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New Show Recap: How to Get Away with Murder 1×05, “We’re Not Friends”

Ready for another week of this? I am! By the way, if anyone from NYC is reading this before watching How to Get Away with Murder on your DVR, be prepared to miss a couple of minutes. According to Twitter, the local stations up there interrupted the show for breaking news about the doctor with Ebola.

You know who doesn’t have Ebola? Professor Keating’s little group. But they sure are sweating profusely as if they did. The show starts off, as it always has so far, with the night of the murder. Laurel, Michaela, Connor, and Wes are trying to get rid of Mr. Professor Keating’s body. Laurel’s phone goes off and catches the attention of a couple making out nearby. Michaela goes off on Laurel, asking her why Frank is calling her. She admits that she slept with him and that it doesn’t matter why he’s calling. “Why would I tell you? We’re not friends.” Way harsh, Tai. But true.

Flash back to six weeks earlier. Laurel is answering a question during class about jury selection. “I know what a stealth juror is,” Keating says to her. “If you need to show off, that’s something to talk to your therapist about.” Zing! But Laurel’s not having that. “I wasn’t showing off. I was answering your question.” Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed. After class, Wes is asking Prof. Keating if she’s decided what to do with the phone. He suggests trying to trace down the man behind the mysterious dick pic but Keating doesn’t think they should even turn the phone in. Of course you don’t, love.

And now we’re back to where the last episode left off. The Keatings are in the bedroom and Annalise, in all of her natural no-wig-no-makeup glory, is asking Sam how long he’d been screwing the murdered girl and how many times. Six or seven times over the summer, he tells her, in his office and in her car. But he swears it was just a fling. “Then why did you lie to me?!” she asks him. He insists that Lila was the one pursuing him, coming to him about her problems. “She was lost,” he says. “Just like you found me,” Annalise reminds him. “That’s how you like your mistresses — weak, broken, messes that you just clean up.” Wait, what? Annalise was his mistress? “We were never just some affair,” he shoots back. “Tell that to your first wife.”

https://twitter.com/HowToGetAwayABC/status/525468132174200832

Oh, we definitely need to hear more about this. So then he tries to start hugging on her, she doesn’t want to be touched, they’re yelling and fighting, and Blonde Lady (Bonnie?) is downstairs listening to it all. What is her deal?

Now we’re back to Wes trying to convince Prof. Keating to find out whose penis is on that phone. Oh, Puppy, she already knows. Of course, he doesn’t know that so he doesn’t understand why she has no interest in establishing the mystery man as a possible suspect.

Here’s our Case of the Week: abusive cop is killed by his teenage son who is trying to protect himself and his mom from the abuse. Prof. Keating is explaining to the Scooby gang that the way to win a case like this is not on the evidence but with the emotions of the jury. They discuss how things like gender, race, and other similarities should be considered in jury selection.

Prosecuting attorney asks to have any mention of the domestic violence prohibited and her request is granted. So without that evidence, Keating’s team is screwed. After the hearing, Frank runs up to Laurel and invites her to lunch. “You’re thinking about a sandwich? Our whole case just got thrown out. Ryan’s going to prison for the rest of his life where he will probably become somebody’s bitch boy and that’s actually the good option considering his dad’s cop buddies might beat him to death first.” Laurel, honey? Make sure your client isn’t standing right behind you when you say stuff like that, ‘k?

Now we’re at Keating’s office. Bonnie is assigning each of the Scooby gang members a juror to keep an eye on. They key now is to find a way to get the abuse issue slipped back in. And there’s still that whole “emotions of the jury” thing to work with so they’re each supposed to learn everything they can about their assigned juror but DO NOT make contact with them. That’s jury tampering and it’s illegal. They’re also digging through three years worth of the kid’s blog in the hopes that using it will give them the key they need to have the abuse entered. Aaaaaaand…BAM, there it is! Laurel earns 10 points for Slytherin!

You know who I’m liking even less than Laurel right now? Rebecca, the neighbor/accused killer. You don’t just walk into somebody’s apartment and steal pizza without asking! And aside from that, she’s just using puppy-eyed Wes and being nice to him when it’s convenient for her or she needs something. Like pizza and company so she “doesn’t go all Red Rum” on somebody. But at least she finally tells him that she didn’t do it.

(I have NO idea, Cupcake Killa!)

Back to Chez Keating where Annalise is hitting that vodka bottle hard. She meets up with Nate and ends up finding out that he got fired and that he thinks Annalise is the one who told the cops that he was investigating her husband. She insists that she didn’t and Nate tells her, “I don’t believe you and, to be honest, I don’t care. If you want to sleep next to a killer, go for it.” Yep, he’s laying out the truth for her.

And now we’re back to the night of the murder. Frank is blowing up Laurel’s phone and she finally answers it because the bonfire in the background will give them an alibi. Frank is begging her, “Don’t shut me out! I’ll do anything.” He’s going to end up regretting that. Flashing back, we see Laurel getting advice from her new boyfriend about using the jury to their advantage, getting them to vote on a verdict using their heart instead of the law, finding him not guilty even though they know he’s guilty. But, see, it’s illegal for Laurel to tell them to do that. “What would Annalise Keating do?”

Back at Keating’s office, she’s laying into Bonnie about tattling on Officer Nate to get the confession tape. Annalise tells her she knows she didn’t do it for her. She did it for the nookie. “Thank you for protecting my husband though. Now go.”

In the courtroom, a cop is on the witness stand while Connor is browsing through Grindr Humpr. Back at the office, they’re discussing the jurors. Laurel is trying to convince Frank they should attempt this jury nullification. He’s wondering why she’s so invested in this case. Meanwhile, Connor is getting a message from one of the jurors on Humpr, something about how cop killers deserve to die, so he gets kicked off. Once again, Connor uses his sexiness to his advantage. And playing on the emotions of the jurors is also working.

By the way, I sense some serious sexual tension between Connor and Asher.

Flashing forward to the night of the murder and Michaela is freaking out about finding her engagement ring. Wes says something about needing her to return the trophy to Asher’s. Hmmm…is he going to end up taking the fall for this?

Keating is delivering her closing argument in the domestic violence/murder case. Laurel is in the Legal Aid office printing some stuff off. Turns out it’s a stack of papers explaining what jury nullification is and she “accidentally” leaves it on a bench for one of the jurors to find. Frank sees her, tells Keating, but Keating is so damn good that she finds a way to make this work for them. Mistrial, plea deal, done. Kid gets probation, community service and counseling.

The scene is now Chez Keating. Annalise is sitting on the stairs waiting for Sam. She asks about his alibi. He admits that he skipped his lecture after Lila called him, saying she was going to hurt herself. Now Annelise is scheming. She’s getting Rebecca to come over for a “psych eval” conducted by Sam so they can find out what she knows. Apparently Lila referred to the mystery man (Sam) as “Mr. Darcy,” some sad old man, bored with his marriage and Rebecca thinks that’s who killed her. Annalise still doesn’t trust him so it looks like he’ll be spending another night on the couch.

On the night of the murder, Laurel enlists Frank’s help to get the trophy/murder weapon put back in Asher’s place. Flash back to an earlier conversation between Frank and Laurel about the jury nullification thing and they end up making out until she conveniently remembers that she has a boyfriend who she promptly goes to see at the Legal Aid office, throwing him down on the table to release all that sexual energy she accumulated during that little spat with Frank,

And now we’re at the end… Rebecca took off. She put the pieces together. Sam is Mr. Darcy. The wallpaper. She recognized the wallpaper in the photo as the wallpaper in Keating’s house. Oh shit. Now she knows and so does Wes.

All hell is about to break loose.

On a lighter note, this right here earns my vote for best line of the night:

By April

If I had a dollar for every time I got distracted, I wish I had some ice cream.

2 replies on “New Show Recap: How to Get Away with Murder 1×05, “We’re Not Friends””

They still haven’t explained why she’s so angry and guarded although I think the level of sympathy she had for the cop’s wife and son suggests that she grew up in an abusive home. And I know they have to drag things out to make it last a whole season but I really need to know what Asher’s deal is and why he wasn’t at the scene of the crime too.

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