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Meet Bonnie
Original Air Date: Oct 22, 2015
Caitlin- Senior Staff Writer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com
“Meet Bonnie” is probably the most mundane episode title we’ve seen on the show thus far. Never fear, though. The promo assured us it would still be crazy. Insane. Mind-blowing, in fact. So, in other words, exactly what we’ve come to expect from every single episode to date.
Then again, they’re not wrong. Turns out, as Asher starts to take a truly pivotal role in everything, the excrement (or synonym for “excrement”) starts to hit the high powered sonic fan. And now, the HTGAWM playlist, AKA “You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Drink”.
This is the Case That Never Ends. (It Goes On and On My Friends…)
ADA Sinclair, somehow the most despicable person in the midst of this hotbed of dubious morality, just will not let go of the siblings any more than she will of Annalise. She wants the key witness testimony allowed in posthumously, and the judge gives her the chance to do so. This also means Annalise has the chance to keep it from being allowed in, she persuades the students to look for support. And by “persuades”, I mean she locks them in the basement with the files.
A search turns up footage from the morning after the murders, when the murdered father’s sister is basically going crazy to the cops, spewing out racist diatribes. She didn’t see a damn thing. I’m sure of it, Annalise is sure of it, but the judge can’t be sure of it, as Annalise won’t saw how she got the footage. And so the testimony is allowed in.
Part-Time Lover (Full Time Liar)
What kind of relationship can go on in the face of one member framing the other for murder (and really being better off with Eve anyway)? Not a good one, that’s for sure. Annalise does tell Nate the real reason his wife spoke to her, though that’s about as far as the truth goes, even though she’s desperate to do right by him. When Nate demands to know exactly why she framed him, she defers to Bonnie’s story, which we’ll get to in just a moment.
What’s It All About, Asher?
So first things first, lest you expect so go through as much as a few seconds of this episode without a shocking revelation: Asher and Bonnie with both at the siblings’ house on the future night in question. In the present, he’s in court, seemingly about to spill the beans that will screw everyone over in every way imaginable. But he can’t stop remembering what Bonnie told him. All of it, in fact: that the reason she killed Sam was that he tried to rape her. And so he runs out.
Annalise and Frank don’t think Bonnie’s improvisation was brilliant at all. They confront her while the students mull of over whether or not they’re doomed. The outlook doesn’t look to shiny when Asher bursts onto the scene. He goes straight to Annalise, who convinces him that Bonnie’s story is true and is the reason she was forced to frame Nate. He still only says that he’ll “think about” not testifying- and then goes off to tell Sinclair he knows who killed Sam.
…Which would be utterly devastating, except he doesn’t actually say who that person is. Both Sinclair and his father are upset with the decision, and, to try and sort thing out, he meets with Bonnie again. She continues to let him form a story he can understand- one in which Frank was involved and she only slept with him at first to create an alibi. Now, though, she really loves him. That might not be enough, all things considered. But then Asher learned his father cut a deal for himself over his son’s head.
Asher walks out on him, too, and meets with Sinclair on his own. She earns my sympathy for a hot minute by expressing concern for him, then crushes it quickly by being herself. Elsewhere, the other students are panicking. They believe that Asher is screwing them over and that Bonnie told him the truth- until Annalise tells them the REAL truth. This isn’t to say Bonnie isn’t going down. She tearfully begs him not to tell the truth that night, but he says he can’t.
As he departs, she calls Annalise. She’s completely hysterical and tells Annalise to throw her in front of the bus and save everyone else. Annalise comes up with a better plan. She tracks Asher down and shows him footage of Bonnie being raped by her father as a child. Which, if it’s real (potentially big “if”), is horrifying. He’s brought to tears by the reason Sam’s “rape” of Bonnie would be especially traumatizing. It keeps him at bay right until the night in the future.
He and Bonnie are heading away from the scene together, the latter trying to reassure him. Bonnie stops at a gas station, saying only that she needs to pee. When she does into the bathroom, she changes out of her bloody clothes. And when she comes out, Asher is gone. He’s at the police station, saying he needs to make a statement. I’m willing to bet (not with money, though) that it’s not the obvious. But if it is, he might not get out of this season alive.
Private Eyes (Aren’t Private At All) (Sorry, I’m out of ideas.)
A note to the students: you don’t do anything behind closed doors on this show. Frank figures out Wes is talking to Levi. Annalise figures out Michaela is dating Levi. And apparently she can’t talk to him on the phone during a case, but Frank and Laurel can totally have sex. Go figure. Connor also tells Oliver he might be going to jail, and also tells him that he loves him. Not necessarily the best time for that but it’s still sweet, and a standout happy moment in this madness.
But I’m getting off track. Wes and Levi go to confront Frank’s cousin (Levi, to Wes’s concern, brings a gun), who tells them only that he let Frank have a storage locker. So what’s in it? Wes sees the key lying abandoned by Frank, and he at Levi go to check it out. Or they start to, and then some fairly major obstacles get in their way. First, Connor, Laurel, and Michaela confront them. And then the cops arrive. To arrest everyone? Nope. Just Levi. For his car full of drugs.
The others shrug this off and go to check out the locker themselves. Inside is a single suitcase. Michaela hides her face, horrified. And inside that suitcase…is NOT the decomposing body of Rebecca Sutter. Instead, there’s a ton of cash. Because of course Frank didn’t just leave that they randomly exposed. He set up everything, including Levi’s arrest. So just where is Rebecca now- because she was inside that suitcase at one point? I don’t think I want to know. I’m not sure I want to know anything.
Next Week: Two Birds, One Millstone