turned in a great performance is somewhat redundant. But, to no one’s surprise, she did a terrific job. Also great was Tom Verica, returning as Sam, and Famke Janssen, who continues to serve as the unsung hero of this ensemble. In a perfect world, she would be brought on as a series regular next year. But, if that’s not possible, hopefully we’ll see more of her next year.
There were some other game-changing developments over the course of the subplot, as the writers helped set the stage for a third season. As Wes finally received answers about his mother’s death, the storyline took an undeniably shocking turn that I can’t imagine many fans having predicted. While I doubt we’ll hear much more about this subplot during the season finale, which is a slightly annoying, there’s a good storyline on the horizon for next year. Even better, we can finally put some of the ridiculous fan theories about Wes and Annalise to rest.
Elsewhere, “That’s My Baby” was slightly disappointing. The promos promised a “shocking hook-up”, but the episode failed to deliver. Without spoiling anything, the pair that got together was only a surprise because it really didn’t make sense, and while I’m willing to follow the writers wherever they go, I hope they do a good job trying to convince the audience of this storyline’s believability. Outside of the hook-up, the Keating 5 spent most of their runtime setting up next week’s finale, thus pushing them largely to the sidelines once the main storyline took over. There were some bright spots though: Karla Souza continues to impress with her complex performance as Laurel, and we had some nice scenes between Connor and Oliver.
Last year, How to Get Away with Murder went full-speed-ahead into the finale, ending the penultimate episode with a cliffhanger. This year, it took a more subtle approach. Audiences were given answers, but the episode ended on a quiet, contemplative note, begging the question: what can we expect next week? Only time will tell, but I hope the finale is more exciting than this week’s episode, while still providing a number of satisfying answers.
Overall rating: 8 out of 10
