THAT FINAL SCENE! I hate to start at the end but really, what else mattered? What else stood out this week? What better scene has their been on this series so far? Viola Davis was magnificent. The revelation wasn’t unexpected. The execution of the revelation was exquisite. How To Get Away With Murder felt pretty underwhelming this week until the last, what, two minutes? Then, we were given that last minute bravado sequence of seeing Viola Davis provide a master class in acting. And set up what’s sure to be a heck of a kick off for next week.
Let’s do a quick rundown though…
The case of the week, heretofore referred on this recap as the COTW was the most undercooked of any yet. It focused on a high powered woman, Maron, who ran her own brokerage firm after working her way up from being a janitor. She was accused of insider trading. The main point, so it seemed, was to show her as a parallel and perpendicular to Annalisse. Two powerful women in male dominated professions. Maron, however, believed in the loyalty of those who worked for her while Annalisse was confronted on how she doesn’t trust anyone. Not her students. Not her associates. Not her husband. Annalisse was proven right. Then came some super rushed twists and turns and Annalisse won another case.
The COTW’s are already feeling irrelevant. As I wrote about last week, the season is being built on two murders: Lila Stanguard and Sam Keating. As the weeks progress, those are the murders that we’ll, hopefully, care more and more about. These COTW’s will be a waste of small screen time. In fact, they already are.
Sam’s murder barely moved forward. We can’t get more than sixty second snippets. Granted, this week gave us two new pieces of information, both revolving around the Keating Gang member who got this week’s spotlight: Connor. I appreciated that he rambled off all the physical evidence that would probably get the Gang in jail despite burning the body and forebode how once the body was disposed was when the real test would begin. I wish we could get to that part already! We’ve spent four weeks covering, what feels like, the same two hours. That kind of approach didn’t work on How I Met Your Mother’s final season and it ain’t working here. The second new bit of info was that we saw Connor go to his boytoy Oliver, where he admitted he was terrified of…we’ll have to wait for another episode to see if he spilled the beans on Sam’s murder. I hope he does. That would give Oliver some purpose and puts the Gang in some actual jeopardy above their own paranoia.
Lila’s murder took up the bulk of the episode as most of the hour was spent trying to get her confession overturned. Which Annalisse did thanks to Wes’ snooping and being able to gain Rebecca’s trust. The how doesn’t matter. What matters is that Wes is now crucial to Annalisse in this case. And that Wes managed to get Rebecca to unlock the secrets of Lila’s phone which she stashed at Wes’ apartment weeks ago. Which brings me to that final scene!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCUJ-BugZSI&w=560&h=315]
“Why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone?” What a great line. It was a damn gasp-worthy moment. For sure. Of course, Sam was sleeping with Lila Stanguard. Of course Annalisse would find out about it. However, kudos to Viola Davis for how she played that final scene. It may win her a Golden Globe. Davis showed us a woman stripping herself of her armor in order to confront her husband not as a persona she shares with the rest of the world but as a woman who loved this man and has been betrayed by him. It was powerful. It was most powerful scene I’ve seen on this show to date. Davis nailed it. This isn’t a new sequence. We’ve seen people remove wigs (YES, IT’S A WIG!), their make up, eyelashes, etc. in other TV shows and films. However, the way Davis did it was what made this version of the sequence a standout. There was never the sense she was removing her guard out of weakness. This was calculated. It felt a little dangerous but also aggressive. The character needed to remove all pretense from herself in order to ask that question. And to ask it in as plaintive, brutal, and penetrating a manner possible. It was a perfect character moment played brilliantly by an actor. That scene saved this episode in this Dude’s eyes. My only complaint is that the episode tread so much water to get there.
I hope the revelations and confrontations regarding the two murders that matter aren’t spread too thinly across the rest of the season. Truly, those are the storylines generating the most compelling storytelling moments for this series. Despite the weakest COTW yet, and very little progress on the Sam murder timeline, the finale to this week’s episode kept the show’s reputation for being must see TV.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
–Orange is the New Black casting sighting: Alicia Reiner as the prosecutor against Rebecca Sutter.
-SEX SCENES: 2 homosexual (though one was just implied), 0 heterosexual.
-Poor Nate looks like he might get set up as a suspect in Sam’s murder. Of course, he’s not the most sympathetic character. Well, maybe on this show but that ain’t sayin’ much.
-There are several answers to the question, “Why is your penis on a dead girls’ phone?” All of them are INCORRECT.
Check out previous How To Get Away With Murder episode recaps here.
