‘How to Get Away with Murder’ recap: To plea or not to plea

“How to Get Away with Murder’s” penultimate episode before the big “who shot Annalise” reveal -- and winter finale -- looked as though it was going to answer some burning questions, but, as usual, the episode left us with more questions and some new suspects.

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This week’s episode opened where last week’s left off, with a flash forward to Laurel (Karla Souza), Wes (Alfred Enoch), Connor (Jack Falahee) and Michaela (Aja Naomi King) running back into Catherine’s and Caleb’s mansion seconds after Bonnie (Liza Weil) rolled Asst. Dist. Atty. Emily Sinclair’s (Sarah Burns) body off the roof. Bonnie rushed downstairs to quickly intervene on the group’s bickering by telling them they “agreed” to this plan and cannot back out now, all before telling Wes to hand her the gun he is holding.

The narrative swiftly backpedaled to three days prior, with the cool, confident Bonnie of the opening sequence gone, replaced by a broken woman who is sitting, silently crying in her shower while Asher (Matt McGorry) and Annalise (Viola Davis) desperately try to contact her -- with no success.

While Asher and Annalise are busy trying to get a hold of Bonnie, the rest of the gang are on their way back from staking out Connor’s and Phillip’s (Jefferson White) fake date. Things take a turn for the worse, when Connor arrives back at Oliver’s (Conrad Ricamora) apartment to find his boyfriend missing and signs of an abduction. Wasting no time, Connor and the rest run to Annalise to figure out the next step to take.

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However, before they can call the cops to report a possible missing person, Oliver shows up at the house with Phillip in tow. Phillip explains to the group that he is not the suspect they are looking for and is not related to Caleb’s and Catherine’s parents; however, he would like to sue Annalise for being hacked by Oliver. Not fully believing Phillip’s story, the group grabs some of his DNA -- which Oliver cleverly obtained during their dinner together -- to be processed at a lab so he can really be cleared as a person of interest, while Nate offers to tail him.

Still aimed at proving that Phillip is the killer and not Catherine and Caleb, Annalise’s case is once again thrown for a loop when the two siblings are offered a plea deal by everyone’s favorite incompetent assistant district attorney -- who stooped to a new low this week when she bugged Annalise’s house to try to stay one step ahead. Hasn’t she learned anything? One does not simply mess with Annalise Keating.

After a long battle of “will they or won’t they take the plea deal” -- at first, Caleb offered to take the plea deal and do time for the both of them, then Catherine offered to do the same thing -- the two eventually decide against pleading guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence once lab-test results come back that show Phillip’s DNA was a 99.4% match to the DNA found at the scene. The results also show that he is the product of incest, which means that Caleb’s and Catherine’s father and their aunt are his parents -- now, there is some motive for you.

All is hunky-dory until Wes receives a painting from Catherine as a means of thanks for all his help and counsel, but the thanks goes to the wayside when Wes recognizes her work from photos of Phillip back at Annalise’s office. Around this same time, Caleb, seriously concerned about the mess his sister may be in, shows Michaela the gun he found in her painting studio. As suspicion grows around Catherine’s involvement in the murders, she is seen picking up Phillip, who reassures her he is “going to take care of this.”

So what did you think of the episode? Is Catherine involved in the murders? Who do you think shot Annalise? Sound off in the comments and check back next week.

Suspects so far in Annalise’s shooting:

Frank: He put on quite the show at the hospital, but then easily slipped backed into his steely, cold self once past the hospital cameras. Did he finally have enough with being Annalise’s Mr. Fix-it and try to rid himself of her for good?

Bonnie: Bonnie takes the gun from Wes just seconds after rolling Emily Sinclair’s body off the house; is she also responsible for shooting of Annalise?

Nate: OK, honestly, he has the biggest motive of all after what Annalise has put him through. Also, he is driving the other students around and seems to have a pretty sure plan in place. Did he orchestrate the shooting?

Wes: Bonnie may have his gun at the moment, but he still could take it back in time to pull the trigger on Annalise.

Connor: At first he seemed a little guilty by saying this was her fault and that everything was her fault as she lay dying. However, with the pair’s increasing tension, it looks like he has a bit more of a motive. Could he have pulled the trigger?

Catherine and Phillip: From the ending, it looks as though Phillip and Catherine were in on killing the parents together. Could they also be guilty of shooting Annalise?

Best quote:

“It’s time to break out the boobs again.” - Annalise Keating (Viola Davis)

Follow me on Twitter @ShannonOConnor0

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