Friday, November 21, 2014

Recap/Review: How To Get Away With Murder's 1x05: We're Not Friends

While I'm a month away (Universal pace here) from the mid-season finale, it's nice to see that this episode gave a little more insight on one of the lesser focused on students so far.

Written by Tracey A. Bellomo
Directed by Mike Listo


Saw This Coming: Frank and Laurel - hooking up. This was pretty much hinted since episode 1 when Michaela realised that Frank was calling Laurel and here the latter was forced to admit that she was sleeping with him as they continued to use the bonfire as an alibi while getting rid of Sam's body. This episode in general certainly gave Laurel more to do and between her hot boyfriend and Frank, the girl isn't short of admirers. While I do think Annalise and Michaela are stronger characters, Laurel is on a par with Bonnie for me and far more likeable than Rebecca has been so far. This was a solid centre piece episode for her really.


Patterns: Like most people, Sam seems to have a type when it comes to sexual partners and Annalise realised that there was something of a similarity between herself and Lila. Sam's got a thing for fixing vulnerable women and we learned in this episode that Annalise was originally his mistress, which also has to mean that at some point Wife 1 will appear on the show. Still, we didn't get any answers as to whether or not Sam really killed Lila (though Nate was somewhat cruel in taunting Annalise about his possible guilt), though things took an interesting turn when Rebecca and Sam met onscreen for the first time.


The Wallpaper: Five episodes in and I still don't like Rebecca and being aware of what's in store in the next four episodes, don't expect my opinion of her to soften anytime soon. She's surly, unpleasant and generally brings out the worst in Wes. On the other hand, at least her remembering a certain wallpaper at least made Wes privy to the fact that Sam was Lila's 'Mr Darcy' (anyone else find that moniker a little cringey?) and that led to a brilliant final scene between Wes and Annalise. If there's one thing this show has mastered well, it's the art of a great cliffhanger.


HumpR: In the lighter moments of the episode, can I just say that I love Asher's curiosity about Connor's ability to juggle six guys on the go with a sex app (by the way, Asher, the straight version is called Tinder). I know there's some fans who want something to actually happen between Connor and Asher but personally, I think a solid friendship between the two of them would be better served, seeing as Connor doesn't really interact that much with Wes and Laurel and takes an overzealous glee in winding up Michaela (as does she now it seems with him too). Also Asher's crying moment after the case makes me suspect he would be a blubbering wreck if he watched any Disney movie ever.


A Case I Like: Well, yeah, I enjoyed this case but more to the point - Ryan killing his abusive cop father was apparently the first time Laurel liked one of her clients. Laurel liked and felt sorry for Ryan so much that when she wasn't going through his blog during the trial, she was also tampering with the jury and ended up causing a mistrial. I'm not shocked that Frank covered for her but I'm almost a tiny bit surprised that Annalise didn't figure out it was her though. That being said with the exception of Asher, pretty much four out of the Keating Five have done things (excluding killing/disposing of Sam etc) to jeopardise any future career in law they want and will probably continue to do so for however long this series lasts.

Next week it's time for Asher to get his moment while Wes and Annalise clash.

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