In the fifth episode of season 3 of How to Get Away with Murder, “It’s About Frank,” Frank’s past with Sam and Annalise is explored, and we finally learn who is behind the “Killer” flyers. Meanwhile, Annalise takes the first steps to get her license renewed, and one more main character is revealed to be alive.
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Things Get Complicated Between Frank and Bonnie
As the episode begins, we see Bonnie at the funeral home discussing arrangements for her father’s body. She decides to have him cremated and doesn’t seem to care what happens to his ashes. As she leaves the funeral home, she gets a call from Laurel. Laurel wants to know if Bonnie has seen Frank yet. Bonnie, staring right at Frank, lies and says she hasn’t. Bonnie then hugs Frank and thanks him for killing her father.
Bonnie and Frank head to a motel room to chat. Bonnie asks Frank why he took Wes to see Mahoney the night he shot Mahoney. Frank admits to the shooting and says he took Wes there as insurance that Annalise would not come after him. Bonnie points out that Annalise only went after him because he made Wes a suspect in his father’s murder. Frank says that Sam was wrong about him and none of this would have happened if they just left him in prison all those years ago. (More on that in a moment.)
Annalise calls Bonnie and she lies about who she’s with. Bonnie claims she is with her sister and Annalise lets her go so they can spend time together.
Bonnie asks Frank to come “home” with her. She wants him to tell Annalise that Sam forced him to lie about the baby and that he understands that she has every right to blame him for what happened. Bonnie claims if he does this then Annalise will forgive him. She also says that Frank has to forgive Annalise, too.
Later, Frank says that he cannot go back because Annalise won’t be able to forgive him. Instead, he asks Bonnie to run away with him. He knows she isn’t happy and thinks she deserves to be. He lays out his idea of a future for them, complete with normal jobs and a few cute kids. When Bonnie doesn’t respond, Frank claims he was just joking.
The next time we see them, Bonnie is waking Frank up from a nightmare about his father. She lays down with him and starts talking about their hypothetical future away from Annalise. This leads into some very intimate face touching which leads into sex. (I know these two have a lot of history and probably understand each other better than anyone else, but I wish the show had kept their relationship platonic.)
When Bonnie goes out for coffee the next morning, she returns to find Frank gone. Bonnie cries and I now have another reason to dislike Frank.
Annalise Tries and Fails to Get Sober
Annalise is getting her hair done and having an enthusiastic discussion with the women at the salon. Her hair stylist mentions that it took her years to get clean after her drug addiction and one of the things that helped was going to AA meetings. This goes along with Annalise’s own need to attend AA meetings as part of her attempt at getting her license back. When Annalise goes to her first AA meeting, she is shocked to see a familiar face. The President of the University is also at the meeting and they exchanged weighted glances.
Instead of focusing on her supposed recovery, Annalise uses the meeting as an opportunity to confront the president about the fact that they intend to replace her at the law clinic. Annalise reminds the president of her threat to sue the university, but the president points out that the disciplinary board would not have suspended her if they thought she had a legitimate case.
When Annalise gets home later that day, she throws out all of the booze she has in the house. Unfortunately, she doesn’t actually take it out of the house so when memories of her history with Sam come back to haunt her, she just scoops a bottle out of the trash can and gets drunk.
Wes stops by Annalise’s place that night and finds her well past drunk. He takes care of her as she gets sick and she tries to get him to leave. Wes says she always protects him so he’s just trying to do the same. Wes helps her to bed and leaves after he is sure she’s passed out.
The next day, Annalise goes to see the university president. She shows her the lawsuit she intends to file. The president asks Annalise what she wants and Annalise says that she wants the board to reverse her suspension and let her return to her law clinic. The president says she’ll take care of it. She then lets Annalise know that if she truly wants to get sober, she is not going to be able to do it without help.
Who is Behind the “Killer” Flyers?
The Keating 5 are worried about their upcoming exams, especially since it seems like none of them have actually done any studying. They know Drake-the-douche has an outline for their arbitration exam, but he’s not in a sharing mood. When his laptop goes missing, Drake blames the Keating 5 and actually tries to open Laurel’s bag to see if she stole it. He then insults Michaela, prompting her to channel her “hillbilly” side and go off on him in an absolutely delightful scene.
However, it turns out that Drake was right to suspect them, as Michaela was the one who stole his laptop. She gave it to Oliver hoping he could find the arbitration outline, but he finds something else instead. As Michaela and the others look on, Oliver shows them the original “Killer” flyer on Drake’s laptop. Yes, Drake has been behind the flyers all along.
The next day, Michaela and the others stop by Annalise’s to tell her about the flyers. Annalise seems relieved that the flyers were from a “sad, pathetic, lost boy” instead of someone who actually knows what they’ve done. Instead of going to the board with the news that Drake has been harassing her, Annalise goes right to the source. She returns his laptop and confronts him about the flyers. She points out everything he could be charged with and he wants to know what she’s going to do.
As it turns out, Annalise does nothing to him. She merely gets him to hand over the arbitration outline to the Keating 5.
A Look Into Frank’s Past
We are treated to quite a few flashbacks in this episode, most of them involving Frank. We flash back eleven years earlier to find Sam visiting Frank in jail for the first time. It turns out that Frank’s aunt knows Sam’s sister and asked Sam to look in on Frank because his family hasn’t heard from him in months. We learn that Frank has been incarcerated since he was 13 and that he is up for parole. Sam says he wants to help Frank and he even has a lawyer in mind to take Frank’s case.
Annalise originally balks at the idea of taking Frank’s case, but Sam eventually convinces her to meet with him. Upon that first meeting, Annalise tells Frank that his only chance of getting out is if he admits to his guilt. Annalise then asks him if the infractions he’s committed since being imprisoned were a way to insure he stayed locked up, but Frank won’t own up to that.
Annalise tells Sam that she knows Frank was lying to her and she thinks he wants to stay in jail. Sam goes to visit Frank again and says he thinks Frank keeps screwing up because he can’t forgive himself for what he did. Sam thinks it was an accident, but Frank says he planned the whole thing. He intended to kill his father, but he couldn’t even do that right. Sam points out that Frank is crying over his actions and that means there is still good in him.
Frank must eventually agree to let Sam help him because we next see Annalise going to visit him again and she is now officially his lawyer. Since Frank would be out of jail shortly after that — the flashbacks from last season were of 10 years earlier — we can assume that Annalise won his parole hearing and got Frank out.
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Annalise Learns the Truth about Frank
Wes meets Meggy’s father over dinner and we learn that Wes has been lying to Meggy. She is under the impression that Wes’ mother died of stomach cancer and that Wes never met his father. The next day, Wes tells Laurel that he needs to break up with Meggy because he is tired of lying to her. When Wes suggests that this might clear a path for him and Laurel, Laurel admits that Frank is not as out of the picture as Wes believes.
We then see Wes and Laurel at Annalise’s place. Wes gets Laurel to tell Annalise about Frank being in Coalport with Bonnie. Bonnie then returns home to find them all together. The episode ends before we can see how Annalise reacts to the news that Bonnie lied to her.
Another Survivor Revealed
In this episode’s flash forward, we see Meggy informing Oliver and Bonnie that there is some concern about the smoke inhalation Laurel suffered. She asks if they want to contact the others but Oliver says he wanted to know more information before he did. Bonnie gets a phone call before the discussion can continue. Bonnie tells the person on the phone that she is on it and that Laurel is pregnant.
While Bonnie is on the phone, Oliver makes a call of his own. He tries to get through to Connor but he doesn’t answer. Instead, some strange woman with an accent answers Connor’s phone. It turns out to be Michaela’s adoptive mother. Yes, Michaela is alive and well, though she has no idea about the house fire. Oliver tells her what happened, including the fact that Laurel is pregnant. We then see a TV news report about the fire that says an unknown man was found dead at the scene. (I guess that rules out a last minute twist with Eve or Annalise’s mom being the victim.)
What did you think of this episode of How to Get Away with Murder season 3? Who else shares my relief that Michaela is not the victim? What do you think of Michaela saying that the people who raised her were trash and not worth her time? If that’s the case, why do we find her with her adoptive mother in the flash forward? What did you think of Annalise’s comment to Wes that Nate is “too good” for her? Do you think Nate will dump ADA Atwood to reunite with Annalise? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
How to Get Away with Murder season 3 airs Thursday nights at 10/9c on ABC. Want more news? Follow our HTGAWM Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
