HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER: SMILE OR GO TO JAIL (TV)
Summary
One in this series of legal dramas about a hard-nosed Philadelphia law professor who recruits her students to work in her firm – leading to their entanglement in a variety of ethically questionable schemes.
Two months before Sam is killed, Michaela has sex with her fiancée Aiden but is interrupted when Annalise summons her to the office to deal with a new client. Rebecca and Griffin have both been charged with murdering Lila. Griffin is released on bail and Annalise meets with the school administration about him; they believe in his innocence. The issue is complex: Lila’s parents are major donors to the school’s finances, but a ruling against Griffin could prove to be an irreparable embarrassment to the school. The school president officially requests that Annalise serve as Griffin’s legal representation, and she says she will consider it. She informs Nate of this development and he tells her that he is following up on her request to investigate Sam. He discovers that Sam did not show up for a lecture that he was scheduled to give at Yale University several weeks ago, claiming that he was suffering from a sudden bout of food poisoning. Michaela introduces Aiden to Annalise and her fellow students, and discovers that Aiden and Connor are friends from boarding school. Connor implies that he and Aiden had a sexual relationship in boarding school, leaving her confused.
Annalise’s latest case involves a woman caught having sex on a park bench; Bonnie explains that she is an acquaintance of Annalise’s and that she is taking her case as a favor. She gets the charges dropped, and the woman, Paula Murphy, seems extremely grateful and embarrassed. On their way out of the police station, however, several black vans pull up and Paula is suddenly arrested and addressed as “Elena Aguilar,” a fugitive from justice for a major terrorist act committed in 1994. Her fingerprints match Elena’s and she admits that she committed the terrorist act, involving a bombing and murder. The government offers a plea deal to incarcerate her for ten years, and she believes that they should accept it. However, Annalise is unwilling to accept it and believes that they can win the case. Connor expresses doubt that they could be capable of doing so, and as punishment Annalise revokes his access to the trophy. As part of her defense, Annalise establishes the concept of “mind control” as personified by Gabriel Shaw, the leader of the extremist cell to which Paula belonged. Annalise asks Frank to track down Gabriel in order to call him to the stand; he is currently incarcerated but has been made obscure due to federal bureaucracy. Asher discovers that Gabriel supposedly became sick immediately after being interrogated about the case, and he believes that his condition is a fabrication to prevent him from getting involved. Annalise asks Paula to go with her to visit Gabriel in prison, but she is extremely uncomfortable at the thought of doing so.
While working on the case Wes receives a phone call on Rebecca’s phone and hears someone on the other end asking for Lila. He says Lila was supposed to “hook [him] up” before he hangs up, perplexing Wes. In the present, Wes and the others argue over their plan to dispose of Sam’s body and Laurel brings up the possibility of using the bonfire as their alibi for the burned body. After the disposal, they attend the bonfire and pretend to carouse with the other students. Back in the past, Annalise and Paula meet with Gabriel. He agrees to help Paula but says he will only do so if they call him to the stand as a witness; he agrees to claim that the bomb was wholly his idea and that Paula should not be blamed for it. During the drive back, Paula suddenly starts laughing and explains that she misses the feeling of gratification for “believing in something” like she used to do with Gabriel, and that her sexual encounter in the park was an attempt to recapture that feeling. Over dinner that night, Sam tells Annalise that he was not accepted by Yale. While he is asleep, Annalise texts Nate and asks him if he has made any progress in his investigation; he says that he has continued to look into Sam’s activities while he was in Connecticut.
Griffin is brought in as Annalise’s latest client. He explains that he contacted Rebecca at a fraternity party to score some cocaine for the guests, and that they ended up having sex while under doing drugs. According to him, Lila walked in on him and was furious at his actions, scratching him viciously to account for his DNA being found under her fingernails. He says that he believes Rebecca orchestrated the entire event, particularly since she texted Lila from his phone to lure her there. He claims that he was searching for Lila at the time when she was murdered. Wes forges a fake identification card for himself and uses it to gain access to the police station in order to request a meeting with Rebecca. In private, he tells her that he found Lila’s phone and asks her to trust him and tell him what is on the phone. She refuses and asks that he be removed, revealing his true identity. As he is being dragged away, he tells her that Griffin intends to blame her for Lila’s death.
Laurel and the others attend a law review party in a local bar and she meets another student named Kan. Connor continues to insinuate a prior relationship with Aiden, much to Michaela’s annoyance. Frank shows up but is dismayed to see Laurel with Kan, and he departs. Michaela confronts Aiden about Connor’s story and he admits that they had a brief relationship years ago; she is upset that he lied to her and feels she can no longer trust him. Frustrated, he decides to leave immediately. The next morning, Annalise confronts Wes over his deception; he argues that she cannot defend Griffin and that her assessment of his character is greatly inaccurate. He also maintains that it is unfair that Rebecca cannot afford proper representation, as Griffin can. Paula’s trial continues and the prosecution calls Gabriel to the stand. His testimony is the opposite of what he said it would be, claiming that Paula was responsible for devising the bombing. Annalise cross-examines Gabriel and he admits that he has been in love with Paula for years, and that he was willing to say anything to protect her, but then decided to tell the truth. Annalise suspects that he made a deal with the prosecution which caused him to alter his testimony. The prosecution objects to her conjecture. Gabriel admits that he was promised early release in exchange for turning in Paula.
Annalise and her team have three hours to reconfigure their defense before the trial resumes. Michaela does research and discovers that Gabriel received calls in prison from a woman whose surname matches Paula’s mother’s maiden name. An hour before the trial resumes, Paula goes missing and cannot be located. The judge issues a bench warrant for her and puts the case on hold until she is located. Unbeknownst to them, she has left town, accompanied by a newly-released Gabriel. Annalise meets with Nate, who tells her that he could not discover any evidence that Sam was responsible for Lila’s murder. She tries to initiate a romantic encounter with him but he tells her to go home to her husband. In the present, everyone prepares to leave Sam’s burned body behind, but Michaela notices that her engagement ring is missing. In the past, Aiden greets Michaela at her place and apologizes for their earlier incident, but she grills him to see if there were other men with whom he had sexual encounters. She seems worried that he is actually gay, although he insists otherwise. She asks him to be certain of his intent to marry her, warning him not to “ruin” the plan she has for their lives. Annalise awards the trophy to Wes, and announces that she has decided to represent Rebecca instead of Griffin. However, Rebecca makes a recorded confession admitting to Lila’s murder. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:59:57
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 117178
- GENRE: Drama, legal
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Drama; Drama, legal
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2014-2020
- COMMERCIALS:
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- TV – Commercials – Target department stores
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- TV – Commercials – Walmart department stores
- TV – Commercials – “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Dracula Untold” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “The Judge” motion picture
- TV – Promos – “ABC World News Tonight”
- TV – Promos – “Blackish”
- TV – Promos – “Cristela”
- TV – Promos – “Dancing With the Stars”
- TV – Promos – “Forever”
- TV – Promos – “How to Get Away With Murder”
- TV – Promos – “Jimmy Kimmel Live”
- TV – Promos – “Last Man Standing”
- TV – Promos – “Once Upon a Time”
- TV – Promos – “Resurrection”
- TV – Promos – “Revenge”
CREDITS
- Peter Norwalk … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Bill D'Elia … Executive Producer
- Betsy Beers … Executive Producer
- Shonda Rhimes … Executive Producer
- Rob Fresco … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- Michael Foley … Co-Executive Producer
- Ann Kindberg … Co-Executive Producer
- Erika Green Swafford … Supervising Producer
- Scott Collins … Producer
- Tracy A. Bellomo … Producer
- Doug Stockstill … Co-Producer
- Scott Printz … Co-Producer
- Noah Evslin … Co-Producer
- Holden Chang … Associate Producer
- Randy Zisk … Director
- Photek … Music by
- Viola Davis … Cast, Annalise Keating
- Billy Brown … Cast, Nate Lahey
- Alfred Enoch … Cast, Wes Gibbins
- Jack Falahee … Cast, Connor Walsh
- Katie Findlay … Cast, Rebecca Sutter
- Aja Naomi King … Cast, Michaela Pratt
- Matt McGorry … Cast, Asher Millstone
- Karla Souza … Cast, Laurel Castillo
- Charlie Weber … Cast, Frank Delfino
- Liza Weil … Cast, Bonnie Winterbottom
- Tom Verica … Cast, Sam Keating
- Jason Gedrick … Cast, Gabriel Shaw
- Ana Ortiz … Cast, Paula Murphy/Elena Aguilar
- David Denman … Cast, Kevin Murphy
- Alysia Reiner … Cast, D.A. Wendy Parks
- John Getz … Cast, David Dolan
- Arjun Gupta … Cast, Kan
- Elliot Knight … Cast, Aiden Walker
- Lenny Platt … Cast, Griffin O'Reilly
- Tom Beyer … Cast, Trent Davis
- Joshua Wolf Coleman … Cast, Ted
- Katherine Kirkpatrick … Cast, Alice
- Eva La Dare … Cast, Leah
- Steve M. Gagnon … Cast, Officer James Nelson
- Rick Gifford … Cast, Prosecutor ("AUSA" Bordal)
- Juan Alfonso … Cast, Jailer
- Patrick J. McGuire … Cast, Jailer #2
- Kal Bennett … Cast, FBI Agent
- Joni Bovill … Cast, Judge
- Danny Fehsenfeld … Cast, Athletic Director
- Uma Incrocci … Cast, Secretary
- James McAndrew … Cast, Clayton
- Mehdi Merali … Cast, Parking Attendant
- Donna Rusch … Cast, Annoyed Detective