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What Did We Do?
Original Air Date: Nov 19, 2015
Caitlin- Senior Staff Writer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com
I’m going to say right now that I don’t think I’m capable of writing a coherent introduction for everything that went down here. Suffice it to say I prepared myself for anything and still didn’t prepare myself enough. I made no predictions and still things happened that I never would have imagined.
Last week, you’ll remember, we left Catherine meeting the one person actually suspected of killing her and Caleb’s parents. So has Annalise been defending someone who’s guilty all this time? This is where we open on our characters fourteen hours before we finally find out #WhoShotAnnalise
Wondering Whether Catherine is a Killer…
With everyone, Caleb included, thinking his sister might actually be guilty, it should come as no surprise that she disappears from the home while everyone thinks she’s still asleep. Annalise decides that she can no longer represent both siblings. She promises Caleb she’ll do what she can, but tells him to flee the house- which he only does once Michaela says she’ll help look out for Catherine. That might not be too easy, as Annalise seems about to hang her out to dry.
…Is About to Become the Least of Your Problems
You know, I can picture the writers just sitting and snickering to themselves as they wrote every scene in previous episodes that flashed forward to this one. Because we thought we knew what was going to happen and we were going to find out how. But we didn’t know. Not even half of it. Because Bonnie goes to Asher’s door to tell him that his father hung himself in his office. We have another death on our hands, completely out of the blue. And you’d be amazed how much a suicide can screw everyone over.
Asher is numb with shock as he meets his mother, who is an absolutely terrible person who blames him for his father’s implicit emotional abuse and his suicide. He falls apart later in his car, and you have to wonder just how ideal his upbringing really was in the end. You’ll remember that Annalise and co. launched the investigation into Judge Millstone in the first place. Bonnie blames herself. Frank is unsympathetic. Annalise just starts investigating the dead man more.
The other students are worried (to various degrees, anyway) about Asher, and with good reason. He still thinks Sinclair was the one who leaked the information about his father. Now, there’s a whole bunch of other misleading crap that goes down- with Sinclair taunting Nate, getting him fired for setting up Phillip, and then trying to make peace with him when he accuses her of racism. But it’s Asher who kills her, running her over with his car after she insults his father. Welcome to the club, buddy.
Yes, Virginia, It Can Always Get Worse
Asher, of course, calls Bonnie first. Once they confirm that Sinclair is dead, she calls Annalise, asking desperately what to do. It should be known, at this point, that Annalise is losing her mind about as much as we all are. But she still instructs Bonnie to bring the body to the house- our gang is going to cover up another murder. Annalise waits until they’re arrived to bring the other kids into this plan. Up until then, she was telling them Sinclair was on her way over- to be told everything.
All the students- but especially Conner- are horrified and outraged, like they’ve only just now realized how deep they’re in. He leads an effort to walk out, but is stopped when Annalise tells Asher everything- that they were the ones who killed Sam and she’s been covering it up since then. With everyone at her mercy, she shouts at them to obey. And how are they going to make this look like anything other than what it was? By setting up Catherine. You know, since she’s going down anyway.
Let’s Get to Work
If you had any doubts about how stone cold Frank can be, let them all go. With even Annalise on the verge of a breakdown as she calls him, he calmly pulls the pulls that were once destined to kill Nate’s wife out from a vase on his boss’s orders and heads out to find Catherine. Annalise keeps her voice calm enough to leave fake messages for both Sinclair and Catherine while Frank finds the latter, knocks her out, and drugs her. Philip is also looking for Catherine, though that particular thread is left hanging.
Meanwhile, the frantic students are helping carry Sinclair’s body into the house. It doesn’t take long, though, before even Annalise’s threats lose control over their emotions. Conner is the first to walk out, followed by the others, Laurel and Wes chasing down Michaela and Connor, all with conflicting plans about what to do. Every option is put to an end when Sinclair plummets to the earth, pushed by Bonnie. She tells the students they have no more options, so they’d better get in line.
Asher is in shock and seems determined that he should confess. Bonnie directs the others to put him in the car and goes to talk to Annalise. Annalise sends her off- but tells her to leave the infamous gun. From there, things for Bonnie and Asher go as we saw them- except that Asher doesn’t go to the police, at least not yet. For now, they sit quietly in his car as it goes through the car wash. He wonders if there’s any way they’ll be able to get away with this. We aren’t going to find out tonight.
If You Have a Medical Condition, Turn Away Now.
Left alone at the house with the students, Annalise declares that the only way they’ll get away with this is to make things even more chaotic than they actually are, and to set Catherine up for still more crimes. She calls the police and tells them that Catherine was in the house, that Sinclair is “hurt”- and that she’s been shot. And then she turns to her horrified students and holds the gun out to Connor, demanding that he shoot her for everything she’s done to him.
For a moment, it looks like he actually might listen. When he instead turns and runs off, she thrusts the gun at Michaela and then Laurel, screaming about her own actions, begging them to do what must be done. But they cannot. Finally, she holds the gun out to Wes. He won’t do it, either- until she tells him the truth about Rebecca. As he stands in shock, she tells him again to shoot her- in the leg, so she’ll be okay. He holds the gun as asked- and then raises it and shoots her in the stomach instead, leaving her whispering a name that sounds like “Christopher”
But That’s Not Even the Whole Truth
As Wes raises the gun that final time, he reflects on the night his mother committed suicide. As a boy, known as Kristoff, he spoke to a detective about the matter with surprising frankness. He came home to find his mother’s body and already assumed that she was dead. What he didn’t- and still doesn’t- know is that Annalise and Eve were standing, shocked, on the other side of the fake mirror. “Oh God, Annalise” the later asks, horrified. “What did we do?” What, indeed.
So, this is where we stand: Wes shot Annalise. He did it because she asked him to, and she convinced him by telling the truth about Rebecca. She asked him to because it was the only way to pin a whole new bloodbath on Catherine. Catherine is a viable candidate because she may actually have killed her parents. There was a bloodbath because Asher killed Sinclair. He killed her because she mocked his father- after the man took his own life- after his shady past was revealed. But Wes was only supposed to shoot Annalise where she’d easily survive. Instead, he shot in rage, and she is dying. We know all the students will wind up in Nate’s car. We know Annalise will get to the hospital, Frank on her heels. We don’t know much else. And we have no idea what Annalise and Eve did ten years ago that involved the death of Wes’s mother.
Happy holidays, everyone.